a few of my favorite things...: Riley

As many of you know, we decided to try homeschooling Riley this year.

It had it's ups and downs, but mostly i'm glad I did it. I really had no idea how SMART Riley REALLY was until I actually started teaching him. And I realized the possibilities with Riley are endless. I just assumed that all children were like him, that is until Tate and Blakely came. Blakely is 18 months…Riley could count and say his alphabet…Blakley doesn't say ONE WORD! Tate is almost 3…Riley new 6 shapes, alphabet, numbers…Tate, not so much. In fact, when I try to work with Tate, he LITERALLY pretends to be asleep. hmmmmm.

As annoying as Riley's "Sheldon-ness" -as we like to call it- or OCD is…we are learning to embrace his strong personality and use it in a positive way.

Like preschool-he did not do well in organized preschool, he got honorably discharged his first year and his second year he made it the whole year, but was the kid with the least amount of stickers and we all know what that means!

I was convinced he was BORED…When a kid knows how to say the alphabet backwards, with all sounds and a word to go with…he is not going to sit for circle time singing the alphabet. Plus when you mix super smart with super immature…not a good combo. He is flat out impulsive and obsessive about his impulses. I knew he needed a year at home with me to teach him how to listen, even when he doesn't want to, even when it's boring, even with distractions.

And I can confidently say…he is STRIDES from where he was a year ago…even from 6 months ago.

We started the year off with review…I needed to know what he knew.

And he knew how to:
-count to 25
-9 shapes
-alphabet uppercase and some lowercase (write say sounds)
-spell his first name
-use scissors
-held a pencil ok

He needed to work on (according to the preschool)
-listening to the teacher
-had trouble with lowercase -pdbq-
-telling teacher when there was a problem

Our first semester goals were:
-Write first and last name
-Write Say Sounds lowercase letters (still wrote his name in all uppercase)
-tie shoes
-read a clock
-basic math
-recognize simple words
-Calendar (seasons, months, days of the week)
-dealing with frustration and not giving up
-count to and write to 50
-count by 5s and 10s to 50

We started in August and tried to do school everyday…somedays were harder than others…but whatever I taught him…he KNEW that day. I couldn't believe it. He could tie his shoes after a couple tries…he could read a clock and not only a clock…a roman numeral clock. I found myself looking at him like he was a freak of nature and he would just smile and shrug like "what!?" I found out…Riley is his own worst enemy…he fails, because of his impatience with himself and his fear of failing. But we worked on getting past that fear.

So by the end of September we had met most of our semester goals and I found myself trying to find new ways to challenge him. I thought I would just teach him greater than and less than or ordinal numbers…but we found ourselves doing addition and subtraction. He started off using visuals and now he can do simple equations in his head…like at snack I will say "Riley I am giving you 2 cookies…how many more do you need to make 5." and he will look up at the ceiling as if the answer is on top of his head, and say "5!!!!? I get 5 cookies!!!!"

He has exceded my expectations and today we took review tests, since we took a long break from school over the holidays. He didn't skip a beat…I thought we would just do 1 test a day, but he breezed right through them and got 3, he was swelling with pride! And to honest I almost cired…almost.

Now we start this second semester with a new foundation of knowledge:

Riley knows:

-counts and write to 100+ we have gotten up to 115 and it's really only common sense after that (remember our goal was only 50)

-ties his shoes

-recognizes a slew of words like: down, the, my, his, up, at, it , is and so on and so on

-can write his first and last name

-knows his address (and willingly gives it out to strangers at wal mart), city, state, country and planet

-knows the days of the week and months of the year

-rhyming words and word families (hit, hut, hat)

-basic math (<, >, =)

-math equations

-complex problem solving for example, connect the dots and solve each equation…then color in all the answers with 4 red, 5 blue, 3 green

-counts by 5 and 10 to 100

-ordinal counting and order of a story

-read a clock, analog and digital

-his penmanship is much better and his pencil grip is much better.

-his pictures are much more complex and he draws story pictures

An army man from Dec. 2013

A T-Rex from Sept. 2012 and a Red Dragon from Dec. 2013

Ordinal Numbers

Greater than and Less Than

Math equations

Word Recognition

Drawing Faces and Feelings

8/13 and 1/14

Can you tell he didn't want to do it the first time…he couldn't even bring himself to finish the last face or right his name. But now he does a much better job of doing something he is told to do.

Cutting a circle with scissors

Obsessed with Lincoln logs, helps him learn patience with himself. The Riley 6 months ago would have freaked out if tate came and knocked over his cabin…not any more (or not as bad) He takes a breath and says "that's ok Tate…I will just build it again!" as Tate runs away laughing

He always insists on a practice try before he writes a word…very particular and very precise.

At first I followed recommended pre-K lesson plans, but soon found out we were way beyond that. So I scratched the lesson plans and decided to just get work books to see what he knew. I wanted it to come naturally to see what he was capable of and I found out it was MUCH more than I thought. The books were a nice foundation to branch off of and they had the review tests in them, which was nice.

This second semester our new goals will be:

-50 states

-continue word recognition

-estimating and rulers

-more work on subtraction

-count to 200+

-read a simple book

-write a story

Now, I know everyone thinks their kids are smart…I am not so much thrilled by Riley's intelligence…what I am thrilled about is we are starting to figure him out ( I know... 5 1/2 years into his life) His first preschool teacher thought we had autism…that is how "special" Riley is. But from this experience we have learned he's not neurological impaired but rather too smart for his own good, and before he was too immature to communicate with us, now we know he is just FILLED to the brim with ideas and thoughts and has to write them down or draw them. And because we are embracing it, instead of fighting it…my house now looks like this: