DJ is beginning to get back into the rhythm of doing school each week and he’s been doing really well writing his numbers. So I presented static addition with the stamp game. I printed a page of problems for him, making sure that none of the columns added up to more than 9. In the picture above he is working on the problem 1,521 + 3,407. He builds the first numbers with stamps, a green thousand, 5 red hundreds, 2 blue tens and a green unit stamp. Then he places a ruler below them before building the second number. 

When he has both numbers built, he removes the ruler, slides the two sets of stamps together and adds up his total. As each column is added, he writes his answer on the paper. Here he wrote 4,928. Once he has done a few more problems, I’ll introduce dynamic addition where one or more columns will add up to  more than 9 and he’ll need to exchange for the next category up. 

After he had done a few problems I gave him a calculator and showed him how he could check his work. He was really impressed that he had come up with the same answers as tbe calculator. Of course, when I suggested he do another problem, he reached for the calculator and I had to explain to him that was only for use after he had done the work. 

Aside from the stamp game, I haven’t given DJ anything new in awhile so I am seeing him self-select some work that has been on his shelves for a long time. Here he had all the bells out and was grading them by sound. I recently watched a show on Netflix about algorithms and learned about the Bubble Sort algorithm. So I showed DJ how he could test 2 bells at a time, making sure the highest bell was to the right (and switching them if it wasn’t) and then move down the line 2 at a time until he reached the end. Then he repeated that process over and over until they were all in order. I realized recently he has had these bells for over a year now and I’ve only done the first two lessons with him (matching & grading). So I think it’s about time I moved onto the next one.

DJ shows very little interest in reading or writing with the movable alphabet, but he does really enjoy handwriting. So I suggested one day that he choose a letter from the sandpaper letters and fill the chalkboard with it. As you can see, he chose the letter P and for 4 years old I think he did pretty good with it. As he was writing, I asked him to come up with words that have the P sound and I gave him several words, asking if he heard P in it or not. That part is really easy for him but I’m just trying to keep the thread of language available for when he’s ready to pull on it and move forward. 

This is the decanomial square that DJ has built several times. But this is the first time that he did the entire square all by himself!  I was so surprised and very impressed. We have the bead cabinet hanging on the wall now and it uses the same color sequence, red for 1, green for 2, pink for 3, up to gold for 10. DJ was thrilled that he can now check the bead cabinet for what color comes next instead of asking me. For those of you that don’t remember, the decanomial square (sometimes called the Table of Pythagoras) is a representation of the multiplication tables. 

I recently showed DJ a photo on Facebook of another homeschooler’s land/water forms. I had no idea at the time that it would inspire him to pull our dusty forms off the shelf and work with them again. We made these nearly 2 years ago now and they haven’t seen any love in a long time. I would have been happy with just this work, but look what he did next!!

I guess our tracing and coloring of the continents has inspired him because when I suggested he draw the land/water form shapes, he took off like wildfire!  You can see he has complete a picture of a straight (strip of water between two land masses) and is working on an archipelago (group of islands). It is truly adorable when he tries to pronounce archipelago!

He then added a lake and system of lakes before being done for the night. And all of this geography work was done in the evening while dad & I watched TV! Oh, if you’re wondering, he used the circle from the metal insets to draw his border but the actual landforms were done freehand by him. 

And that is enough school for now. As the weather is getting warmer expect to see more photos like this: