Learning Time & Homework

It seems like ages since we got the paints out at home for the boys to do some artwork. So inspired by Lisa's Laboratory art days we had a bit of an art day at home today. I think both boys painted about 4 pictures each and I have to say they are starting to look pretty impressive. Joshua's pictures are starting to be recognisable as he is trying to paint something specific rather than just colours splashed and spread over paper. Today he decided to paint some beach scenes with the sun, sea and sand. Brandon coloured in a very nice picture of Fin McMissile using the paint and also painted a little draft mask.

 

Young artists at work.

The finished array of paintings all laid out to dry.

Homework (aka learning time) is becoming a real pleasure with the boys as it never ceases to amaze me just how much they seem to be learning and how quickly. Brandon is a little brain box and is arguably considerably ahead of where Joshua was at the same age (and that's not taking anything away from Joshua who is pretty smart himself). Brandon can already spell and write his name and has completely nailed the first 3 sound set cards. In fact he is now learning sound set 4 and some of the word cards which Joshua has only recently started learning in his last school term. Even more impressive is that the nursery have said Brandon is ready to start reading books with words rather than picture books and have subsequently been sending him home with word books already. Joshua didn't start on the word books until he started at Abacus.

Brandon's practise with writing his name.

Brandon's first reading book with words, all about pancakes.

Joshua seems to get a bit complacent with his homework as it is often a little too easy for him and not challenging enough. We feared this might be the case and need to give him extra homework text books to add to what the school give him. Each week he school give him some focus words and sounds along with a reading book to learn. However you only need to go through these once or twice with him and they are nailed down and all of a sudden no longer challenging him.

Joshua's half term focus words were my, like, boat and night.

Joshua's hand writing tends to be a bit scruffy at times so he still uses his writing books as part of his homework.

The exercise books in Maths and English which we have bought for the boys are a great supplements to their normal school homework. Joshua seems to really enjoy working through the pages of these books as they present new challenges for him and get him thinking in different ways. For example in the English book below he had to figure out the first letter (out of two) for each of the words that describes the picture. Then he had to pick out all of the words that start with a specific letter and write them out at the bottom on the correct lines. 

Joshua's additional English homework which gets him thinking about words and letters.

The maths book is equally as good and if anything this is Joshua's weak area. He is great with the letters, sounds and reading, but does seem to struggle at times with numbers, For example he will often "put" two numbers together to make a bigger number rather than "adding" the two numbers. So if you said to him add 4 and 1 he will often say the answer is 41 and not 5. The maths workbooks seems to be helping with this problem and as you can see below he is starting to get the hang of his numbers and adding.

Joshua's maths skills are definitely improving thanks to his homework books.