Imajine That!

As of this past Monday, dad is on vacation for 2 weeks. So that means we are on vacation too. This year we took a “staycation”. We have several activities lined up including a trip to NYC, Boston, deep sea fishing, and StoryLand.

Monday was a day of relaxation, so we went to Imajine That for a few hours to play and stay cool.

After IT, we tried to go peach picking at a local farm, but there were no peaches for picking because of the drought this season. Hopefully we’ll have a good apple harvest in the fall.

Co-ops and Imajine That!

Below are a few pictures of our bi-monthly co op.

 

Show and Tell

 

Drawing a kids-only town

Kid City!

 

We recently obtained a year-long membership to Imajine That, during their half-off sale. Following are some pictures from IT.

 

This membership is great for rainy or hot days, and really comes in handy during the winter months. It’s a lifesaver.

TGIF!

Wednesday was a sick day for me. I set Hayzel up on a school chair I had up in storage, and placed him next to me while I laid on the couch. He did so well and so much work, he completed both his math and LA lesson 2 days ahead of schedule.

 
After he was done, we worked on his responsibility chart. Starting Sunday he’ll start getting checked off for the 7 chores he is responsible to complete. If he fills up his board at the end of the week he will earn an allowance. I am still working on what type of allowance; money,treats, or a combination of both.



   
Thursday was a free day. We went to the library and swim class. That morning we had our carpets cleaned, so in the afternoon Hayzel and I rearranged his room a bit. I did a lot of tossing in anticipation of his 5th birthday. One of the things we are planning to do is redecorate his room in a Super Mario Brothers theme, so the room looks quite bare for now.


  
Today was a relaxed day of school. Since Hayzel finished his LA and Math lesson early this week, instead of starting a new one, we took it easy. We lazed around and mostly read. I read him the final book in the “Responsibility” theme. We had a nice discussion on being lazy. Such as him asking me to get him water while I am busy when he is more than capable of getting it himself. Hayzel did point out that I am guilty of the same thing, like I am sitting at my computer and I leave my phone in the kitchen, then I ask him to get it. So we both made a commitment to work on being less lazy.

Afterwards we both read the Cat in the Hat. Hayzel did great and got about 75% of the words right. But this book is a little long so half way through Hayzel got tired and I finished reading it to him.

This afternoon we met our friend Olivia at Imajine That for lunch and an art workshop.
The kids painted some “lovebugs”.


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Afterwards, they made heart-shaped crayons out of broken pieces of old ones.




In the oven they went at 350F for 10 minutes, then straight to the freezer for another 15. Here’s the finished product:
     They look pretty cool on paper.

    
Overall, it was a great week. Here is one last pic of Hayzel relaxing before bedtime tonight.

New Curriculum- Others

Part 3 of 3
For part 1 click here
For part 2 click here
I still have a few subjects that I need to work on. Science is one of them. As of right now we don’t have a set curriculum for science. I have been introducing Hayzel the basics of the human body. He knows his body parts, legs, shoulder, knees, and toes…and everything in between. He is slowly becoming more and more fascinated with what goes inside the human body. He knows very basic stuff, like the brain, the heart, the skeleton. I have a few ideas and books to research, but I’m hopeful that by September we can incorporate science as core subject.

PE

Physical education is something that comes naturally to this boy. He doesn’t need any intervention from me for him to be physically active. But still….
He has swimming lessons every week. He is doing his second stint as a Tadpole. I LOVE our new teacher Ms. Scarlett. She is very good with Hayzel and I feel he is advancing more with her this term. I should be taking him to open swim and practicing a bit more with him, but I cannot swim and I’m terrified of the pool. Unfortunately, Dad’s work and school schedule make him unavailable during open swim, so that is out. But even without the extra lessons, Hayzel is doing fairly well. He still has to be redirected A LOT, but I am noticing he is making progress there too.

 
Spring is coming and that means we will be starting sports very soon. Soccer is on for sure and I believe T-ball is also going to be in our schedule as well.  This upcoming fall we may or may not be doing soccer again, but Dad is very happy to know that Hayzel will be eligible for basketball. We considered football for 1 second but quickly shot that down when I saw that the weight range for Hayzel’s division is 35-75lbs. The idea of my 37lb baby in a field being tackled by 70+ lb monsters doesn’t sit well with me.
Swimming is a year round thing, and I will be fighting very hard to add dance to the lineup for fall. I finally found a tap/hip-hop class that all parties will be happy with because apparently the mere thought of jazz or ballet makes some of us very, very grumpy.

SOCIALIZATION

I’m putting this down as a subject because if there is one apprehension about homeschooling everyone seems to have, it’s socialization. Hayzel is a very social kid. He is not shy. And we socialize, a lot. We belong to a small ( but rapidly growing) homeschooling group with other kids his age. Along with Jayden, Caitlin, and out newest friend Olivia, we’ve always got something going on. I was just going our social calendar for the month of February and we have something lined up every single week. And that doesn’t include trips to the library, Imajine That, and various little excursions around town.  I tend to forget my camera at the worst times, and sometime when I do bring it, I forget to snap pictures. But, here are some of this things we did in January.

The first set are pics taken at a field trip to Boston’s Children’s Museum. The daddies got to join us on this one.

   

Next are some random IT pics, as well as a play date at Olivia’s house, and some fun at my house playing with the Kinect.

   

  

Carolyn (OIivia’s mom) is pretty cool and doesn’t mind messes at her house. So anything messy gets done at her house.

ART & MUSIC

Art and Music are a few other subjects that I am slacking on. Music not so much. I always have music playing at home or in the car, so Hayzel is exposed to it all. He really likes Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. He loves to sing and dance. He loves his classical music at night and can tell the difference between the Masterpiece Classical and the Light Classical channel on tv. I sometimes try to switch it up for him but as always, “That’s not channel 5-4-0, mom!”

Art. This needs help. I am working on putting together more arts and crafts projects but ugh! I’m not at all creative. I may be looking at possibly having Hayzel do art classes at IT, but we’ll see.

PENMANSHIP

This subject it pretty easy. Practice, practice, practice. Hayzel has a whiteboard, a chalkboard, and all the pens, pencils, and paper he needs. So writing is something we practice everyday in this house.

So there you go family and friends. Thank you if you read this far. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy writing up these blog entries.