OK I’ve been meaning to write this little story but we’ve been so busy lately and still battleling colds and allergies and sleepless nights. C’est La Vie!

Recently Natalie completed the first series of lessons in her science module which cover earth science topics such as weather maps, thunderstorms and water cycle. I sat down with her to do the one about the water cycle. It is refreshing to see that even I can learn a thing or two. I mean most of this stuff we know but when you hear it put into words for a child her age it just seems so simple and easy to understand. At the end of the lessons I showed her how we (adults) know the daily temperature and what the weather will be on a given day by going on the weather channel and online at weather.com. and things really clicked for her when I explained the different colors they use to represent rain or snow, etc. Later that day when her dad came home she wanted to show him what she learned so she told him to put on the Weather Channel so she could tell him what the weather would be tonight and tomorrow. He was pretty impressed at how much she retained. We don’t get excited about watching the weather channel but it was exciting to see her trying to read the weather on the map on TV.

We had some rain since that lesson took place and Natalie sat by the window and explained to me that the water will “evaporate into the air and then it will rain again when the clouds get all filled up.” Yes, we all sing praises to T4L and it is well deserved. As parents we try to take advantage of every opportunity to teach our kids lessons that are best learned hands on, but honestly, it can be difficult sometimes. However, when they have an incentive to ask and we (parents) have a little feedback to help us answer questions at their level it is a lot easier to reinforce what they learn and we learn right along with them.

Everyone once in a while Natalie will say “see mom, even you learn on time4learning.” She’s right.

This is science week for us. I chose this week mainly because fall has finally arrived and Natalie has been asking many questions about the leaves falling, the animals, the plants that die and the ones that live during this time of year. I remembered a while back that there is a section in the Science curriculum that focused on the world around us and recognizing the changes that occur as we enter each season, etc.

We just started this section and Natalie loves it. It also happens to be the same thing they are doing in class so that’s a huge plus. She only got as far as Spring yesterday with huge plans to finish that section today. However, it’s late and she might be a little tired tonight. She usually logs in after breakfast and before he bus comes in the morning.

The plan is to incorporate the lessons with real life activities outside. We live in Virginia, the souther part, and the weather is still somewhat mild around here. Side note here —>It’s really strange, however, that sometimes we play in the fall leaves and it’s 75 degrees outside, other days you have to wear gloves and a hat. Anyway, we went for a walk in our yard to find the flowers that grew in the spring and to talk about the changing colors now that fall is here.

I’m learning and enjoying this particular lesson as much as she is. Autumn and spring are my favorite seasons of the year, but I do look forward to snow and the crisp winter air– what better way to enjoy a hot cup of cocoa with marshmallows–yum!

I hope everyone is enjoying this colorful time of year as much as we are!

Terie

This week is focused on Math for Natalie. Since she did so well over the last few weeks on her Language Arts, we decided to take a brief brake to focus on numbers. Natalie is making some progress on recognizing coins and their value; time and the value of each number on an analog clock as well as counting by fives and tens - both of which are important when learning to tell time.

Today Natalie came home from school with “two good news.” “#1 there’s no school tomorrow; #2 I counted by fives all the way to 100.” OK now that’s good news. I told her that this means she should be able to read the clock on the kitchen wall. Now she makes it a point of going to that clock to read the time. She looks at the clock and once she figures out where the “little chubby hand” is then she counts by fives until she reaches the “long skinny hand” to figure out the minutes. Pretty smart huh? OK so I’m biased. Anyway, I’m very proud of her accomplishments with numbers.

Another exciting thing that happened this weekend was her showing off her lessons to my dad. My dad does not speak English nor does he even understand computers. But he sat next to her and watched her work and then figured out what she was doing and even joined her in some of the sorting and counting lessons. It was very sweet. You have to understand, we don’t see Abuelo often enough and we all miss him very much. My kids don’t speak spanish and that’s my fault, sort of. English has become more second nature to me because I don’t really have a community of spanish speaking friends to speak with on a regular basis so I got a bit lazy and failed at teaching a second language. I am working on that because I do want them to talk to my dad next time we see him. It would be cool if we had a program like T4L to help them learn while having fun. Any recommendations?

Well, that’s all for now. Hope everyone is getting over the cold, flu, and any other issues going around.

Good Night.

Terie