Day 7, 8 & 9

Corb's mood:

Tuesday-increased irritability, agitation and opposition. Mostly just his typical intentional constant annoying of pretty much everyone, non-compliance with everything and immediate frustration with everything from school to siblings. Became very upset with his Math at one point and told me "just kill me". Was not able to finish everything for school.

Wednesday-Same mood. Lighter school work because we had a play date. He did well on the play date, but preferred to play alone. Finally began interacting once we had been there for a few hours. No major incidents.

Thursday-Greater irritability, agitation and opposition. Could not finish school work due to a meltdown during Math. Other children were running away from him frightened that he was going to hit them or throw something at them. I had to keep him with me from late morning until after lunch. After lunch he told me "I want to play outside. I don't feel angry anymore". I let him go outside where his interaction with the other children improved but he was still "touchy".

Mostly this week for school he has been reading a Bob Book and doing some Math. I think for today I am not going to push any school but resume Monday. I only plan a month at a time so we won't get too far "off" schedule.

Day 6

Corb was in what I would call a "one step above stable" mood all day. Irritable and argumentative. No major inncidents. I am preparing myself, this usually grows for a few days leading up to a few days of full blown out of control behavior. He did his school work well, only having one issue with his Math.

Math-SM1B Worked on adding up amounts of money then identifying which amount was less or more. When he had to decide what was the least amount between 2 dollar bills and 2 sets of change(85 cents and 95 cents) he insisted the $2 was the least amount. I explained to him that $1=100 cents, he told me he "does not believe me". I will address it again today.

Language Arts-
Grammar-Mad Libs
Phonics-ETC 1 page, Bob Book
Writing-HWT and Garden Journal

History-Read Chp. 1 part 1"Nomads", then he answered the review questions.

Science-We began a week long study on Birds. We added birds to our types of animal wall chart. We identified the characteristics that make a bird. We looked at the wings and feathers of birds, comparing their wing arm to our arm. We looked at the different way birds move then tried to move like them. We read "How do they find their way" and "It's a Hummingbirds life". We hung out our Hummer feeder, decided to plant flowers that hummers like outside our window so we can watch for them then researched what flowers would be best to plant. Corb made an entry in his Garden Journal.

Day 5

Corb's mood Friday-excited in the morning because he was knew that his final school thing for the day was going to be his "I Did" dino egg. He flew through his school work in 2 hours. In the afternoon he became angry when Hadley wouldn't give him a dish(they were using plates to make a pizza shop). He took the plate from her and smashed it on the driveway. When he was telling me about it he said he was happy and giggling about it. When asked more about it he said he was feeling very angry at Hadley, he smashed the plate and then he felt "very, very happy". When I explained to him how dangerous it was to do what he did he said "Stupid". Later that evening he got into an empty rubbermaid container, that is used to hold toys, and told the other kids to put the lid on. Clint heard this and told under no cicumstances was he allowed to do that, he could suffocate..etc. Corbin retorted that there was a little hole through which he could breath. Clint said to me he was right, he probably was right that he would be able to breath but he still enforced this rule, which duh. Corb became very angry, he told Clint he wanted to punch him. Clint asked Corb to go into his room for some quiet time. Corb went but then proceeded to move almost everything into a pile in the corner saying he wanted to sell it. He has yet to move it back. He went to bed around 9pm.

Saturday-very good day. Spent the day at Gran's house, then at a friends house for the remainder of the day. No issues at all.

Sunday-Good day. In the evening started getting agitated because he wanted to come inside but Clint and I were not finished with our yard work. He followed us around for about an hour talking about wanting to go inside. When I suggested that he pick some raspberries, his favorite, he got excited. He got a bucket and started picking but then began to cry because there weren't enough for a pie. Yet, he was also angry. He clenched his fists and told me he was very angry with me because I said there were a lot and there weren't. I told him he had a enough for a little pie just for him since he did the work of picking them. That made him happy again.

Friday school:

Math-SM1B, worked on coin values

Language Arts-
Grammar-FLL Lesson 2, begin memorising a poem and illustrating it.
Phonics-ETC 1 page, Bob Book
Writing-HWT

History-Read "Arch. Dig for Clues", watched an Eyewitness video on digging up dino. bones, then he opened one of his three "I Dig" dino eggs. He really enjoyed that.

Science-Read"Baby Whales Drink Milk", "Whales" and "Whales Passing". Watched whale videos on you tube, also listened to the sounds they make. Corb really likes Blue Whales.

Day 4

Corb was very...what is the word? Excitable? in the morning. He was talking a lot, singing, and dancing around. He couldn't even sit for breakfast, he had to stand. He did very well school. I noticed he played alone a lot yesterday. After supper he took his ice cream cone outside to eat alone. He was easily upset in the evening-in a crying way. He was up later last night, until 10pm. Wondering if he isn't getting the fever the younger kids have.

Math- SM1B, reviewed subtraction. He did really well. Note-he solves subtraction word problems by adding. Example-Joe ate 5 cookies, Jane at 2 fewer cookies than Joe. How many cookies did Jane eat? He solves by starting at 2 and adding what he needs to get to 5. 2+?=5.

Language Arts-
Phonics-ETC 1 page, next Bob Book in 3rd set
Writing-Journal exercise 2

History-Read "What is Archeology?" in SOTW and answered the questions.

Thursday seems to be our light day, it was made even more so yesterday due to the 2 kids with fevers. I had planned on Sience but it got pushed forward to today.

Day 3

Corb was in an ok mood yesterday. Not really much to note other than some intentional antagaonizing in the evening followed by defience. Shortly after he went to sleep. He did really well with school, quickly going through everything.

I set up a "safe place" for him Tuesday night, this may have helped him over the course of the day. I removed a bunch of furniture from his room, added a desk I scored at a consignment shop that I plan to stock up with the coming school sales. I also added a bean bag chair and a spot for all of his favorite books. A few toys that are just his, some new puzzles and I popped my Lego cherry by buying our first set of Legos and a small table I also found at the consignment store.

We told him he can go into his room, no questions asked, when he starts to feel angry or just needs to get away from everyone. We also told him that if we notice he needs some alone time we will ask him to go there, but that he is not going because he is in "trouble". He was very happy with this idea.

Math-SM1B 3 number subtraction, he picked it up very well.

Language Arts-
Grammer-First Language Lessons 1st Lesson "What is a Noun?"
Phonics- ETC 1 page, 2nd Bob Book in 3rd set
Reading Comprehension-1st exercise in workbook to help with reading comprehension
Writing- HWT 1 page

Science- Continued our talk about Mammals. He picked Elephants as one of the Mammals he wanted to study. We read "Watch me Grow Elephant". Looked at African and Indian elephants on internet and learned how to tell the difference between the two. We also listened to different elephant noises and watch a few videos on youtube. Corb liked the elephants charging..ahem. We also walked like elephants. Last we followed the migration of the Elephants of Cameroon, it is a Google Earth download and pretty cool.

I am going to start recording Corb's mood everyday for my own reasons.

Corbin was in a very argumentative and irritable mood most of yesterday. This did affect school somewhat, mostly in Math. He was only happy if he was playing on his own. He did well controlling his anger most of the day, only incident was when he slammed his toolbox lid on Lennon's hand because Lennon wanted to use his tools. He was craving sugar.

Math-SM1B, did 2 pages of higher number subtraction. Trudged through but when promised a break after he finished the page he did it very quickly and correctly. Maybe he knows it but is bored?

Language Arts:
Phonics-ETC 1 page, read the 1st book in the 3rd box of Bob Books.
Writing-1st exercise in a Journal workbook.-he really enjoyed this and even assisted in sounding out words.

History-SOTW Activity "History of my Family" book, read "Me & My Family Tree"

Science-Corb named 3 mammals(elephant, blue whale, giraffe), identified the mammal when presented with a group of their toy animal figures, told me the characteristics of a mammal. Read "What is the Difference Mammal".

Other:
Listening skills-exercise 1 in a workbook to practice following directions.
Logic-Lesson 1 in a book about logical thinking.
Helped Clint replace the alternator in the Jeep.
Went to the bank to find out how much money he had in his account(he has been asking to do this for a few weeks).

And, we're back!

Today was our official start day for Corbin's 1st grade year. Here is what we did:

Math-Singapore Math 1B, we are working on larger number subtraction. Once I feel he has a good grasp on it(he is very close) we will move on to money.

Language Arts-
Grammar: Mad Libs
Phonics: Explode the Code 1.5, Last book in the second set of Bob Books
Writing: Handwriting without Tears Power Printing 1st page, Garden Journal

History-we are using Story of the World 1 book and activity guide
Read "What is History?" then answered the review questions

Science-we are using "Let's Read and Find out" as our spine books mixed in with Singapore Early Bird Science. I am using "Learning through the years" as a guide for what topics to cover.
We talked about Taxonomy. We are keeping it to Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Fish, Birds, Insects and broad Invertabrates. Over the next 7 weeks we will cover one "family" per week. For our first week we are covering Mammals. Today we talked about the characteristics found in Mammals. We hung the Mammals up on our wall chart(that will eventually hold all the different families). We listed a bunch of animals then followed the characteristic "clues" to decide if they were mammals or not.

Corb has also been following the pumpkin seeds he planted 7 weeks ago. Each week he makes a journal entry about the growth of the plant. This week he discovered 2 little pumpkins. He drew them life size in his journal and wrote "There are 2 little pumpkins."

Hadley started back up with her Math, Writing and Phonics. She decided to join us for Science and Mad Libs but not History.

We took an unplanned trip to the Vet today as well.

I am going to start offering ETC and HWT to Lennon after his birthday on the 14th, but it will be entirely up to him if he wants to do anything or not.