Can we do a Language Arts lesson? Please, please?

(Sorry this post is really for 14 Jan 2010. I spent much of the evening last night trying to come up with both a subjective and objective grading scale to “accurately” capture the grades JD has earned.)

Today we started out our with our devotion. It was talking about the divisions of the churches. We got tickled that there is a church out there called “ National Baptist Evangelical Life and Soul-Saving Assembly of the United States.” (Good luck trying to get someone to visit. By the time you tell them the name of the church you'll be out of breath and they’ll be asleep.) Anyway the lesson spoke about having unity in the church. After all, God commands it.

We followed that up with the 40 Days of Purpose Driven Life, day six. Life is a temporary assignment. We are only foreigners in this country. I loved how Rick Warren said, “We should carry a spiritual green card.” Our citizenship or homeland is in heaven.

The 40 Day reading and comprehension didn’t last long so JD read independently for 20 minutes. Looks like in a couple of days he’ll be done with the book Christmas in Camelot and he’ll be ready for his book report. I will have him do this verbally and I’m going to offer him ways to present the book report to me. Maybe a canned book report, or a poster, or anything, just so I know he really comprehended what he read.

Today JD was a bit more tame in the jumping around part but still impulsively speaking. It was hard to get through the lesson because of his outburst. Math was not too bad today. I gave him silly putty to manipulate while listening. (Oh course I also had to mention not to pull it, swing it, eat it, or anything except squish it.) The math lesson was finding the least common multiple of two numbers. We (both of us) misread two quiz questions so he only got a 80% on the quiz. We were both frustrated with the computer after we retook the test and got a 90%. We gave up on that lesson for the day. I know he know what he‘s doing but I think the computer lesson is messed up. I’m going to have to come up with a different grading system than just quiz scores.

It was a smooth move from math to the civics lesson. I love how the website uses examples set for his age. Today we learned the law of supply and demand. (**Changing subjects…Does anyone else out there want to strangle those rich oil men? I swear I don‘t understand, even after this lesson, how the prices can fluctuate so much. Hurricane Katrina started this high gas prices thing a couple of years ago. Now why haven‘t the prices gone below $2.00 since then? WHY?!)


Ok, breathing…the example the website used to teach the kids supply and demand was with a lemonade stand. Of course depending on your thirst level, what season it is, how many lemonade vendors were on the same street, all affected the price of the lemonade. So I’m having JD draft a business plan to own his own lemonade stand. It includes how much he needs to spend on supplies and how much to sell the glasses of lemonade in order to earn a profit. Pretty cool huh? I hope a hurricane doesn’t hit the stand though or we could be looking a $4.00 cup of lemonade. Oh well, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

This was about the time I saw JD change his mood to “moody.” It was the email and snail mail lesson. He was also very distracted (and hungry.) We started looking for a postcard template for our deployed military members of our church. This led JD to ask when “Best Friends Day” was. (Is there such a day?) Turns out June 8th is Best Friend Day. We redirected our attention back to postcards. We found a template and picture. Now it’s time to write. There went the BRAKES! He sat at the table for 15 minutes saying I don’t know what to write. I had previously suggested something like: Thanks for your service to our country. Thanks for protecting our freedoms. Jonathan” I tried to get him to explain why he wouldn’t write up he clammed up and only said, “I don’t know what to write.” Only after I wrote it out for him to copy did he do the lesson. I’m going to have to research strategies on how to get him to write “free style.” Copying is bothersome, but free style locks those brakes right up.

Besides yesterday, I’ve never heard a child beg to do Language Arts. He absolutely loves the “Word Herd” game. Today’s lesson was Antonyms (the opposite.) He was clapping, tapping, and cheering when he correctly answered all the questions and scored himself a big fat 100% on the quiz.

Tuesday we studied the inside of a cell. Today we studies the cell itself. This somewhat interested JD but he could have done without it I guess. He earned a 100% on the quiz.

So yet another successful day at Faith Christian Academy.