Covering a lot of ground

Beeper has been doing a lot of spontaneous "schooling" lately, ever since we got the library cleaned up and organized again. It is a difficult room to keep clean, because that's where my sewing machine is, so I often have art and sewing projects under construction in there. Environment definitely makes a difference, because he shows more interest in his school materials when they are organized and he has plenty of room to work.

He has been doing his puzzles a lot. He's been showing so much interest in puzzles and also maps that I decided the other day to stop waiting for the continents puzzle I ordered to get here and just go ahead and get out the two we already have - Australia and North America. (We got these off ebay, btw. Montessori Deals Store often has map puzzles up fo $10.) He has loved doing these. He did Austraili first and struggled with it the first time. I walked him through it and talked to him about looking at the shapes and the fat sides of the pieces. Something clicked for him, because after that first time, he was able to put it together pretty quickly. North America presented an even bigger challenge. It took a lot of practice and coaxing for him to figure out how to fit Canada in with its odd shapes. Then all those little countries in Central America are pretty hard for him.

We looked at his globe and an atlas and talked about how North America is where we live and Australia is on the other side of the world. I want to start a unit on Australia sometime in the next coulple of months. Firebirdluver will be going o Australia on a business trip in July, and I think it will be fun for us to learn about where Daddy is going to be. If anyone has any suggestions about good books, movies, activities, etc. about Australia, it would be much appreciated.

He's also still really into his dinosaurs. Mostly he just plays with them and tries to remember the names and what they each like to eat. W recently bought this DVD set on the advice of a friend and started watching it yesterday. It is way beyond Beeper, but firebirdliver and I found it fascinating. I would recommend it for dinosaur enthusiasts, adults or older kids. They show all kinds of things scientists are learning and theorizing about the dinosaurs using computers, other technology and new ideas. Cool stuff. It might even be a good way to teach older kids a little bit about how scientists work.

We also recently found a marble run at a yard sale, and he really loves that. We're calling it "physics" class. Actually, I think he is learning a lot from it about cause and effect and planning where the marbles are going to go. I help him sometimes with it but mostly try to sit back and let him experiment and figure things out. It's good for both of us, and I can see things clicking in his mind as he works.

Botany is also well under way, of course, with our seedling and things in the window sills. If we're not too busy with other things, we'll probably start planting things outside this weekend. I am thinking of also maybe having a window box inside this year of carrot seeds especially for Beeper to take care of on his own. The carrots were his favorite part of the garden last year, and anything that encourages him to eat vegetables is a good thing in my book.

Those are his main focuses these days. Ocassionally he gets out his other activities and plays with them for a while. Yesterday he spent some time with his sandpaper letters and rice tray, and we worked together for a while with his number basket. He had a good time matching up the numbers from the different games. He's slowly learning to identify the numbers, which is also cool to see.

I recently purchased the Bob Books. I thought they would be good to keep on the shelf and look at as he was interested in them. When we first got them, he wanted to look at them, and he and I looked through the first two, and I tried to walk him through sounding some things out. The letters in the first two books are ones he mostly already knew. He wasn't too interested in the time at trying to read them for himself, but the other day he got them out again, and he and I went through the first book again. This time he was much more focused on the words and trying to sound many of them out. He also showed great improvement in going from left to right. Have I mentioned I love seeing his learning process and how these things develop in him over time when I back off and let him figure it out for himself. I am very pleased with how much he's been learning lately. I've been feeling guilty about not being more hands on, but maybe that has been for the best anyway.