Last week, we studied the animal kingdom. We talked about what types of animals have backbones, which animals don't. We talked about the animals around the world and practiced our writing. I have to confess that this week's lessons didn't go over as well as I had hoped. For some reason, there wasn't much interest (apparently, the Monk is burned out on doing lessons each and every day, so we've had to cut back and only work on Tuesdays and Thursdays - which is fine. I want him to enjoy learning, not dread it). We did make it to the library and even watched a couple of animal movies (Cats & Dogs and African Cats). Our next unit is dinosaurs, so I know that it will be much more engaging for him. Well, here's hoping anyways.
This lesson went WAY better than India. For this, we used Google Translate to look up the colors of the rainbow and translate them from Japanese into English. We also looked at Obento boxes and how people eat their lunches in Japan (which, btw, I am totally getting a bento box lunch box for my school year in the fall!). We looked at Japanese paper lanterns and the art of origami. There seemed to be a lot more interest in Japanese culture. As I reflect on the teaching process that I am trying to accomplish and the learning process of my son, I think that the more interactive, colorful, and hands on the activities are, the more that he is willing to participate. You would think that, as a middle school teacher for 9 months out of the year, that I would be more aware of how kids learn. And I am. I know EXACTLY how middle schoolers learn and process. But, as a mother trying to instruct her 5 year-old, it is much more different than what I do while teaching in middle school. So - ok. I need to keep the activities
This unit seemed to take some time. For some reason, Monkey didn't really feel like working (maybe because we took the day before off because of the rain and had a PJ day instead). Never take an ADHD child off of their schedule...sigh. However, we were able to do some. We looked at Google Maps to see India and the Taj Mahal. Monk liked it so much that he had to color his own (with Star Wars invading, of course). Then we colored the flag and talked about how the elephant is an animal in India (the Asian elephant, of course). He even sat still long enough for me to try and draw a "henn
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