This review is actually not for Skyler!! Change of pace there! Damian received the Asperger's Syndrome Do It yourself Journal to use for no charge in exchange for our review. I will be honest this is the third journal Damian has had. At first we tried the 12 subject portfolio. As soon as I handed him that big book I could see the fear in his eyes. He was totally clueless. The book is amazing by the way but, it just simply overwhelmed Damian. I did buy the pdf though and will be using it in the future! I then bought the pdf of the Do It Yourself Handbook for Eclectic Learners thinking I could just print little by little. Well he got upset because he didn't have a real book like the other kids did.
When Sarah offered us the Asperger's journal I was way willing to try that out!!
Damian is not the photographic picture kid like my others. He does pretty well when it is for a holiday or a special occasion but just for school not so much! So he braved through all my photography attempts. Thanks Buddy!!!!
This journal is a ten page a day journal. They have reading and a movie every day. At first this overwhelmed him so we slacked on the movie until the second week. Now he does pretty well. He happily picked out biography type movies at the library of various musicians. Damian loves music as long as it is after the 50's. He is not my classical kid. You will notice in many pictures of Damian he has his headphones. I allow this because it shuts out the noise. This is what he tells me so we go with it.
There will come a point in his life God willing he will grow up and he will work and do everything else but when we are at home I believe this should be his safe place. My other kids are loud, they talk too much in all honesty. While I love it, Damian sees it as a distraction. Using these journals I have found many things that have distracted Damian.
Working with the other kids was always hard for him. It is no longer hard because he does his own thing now.
He happily reads books at his speed. Books he wants to read.
He was very happy this day, his siblings were outside watering the fairy gardens so no headphones! He got to listen to his music loud LOL. His phone is his most prized possession. He worked all summer last year for grandpa to buy that phone. We don't do service because I am not yet ready for unrestricted access to the internet but he gets to go to the library and download music and games until his heart is content!
He enjoys the object pages. Most of the time he has no idea what the pictures are, neither do I for that matter. He loves writing what he can understand from the picture though. It makes him think and there has actually been a few times he has even imagined what the object was used for. That is a BIG deal for him. So right there WIN WIN in my opinion!!!
Here he is looking up current events. He is doing this on his own with no help from me.
Not quite sure why but he writes the multiplication table often on the math pages. I have been wondering lately if I should try to get him to do something different. But then again maybe he feels this needs repeated. He does often forget his facts.
For his nature pages he uses drawing books. He doesn't want to go outside to draw because things move and it frustrates him. I personally do not care as long as he is trying his best.
He enjoys looking up quotes he likes himself. he does not like using any I suggest LOL.
So things that have changed since using this book. He wonders about things now. How they work, where they came from. He tells me things he read in his books. That is again a HUGE deal. The other day he actually asked out of the clear blue, Where do cats come from and how did they get domesticated? He spent a long time on google looking up all kinds of history of cats that he shared with me. Damian never shared his day when he went to school. He never told me things, he was never interested in anything.
I asked Damian what he liked about his book. He told me he likes it because it is his book, He can do whatever order he likes on his pages. He reads a book, does another page, reads a book, does a different page and so on and so on. This helps him to be overwhelmed or feel like he has to read for an hour straight. I asked Damian if he wanted to keep doing journal school as we call it and he said sure. That is his stamp of approval. Anything that gets a sure out of Damian is a win! So once more GREAT JOB for the Thinking Tree!!
Miss Sarah and her ideas for school has caused many wonderful changes in our homeschool. I will forever be grateful for the kindness she has shared with my kiddos and her wonderful books. They have truly helped all three of my children in some pretty big ways!!
Linking up with Homeschooling6 Thursday Thinking Tree link up!!
Miss Sarah was ever so kind to send Skyler Bay this beautiful coloring book to use and tell everyone what she thinks about it! The coloring book reads like a story book. So right away Skyler had a blast since it wasn't just pictures to color. She read me the whole book then started picking pictures she wanted to color first! She really loved the cover. She has never owned a coloring book that she got to color a cover so this makes it more hers she said!
The art work as usual is just amazing.
She loved this picture most of all because she has a picture of herself very small toting a box of cheerios!!
She was beyond thrilled to receive this book. She thought it was the best thing ever to have a coloring book by the Thinking Tree lady LOL. If a box comes or a big envelope her eyes light up asking, What did Miss. Sarah send me this time? She truly enjoys all of the books she has been using by The Thinking Tree! We received this book free of charge in return for an honest review and I can say honestly, Skyler loves her color books as she calls them and has searched amazon for the rest and is saving her money for them!!
For more wonderful posts on this amazing company please visit Homeschooling6! She does a link up every week for The Thinking Tree
We are just moving right along! This week was for sure a bit tense. Our three dogs were skunked and little Skyler Bay had some sinus issues so we had an unscheduled doc appt. I do not like those! It also took days of bathing the monsters to get rid of the smell before we could let them back in the house! We still managed school though. The kids are still moving on with their journals and their math. THE HATED MATH! The kids were so funny asking if they could have a fun movie day. They picked 10,000 BC for their fun movie. Funny kiddos.
During the movie Skyler got to color in her color book from The Thinking Tree so she was pretty happy. I didn't even have the heart to tell her she didn't have a movie that day!
Skyler is still enjoying the funschooling spelling by The Thinking tree of course! This was originally meant for next year but when she saw it she wanted it now so who am I to say no? That left me open to but another Thinking tree Spelling for her next year!!
She is also still moving on in her journal for two.
Fox is still going in his dyslexia games book as well as his journal. He has also passed another math lesson so YAY!!!
Damian is moving right along in his journal as well. School days have become smoother. They have become more enjoyable and I often hear Mom, did you know...? From each of the kids daily!
That pretty much wraps up our week. I hope everyone else has a great week as well! We are linking up with Homeschooling6 and her Thinking Tree posts!! Also visit her spelling sale from The Thinking Tree!
This Monday we had No art! We spent a big portion of the day putting together the Homeschool In The Woods Composers Lapbook. We also listened to music and of course did our math project.
For the project this week the kids designed logos, made menus and a graph page of the cafe they are running. They seemed to do really well! They enjoyed picking out where on the graph the items in their cafe would be as well as getting to design logos and uniforms.
For their music today we just listened to classical while we put the lapbook together. This thing took a lot of glue. About four glue sticks total. She was pretty pleased with the outcome.
It was a fun study all in all. It was a lot of information so I am sure they will look back to it as reference in years to come. That was pretty much it for our Monday!! Happy week everyone!!!!!!
I am completely thrilled to be reviewing another amazing product from Miss. Sarah at The Thinking Tree. She was so kind to give this book to Skyler in exchange for a review. We have been so blessed by her kindness this school year. My plans for these books for next year are in the making!
This book is different than the journals. It is a creative writing and research book. The kids pick their animal and they can either research it or make up stories about it. Skyler LOVES telling stories. Writing them not so much. What we do is before she writes we rough up an outline so to speak. This is all her ideas none are mine. At this point while yes I believe grammar is important I am also wanting her to enjoy writing so we are just focusing on that.
Let the creative juices flow!! So far she has done two stories but has ideas for quite a few more!
Isn't the art work beautiful? This book is black and white drawings and of course Skyler had to color them!
After the first story she came to me and said, I used pencil to fix whatever you say. That is when I knew I had to not say LOL. This is for her to enjoy to have fun to be creative and enjoy the process. This is not a lesson in how to be right. So you can see by the second story she happily used her pink pen and wrote much more!! WIN WIN!!!!
This is the first lesson I have learned from Miss. Sarah, it is not always about doing it the right way it is also about letting our kids go at times and just have fun with it. There is so much in life that has to be the right way, that causes kiddos undo stress. Let them play, let them write, let them just be kids!! While this was a free product in exchange for a review I am giving you my most honest heartfelt opinion!!
Also linking with Homeschooling 6 and her Thinking Tree Posts!
The week was busy and full as usual! Damian has finally moved into another math book, Fox and Skyler both have passed lessons in theirs and we had our last week of co-op. No pottery this week that was a nice little afternoon off! We also went to learn about bats at the library! We love bats, this is the second field trip this year that has had to do with bats!
We do school all over the house!! Damian is still working in his new journal, review to come soon I hope, time permitting that is.
Skyler is still working in her journal for 2 by The Thinking Tree. She has also doing her creative writing in her writing research book also by The Thinking Tree (My Review). It is animal based so you know it must have been made for her.
We also watch cats play when we are bored LOL.
Forgive the mess but my children are busy making memories. We live here it is not perfect all the time. I aim for empty trash, washed laundry and happy kids on most days! On to our field trip. BATS BATS BATS did I mention we love bats!!!
Fossils are always cool.
Blurry pic but this little guy is just heart stealing. Bats are amazing creatures so if you have issues with them take some time to research them. They are also more closely related to humans than rats, who they have nothing genetic wise in common with. So calling them rats with wings is fairly uneducated!!
For co-op we had homework! We had to build a machine to squeeze toothpaste out of the tube. This is what my very un creative kiddos came up with and yes I am proud. Fox is my builder so this was a challenge for them.
GOOD JOB!!!!!
For co-op this week it was all about electricity. All of the activities we did plus more are posted on the amazing Miss. Shannons site.
Look at Damian HE IS LAUGHING!!!
We learned about static electricity what fun! The little girl above really enjoyed her self!
Played a game about the flow of electricity when we flip the light switches.
We lit lights with a battery and played with some snap circuits.
It was the last co-op class. That was kinda sad cause we had so much fun. I loved all the new moms I met and cannot wait to see them all again.
To finish up our week Fox and Skyler made Miss. Shannons Egyptian Bread. We learned this in another co-op run by Shannon a few years ago and it is a favorite for Fox. He also completely adores Shannon so that is why it is called her bread not just bread!
Linking Up with Homeschooling 6 for the Thinking Tree posts!
