9/17/12 - 9/21/12

Wow! What a week. We're into our third week and this was a rough one. Grandma and Grandpa Klein left and Nicholas was wanting the same attention as when they were here. It made for a very tough week. Lots of whining and me getting stressed. The more stressed I got the more whiny he got and it just makes for a miserable day. And it's hard to force a 4 year old into time out when you're feeding a newborn...for an hour(The little princess takes her time)! Ugh! It didn't help that one day I slept in and wasn't prepared with worksheets for him. So...the lack of structure made the day miserable. Nicholas loves structure and needs a "plan" for the day. He likes to know what's going to happen and have it all laid out for him. If I don't have a plan and I need to cook meals or feed Isabella he literally doesn't know what to do and can not play on his own. He just plants his head into the couch whining "what can I do?" over and over and over! He has a playroom filled with toys. I'm talking trampoline, basketball net, lego's, mega blocks, train set, etc...he just won't play with any of it on his own. His occupational therapist thinks it's part of his sensory overload and he really doesn't know what to do and that he needs to be taught how to play. I didn't know this could be possible. Doesn't everyone know how to play with toys on their own?!?! I just thought he was needy and wanted attention but the therapist thinks its more sensory and having to decide on his own what to do is overwhelming. There are too many options going through his head and it's too much. Interesting!

Anyway, we continued our daily worksheets and we decided to give him more difficult math problems just to see how he did. He amazingly did everything correctly. For some reason his mind just "gets it"! It's amazing! We've decided to use one of these worksheets for his application to the Davidson Young Scholar Program when he turns 5 next May. Here's a website to the program: http://www.davidsongifted.org/youngscholars/ It's a free support group for profoundly gifted students ages 5-18. Nicholas was IQ tested in May at the age of 3 and his results came back as Exceptionally Gifted(borderline profoundly, which is the highest). With the standard deviation(5 points given for his perfectionism and not wanting to answer some questions for fear of failure) he does fall into the profoundly gifted range. Therefore, I describe him as EG/PG rather than picking one. We've heard great things about this support group and look forward to hopefully getting him accepted. Once accepted he would remain as a member until he's 18. A big part of our reason for taking pictures and documenting all of his work is for this program and for us to be an advocate for him and get him the help that he needs, since the public school system most likely can not accommodate him. We want all of his work samples should anyone ask so they can readily see what level he is on at any given point. He is so hungry to learn and loves Math(and science) that we want to do whatever is necessary for him to continue on this path and do whatever great things this may lead to.

Something we did this week was make a volcano(mixing acids and bases). I basically put the mold together and poured the plaster but the next day he painted the volcano himself. He was so excited to erupt it on the third day but it was quite a bit of a let down. It barely erupted so I would not recommend the scientific explorer kit we used. We definitely want something more grand! I think next week we'll pour a bunch more vinegar and baking soda in to see if we get a big explosion, rather than just the 1 teaspoon of each per the instructions. In months past he was into volcano books and watched a cool DVD about all the volcano's in the world and saw eruptions and destructions of cities and how people can be in danger. I think I'll look for that DVD on netflix again and watch it again with him soon!

I also noticed the game Qwirkle in a Mindware magazine that we received in the mail. We had it but we never played. I brought it out and thought it would be a great thinking game for him so we tried it while Isabella was napping. It was a hit! He got it right away. We made our own version of it and used all the pieces. It was exciting to see the huge winding shape we made by the end! I think this will be a good "go to" game for the next few weeks!

We are also working on another scrapbook for Grandma and Grandpa's journey back to South Carolina. They got home today but we are a little behind on keeping up with them. Between Isabella's feedings and Nicholas' whining, things were a little slow this week.

However, we did have a get together with a friend. We had a friend come over with her 19 month old son. He is in the toddler stage, not yet talking but running around. I was curious to see how he would do with him. He surprised me and did really well, trying to help him play with toys and even engaged in a "pass the toy back and forth" game the little guy initiated. But, as always, Nicholas is much more into the parents and preferred to read a book with him mommy. But...he is progressing!

Here are some pics from the week. You'll see we also did a spreadsheet on ounces/pounds/cups, played with math dice, and worked on IXL.com website for their math problems.

Our Second Week of Preschool...

Well, we've finished our 2nd week of preschool, and Nicholas is still excited about it. He comes down every morning excited about his 2-3 daily worksheets I put out for him on his desk. In doing his morning worksheets, I'm not only learning what Nicholas does and does not know, I'm learning what he likes to do. For example, one day I didn't put any math worksheets out(they were planets and other questions), and he was upset that there was not a math page so I quickly created one. So now, I always make sure one of the pages is a math page. I'm trying to do a worksheet of math, a worksheet of something new, and then a "review" worksheet to include questions he got incorrect on prior days to see if he now knows them. It's been working out great!

The greatest part about homeschooling this week is that Grandma and Grandpa Klein came to visit, and we didn't have to worry about taking him to a school where they would miss seeing him for some time(especially since they were only here for a few days). We were able to work around our schedule and do activities at different times when necessary. The flexibility is wonderful! And...I also liked that Grandpa got to do science with him, and I got a little break! Yay!

This week we did a couple art projects. One was creating a scrapbook of grandma and grandpa's trip out to Cali. Grandpa emailed every night the amount of miles they drove, what city/state they were staying in for the night, and a little info about the city. We printed out the email and cut and pasted it onto construction paper. We printed out a blank map and plotted out their drive/stops/miles. After the 8 days, we hole punched all the pages and tied them together to complete our book. It was great because not only did Nicholas learn how to make a little book, but he was practicing cutting with scissors, glueing with a glue stick, and even got to press down on the three hole punch which he thought was super cool! ...and he learned about cities, states, miles, days of the week(counting), and so much more. We're planning on also printing out the pictures they sent us from their drive and adding them to the book this week.

Here are pictures from the Art Project:

Our second project was going out to buy a binder and sheet protectors, and a hole punch from Staples. This was to put together all the work we've done so far since preschool started. Now we have everything in a nice organized place to look back on. Nicholas got to decorate his preschool binder with crayons which was fun.

Here are some more pictures from our second week of preschool:

One of the most difficult things with homeschooling Nicholas is dealing with both him and Isabella together. Isabella is a cat napper and needs to constantly eat and be changed. This leaves Nicholas to be on his own a lot...and he does NOT like playing by himself...nor does he really know how to play on his own. That is one of our goals and we're finding out that he is starting to be okay to play on his own with Lego's, marble runs, and snap circuits.


Here's a picture of him building a marble run while I was making dinner:

All in All, it was a good week. He definitely got lots of attention from Grandma and Grandpa this past week so I anticipate this week to be a bit of a challenge and him getting upset on having to be on his own a lot. Fingers crossed on me keeping my sanity and getting through it :)

Our plan for this week: We're hoping to get 1 or 2 play dates in to socialize him. Hoping the triple digit heat goes away so we can get some outside time....and I'm also planning on buying a small patio greenhouse so we can start planting some herbs and teaching him about plants and their lifecycle...
We will also continue our daily worksheets, reading workbook, etc...and maybe get into making a volcano for our science project...and of course, receive emails form Grandpa each night about their trip back to South Carolina and making another scrapbook with all the new cities, miles, etc...

Thanks for reading about our second week's journey! :)

Pics of Nicholas' First Week of Preschool

0-10 in Several Languages

Addition

Math Problems

Money

Pi/Fibonacci Numbers

Nicholas Starts Preschool - 9/4/2012

Nicholas started Pre-K this week - Tuesday, 9/4/12! He is super excited about learning and having Mommy as his teacher. We decided to homeschool him this year because he's so far advanced beyond his peers academically. While Pre-K is learning a "Letter" of the week or counting "1-10", Nicholas is counting well beyond a googol and reading anything you put in front of him. Taking him to a preschool would be doing him a dis-service and we don't want him to lose his love of learning.

We will be learning many things this year to include: Math, Reading, Writing, History, Science, Art, Foreign Language, Maps, Telling Time....as well as other topics like learning chores, helping with Isabella, attending play dates, independent play, and getting exercise/playing sports.

How do we do it? The evening before, I plan the next days lesson. The first week was spent a lot on creating worksheets to see what Nicholas knows and where we need to start teaching him. I think after another week I'll have a good handle on new things to teach him. Each morning he woke up and saw the spreadsheets on his desk. We could see his eyes light up and a huge smile expand on his face as he saw the material and couldn't wait to answer the questions. He usually finished the spreadsheets within a few minutes while I fed Isabella and/or drank my coffee. He was then excited to show me his answers and ask if he got them all correct. He knew most everything. However, for the ones he didn't know I explained the answer and now we will work on those lessons to teach him in the coming weeks.

After completing the spreadsheets and breakfast we play like usual and get ready for our normal outings like swim, piano, OT, library, whatever and then come home for lunch. Afterwards, we work on a few pages of a 1st grade level workbook - currently the reading section(learning reading comprehension and remembering details in a story). He's really enjoyed it and did 7 pages the first day we cracked this book open because he didn't want to stop.

We're also doing lots of science experiments, snap circuits, and also tracking Grandma and Grandpa's trek out to California.

Our plan is to schedule one play date a week to socialize him. We had a neighbor come over the other day with her 5 year old son and 2 year old daughter and Nicholas interacted with them helping them learn how to play with his toys. It's nice to see him grow in this area.

As far as extra-curricular activities, he is in swim, piano, and karate. We are considering entering him in a mommy & me Spanish class at our community center(if they allow Isabella to come).

I was a little nervous how it would all pan out with Isabella here, but it all seems to be falling into place. Nicholas does better with structure so having a plan helps get through the day! Overall, our first week was a success! We will hold preschool on M-F and take normal breaks over weekends, holidays, etc....

Thanks for following our journey and reading about Nicholas' love of learning.