How Goes It

School at The House of Halpin has been going great. O loves to learn, making teaching him such a joy. He has gained such confidence in his ability to read and do math problems. Neither one of us enjoy handwriting quite as much as the other subjects, but we patiently work through it each day.

If I had to name one struggle in schooling O, I would say distraction. Owen is so much like me, poor Guy. If there is anything else going on, he is observing rather than doing his work. I used to get in such trouble for this same thing in elementary school. I'd always get my work done, but I'd often leave it until the last minute because I was too busy watching my friends do their work. O's main distraction is his busy, noisy little brother.

So I spend a good deal of time trying to come up with creative things to keep Nosy occupied at our school table. He sits quietly through Bible class, but then he is clamors for things to do. Once a week, on my busiest day with O, he watches a Leap Frog DVD in my room while O and I work hard. He zips through puzzles and coloring pages at lightening speed, meaning I spend too much time gathering more for him when I need to be focusing on helping Owen. I love having him with us at the table, but I was at a loss as to how to keep him busy and content. One day, I tried this idea:

I filled a ziplock freezer bag with tempera paint and taped it to the table.

He thought it was very fun to scribble on it with his finger to make designs, and I anticipated a quiet, fun school morning...until about one minute later when he pierced the bag with a pencil and the paint proceeded to ooze all over the table. Yuck!

Never fear! I quickly made another paint bag, removed sharp objects and handed him a q-tip to paint with. This is definitely a trick I will repeat in future weeks to occupy my little guy.

Noah also loves doing his "worksheets" to be just like O. He always surprises me at how much he comprehends and can actually do correctly out of our pre-school curriculum.

Anything that involves cutting with "cissors" is always a huge hit! Slowly, Nosy's attention span is increasing, and he has been enjoying his time at the school table more and more. I love having him there with us, learning little bits as we go.

And not to forget O! Here he is hard at work on the dreaded handwriting.

"4's" and "8's" are his very favorites to write, so he always writes them twice. Funny Boy!

Such nice penmanship, Owie!