Short Bead Chains + 3 Boys in the School Room!

My first experience presenting the short bead chains was such a let down!  I was going to title this post "I Have the Whiniest Kid Ever."  Link was so excited when I said "Today you get to use your new bead chains!" We got through counting to about 8, and he said "Mommy, don't you know I don't like school?"  After taking turns with him a few times, I couldn't take the whining anymore and I finally just asked if he'd like to put it away.  He wanted to know if that meant school was over, but I told him he'd have to choose something or I could choose for him.  He chose the binomial cube, knob less cylinders, then he read me a few of his readers from LoE set A (he's on B now).  The rest of the day was a struggle.  Bumblebee was very interested in the 100 chain!

Baby in the school room!

Later, he mentioned again that he thought the bead chains were going to be fun, but they weren't.  After explaining that he would learn to skip count using them, he was interested again (he often tries to skip count, but can't.)

The next day, I let Link choose any color he wanted.  He asked for the long chains a few times, but I insisted that he had to show me could do the short ones first.  He was going to do them all!  He chose 1s, 2s, 3, and 5s.

I caught Bumblebee, who is about to turn four, taking short chains off of the cabinet several times.  At first I'd tell him no.  Then, when I realized that he was taking each off very carefully and folding it up to compare to the square, I decided to let him.  Then he said he wanted to skip count, but sometimes he'd skip numbers.  I decided to start him with the teen bead stair since he knows those pretty well, but still needs some work.  I'll work through the Group 3 section with him even though he hasn't started Group 2.  We finished up Group 1from Meg's album last week with the Memory Game of Numbers.  I need to check back with Gettman to see if there is anything that we skipped with Bumblebee.  He really gets the short end of the stick!  I need to start focusing more on where he is in the periods!  I'm not sure he's ready for Group 2, but I may at least introduce it.

You may also notice that there is an almost-two-year-old in the school room!  Boy does that make it difficult to stay in one place!  Beya has his shelves and really enjoys what is on them.  But he also likes to constantly see if he can grab something off of the other shelves.  He's only been joining us for the past week or so, so hopefully he'll learn soon and calm down a bit.  I have a feeling I'm going to have to start rotating his shelves now too!

This is all getting a little difficult for me to keep track of!  Bumblebee has learned all of his letter sounds and some counting, just from being around Link.  I haven't really focused on him at all!  I haven't even made sound boxes for him!  Don't ask me how he learned what he has, I'm amazed :)

Geometric Cabinet & Other Presentations

I've read things that say if you give a presentation and the child doesn't do it correctly, you just conclude the presentation and try again another day.  But there has to be some point you just let them use the material, right?  Link doesn't really do the presentation tray or geometric cabinet drawers correctly.  But after two presentations, he just said "I don't want to do that" (meaning trace the shapes) and he puts the pieces back.  I feel like I should just let him do the cabinet since he's interested, even if he's not doing right....

Then there's the red rods.  He has not tried to build the stairs.  I asked him if I could give him another presentation, and he said no.  Maybe I'll just do them myself one day and see if that helps.

Observations - Scooping Beans

Today Link scooped beans.  In the mornings he likes to help me make Daddy's coffee.  So I decided it would be a good time to practice this skill.  I asked him if he wanted to and he said YES!

I've seen other people go step by step through what they did and I like it because it really highlights the skills he's learning.  So here's what we did:

1. Link carried his little chair into the room and I carried the table
2. He sat in the chair to my right
3. I named everything (the bowl, spoon and beans) and had him tell me what they were
4. He watched me scoop some beans from the left bowl into the right bowl.
5. He tried to scoop some beans (I'm not sure if I handled this correctly or not, but he wasn't tilting the spoon and getting anything, so I showed him again, then did it once holding his hand)  He did it some with his right hand, then switched to his left because it wasn't working well.  He did better with his left hand.
6. He scooped most of the beans over, then said he was all done.
7. I said, "okay, now lets move them back" and showed him.
8. He said "you" (which means he wants me to do it) so I did a few times, then he took over.  
9. He put the spoon down and used his hand to move them, then he "explored" a little.  He just felt the beans in the bowl, grabbed big handfuls and dropped them in the other bowl.
10. When he'd had enough, I got the bag for the beans and he helped me transfer them (from right to left) using the spoon in his right hand and his left hand. 
11. He felt around with the beans in the bag some more
12. He carried the chair and helped me carry the table back. 

Observations and Questions

• At what point does exploring become playing and when should I step in?  I decided it was at the point that he started to make a mess.
• He did well picking up individual beans that he dropped, but I had to encourage him to pick up the spoonfuls that fell while he was "exploring"
• How much should I interfere with his switching of hands?
• He said he was done, but then when I showed him something different to do, he kept going
• All together I think it was good for both of us - we both got practice with presenting a lesson, he had to wait until I showed him for his turn, I practiced observing and not interfering