Ryan finished his first copybook!

Ryan finished his first copybook today. He was so excited, that he did over 2 pages today to get it done. Here is one of the last pages he completed:

Update: Hobbies, Scripture memory, & copywork

We have been in-doors on the colder days, and on the warmer days the boys have been able to spend some time outside playing.

Something fun for Justin to do on cold days is to take old, broken appliances apart and look inside. Here he is taking apart an old radio alarm clock.

He loves to use his daddy's tools

For Christmas last year, our family was given some money. I used the opportunity to purchase a nice book to use for morning & family devotions. It is a very nice hardback book of Proverbs arranged topically. It is formatted in the King James version, so it is perfect for Scripture memory. Currently, we are in the section entitled "Reverence". We are learning Proverbs 2:1-5 right now, and the boys are just about ready to recite it without looking.I also purchased a paperback copy of the original 1911 Boyscout manual for the boys. There are all kinds of fun things to learn in this manual, and I imagine it will take a very long time to finish it. We do not read it every day...just some days. Basically it is just for fun. The boys will learn anything from chivalry to animal tracking. Of course Daddy will have a lot more to do with that type of thing than me. He is the "master" of anything outdoors!

Last but not least, both of the boys have finished their Italic writing books. They are ready for the next level; how exciting! Here is a scanned copy of Justin's "copywork". I think he did a great job!

Reading Charts

We have participated in several reading contests for the library and school in the past, and we will certainly join the next reading contest that the library sponsors.
I really want the boys to get interested in extra reading. I personally have learned so much just from reading!
I assign the boys reading during the day , but I would just love to see them get really excited about it.
They don't dislike reading, and they usually look at a lot of picture books on Sunday afternoons. Yet they haven't become extremely interested in just picking up books and reading for very long.
I felt a glimmer of hope the other morning when I walked into their room and Justin was laying on his bed reading a book .
He told me that he had stayed awake reading by the light of the moon(of course I had to make sure he knew that it's not good to read without good lighting) ,and when he woke up he had started back into the book. The book was a fictional chapter book about tornadoes. He loved it.

My plan is that they get a sticker for every book (or percentage of bigger books) that they read, and they get to place a sticker on printed copies of the chart below. When they fill it up, they get a surprise. I printed one for Ryan too for the books that I read to him.

I told Michael I would like to find a treasure chest to fill with little incentives. Bribing can be a good thing sometimes ;-)
*** Update: 9/25/08 I was able to find a cardboard treasure chest at THE DOLLAR STORE! I filled it with dollar items like puzzles, rubix cube, tools (Justin loves tools), a hat, art supplies, etc. They have been reading like crazy!!!!***

Copywork

Something that I think is a really good idea is "copy-work". It is old-fashioned, and most of our fore-fathers did it.

This is a supplement I am using to go with the boys' Italic writing workbooks.

From the Donna Young website. I love this:
The handwriting lessons on this page have content from George Washington's Rules of Decent Behavior (rules of civility for short). I read a long time ago that George did not make up these rules, but as a youth, he was required to copy them in a notebook. I do not know if that is true or not; it is a good idea, and copywork is a good way to learn something!

Here is lesson one from George Washington's rules of civility:
Click the box below to see it:



Here is an example of Italic verse copywork: Click the box below: