Special Connection Homeschool

I blogged recently about our experience with the Swan Lake Maestro Classics CD. Gess really loved the music and even made up her own choreography for the ballet. Finding interest in the arts was great fun. Well we have found some more music appreciation from an unexpected source. For Christmas Gess got a new game called Portal 2 . She just loved the original Portal and we knew this would be a big hit. Well, it just so happens that the voice for the main character in the game, Glados is opera singer Ellen McLain and Gess absolutely loved the theme song she sang during the original version's credits, Still Alive . You have to really understand the game to appreciate the lyrics but it's a still a really neat song. Well, Ellen McLain sings a few more songs in Portal 2 and they have released the Portal 2 soundtrack and Gess absolutely loves it. Her favorite song is again sung by Ellen McLain titled Cara Mia Addio . This one is more operatic and is just simply beautiful...

Back in August of 2010 I blogged about a therapy activity we did to help Gess answer Why Questions . One of those activities was a workbook called " What's Wrong with This Picture? " We had fun with the book discussing what was wrong with various scenes and Gess was pretty good at pointing them out. Because of that it was something I put away and we haven't really done for awhile. That is why I just had to post about what Gess has been up to this past week. The other morning we were in the kitchen getting ready to make Gess' breakfast and she points to the tub of butter that had a butter knife sticking out of it and asks, "what's wrong with this picture?" I was like, well, I guess it has a knife in it. Then she starts looking around and finding other things she deemed "wrong" and kept asking me "what's wrong with this picture?" I thought, how cute! Well, it seems to have become something she loves to play. In fact...

We Choose Virtues! That's right, we are excited about making good choices because We Choose Virtues has helped make learning virtues positive, rewarding and fun. We Choose Virtues takes a different approach to character development in children. Instead of focusing on discipline and the negative side of behavior it introduces virtues by having children state them in the affirmative with catch phrases that make memorizing them attainable and fun. Children are not only expected to know each virtue and what they mean but they are encouraged to "choose them and use them" each and every day! We Choose Virtues focuses on 3 rules: 1. Obey 2. Be Kind 3. Be a Helper Under those three rules fall the 12 virtues that children are taught. Obey I am obedient I am attentive I am self-controlled I am honest Be Kind I am kind I am forgiving I am patient I am gentle Be a Helper I am helpful I am perseverant I am diligent I am content Notice how each vir...

Learn Our History was launched this past year by Governor Mike Huckabee and Brad Saft to try and get children excited about American History. They strive to offer fact-based, unbiased presentations of history that children don't always get in school and offer homeschooling parents a tool to add to their curriculum. We reviewed 2 of their DVD's, one we got in the mail and one that was accessible online. The video series is titled "Learn Our History: TimeCycle Academy." The TimeCycle Academy is a group of children who have turned a bicycle into a time machine and travel back in time to experience history first hand. Gesserine did seem to enjoy the videos and she actually learned from them. There are animated shows that she just won't sit through, so the fact that she watched them, comprehended what she saw and even talked about them later told me that she enjoyed them. The first video we watched was the one we received in the mail, The Birth of A Revolut...

Gesserine loves music and while I enjoy classical music when I hear it, it's not something I generally choose to listen to so classical music isn't something Gess has been exposed to very often. Well, I think that is going to change. This month we had the opportunity to review Maestro Classics and it gave us an entirely new appreciation for classical music. Maestro Classics is a great way to introduce your young children to classical music. While they recommend it for children ages 5 to 12 years old I think even younger children would love it. What they do is put stories to classical music in such a way that really brings the music to life and makes it interesting for children. We reviewed the CD The Story of Swan Lake which narrated the classic ballet written by Tchaikovsky so the children could understand what was happening in the music. Gess was captivated by it and when I told her that it was a ballet, she began her own interpretive dance of the story which actually ...

Gess was really excited about the coming new year. Every night before she goes to bed she always asks, "What are we doing in the morning?" By that she means, what are we doing for the whole day tomorrow, not just in the morning. Well, the week before new year that question changed to "What year is it?" She knew the year was about to change and she was eager for it to do so. I would tell her it was still 2011 and then tell her how many more days until it was New Years Eve and News Years Day. She was so excited when I finally told her it was New Year's Eve! Gess has stayed up until midnight for the past couple years, this year we made it, but barely. We had some friends over and sang some karaoke until about 11 and then they all left. Her friend Kayleigh is much younger and was getting tired. Gess started to go asleep but decided to join us in some singing and at midnight I had my alarm go off. She got her hand clapper to make some loud noise, ran out ont...