Winter Writing 2015 (part 4)

            

              

   

             
               

Winter Writing 2015 (Part 3)

Part 3

Winter Writing 2015 (Part 2)

Part 2

Winter Writing 2015 (Part 1, Late Post)

This was originally handwritten on a notebook but it's high time for digitalization. It's a one-year-late post. This is the first part of four.

Winter Writing 2015-16

P has started the winter writing before the holidays and had done 4 so far. In an effort to decrease the paper clutter in the future, I thought about digitizing the output this time. I can either let him encode these for typing practice or take photos.

Our last year's winter writing was more on journals to document his first winter here. Last summer was more on basic writing including paragraphs, main ideas, organizing information, and a little bit of comparing, contrasting, cause and effect. This time, I've looked into creative writing within a 15-minute limit. This should be short, easier to accomplish and perhaps, even more fun. Once we've finish this series, I hope to go back and review the basics of paragraph writing and get a little start on essays. I got a book waiting to be used but I'm not sure if it's an appropriate level yet. This book seems to be geared for high school or university level. I may have to keep an eye out for other resources for his level.
This reminds me of some homeschooling efiles that I have in some cds. I'l have to check on that.

For now, I'll have him start the typing project to encode his handwritten ones this winter.

Winter 2015 Homeschooling

A month-long school break and we got to get out minds busy. P's lesson at school is covering body systems as he mentioned about muscles one time and he thought that it might be a good idea to learn this in English. That gave me an inspiration to prep our winter homeschooling plan. We will be covering this along with the winter writing that I had initially planned.

So after a few days of online research, a day of writing outline, a few hours of scheduling, and a couple more for printing the materials, we are off to a good start this week. We will be doing the skeletal first, then the muscular system plus creative writing on alternate days.

We're off to a good start this week so I'm hoping we'll manage it until it's finish.
So far, the writing was pretty encouraging. P was able to deliver and squeeze out some creative juices into his writing exercises. It may not be a full story with ending per se yet but it is promising. If we get on and finish this exercises, I think this can be a good accomplishment for the winter.  My other worry now is how can I teach him the other side of the coin, technical writing which can be more practical skill in the future. One thing that I got to keep in mind is a person who can see writing as a fun outlet, can be halfway to being able to write technical papers. Better than someone who doesn't like any kind of writing at all.

Fifteen minutes are all that is given for him to write for this creative writing exercises and so far, I've seen him absorbed and just continuously scribbling almost the whole time.

Recap:
Exe. 1 - He was able to write more than half that was asked but didn't manage to finish the paragraph pretty smoothly. His descriptions were pretty sound though and I got the impression that he can build his characters in the short scene well. His dialogues can also be pretty interesting.

Exe.  2 - This exercise was a bit more challenging but he was able to do it. I just had to remind him again of having a smooth finish in spite the limited time given. Hopefully he'll be able to develop his ideas well and wrap the endings well as we progress through the exercises.

On a side note on writing, we got to talking about the shoes brand "Paperplanes" last night and he got the idea of writing the company about why the name. Let's see how we'll go about that next time.

We also spent a day out yesterday starting from the library, his once-a-year Mc Do (or any fast food place), and a not-so-good one at Baskin. Why? He wasn't paying attention when it was time to choose the flavor so he ended up with choco mint which was my choice. Some boys gotta learn to pay attention!

This should wrap it up for our first week of homeschool sessions as well as the last day of the year 2015.

Street Smart

What I've taught him so far? Or what he had the chance to experience here so far.

1. Buy a subway card from a machine.
2. Flash the cards on bus and train.
3. Try to figure out a vicinity map in a station.

We have yet to try...
1. the ticket window for a real train ticket.
2. ride a bus by himself
3. ride a train by himself

1. Be observant of people and things around you at all times.
Be aware of people around you. Learn to read people. It can be a fun hobby when you're stuck waiting without a book. Or even if you have a book. Specially if you are in a non-familiar area, it pays to be able to read people.
2. Remember landmarks and routes.
3. Heighten your senses specially if you are in an unfamiliar and deserted area.
Avoid deserted alleys specially at night.
4. Learn where and how to get help if lost. Identify the "safe places" where one can go in case of emergency.

How to possibly learn this.

1. Bring him more often downtown and let him figure out the streets.
2. Play 39 Clues theme game to help remember landmarks and routes.
3. Let him be the guide. Set a destination, and let him figure out how to get there.
4. Let him get to feel out directions without map. 

As usual, here are some sites where I found some useful ideas. 
- from afineparent.com about being street smart as emotional intelligence
- from parents.com about stranger safety.
- from kidshealth.org about kids being street smart. 
(Hubs heard this one while we were having breakfast. He ended up saying, "the world is such a miserable world that we have to teach our kids these kinds of things." But that is the reality in some parts of the world. Sure, there are still a few safe areas but there a more unsafe ones.