Language Arts Block 1 / Week 4 - continued

Today was our third day working with "The Golden Goose".  Elie actually surprised me and asked earlier in the day if I was going to tell the story about the goose again.  I'm glad I picked this simple one (versus "The Goose Girl") - I did it hoping he'd like it, but still am pleasantly surprised :)  So I told the story again with just very brief recall first (asking each kid what their favorite part was).  Then I revealed the letters from my Golden Goose drawing and drew them to the side so Yoav could see how I drew them.

My drawing for "The Golden Goose" with letters revealed

Then Yoav traced the letters on the chalkboar, drew them on his chalkboard, then traced them in the air and over the paper and finally drew them:

Yoav's letters from "The Golden Goose" - form from Audrey McAllen's "Handwriting for Children"

I have to admit that I skipped our Morning Activity today (word games).  I'm knitting a cardigan for Elie's doll for his birthday and knitting and productivity do not go well together for me!  It's a work in progress (becoming less obsessive about hobbies, not the knitting ).  We'll do some of the verses I had planned and will walk the forms of the letters tomorrow, since tomorrow is Painting Day and is a light day.

For our craft today, we made the "Doll in a Matchbox" from "Feltcraft" by Petra Berger.  We had so much fun making them. Elie picked out his colors but I mostly made his (although he surprised me (again) by doing some of the cutting fairly well).  Elie's is the dark purple one and Yoav's is the red one.  The pattern includes a bonnet, but the kids decided they didn't want bonnets for their dolls...

"Doll in a Matchbox"

Elie's "Doll in a Matchbox"

This craft showed me for sure that Yoav is out of the 6/7 Year Change!  He's so through it, he barely resembles his previous self!  Well, the good features are the same, but so much negativity is gone!  I'm sure much of it is my Gordon Neufeld studies, but I think it's definitely a combination of leaving the 6/7 Year Change and my own inner work.  One of the key behaviors I saw during the Change was that Yoav wanted nothing to do with toys.  This makes sense in terms of the Change, as children go through a period of leaving baby/toddler/little-kid-hood and moving on to the next stage, when they are ready to learn to read, do math, knit, etc.  So, in the midst of the Change, Yoav fiercely refused any type of play - he adamantly said he "didn't play" and wouldn't even consider making a toy much less playing with it!

Today, making the doll, Yoav had SO MUCH FUN!  He enjoyed choosing the colors for the bed and the doll and as soon as it was finished, he ran up to show his Aba and then he and Elie drove the dolls around in a truck.  I'm very happy to have this phase of his life squarely behind us!