Reading: Knights & Castles

Jed loves going to the bookshop every week and choosing a book to read. This week's pick is on: Knights and Castles.

Jed's been telling me that if he lived in the old times, he would have to leave me and study to be a knight by age 7. And how lucky I am I have him to myself for many more years! 

Greenhouse Effect

Jed chose to do a greenhouse from his Science Activity book because he loves puttering around in the ground.

Here is his greenhouse which he made himself with an old cereal box, some old plastic and barbecue sticks.

In a few days, the onion leaves were shooting straight toward the sun. Jed poked holes in the plastic because he was worried that not enough air was coming in.

A Collage on Communities

Here is Jed's mindmap of his lesson on communities plus a collage  for each of the three rural communities. 

The farming community:

The fishing community: 

And the mining community:

I am... Perseverant

For no reason, violin lessons became tedious this week. This was also the week that we decided to learn the Lupang Hinirang which led Jed to tears and me to tug at my hair in frustration.

So, this was the perfect time for Jed to learn about Perseverance!

Here is Jed plowing through violin exercises while listening to the original piece on CD. 

Love to Share

Me: How do you show your love towards your mother?
Jed: By giving my mom a glass of water when she is sick and too tired to stand up. 

Sweet kid!

The Creation Book

 We got our book the Mystery of History last week. For Jed's first activity, he did the Creation Book. 

There is one day per page.

Day 1:

Day 2 & 3:
For Day 3, Jed likes to say: "God made the seas and he made vegetation." He's very proud of that grown up word 'vegetation'.

Day 4 & 5:

Look at the richness in the sea. My favourite is the bottleneck dolphin. There is also a squid, an octopus, a shark and a lobster.

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Day 6 & 7: 

Day 7 is my most favourite day of all. It simply says: "God rested". Underneath that, Jed drew a picture of a church, to show that we rest and go to church on the 7th day, too.

Violin practice at home

I'm not as good as Jed's teacher Adrian. But, I try to get him some much-needed practice, once in a while.

There's something so poetic about hearing Jed play his music while the trees sway in the breeze through the open door. 

Interpreting a Bar Graph

Hands-on Bible

Jed got an early Christmas gift from me today.

Isn't it great that there's a hands-on Bible for energetic kids? I had to pry this away from Jed to force him to eat his breakfast.

There are experiments he can do. How cool is that?!

This one is called Sink-or-Swim. He poured 4 spoons of salt on a pail and cracked open an egg. Imagine his amazement to see the yolk float instead of sink.  The lesson: God's love holds us afloat, just like the salt does the yolk.

After the experiment, he devoured the story of the floating baby Moses, then stoutly declared, "My Bible is way cooler than your Bible, Mom."

Next up, Jed's gonna do the Rocket experiment which says, "Build this rocket to remind you that Jesus broke through the bonds of death." Can't wait to get that on video.

It's Beginning to Look like Christmas

Jed had a fever today, so Dericke came to keep him company. The two boys commandeered the hammers. The poundings gave me quite a scare, as I had visions of them tearing down the house.

The end result was a lot lovelier.

Now, we have a bit of Christmas in our house, thanks to two energetic boys!

Singing Landforms

I found Jed singing out the words in his Social Studies book. A brilliant way to memorize today's lesson on land forms.

I think it's cute that he loves to study while seated by our doorstep. Learning is learning wherever it happens. 

Naughty

Someone's been naughty for several days now.

So, the laptop  has been impounded. And an old friend for discipline has been put up. The last time we used the Reward Chart, Jed was five years old and going through a growth spurt which included testing the limits of the grown-ups around him. It seems we are going through yet another growth spurt.

For my parenting principles, I subscribe to the teachings of the One Minute Manager especially that children must be taught to "catch themselves doing right". So, the rules are pretty simple.

Jed knows what he should do and when he should do them. If he does it without me reminding him, he puts a star with my approval. When all the stars are up, he gets his laptop back.

It's a painless way to discipline & motivate him, perfect for little goal-driven boy.

He works so hard for the stars, too. On the one instance that he was rude & back-talked me, I asked him to take out eight stars. He ripped them out, then fled to the privacy of the bathroom where he cried his heart out. After several minutes, he stepped out and asked forgiveness.

All is well. We will weather this tempest together and come out safely on the sunny side, with no hearts damaged or trust betrayed.

Jed's First 100-pc Puzzle

I remember that, in Australia, Tita Roni attempted to befriend Jed by having him do a world-map puzzle and Jed almost burst into tears as he emphatically declared he couldn't put it together.

I never brought up puzzles again.

Until last week, when Jed spontaneously picked out a Disney puzzle from a shelf in National Bookstore and insisted we do it together during our family time.

That happy, satisfied smile blesses my heart! 

Note: This is tagged under Math, because puzzle-making requires logic & analysis.

Writing About the Playground

We have stopped spelling classes, as Jed has completed the Grade 2 set. We are now doing more writing & composition.

Jed found this tedious at first, but learned to enjoy it when I pointed out to him the times when I write in my journal, too.

An Anemometer

Dericke came over to help Jed with his second Weather project: an anemometer to check wind speed. 

Check out those huge self-satisfied smirks. 

A Weather Vane

I pickled up this Hands-on Science activity book for Jed and he's been having a blast.

The first chapter is on weather. For his first project, he picked a wind vane.

See it waving proudly in the breeze.

Jed installed a compass on the Samsung phone to make sure the directions on the styro board are accurate, too. Lovely!