A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y and W

When you were a child, did you learn that the vowels were, "A, E, I, O,U and sometimes Y" or "A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y and W"?  I learned the latter.  I went to Catholic school; I don't know if that makes a difference or not, but we learned it with the "W".  I don't ever remember being taught exactly when a W was a vowel, but that's what I was taught and if you wanted to get the question, "What letters of the alphabet are vowels?" correct, you tacked on the W.  Catholic school was full of memorization so we didn't question this one.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine and her family moved across the pond.  When her children told her they had learned "A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y and W" at school, she was surprised.  She had never heard about the W.  She questioned the teacher about the W and was informed, yes, W can be used as a vowel at times, no the teacher could not give her an example of when the W is used as a vowel but it can be and that is what the school teaches.  My friend asked Facebook land if anyone else had heard about the W and and it was an almost even split of friends who had or had not heard of the W.

Well, my friends, I am giddy with excitement to inform you - I have a W example!  Dun-dun-DUUUUN!  Get back up off the floor, close your mouth and read on.

Part of B's Language Arts work today contained this rule: "If a one-syllable word has two vowels, the first vowel usually stands for the long sound and the second vowel is silent." (Sonlight Language Arts curriculum)  After the rule, examples are given - flute, rope, doe, row.  Row has a little foot note "1" next to it and the footnote reads, "1. The letters Y and W are sometimes considered vowels."  So, in the word "row", both the O and the W are vowels.  According to a previous week's rule, "If a one-syllable word contains only one vowel, that vowel usually stands for the short sound."  Examples are ask and nap.  So, in the word "row", if the W was a consonant, than the O would have a short sound and the OW together would be pronounced "ou" as in "outstanding" or the exclamation most of us say when we feel pain.  However, we pronounce the word "row" as "roh".  Therefore, according to the grammatical rules, the W in this word, as well as in the words "throw", "thrown" and "bow" (the hair ribbon or package decoration, not the curtsy) is a vowel.

You have no idea how excited B and I were to finally find a justification for our "...and W"!  We tripped over each other, running to the hubs and kept speaking over each other trying to be the 1st one to tell the hubs the news!  He got it, he was appreciative of us clearing it up, but he did not exhibit the appropriate amount of excitement.  *Insert huffy breath*  But I know a certain someone over the pond who will finally get some closure with this news.  ;o)

I am so happy with Sonlight!

As you know, I bought the Sonlight curriculum and we started 3rd grade for B on July 11th. I am so happy with this curriculum! BTW, I am so happy I can FINALLY spell curriculum without the spellcheck, squiggly red line under it! YEAH, ME!

Going with a literature-based curriculum was the BEST decision the hubs and I made.

B loves reading! Every day we have the standard reading from textbooks and the standard writing that he is SO not fond of (STILL!). But the only way he is going to get better at anything is by actually doing it over and over again. Everyday I read to him and he reads to me. He hates that, according to our Sonlight lesson plan, I am to only read to him one chapter a day. The reading that he is to do aloud is only 1-3 chapters a day. He wants me and him to read more, so he can find out what happens next! THAT is excitement, anticipation, and that is the incentive that gets him through his least favorite part (STILL, to my frustration, but I know it is typical of a boy his age), the writing that he needs to do during his spelling, creative writing and science lessons. He loves Science, but he does not like the fact that he needs to write the answers to questions that test his comprehension of his Science learning. This week, we are finally moving on from book learning of Science to experiments. We have learned all kinds of things about many animals so far. The difference between monkeys and apes (monkeys have tails); bats are the only flying animal with fur; sloths NEVER clean themselves, are green in color b/c of the algae that grows on them and they have moths living in their fur!

And can I just say, I just LOVE homeschooling my son?! When he was in public school for kindergarten and 1st grade, I could not wait to ask him every day, "So, what did you learn TODAY?" But, like most parents, I received the answers of, "Nothing" or "I don't know". Then, a few times a week B would pipe up with a, "Did you know that..." something that he had learned at school that week. But that's all I got, bits and pieces. And that's about all I remember from MY education - bits and pieces. But now B and I are learning everything TOGETHER. I love learning about something and then learning what each of us got out of it as we talk about it. Because something different jumps out at each of us and each of us processes that something and then explains it to the other. I feel so blessed to be this involved with my child's education right now!

Third Grade - Day 2

It has taken me a year, but I've finally convinced myself that our "formal" school time does not have to occur in the morning or not at all. I got up this morning, determined to go to the gym b/c my favorite class, a dancing cardio one, is on Tuesdays. B was swimming while I was taking class and I finished first. I was witting on B when the teacher of the next class came up to me and convinced me to take her class of core work. Evidently I was not the only one! She pulled people off weight machines and even stole a client away from a trainer. She's hardcore, this teacher, and I'm so glad she is on my side! It may never happen again, but at least once in my life, I can say I took back-to-back classes at the gym. :o)

It was lunch time by the time we got home; we ate and then showered. What to do, what to do... Since there is no more TV (see yesterday's post: First Day of Third Grade) I announced that it was time for schooling! It's only day 2 and I got the look and the groan followed by the collapse on the floor. Oh, well. Once I got everything out and we started, he was so into it. Until we got to writing, of course. But I had an ace up my sleeve. I told him if he would stop stalling on his Spelling words I had something pretty fun to teach him next.

B: What?
Me: You'll have to finish your spelling work and see.
B: What's fun about it?
Me: The name is going to make you happy and laugh a LOT.
B: Is it "fart"? *dissolves into giggles*
Me: Boy, you are the KING of farts and you know all about them. So why would I be teaching you about farts next?
B: I don't know, but it's funny.
Me: Finish your Spelling!

He FINALLY finished his spelling and we moved onto Onomatopoeia. As expected, at the sound of that word B did the quick head jerk thing, bugged his eyes, shot his eyebrows up and a wide grin popped on his face for 0.66 seconds before he literally started rolling on the floor, belly laughing. I knew I'd get that reaction. I had to repeat it a few more times for him to grasp the pronunciation, but after that I never said it again. Didn't have to; he said it constantly until bedtime. By the end of today's lesson, B's yelling, "ON-a-matopoeia! YOU-a-matopoeia! This whole THINGS-a-matopoeia!" a la Al Pacino in "And Justice For All". LOL!

Do you remember when you learned Onomatopoeia in elementary school? I do! Even if you don't remember what it is (words that describe sounds like smack, pop, meow, etc.) you never forget the word Onomatopoeia. I even remember the sing-songy way our teacher broke the syllables down for us to understand how to pronounce it. OOONNN-a-MOOONNN-a-PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-a! (The teacher did not actually teach us to stretch out the PEE syllable; we did that all on our own.) God bless the teachers who have to teach Onomatopoeia every year. They have such patience. They know what reaction they'll receive when kids hear it. And not just the 1st time, EVERY time. And we worked that word into every sentence we could for the rest of that school year and even the next one b/c it was still funny! In fact, I believe Onomatopoeia was brought up at our 23rd elementary school reunion 2 years ago!

And B was no different. And I was just as patient as my teacher was b/c I realized what she knew all along: All that laughing and rolling around on the floor will ensure that he never forgets Onomatopoeia, just because it has the word "pee" in it.

First Day of Third Grade

Last Thursday, the hubs and I decided B had to go screen-free. After sleeping on it, we changed our minds and just went TV-free, letting B earn 30 minutes of educational computer or DS time each day. I have placed locks on ALL channels on both TVs.

The main reason we're doing this is b/c his watching TV is negatively affecting his communication. He is not having real conversations; he is merely repeating lines from movies, TV shows, computer games and even books over and over and over... However, I'm not taking away books. But we are going backwards and losing ground we gained over the last year. This has proven to me that it is time to start teaching 3rd grade now. If he is going to memorize and repeat everything, it might as well all be education-related. It is not healthy to go the rest of the Summer like this.

When I told B on Friday morning he was not going to watch TV the rest of the Summer, I gotta hand it to him, he took it very maturely. None of the expected reactions - no growling, dirty looks, storming off, crying, yelling, attempts at negotiations. 5 minutes later...

B: Can I finish watching The Goofy Movie that I started to watch yesterday? I recorded the rest of it.
Me: No.
B: Why not?
Me: Do you remember me telling you 5 minutes ago that you were not watching TV for the rest of the Summer?
B: But you said TV. THIS is a MOVIE.
Me: It's recorded on TV.
B: Well, can I put one of my MOVIES in the DVD PLAYER?
Me: No. No TV shows. No DVD movies. No streaming shows and movies on the Wii from Netflix.
B: Blink. Blink, blink. Flung himself onto the couch.

For the next hour, he spoke gibberish, non-sense and made lots of noises, very loudly and constantly, hoping to get a reaction. I am the queen of the battle of wills. My mom and and I fought them for years and I will not give in. When he stepped it up to potty words, I thought about stepping in and saying something b/c we don't allow that talk, but I chose to ignore it. Those words only lasted a couple of minutes before he gave up. Phew! Friday afternoon, B and the hubs went away for the weekend to visit my sisters-in-law, so I had no TV battles to fight nor sounds to hear for 51.5 hours. :oD

I didn't sleep well last night and woke up this morning tired, cranky and with a headache. Faced with no TV inside and a code orange day outside, I realized my options were to go to the gym or start teaching 3rd grade. So we started school. It took us 3 hours to do History, Geography, Spelling, Language Arts, Reading - I read to him from 1 book and he read to me from another one, and Science. It took longer than it should have, I think, b/c I was not prepared to start today and had not read through the lesson plans. I will spend time tonight going through it all and getting my ducks in row. After we finished Science I told B that we were all done, but then remembered we hadn't done Math. I decided to skip it. I wasn't going to push it; we'll work in tomorrow.

We had a good time. B and I both enjoyed the readings and learned new things (i.e. the difference between monkeys and apes is that monkeys have tails). B's least-liked part of learning was, of course, writing, but I knew that would be an issue. He loved Science and when our short lesson was done, he begged me to learn more. I told him no b/c I don't what to finish Science by Christmas and have nothing the rest of the year. But, leaving Science for last is a good thing; it will motivate B to work through everything else first.