We’ve been slogging through the winter months lately. I never thought I had a preference for any particular season until I was left inside with a young child for months on end. Winter definitely has a different feel with a 5 year old!  But our school time keeps us busy and DJ is making steady progress. 

We did the next chapter in Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding during January. This one was titled “Concepts of Energy: Making Things Go” and it was SO MUCH FUN!  We started with cards I prepared, one for each type of energy: light, electricity, heat and movement and then twelve pictures to match to each type. In the picture above you can see DJ comparing his solar calculator to the one in the picture. He was quite amazed that it is powered by the sun’s light. I also had pictures of three types of cars – a gasoline car that runs on heat energy, a remote control toy car that runs on electrical energy from a battery and a solar car that runs on light energy through solar panels. It was DJ who informed me that I could have had a car in the movement energy column because most of his toy cars only go when pushed. 

This was the first chapter that had truly new concepts for DJ so I checked out several of the books recommended in the chapter from the library and I’m so glad I did. It really added a lot to his learning. Our favorite book was Charged Up: The Story of Electricity by Jaqui Bailey.  The book describes the whole electrical generation process from a hydroelectric plant using turbines and generators, getting a boost at the transformer to flow through power lines to the city, going through another transformer and then into factories, stores, farms and houses. 

The other jewel in the collection was actually a DVD of the book Living Sunlinght: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm. I was at first disappointed it wasn’t a book but I was pleasantly surprised to see the story was read by the authors and then they both talked about how and why they made the book. One author is a writer, poet and artist and the other is a scientist. Together they are able to bring scientific fact in an imaginative way for the youngest readers. This book has no fear of big words and chemical molecules. Not long after hearing the story, my 5yo asked me if trees have chlorophyll when they have no leaves. He was concerned the trees wouldn’t be able to make sugar to grow and we would run out of oxygen. He was relieved to know they would begin making sugar again when the leaves grow back in the spring. 🍃 

To finish the chapter, DJ described each of the energy types and I wrote his words. He then drew pictures for each type. For heat energy my boy drew a forest on fire and when I asked him how that shows energy making something move or change he said, “the heat is making the trees die!” 

On the math front, DJ has finished the Addition Strip Board and moved on to the Addition Dinger Charts. At the end of the strip board, he wasn’t even using the strips, he would just look at the row of numbers at the top and figure out the answer to whichever equation he was working on. 

DJ thinks the Addition Finger Charts are just amazing. He started with Chart 1 that has one addend in red down the side and a second addend in blue across the top. He chooses a ticket from the box and puts a finger on one red number and a finger on the other number in blue. Then he slides his fingers down the row/column until they meet and that is his answer. 

He hadn’t used the board for long at all when he noticed one of two patterns. The diagonal from the top left to bottom right represents all the doubles – 1+1=2, 2+2=4 … 8+8=16, 9+9=18. Then he also noticed the diagonal from the top right to bottom left shows all the way to make 10 and then 9, 8, 7, etc. Have I mentioned that I love Montessori Math?

Each time works with the addition charts, he completes a page of equations. He doesn’t realize it but this is helping him memorize his math facts and he’s getting a lot more comfortable writing numbers. 

On the reading front, DJ is still resistant. He is so capable but anything that doesn’t come easily he tries to avoid. So I keep bringing it up for him. In this photo I had him write out several of the main words from the amiss Rhonda Reader Dog Day. After writing the words we then sat and read the book. The only thing DJ needs to be able to accomplish something is the belief that he can do it. So slowly, slowly we move forward. 

Here are some “non-school” moments over the past month. And by that I mean these are activities DJ chose outside of our regular school time. 

And in the meantime, I’ve been preparing for DJ to begin elementary school and just look what I got for a steal on Craigslist!  North American Montessori Center Lower Elementary Montessori albums. Yay!