Another Approach To Boring Phonics

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As I promised 2.5 months ago, I finally did get a hold of my old Big Boggle game and I introduced it to Prince C-Nut.

I shook the dice up and gave him 5 minutes to discover and write down words. This we'll start out doing two times a session.

Boggle seems to be, for my 5.00 year old, good for phonics (get, set, yet), spelling, and for learning new vocabulary (sot).

I'm kind of against the idea that we have to *trick* kids into learning. I don't even think that to be effective it has to be *fun* either.

I just believe that as a teacher or homeschooling parent you have to mix things up a bit.

Now I've done a ton of math with my son now - sometimes we've sat down for 2 hours straight - but now I'm leaning toward a different approach.

That Charlotte Mason lady advocated having young children doing different subjects, each in 15-20 minute bursts - lest they lose attention.

Today felt like a *nothing* day for our homeschool. But upon reflection here's what we did:

Right after breakfast, we did the last 6 pages of his Grade 5 - Decimals & Fractions Kumon workbook

Then it was time for reading. I read him 6 poems from Robert Louis Stevenson's children's poetry book. Then I read him 40 pages of Magic Tree House #33.

He went on the computer for a bit - starting out with *States and Capitals* and *checking his email* but somehow ended up playing Asteroids and Missle Command!

Karate class.

Then we did a few circuit building *projects* from this great birthday gift he received - Elenco Snap Circuits Jr.

Then we played Boggle.

He checked his email again - reading a story that I sent him earlier today.

And he emailed his mother to see what time she'd be home.

After dinner he handwrote a couple of thank-you notes for guests at his recent birthday party.

Then *mom* had him the rest of the night. They played a board game and I'm sure they read another couple of chapters in his Magic Tree House book - as they do every night.

The Princess?

She's been pretty sick. Though she still had several books read to her today and she managed to do a few pages in her Kumon book.