I’m practicing patience this year and letting DJ set the pace. I suggest school time three days a week and then let DJ choose what and how much work he wants to do. Because we have added piano lessons, which require daily practice (albeit for only 5-10 minutes), I’m going easy on the rest of the academics to allow DJ to get used to piano practice. It helps that he really loves music and can already play Hot Cross Buns and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. 

When DJ does agree to do school work he is mostly letting the Popsicle sticks help him decide what to do. He often uses them to give him ideas rather than to choose for him. So he’ll pick a stick, have me read what task it says and then decide he doesn’t want to do that, put it back and choose another. I am liking how they give him lots of ideas he might have thought of without it seeming like I’m pushing an agenda onto him. 

This week DJ worked with the 2 rectangular Constructive Triangle boxes again. We had done these last year so he was familiar with them. I was so happy to see him take the boxes and run with them without waiting for me to do the work along with him. The Constructive Triangles are a pre-geometry work that teach how various triangles can be used to make nearly every other regular (non-round) shape. (Btw – that is not a sock hanging on the piano. DJ injured his foot last weekend and that is the ace bandage wrap he was given to help him heal.)

We are also continuing to work through the list of books on the Mensa For Kids Excellence in Reading challenge. Although many of the books on the K-3 list are very short, there are a number of chapter books, including The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh. That is one of the books we already own and DJ has heard the stories before. But it has been awhile so we’re using this list as an excuse to read through it again. DJ is so much more engaged in the story this time  now that he is older. 

One night while dad and I were watching TV, DJ decided to “do school” on his own and went back to an old favorite – the Cylinder Blocks and related Knobless Cylinders. He worked on them for most of the evening and then with surprisingly little prodding from me, he put them all away!!  Progress!

DJ did some letter writing practice this week both on the large green chalkboard and with the sand tray. He is getting much better at writing the letters when he has a sample in front of him – in this case he had both the sandpaper letter and my example to the left of his attempt. But I have noticed that he still struggles with remembering how to make the letters or numbers when he can’t see them. 

And then one day, this happened. DJ’s piano book suggested I mark the first two notes of Twinkle, Twinkle with red and green paper, so I cut small pieces from construction paper. After his piano practice, DJ took off with an impromptu craft session completely *without* my participation!  First he cut out the shape of a house and glued windows to it. 

Then he came up with the idea to use his Geometric Cabinet to make the cast of the Angry Birds game. He couldn’t use the Metal Insets, he explained because Red Angry Bird required a smaller circle than Bomb Angry Bird. Ok then!  And off he went, tracing, drawing & coloring. He attempted to cut one out himself but then got me to do the rest. 

And there they are, Red, the small circles Chuck, the yellow triangle, Bomb, the large black circle, King Pig, the large green circle with a yellow crown and 4 little pigs. The camera does not do his work justice. DJ colored Bomb in with a #2 pencil instead of a black colored pencil so he is not as dark as he should be and all the facial features, eyes and beaks are drawn in with pencils too. But I don’t care. They are beautiful to me.