Saturday, February 16, 2008

George Washington

AJ has been spending more time in the regular ed classroom. One of the things he has been participating in is social studies. The regular ed teacher has done well either adapting or finding something similar to what the other kids are doing. She says that he really seems to enjoy being in there and that, when he's finished with his work, he always asks her to "show kids". So, she lets him get up front and tell them what he's done. She says the kids are great and clap and tell him what a great job he did.

They were apparently doing reports about George Washington. She had him work on some Kindergarten/1st grade worksheets about George Washington that had dot-to-dots, matching, fill in the blank, sentence writing, etc. All very appropriate level-wise. When he was finished, she stapled it together and he had his "report". He was really proud of it and wanted to show it off to me and tell me about it when he brought it home. Went something like this:

Front page - Picture of George Washington. His explanation:
"The man."

Next page - Cherry trees. His explanation:
"The man's trees. Knock 'em down."

Next page - Dollar bill and a quarter. His explanation:
"The man's money."

Next page - Picture of Mount Vernon. His explanation:
"The man's hotel."

Apparently, since it was really big, it couldn't have been the man's house!

But, the fact is, he did seem to grasp some of the basics of George Washington.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Musical Instruments

I was recently spring cleaning the kitchen. (Yes...I know it's a bit early, but I'm really ready for spring.) We collect old bottles...several small ones from the windowsill were down within AJ's reach.

I heard an interesting tune coming from my dining room. I see that AJ's got a bottle in each hand, blowing a beat. I told him it sounded pretty good. He pointed to the top of my cupboards where there are probably well over 100 old bottles. "Mommy, please down ALL instruments."

All?


He talked me into climbing up there to get couple more big ones for low tones.