alphabet wrap-up, and where we go from here

This past week we wrapped up our final block for the year by discussing/writing the letter "Z" (oops, I forgot to take photos....), and creating a chart of all of the letters of the alphabet, both upper and lower case. This is J's work. We are on vacation for the coming week (I'm at 4 days of clinics this week, so the kids are "on vacation" with The Map Man), then we'll work on binding our good books (putting together all of our school work from the year in one book) during our last week of "school" for the year next week, ending with a celebration of the Summer Solstice.

Zoo Boy's chart. Even though we'll be on "Summer Break", we'll stick with a strong daily rhythm that will continue to include time for chores, movement, and therapy work. We'll also work on handwriting sheets to try to keep Zoo Boy motivated to working on his handwriting. I'll use this work this summer to evaluate whether or not I need to specifically address handwriting as an issue with him, or if I can just continue to let it develop while keeping a watchful eye on it. I do plan on quite a bit of woodworking for the fall to help strengthen the muscles and coordination needed for handwriting.

Our final bulletin board for the year. I'm going to keep the board as is for the summer so the kids can refer to the letters if they want to, and the four-processes verses which are also posted there. There is also a number chart to 100, but I'll probably take that down, my kids have a really good feel for working with 2 digit numbers at this point.

I've had a few questions recently about the slow pace with which I've taken our 1st grade year. I strongly believe that the extra time we've taken with introducing the consonants, despite the fact that J's been reading for years, has provided him a base for comprehension, and a holistic foundation for his more advanced reading skills. I feel like the more foundation I can build under the skills he accumulates on his own, the better balance he has as he progresses with his own drive to accumulate knowledge. I find that's the tricky balance when dealing with an Autistic brain, or at least J's Autistic brain (I'd be the last one to characterize all kids' experiences as the same!) -- allowing him to follow his strengths while keeping them in check enough so it doesn't become stifling to the rest of his development.

The above photo is a fine example of this drive to accumulate knowledge -- he asked me to bring up the Zoob building set, which is put away in the basement, so that he could construct a DNA model. He's been reading about DNA and it's role in living organisms lately. This is typical of the sorts of things he likes to do during his free time. So I see no reason to actively bring him this sort of hard-on science, he's seeking it out on his own -- my time is better spent making sure he feels connected to his continuously expanding wealth of knowledge, understands how these sorts of processes are a real part of life in this universe, and how art, poetry, and music fits into the overall picture as well.

Zoo Boy, not to be outdone, creates his own Zoob model.

In the meantime, what we're working on is also exactly where Zoo Boy is developmentally, at a very typical age for this type of learning. Rushing further ahead would only put pressure on him to keep up. He needs to be where we are, and since it's nourishing his brother as well, I'm happy to continue at a pace that meets both of their needs. We'll wrap up the other typical 1st grade work in the fall, with some more challenging aspects mixed in to meet some of J's needs, including more mature story content for him, more challenging extra curricular classes, and more advanced writing skills (and the language skills needed to go along with that).