The Magician

Overheard at our home as we are coming in after a walk....

Jaxon : I WANT TO OPEN THE DOOR
Mummy : How do you say that nicely?
Jaxon : May I open the door?
Mummy: What's the magic word?
Jaxon: er, Abracadabra?
Mummy and Jaxon: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

On the other hand, you are extremely polite when/after passing wind. LOL!!!

When lessons come alive.

We found a caterpillar and some cocoons out in the yard a couple of weeks ago, and so we took them in the house to try and "experience" metamorphosis.  I mean, we had read "The Hungry Caterpillar" so many times through the years and you always relished saying "BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY!" at the end of the story. :)

We were just remembering the other day ( well, I was remembering and you were delighting in how you said things when you were much younger ), how you used to say "Buai Hai" for "Butterfly". :)

When he finally emerged from the cocoon, we brought it outside to let it go :)

We always have a veryshortspring.

So whenever I could, I tried to move the "classroom" out of doors, and take advantage of the cool morning air.  As we speak, the highs of the day are in the 100s and although it is about 11:30PM right now, the temperatures are still in the 80s. Seriously.

 

ANYWAY, back to the matter of you and er, "school".  I can't bring myself to say that we are "homeschooling", because I have no experience whatsoever, and whatever it is that I am actually doing, seems so inadequate. ( I AM trying, though. )

But you, my boy, are learning by leaps and bounds, and actually read our bedtime stories to me. :)  And when we do our "lessons", you actually read the instructions.

One of the books we did in the Spring ( I know it isn't officially summer yet, but has anyone told the weather that? ) was "The Story about Ping", which was about a little Pekin duck who lived in a boat house, and his (mis)adventures.

We did several "outdoor" activities tied to the story, including a "Will it Sink or Will if Float" experiment,

a "Why ducks don't get wet" experiment,

and did a little bit of origami, folding a little sailboat, and drawing "wise eyes" on him.

You are also starting to want to spell just about everything by sounding out the word.

Here's you spelling HOSPITAL ( or HOSPITL phonically ), all by yourself when I wasn't looking.

Like, Woah!

Literature as a Toddler/Preschooler

I don't remember if I have mentioned that we are doing work based loosely on the BFIAR curriculum.  We are reading books in the recommended book list, and doing activities which ties in with the books.  We are also still working on 'riting, reading and 'rithmetic at the same time.

Does all of that seem too much for someone who is barely 4 years and 1 1/2 months old? Well, you seem to just soak it all up, and love love "school time" :)

Recently we read "Katy No Pocket", and so we tied in learning some simple things about Australia and the continents,

Learnt about some Australian animals,

And tried our hand at some Aboriginal dot painting. :)

We are also doing some simple time-telling exercises.  Right now we are merely learning the "hours", but we aren't in that much of a hurry, are we? :)

Adventures in the Woods and Beyond....

A few weeks ago ( while you were still sporting the Jon Snow hairdo ), we ventured off with the dogs to Abilene State Park for you AND the dogs to romp.

You, my boy, seemed to thrive on the open spaces and ran about exploring everything.  You were most curious about the yurts.  Even though we have been here when you were younger, you said you didn't recall ever being there before.  I'll have to show you some blog posts or show you the photos when we get a chance :)

 

Having said that, you also like little nooks where you can have a secret hiding space :)  We found a little shaded area surrounded by short trees/shrubs, which you immediately claimed as "The Secret Hiding Place".

On our way home through Buffalo Gap, we passed by Jim Ned school.  It was after school hours - or maybe it was a Saturday? - and so there was no one there.  We parked and your eyes widened when you saw that there was a never-been-to-before playground to explore. :)

We didn't realise that we would be playing in an area where the ground would be little rocks, so you spent a little bit of time removing little pebbles from your shoes, showing off your dexterity and nimble little fingers when it came to the velcros and whatnot.

You have been adamant about doing a lot of things by yourself as far as I can remember, and you are getting really good at a bunch of them :)

Playground Discovery

First off, there's going to be some discrepancy in hair lengths in the next few blog posts, I'm certain.  All this because I've been really bad about posting events from last month.  Meanwhile, there's been a haircut as well as a trim on top of that :)

ANYWAY, we were going somewhere the other day, and ended up trying to find out where some really heavy black smoke was coming from.  The smoke er, settled before we could find out where it was coming from, and ended up discovering a playground we had never been to before :)

It was close to Dyess Airforce Base, with a large compound, which we walked all around.

 

Stay gold, little boy :) 

Stay gold. :)