This is a comic strip my son created yesterday.
He said, "Mom, I'm not sure that you will like it, but Dad and Evan think it's hilarious."
 |
| click on image to enlarge it if you can't read it (Proud art teacher moment: happy with the different perspectives he chose.) |
What is working...
I LOVE to "interact" with my prayer journal.
He is VOLUNTARILY writing A LOT. (He usually fights me when I make him write more than a paragraph.) So, I learned this week that what energizes me can ALSO energize my kids.
They aren't "babies" anymore. I need to let them into my grown-up world.
I also learned that there IS ALWAYS A WAY to reach them...sometimes I just have to keep digging to find it.
In our homeschool this week...
We CRANKED up the theme to Ghostbusters...and went hunting for prepositions.
Lollipops wrapped in Kleenex with faces - and then I hid them.
When my boys found them, they wrote sentences using prepositional phrases.
"I found a ghost under the chair in the dining room."
They could not repeat a preposition.
I thought it might be "below" the level of my 5th grader, but my 3rd grader NEEDS this kind of kinesthetic activity. He has no space in his mind for subjects taught by rote.
Instead, he remembers that we play Adjective Eye Spy, and that Conjunction Junction does have a function. (School House Rock in the car has been our grammar salvation.)
And now, when I want him to remember prepositions, I'll just say, "I ain't afraid of no ghost," and he'll remember searching for ghosts all over the house "under, around or above" other items.
The thing is, my 5th grader ALSO had a lot of fun with the song - and hunting ghosts.
So, this week I learned (again) that it's always good to do something a bit goofy and different.
I love to be silly in life, and I need to be silly in school too.
I don't just write. I doodle, I scribble, I make block letters..and I draw stick figures.
Call me artsy-fartsy, but I gotta express myself.
So, while stalking reading this homeschool blog, I stole got a BRILLIANT idea.
I decided the timing was right to give our boys their very own prayer journals.
I started off by showing them mine.
My oldest shrugged, took an ordinary pencil, and quietly disappeared to write a verse down (so he could finish the journal "assignment" and then pray to God without using any sort of writing utensil).
But my youngest, HOO BOY! He grabbed a selection of multi-colored pens and Went. To. Town.
All week, he has disappeared with his journal when he was happy, processing, sad, angry...
We've found an outlet for all that emotion!
He has always been a bit flighty when it comes to interacting with God or FOCUSING on Biblical concepts...but I think we found a method that resonates with him.
Simple, sweet, pictorial conversations with God.
(He showed me his journal - one entry had a tornado drawn in his mind, complete with cow mooing as it flew through the air. It was next to request that God take away the anger he was feeling.)
I decided the timing was right to give our boys their very own prayer journals.
I started off by showing them mine.
My oldest shrugged, took an ordinary pencil, and quietly disappeared to write a verse down (so he could finish the journal "assignment" and then pray to God without using any sort of writing utensil).
But my youngest, HOO BOY! He grabbed a selection of multi-colored pens and Went. To. Town.
All week, he has disappeared with his journal when he was happy, processing, sad, angry...
We've found an outlet for all that emotion!
He has always been a bit flighty when it comes to interacting with God or FOCUSING on Biblical concepts...but I think we found a method that resonates with him.
Simple, sweet, pictorial conversations with God.
(He showed me his journal - one entry had a tornado drawn in his mind, complete with cow mooing as it flew through the air. It was next to request that God take away the anger he was feeling.)
He is VOLUNTARILY writing A LOT. (He usually fights me when I make him write more than a paragraph.) So, I learned this week that what energizes me can ALSO energize my kids.
They aren't "babies" anymore. I need to let them into my grown-up world.
I also learned that there IS ALWAYS A WAY to reach them...sometimes I just have to keep digging to find it.
In our homeschool this week...
We CRANKED up the theme to Ghostbusters...and went hunting for prepositions.
 |
| Pinterest led me to this little jewel of a lesson. |
When my boys found them, they wrote sentences using prepositional phrases.
"I found a ghost under the chair in the dining room."
They could not repeat a preposition.
I thought it might be "below" the level of my 5th grader, but my 3rd grader NEEDS this kind of kinesthetic activity. He has no space in his mind for subjects taught by rote.
Instead, he remembers that we play Adjective Eye Spy, and that Conjunction Junction does have a function. (School House Rock in the car has been our grammar salvation.)
And now, when I want him to remember prepositions, I'll just say, "I ain't afraid of no ghost," and he'll remember searching for ghosts all over the house "under, around or above" other items.
The thing is, my 5th grader ALSO had a lot of fun with the song - and hunting ghosts.
So, this week I learned (again) that it's always good to do something a bit goofy and different.
I love to be silly in life, and I need to be silly in school too.
I love your son's comic strip. He has good potential! So glad to see that the journal idea is working for your younger son in terms of writing more and expressing himself. It's such a joy to see boys finding ways to express themselves creatively! Well done!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to teach prepositions! I love the journals. A couple of weeks back we did a segment on journal writing. I had taken some examples from pinterest and the kids flew with it (especially my boy) :).
ReplyDeletethe comic made me laugh too:) Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDelete