three

Father, mother and child we see

Count them quickly, one, two, three.

Heaven, earth and man agree

That together they make three.

from Number Qualities Verse, Enki Education 1st Grade Academic Activity

Our magic number for the first part of this week was "3". This first photo is J's. This week I decided to start including the geometric figures in with our writing of the numerals, so you can see the triangle in addition to the dots. We also went back to 0, 1 and 2 and drew in the figures (a sideways 8, a circle, and two parallel lines) for those numbers as well. I'm not entirely sure Zoo Boy is ready for this (J certainly is), we'll see as we get to the more complicated figures -- as with all things First Grade, I am letting him focus on enjoying the process rather than worrying about his output, as I don't want to discourage him from trying, and a lot of this material is really stretching a child who really should be in a Kindergarten year. Honestly, I'm amazed at how well he's doing keeping up with J and I, in his own style and at his own pace of course. This has been a much better approach for him than not including him would have been.

Our "three" story was "Pear Blossom", a Korean fairy tale, adapted by Enki Education. In this Cinderella-like story, 3 animal helpers come to the aid of Pear Blossom, a girl who is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsister. All ends well, of course, and Pear Blossom marries the magistrate. Gotta love fairy tales!! So for my "3" drawing, I drew the 3 animal helpers. When we recalled the story, both kids immediately recognized the "3" in it. We discussed the harmony of "threeness", and the kids also noted that the father, mother, and Pear Blossom were "3" before the mother died. The kids were so excited to get to their drawing, we didn't get much beyond that in discussion, and all of what they drew came from their own thinking about "3" and not anything I had already brought up.

The kids both totally rocked with ideas about "3", many of which I hadn't even thought of myself, none of which we'd discussed. Here's J's drawing -- he started with a triangle (which gave me the idea that perhaps we should include the geometric figures in our writing as well), then played with the shape a bit -- I got him back on task by reminding him we were working with "3". He then drew a clover (3 leaves), which gave him the idea to draw a poison-ivy leaf (also 3 leaves). Then he drew the 3 of us, learning together (me, him, and Zoo Boy). Finally, he added the 3 primary colors. Gotta admit, as much as I loved the fact that he saw us as "3", I was blown away by the colors thing -- I hadn't even thought of that!

Zoo Boy's drawing, equally as impressive in thought process. On the upper left, you see his interpretation of the 3 parts of the day, Morning, Afternoon, and Night. He also said it could be day, evening, and night. Next to that are 3 lines of scribble, which Zoo Boy says is the titles of the 3 Shrek movies (ahem....). And then below that he worked hard on another "3", although I had to ask him what it was. Turns out it's the 3 parts of our face -- eyes, nose, and mouth. Brilliant!

And here's Zoo Boy's "3", triangle, and dots. His dots reminded me of a "3" none of us had thought of yet -- the 3 parts of a snowman!

We're taking the number qualities block a lot slower than is actually recommended. If we'd followed the Enki schedule, we would be through all of our numbers by the end of this week, and moving on to greater than, less than and odd and even next week. However, I felt that for my kids it was important to break things down much further. For J, who has been doing simple math for a couple of years now, I thought that giving him time to really sink into the number qualities was very important, and I think he's getting more of a chance for comprehension out of taking it slower. (In general, I've found that slower is better for him, filling in the gaps in his understanding that he missed while learning on his own without the comprehension piece in place.) And for Zoo Boy, of course, it's a matter of trying to take things at a pace he can handle without getting left in the dust. So we're taking an extra day for each number, and I've been VERY pleased with the results! We'll finish up our numbers and work with the other concepts during our second math block in December.

As the old saying goes, never hurry, never worry, and take time to smell the flowers! It's sort of my mantra for homeschooling.