teaching

It has been a year (40 weeks) of teaching my Pegasus. It has been rewarding, exhilarating, and exhausting. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the teachers who do this every year with 20+ students.

Things I learned this year:

• I have no patience when he doesn’t try
• He knows how to push my buttons
• I don’t have to do everything by myself
• I know a least a little bit about a lot of different topics
• When he tries, he learns really well
• He has great ideas
• He is really creative
• He’s great at math
• I forgot about the crochet and dance portions a LOT
• I’m incredibly proud of my Pegasus
• It’s a lot easier to do this the second time around, for several reasons:
  • I had a lot of the lesson plans already done
  • I didn’t feel like he had to “keep up” with the virtual kids (because there weren’t any)
  • I knew my triggers better, so when I noticed myself getting frustrated, I was able to pivot to something else
  • When Pegasus resisted doing something, I either didn’t include it in the future, or changed it to be something else, so that led to less fights

Things my Dragon learned this year:

• How to print all the letters in small caps (he already knew caps) – but he doesn’t like them and will use all caps whenever he can get away with it
• How to play with playdough
• How to use scissors safely and cut semi-on a line
• How to use glue
• The sound of each letter
• The sounds of syllables
• How to count to 100 (in English)
• How to count to 10 (in French)
• What a pattern is and how to make one
• A few French words (although he insists he doesn’t know them)
• The days of the week
• The months of the year
• The seasons of the year
• How to recognize the elements of a fairy tale and put them together into a new one
• How to brainstorm a story, storyboard it, write dialogue, and then put it all together
• How a stop-motion movie works and created two
• How to remove the background from an image in Photopea
• How to insert images in Canva, change their sizes, and move their placements
• How to design and create a mini zine in Canva (from a template)
• That crocheting takes a long time
• How to hold a crochet hook
• How to draw from reference
• How to measure baking ingredients
• How to combine ingredients to follow a recipe
• How to make a spice mix
• How to measure something with a ruler
• He learned to read music – the 9 notes around middle C
• The values of whole, half, quarter and eighth notes
• Can clap and count a line of music using those notes
• Completed several finger exercises and the value of practicing them
• How to play chopsticks
• How to read in English (surprised me!)

Overall, I would call this year of Junior Kindergarten/Maternelle successful, even though the hard part, the learning French part, didn’t go as well as I had hoped. He is very much resisting learning it, which will hopefully change at in-person school next year.

The important thing was that he had fun, and he tells me that he did. He also wants to make another mini zine and write another fairy tale during the summer, so we’ll see how that goes.

I’m so very proud of how well my Pegasus did this year.

An image of all the art that Pegasus created this year (that we could find). He learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I’m very proud of him and how hard he tried this year.

Pegasus loved this movie, and didn’t remember it from before. He liked Lumiere especially.

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this. Here he is dancing to a video online.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

Not sure I mentioned it, but he reads the short words and tries to sound out the bigger ones. He doesn’t know what happened with “chantant”. He didn’t notice the lines?

Counting objects/math-type activities

He focussed well this week. He is still pretending that he doesn’t know what each number means.

Math worksheets. He had a bit of trouble with 20-4. He got the 6 part of it, but put a 2 in front, and then got really upset when I told him it wasn’t correct. Once I calmed him down, I showed him why it was wrong and he understood and fixed it without trouble.

Storytime

We read several French library books this week. He did very well.

Activity

Learn table settings – I showed him the different levels of formality on Wednesday, and then had him recreate them on Friday. He remembered nearly everything. I was extremely impressed.

Make the grey stuff – It was delicious! He did the cookies entirely on his own, including counting them. He had a lot of fun. Like last time, white chocolate was substituted for chocolate due to my allergy. Black icing was added to make it grey. Hopefully he will continue to help in the kitchen this summer, because he seemed to be really enjoying it.

Make bookmarks – Dragon joined us in this activity. Pegasus decided he needed to make her a bookmark, and wrote her name (which I blurred out) and many hearts because he loves her so very much. (my heart!)

Pegasus was very invested in this movie. He shouted things at the screen when they didn’t do what he wanted them to do.

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

Pegasus was willing to change his letters a little bit, but spacing is still a problem, as is the size of the letters (l and t being tall letters, for example). He says “It’s fine” when I point it out.

Counting objects/math-type activities

He said he didn’t know what the numbers were in French, but he had no problem counting this week.

Math worksheets. He had a rough morning on Monday, so he found it really hard to focus. He needed me to walk him through the big additions, even though he knows them. (He was so disappointed that there were no subtractions, it was like his brain just gave up on him.)

Storytime

We read several French library books this week. He did very well.

Activity

Learn about shipwrecks – He said this was scary.

Make fish and chips – He was very excited to learn how to use the knife and was careful when doing so. He was very enthusiastic and he listened well. I don’t think it’ll be something that he’ll ask to make again.

Learn about sustainable fishing – He seemed interested, but didn’t have any questions.

Pegasus was enthralled by this movie. He had seen it before a long time ago, so it was a little like watching it for the first time. I forget how fast they talk, so I’m not sure how much of the nuance he got, but he understood the general plot. He was incredibly enthusiastic about the flying (and the music).

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

Pegasus was willing to change his letters a little bit, but spacing is still a problem. He says “It’s fine” when I point it out.

Counting objects/math-type activities

A little trouble counting in French when he got distracted, but he was able to focus and get it all done.

Math worksheets. Zero problems with these. He did them so fast that he missed the ‘0’ on the 30 and 50, but he added them willingly.

Storytime

We got several French library books this week. He was very excited.

Activity

Design a dragon – He didn’t want to design a dragon from scratch, but he was quite happy to draw Toothless, so that is what we did. We used Art Hub’s instructional video (which is the series that we have been using since Dragon decided that we needed to do “art school” on Sundays). Pegasus reacts positively to these videos, so of course I said yes.

Make a paper boat – He did this entirely by himself (I only held the paper down so that it didn’t wiggle away on him). He was very proud of himself.

Learn about prosthetics – He enjoyed learning about the history of prosthetics and how they’re made, and we found some recent videos of a girl with prosthetics – he wanted to watch her opening her Christmas gifts. I think he liked the laid-back activity and cuddling up to me.

Pegasus adored this movie. He laughed a lot. He was terrified near the end when George was captured, climbing onto my lap and burying his face in my chest. He really related to the little monkey.

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book. He’s only 20 pages away from finishing the first book.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

Pegasus was willing to change his letters a little bit, but spacing…

Counting objects/math-type activities

This week, he had trouble with the French version of numbers. It was weird. He said he was tired. He wasn’t focussing well, so I believe it.

Math worksheets. He did them so fast, and only made one mistake (10-3), which he corrected.

Storytime

We have no French library books this week, so he read some French books through Boukili.

Activity

Bake with bananas – He made banana pancakes for dinner. He did everything himself, including cracking the eggs and flipping the pancakes! I’m super proud of him for getting past his fear of the hot plate and making yummy pancakes.

Make a crown – He had fun making this, but didn’t really want to draw on it. He wrote his name on the other side of the crown.

Paint – He was so excited to do the painting. His is on the abstract side. He described it for me, and I copied it down verbatim.

The pale blue is the sky, the red is blood from the two white people. The red-black is a magic horse with a long tail, and the black below it is its blood. The dark green is a magic rocking chair, which is where the two white people came from. On the right is an equal sign. The orange is the red blood’s blood. The yellow is the multiplication of the orange’s blood. The pink is the yellow’s blood. The purple is the pink’s blood. The dark blue is the rocking chair’s blood.
His reasoning: There is so much blood because everybody who keeps coming to this place dies.

Pegasus liked this movie. He says “I liked it! It was good,” and when pressed about what parts exactly he liked, he says “I liked all of it!”

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book. He’s only 20 pages away from finishing the first book.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

Pegasus has forgotten to drop his p’s below the line, and didn’t care to fix it. Great g on page 1 though.

Counting objects/math-type activities

This week, he had trouble with the direction of his 7’s. He fixed them.

Math worksheets. Zero problems with these, after we walked through the series on page 2.

Storytime

We have no French library books this week, so he read some French books through Boukili.

Activity

Draw by number – he was very excited to trace the puppy

Garden – It was very hot, but Pegasus stuck it out. He preferred collecting the discarded stuff and watering. He was not a fan of getting his hands dirty, even though he was wearing gloves (tbh, that tracks). He helped plant zucchini.

Learn about body systems – he was deeply invested in the videos and answered the quiz questions at the end of each one correctly.