When the student becomes the teacher
One thing I really wanted to share was something my son requested. Nick and I were watching a DVD he got in the mail from the LEGO company. I am always amazed by the creativity employed by the designers and the people who love LEGOs. On the video they showed a behind-the-scenes look at how LEGOs are made as well as several snippets of master builders at work. They also showed LEGO conventions and some of the amazing work LEGO lovers around the country create.
Of course, I know LEGOs are an important teaching tool for math, science, art and history (and maybe more). I use them frequently (see my post on using them after studying Egypt) to help enhance the lesson and make it fun.
However, my son piped in with his own idea for using them in history that I never really thought of. So I'm sharing because this is right from the student's mouth. He decided history (his most disliked subject) would be more fun if we could just act out the whole lesson with LEGOs.
I learned my lesson! LEGO history acting, here we come! It would require a little more planning and some scene and dialog development, but it would certainly be fun and if my son says he would like to do it, then I'm all for it. If he helps with the scene and dialog development, then he's learning everything he needs to know even before we start the show. I told him it was a great idea.
Reading and spelling successes
We've been working a great deal on Nick's spelling using the All About Spelling program. We completed the Reading Horizons at Home program and his reading is spectacular now. He reads without being asked and he enjoys it! He's even asked me to buy him books in a series he's been enjoying.
However, his spelling was still ... hmmmm ... lacking. So we have been working through the All About Spelling program to fix that. Even though he's 13 now, we started at the very beginning because I wasn't really sure if there were some basics I might have missed in my teachings. Just trying to get him to memorize a list of words every week never worked. He'd memorize the spellings and could pass a test with a 100 percent, but never spelled them correctly in his regular writing after the test was over.
So I thought this program, which teaches rules rather than memorization and uses multisensory teaching, would be better. I had started it a long time ago, but it sort of fell by the wayside for a while. So I picked it up again and finished the first set, and started on the second. In just a few short months I've noticed a tremendous difference in his spelling skills.
What I find most odd, however, is that his spelling on those sight words, like "said", is still not there yet. We've been texting each other a lot and he spells "said" phonetically ("sed") but in the same text spelled "animation", "watching" and "video" correctly. I'm going to keep going with the program though because I know the sight words are addressed soon. I'm really impressed with how his spelling skills have improved thus far and have faith they will continue to improve.
That's all for now
Sorry to keep it short but I've got other blogs to apologize on for my absence. I also have to get some education into my boy!
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