Seven Month Old Developmental Check-In (Stage III, Midbrain and Subcortical Areas)

Damien, the day he turned seven months old

Early last June, sitting in a hospital bed holding my tiny newborn, all wrinkled, blotchy-skinned, and helpless, it was hard to fathom that in just a little over 200 days he would be creeping [crawling], standing, "talking", understanding, and charming at the level he is now.

Seven months passes by in the blink of an eye.

Seven months is also another benchmark age on the Developmental Profile for the average age for babies to achieve stage III brain function (using the midbrain and subcortical areas).

In speaking of the profile, the IAHP says

"The time schedule is highly variable and depends, not upon genetic factors, but rather upon the frequency, intensity and duration of the stimuli provided to the brain by the child's environment, which is notably and most often his family."

The idea is that the brain grows by use, not by some biological alarm clock. Opportunity, frequency, encouragement, and to a lesser decree, personality will determine development. Our goal is, of course, to give our baby as much of these things as possible and do all we can to help him, not hinder him.

Damien, 5 months, pauses his creeping adventures for a smile

1. Stage III Mobility: Creeping on hands and knees, culminating in cross pattern creeping

Age achieved: 5 months, 2 weeks old

Description: "Creeping" is what most of us know as "crawling" - that cute little hands and knees movement that typifies the picture of babyhood. "Cross pattern creeping" refers to the cross pattern exhibited when a baby uses his opposite extremities simultaneously to move while on his hands and knees - right arm and left leg go forward, then left arm and right leg go forward.

Damien achieved the official "cross pattern creeping" at five months old. He has been "crawling" in other formations - more or less scooting, hopping, lunging, twisting, and rolling - since four months. He has had movement on his stomach (pushing his legs off the ground and propelling himself forward) since birth.

His most current interest is pulling himself to standing, which he does essentially all day, every day, creeping around the house finding different pieces of furniture that can act as a support frame for his vertical position.

Damien, at four months, babbling on

2. Stage III Language: Creation of meaningful sounds

Age achieved: 1-2 months

Description: "Creation of meaningful sounds" is when the baby essentially begins to make noises, beyond a basic cry, that have meaning attached to them. He begins to be able to communicate not only his needs, but his wants, moods, feelings, and preferences. These are not necessarily first English words, but words for him nonetheless.

Damien began creating meaningful sound at about 1-2 months old. He began to coo when he was happy, "yell" when he wanted attention, and whine when he was tired.

At four months, Damien said his first English word - "dada". He still attaches meaning to that word and says it when he sees pictures of his dad. His second English word, "more" (which comes out more like "muh" or "mah") began the day he turned seven months old. Ever since then, he creeps up to me and says "muh" when he wants food, or while we are eating and he wants another bite. (So he has achieved stage IV language development, "Two words of speech used spontaneously and meaningfully", an average 12 month milestone).

Damien, at six months, practicing using the prehensile grasp with small objects

3. Stage III Manual: Prehensile grasp

Age achieved: 3 months

Description: The "prehensile grasp" is when a baby is able to voluntarily pick up objects using his whole hand. The four fingers and palm are mainly used, while the thumb is usually not.

Damien achieved the prehensile grasp at around at the end of his third month. The first object that he was able to easily grab and pick up were some of Hunter's nerf gun bullets. He is now working on the pincer grasp (picking up objects with thumb and forefinger) and has nearly mastered it (an average 12 month milestone).

Damien, at two months, had grown tired of his detail board and was looking around the room for new things

4. Stage III Visual Competence: Appreciation of detail within a configuration

Age achieved: 1.5 months old

Description: At birth, babies can see only light and dark. Soon after, babies begin to see outlines. The next step is being able to see "detail within a configuration", for example the details of mother's face within the outline of her head.

Damien achieved this stage of development at approximately 4-5 weeks of age. He began to smile in response to facial expressions (without sound). He began to study detail on his daddy's camouflage uniform, or the patterns on his bouncy seat. By two months, he was studying details from across the room.

By 5-6 months, he had achieved the next stage (level IV) of development: depth perception. At seven months now his depth perception is quite good - he creeps quickly and easily without running into things much anymore, and reaches well with good accuracy.

Damien, seven months, quite happy with himself that he is no longer afraid of the vacuum

5. Stage III Auditory Competence: Appreciation of meaningful sounds

Age achieved: 2 months

Description: Baby listens to many sounds in his environment from birth, and will soon begin to understand their meaning. For example, the bathtub water running, the door opening, and mother's voice. In family members' voices, he begins to understand the tone of voice and their meanings.

Damien began to be comforted by a soothing voice at around two months old. He started laughing at silliness, and being scared by upset voices. He was deathly afraid of the vacuum for a while, now he seems to have proudly conquered his fear.

Between one and four months, he also achieve the next stage (level IV) of development: "Understanding of two words of speech". At four weeks he began to understand the meaning of the word "nurse". Other words soon followed, including "potty" (and other words associated with it) and "up". 

Damien at two months, laughing with a tickle

6. Stage III Tactile Competence: Appreciation of gnostic sensation

Age achieved: 2 months

Description: "Gnostic" comes from the Greek root word for knowledge, "gnosis". Gnostic sensation means, literally, "knowing sensation". At birth babies cannot feel very well - they may not respond consistently to pain, hot, or cold. Soon they begin to respond to these more intense sensations quickly and instantly. The next stage is to be able to respond to more variances in sensation and be able to appreciate them - for example, the subtleties of cool and warm, the peaceful calm of a soothing massage, or the humor of a boisterous tickle.

Damien achieved this stage at about 2 months old. He began to respond to tickles, enjoy his infant massages, and notice the differences in textures and what made him comfortable or uncomfortable. At four months, he achieved stage IV, "Tactile understanding of the third dimension in objects which appear to be flat". This is when he started to notice small things (like specks on the floor), or things that clearly looked flat (like a piece of paper) and started feeling for them and trying to grab them.

Summary

So in summary, this is what my notes on Damien's little Developmental Profile look like (in the back of my How Smart is Your Baby book) for him at seven months, one day old:

Motor:

 Sensory:

He is still perfecting his stage IV (green) areas, but overall is doing very well. Environment really does make such a huge difference!

Thank you for your comments!

Damien is 7 months, 0 week old

Baby Homeschool: Week 18 (4 months, 1 week old)

Damien doing "push ups"

Damien is currently four months and one week old. He is a handful, and a joy.

With Hunter's school work and me going back to work (or, more accurately, work coming back to me), it has been a very busy past two months.

We have not started a math, encyclopedic knowledge, or reading program yet. The activities that we have done have been casual and somewhat sporadic.

And as always he has just been having fun being a baby.

October 8-14, 2011
Stage II-III on Developmental Profile

Some recent highlights:

• He starting sitting up completely independently this week
• Daddy came home after being gone for a month. We learned that he definitely understands object permanence and has a semi long-term memory! 
• He loves to try and put his entire fist in his mouth
• He blows "raspberries" and squeals a lot

Motor

(Mobility) Damien continues to spend a great deal of time on the floor, rolling, twisting, and making clumsy, adorable attempts at scooting. However, on most days he spends an equal or even greater amount of time being held, or carried around in the sling. Since learning to roll over 1+ month ago, he doesn't spend much time in his track. (2+ hours day opportunity to move on floor)

He recently loves to practice "push ups", where he lifts his whole upper body off the floor with his hands. He usually switches between "push ups" and " air swimming", where his tummy is on the ground but his legs and arms are lifted off the floor.

Every once in a while, he makes attempts to crawl ["creep"]. He gets up on his knees and elbows, but not yet on his hands and knees. He gets frustrated easily!

He still only rolls over to the left side! He will only roll over to the right side if I help him.

Stuffing his whole fist in his mouth is his newly developed frenzy

(Manual) Damien spends lots of time reaching for objects and can get ahold of them with a pretty good degree of accuracy. When you put something in front of him, he grabs for it with both hands. Everything goes straight to his mouth!

He still seems to have a preference for his right hand. He still only puts his right foot in his mouth, although he plays with both feet.

He can support his entire body weight while hanging from my fingers for a good ten or so seconds. Usually when I pick him up, I let him grasp my thumbs and he hangs on while I lift him up to me.

His fairly recent development is to constantly chew on his fingers and try and shove his entire fist into his mouth!

Shortly after turning four months old, Damien surprised me
by deciding he can sit up independently

(Balance) Damien learned how to sit up this week! Although most of the time, he doesn't really care to sit up, for the first time he showed me that he can, with no support and for a good 10 seconds.

For some reason I am still terrible about doing the Doman balance activities. But he gets rocked, moved around, and carried in the sling, so that counts, right?

(Swimming) Right now we have been getting about 1-2 bathtub swimming sessions per week in. We mostly do floating on his back, going under water, and just relaxing. He has kind of learned to go under water, if it is very brief, and at least he doesn't breath in the second his face touches the water anymore!

 Sensory

(Visual) We have not really been doing the Doman sensory activities. Along the lines of visual stimulation, a couple times this week we looked at reading words for "Mommy", "Daddy", "Hunter", and "Damien".

(Tactile) No Doman tactile programs lately, but we have done a few massages per week, and he gets to play with lots of differently textured toys and other things.

(Auditory) Our auditory activities currently include lots and lots of talking and singing (more on some days than on others), some occasional music, and pointing out environmental sounds ("Do you hear the sound of the water running?" etc.)

 Social

Ah, this boy is such a joy! He is extremely social, loves to talk, smile, and be with people and see what they are doing! He gets bored after not very long.

(Language) Damien laughs, blows raspberries, gurgles, squeals and screeches, and makes a lot of vowel sounds with a few consonant sounds. He is quite the conversationist and talks a lot throughout the day.

We have recently begun "journaling" with him, while he "tells us about his day" and we write down or video record what he says. He also recently got his chance to make marks with a marker in his journal.

(Sign Language) I have introduced him to the signs for are "Mommy", "Daddy", and "potty".

 Sleep, Eating, Elimination

(Sleep) Damien's sleep has not been the greatest as of the past few weeks. He doesn't seem to get enough naps during the day, which can make him grouchy. They are unfortunately often interrupted. Thankfully most nights he sleeps from 7:30 PM until 7:00 AM, waking up to nurse usually a couple times in the early morning still (between 4:00-6:00) but since I sleep with him it isn't a big deal.

(Eating) Nursing is going well. He is still exclusively breast-fed and we don't plan to introduce any solids until closer to the six month mark. He seems to nurse frequently a lot lately.

(Elimination) Damien goes potty on the Ikea potty sometimes a few times a day, sometimes not at all. Lately almost every time I put him on it he pees within a few moments, which is encouraging. He seems to "get" what it is for, at least!

"And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him." 

Luke 2:4

Damien was 4 months, 1 week old [18 weeks] this week

Damien's Programs 6 Weeks Old

July 16-22, 2011
Stage II on Developmental Profile

We still aren't 100% consistent on checking everything off of our daily lists, but Damien is still growing and developing beautifully, we are getting in lots of cuddling and smiles, and all in all having a great time with this new little one. I try not to beat myself up about "not doing everything". 

The most important thing is to talk to him, hold him, and love him - all of our little "programs" are just fun extras.

Some highlights of another beautiful week with a beautiful boy:

• He is crawling faster than ever, and more happily, since the addition of a receiving blanket under his head.
• He has outgrown his contrast board and is wanting more varied, interesting things to look at.
• His long rang vision is improving. He can see me from across a small room.
• He is having even more wonderful conversations, "talking" so much and using all kinds of sounds and body language to communicate.

Damien hangs independently for increasingly long periods

 Motor

(Mobility) Honestly, he is still nowhere near spending the recommended 4-18 hours a day in his crawling track, but his crawling and head control are still doing great. He was averaging probably 30-45 minutes on his tummy in his track daily, but that time has been extremely shortened now that he is crawling so much faster. He usually descends down his inclined track (5.5 feet long) in 2-4 minutes now, instead of 10-20. So his sessions have been shorter, but I haven't really upped the frequency much yet.

(Manual) He hangs from my thumbs completely independently pretty much 100% of the time now instead of only sometimes. He really enjoys this activity. He is in stage II now but I haven't really been practicing the vital release yet.

(Balance) I have been doing a few vestibular exercises, beyond the typical rocking / carrying / moving. He has become really sensitive to movement, and frequently startles when we pick him up too quickly (which is not even very quick). I try and be extremely slow and steady with him because of this.

(Swimming) We had a few sessions of bath tub swimming. Even though I have been cleared by the doctor now I still haven't taken him to the big pool - we plan to this weekend though. He loves "swimming" in the tub though and gets some good movement time in there.

Hunter, 6, showing Damien "square"

 Sensory

(Visual) Damien's vision is growing so fast! He can spot me from across a small room now. I recently wrote how he had "graduated" from his simple checkerboard and is now moving onto more sophisticated visual objects. I am in the works to make him many simple picture boards. I didn't do any light reflexes with him this week, I am really bad at being consistent with that. We haven't done "spotting a light" exercises either.

Also for his visual stimulation program we have done some outline "bit" cards. I can already tell that we are going to need to move onto more detailed outline bits and very soon to move onto "detail within a configuration" type pictures.

(Tactile) Damien's Babinski reflex is very strong, and I think that accounts partially for his substantial improvement in crawling. He is very good at digging his toes into the sides and surface of his track and pushing himself, thanks to his many stimulations. His babinski reflexes have been the most consistent simulation.

Sadly we did not do any hot / cold / pressure stimulations for his tactile program yet this week.

(Auditory) I tried using an air horn to stimulate his vital response, only to find that my dollar store air horn does not work (should I really have been surprised?). Next I tried an air horn app on my phone. Far from loud enough. So we have done the blocks to stimulate his startle reflex now and then but still have to go to the store and get another air horn.

All smiles

 Social

Oh, so many smiles! The older he gets, the happier he gets. It is so fun seeing him develop in this area.

(Language) I have been more consistent with our language development program. We have been having many conversations daily, of me talking and giving him the opportunity to "talk" and "answer". I recite our short poem frequently - he lights up for this. He has been developing strongly in this area and his ability to communicate.

 Sleep, Eating, Elimination

(Sleep) Damien is still on a 3-hour schedule, and sleeps for about 5-6 hours straight on most nights. Others he is up every 3 hours. Ugh. I'm sort of working on getting him to sleep longer at nights, but I think I'll have to get him in his own bed, first. (maybe?)

(Eating) There is no news for nursing. He eats, he eats well, he eats quick. Although I think he might have been going through a "growth spurt" because there were a couple of nights that he wanted to eat every 2.5 hours and was somewhat fussy.

(Elimination) Elimination communication still mostly consists of me continuing to help him associate the physical action of having a bowl movement with the sound (words) "poo poo". I haven't been taking him to the potty much, although the two times I did this week, he went without a fuss.

"And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him." 

Luke 2:4

Damien was 6 weeks old this week

Damien's Program 3 Weeks Old

June 18-24

2-3 weeks old

It's been another wonderful week getting to know this little joy in our lives.

His enchanting charm continues to distract me from so many other "important" things that I should be doing during the day. I am so ever-presently aware of how fleeting this time is, how quickly he is growing. I'm soaking up every minute. Painting as many mental pictures as I can. Of his tiny features, his sweet baby smell, his curious, serious eyes. The "babymoon" is going by so quickly. I want to savor as much of it as I can.

This week was not too bad, in terms of program consistency. My visions of logs filled with dozens of checks and detailed notes tends to be more of a dream than a reality.

But he is growing, developing, nonetheless. And ever so quickly, at that. Here are the highlights of his development this week:

Holding head at 45 degree angle, 2 weeks old

Motor

• Crawling  Damien's crawling has improved noticeably since he was born.  He still doesn't seem to move his arms much, but his leg movements are so vigorous. He kicks off the sides of his track, and his toes flare out (courtesy of Babinski reflex), giving him good traction. He gets down his track probably at least twice as fast as he did when he first started, although, unfortunately, he still gets pretty frustrated with it in the process most of the time (I still think he just doesn't like the cold surface). 

The trial is often finding the right timing to put him in his track. At certain times of the day, especially his fussy evenings, he will have nothing to do with his track and screams if we put him in it. Other times, he is perfectly content to crawl down it multiple times. I think things will get better as he gets a little older and his fussiness (hopefully) improves. Right now he only averages going down the track about 2-3 times per day, spending perhaps a total of 30 minutes in it. (It only takes him a few minutes to crawl down, but he will often stay in one spot for a while). He spends a lot of time on his tummy at other times, too, not in his track. He still loves to crawl up Daddy's chest.

• Head control  Damien's head control is still good. He can lift his head, at a 45 degree angle, and look around since 1 week old (this is a milestone typically accomplished at 4-8 weeks). He does this a lot when he is laying on our chest and checks everything out, especially our faces. It's hard to get him to lay his head down unless he is sleeping!

Holding Daddy's finger, 3 weeks 1 day old

• Manual  Damien's grasp reflex is still pretty strong. Before I noted that his grasp reflex was stronger in his right hand than it was in his left hand. Well this week it seems to have "switched", and I think that perhaps the possible culprit is that his right hand has moved (or is moving) into the ability to release ("vital release" via developmental profile) while his left hand is still in the grasp reflex stage. The reason? Well, when I lift him as he hangs onto my fingers, his left hand is very tight now (improved!) but his right hand lets go a lot of times. An interesting and exciting development.

I mentioned last week that I have seen what looks like him attempting to use his hands - bringing them to his mouth to suck on them, "hold in" his pacifier, bat at Daddy's face. Well, he did more of this this week, particularly the batting!

• Balance  We still have not really started doing any balance activities yet. (Still no good reason!) He still gets plenty of moving around though, being carried, rocked, moved, etc.

• Language  Damien's language is definitely still at the "birth cry and crying" stage. His cry is strong and loud! He has many different cries, sometimes different tones or strengths, sometimes a whimpering or "whining". We occasionally get to hear other sounds from him, particularly "ahh", "eh", and "mmm". I try to remember that all sounds are language. Whenever he communicates we, of course, talk back! 

I try and have conversations with him but, so far, I get a lot of stares (to be expected from a two-week old, I suppose!) Still, it is fun communicating to him and responding to his needs, and watching his non-verbal communication, too. We try and talk to him a lot and provide an environment free of "noise clutter".

Next week I would like to start the poetry portion of the language program. My perfectionism of having the "perfect poem" has been holding me back.

Sensory

• Tactile  His tactile program has been my most consistent. I like to stimulate his little toes (after every diaper change, sometimes while I'm nursing). Something must be paying off, because like I said, he has been using the Babinski reflex to push off of the sides of his track, making crawling a lot easier.

• Auditory  I will admit that the fact that he doesn't really respond to the sound of the clapping blocks makes me not very motivated to do it (he responds to many other sounds, he just doesn't seem too phased by the blocks). I think this is one of those "I wish somebody would have told me about this part of the Doman program" kind of things. I think that maybe the "correct" thing to do is to keep using the block-clapping sounds even though he doesn't startle, but I don't really know. 

However, it is obvious that he hears just fine. One exciting thing he did this week was turn towards Daddy's voice. I was holding him in my arms and his Daddy came home, stood right next to me and said something. Damien's eyes lit up and he started turning his head, looking around until he found his Dad.

Also, today when we were at a birthday party, during cleanup all the kids started popping the balloons. Damien became upset and started fussing, and calmed down when we left the room. I think that he is moving into stage II of auditory development - "vital response to threatening sounds". 

• Visual  I have not been very consistent doing his light reflex stimulations, I think mainly because I have to get up and go into a dark room to do them and it's not a habit yet. But nonetheless his vision seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. He spends a lot of time daily in front of his black and white checkerboard. I try to keep the blinds open and keep the room very bright. When he's awake, there's usually someone in his face oo-ing and ahh-ing over him and talking to him. He, in turn, spends the whole time serious examining and analyzing said person's face.

There's nothing, I think, more amazing, more phenomenal, than looking into this little boy's eyes. Those precious blue-grey eyes seems to come more alive, more aware, every day. It's priceless.

Social

• Damien has become more of a social nurser. Not at every feeding, but he looks around and often stays awake for the whole time he nurses.

We've caught so many smiles from him lately, both with his eyes open and his eyes closed. The most precious ones are when he is staring at us, deep in thought checking out our faces, and then bursts into a huge, priceless grin. Oh, nothing melts my heart more than those smiles!

Sleeping, Eating, Eliminating

This was the first week that I started trying to implement a schedule with Damien. Sometimes, at this point in time, his schedule is more along the lines of "wishful thinking", but I'm okay with that. Like I said in the previous post, I consider a schedule at this age to be more of a goal to work towards, just gentle structure and guidance that can be adapted or discarded as needed.

• Sleeping  Damien, a lot of nights, has been sleeping a good stretch at nighttime, sometimes 3, 4, or even 5 hours. When he does wake up to nurse, he generally nurses and then falls straight back to sleep, although not always. Sometimes it seems like he wants to use me as a human pacifier and, well, it sort of hampers the whole sleeping thing. 

• Pacifier  We changed to the Nuk pacifier this week, and oh my does this child love it. Hunter would never take a pacifier or a bottle, which made life very difficult sometimes, so for that reason I'm glad we started Damien with the pacifier early. 

• Nursing  Nursing is going well. Damien, as I mentioned, is my little speed nurser. I usually have him nurse for 10 minutes on each side, but sometimes I think he has nearly emptied it at 5 minutes. He's growing well, and thank God, my sore nipples are completely gone. This has certainly made nursing more enjoyable!

• Elimination  The kid still poops all the time. Every time he poops we say, "Poo poo, good poo poo, go poo poo, good boy..." etc. etc. Again, the goal is essentially to get him to associate the word with the action so that, eventually, we can start signaling him to go. Other than that haven't started anything yet, waiting till he can "sit" a little bit better.

Damien was 2 weeks old this week

Homeschooling After Baby

My expectations for after the baby was born - for Hunter's schoolwork, household upkeep, and other non-essential tasks - have been low. 

I didn't quite remember what it was like to have a newborn, or how long it would take to be back to myself after birth, so I didn't want to overload myself with unrealistic expectations and be disappointed or frustrated.

Hunter, Damien and I have spent a lot of time in bed the last twelve days since we've been home. Damien and I, nursing and napping, but Hunter joins us every now and then to read aloud to Damien (this has been his favorite activity with his new brother), listen to me read aloud, or play a board game together.

There has been a lot of chess, and one of Hunter's new favorites, Minotaurus by Lego.

We have been reading a lot of stories and poems from The Book of Virtues, reading from the KJV Bible, and this week started a new chapter book, Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott.

Since the baby was born, I have told Hunter that he only has to do three independent subjects - Bible, reading, and a little bit of math. I figured this would be good for him and it takes him less than an hour a day - the rest of the day he has been getting to play with his uncle who is in town, his friends who are out of school, or occupy himself with a dozen other things he likes to do around the house.

He has started the Encyclopedia Brown books and really enjoys them (currently, Encyclopedia Brown Carries On), is reading a chapter a day from the book of Leviticus (KJV), and a few drill sheets from Math Three.

Next week we'll add a few more subjects back into our load, but we'll continue to keep things light for most of the summer as we adjust to this new lifestyle and enjoy the warm (ok, hot) weather.

"And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." 

Deuteronomy 11:19

Hunter is 6 years, 2 months old
Damien is 1 week, 6 days old

Hunter's Kindergarten Curriculum

"The kindergarten children are confident in spirit, infinite in resources, and eager to learn. Everything is still possible."

Robert Fulghum

It is kind of difficult for me to write this post.

Not because I don't want to (I've actually been wanting to for a long time) but because when I think of the word "curriculum", I think of anything and everything that goes into and contributes to ones learning experiences and education.

Which I of course could never just compile into one nice, easy post.

So even though this is definitely not a complete list of every little thing that we will be learning or doing this year, I thought I'd write a general outline of our most basic plans, just for your information and enjoyment, about our fourth year of homeschooling.

(And no, we don't do all this stuff every day)

Language Arts

• Reading  Basically, read lots of books. We get tons of new 1st - 3rd grade readers from thrift shops every month to add to our growing library of things for him to read. He has kind of started his first chapter books so hopefully, by the end of the year, he will have moved to that stage completely.

• Handwriting  He is currently doing both regular manuscript and now he wants to do cursive. I think we will use copywork (copying, in his best handwriting, great pieces of literature) and story-writing instead of just alphabet writing.

• Grammar, Phonics, Spelling  We are just winging it here. We have games to learn some more phonics / spelling rules. And I will be using my old high school writer's resource reference book as a basis to teach him different grammar things, such as all the technical words for those rules all kids figure out on their own when learning how to talk (such as passed tense, suffixes, etc.) and also punctuation and other fun things that come up. He will also be doing a lot of writing on the computer [because he loves to] and make use of the lovely spell check and grammar check.

• Literature  We read together a lot. And we like to read good, quality books (as well as some silly ones, too). For this we will be getting picture books from the library for the younger kids' portion of the classic children's literature list, The Book of Virtues for lots of poetry, folk tales, fables, even history, and a lot of different longer, more advanced novels [unabridged] that I read aloud to him during the daycare baby's nap time (a lot of them from above children's literature list).

• Vocabulary We will keep doing Dictionary.com's Word of the Day feature to learn interesting new words and learn about root words and word origins in a fun, informal way.

Math

• General  Jones Geniuses Accelerated Math. Right now he is working on the dot matrix in their Early Learning curriculum but he is going to be past that very quickly and moving onto Math Three (Facts Master), and maybe (although I really have no clue yet) Math Four (Grand Facts Master) or beyond.

• Games and Explorations  Lots of play and math explorations. Patterns, games, measurement, fractions, shapes and geometry, more time and money concepts, graphs, experiments, whatever comes up.

Science

• Biology  This year we are moving on from a main focus in astronomy / earth sciences to turn our sights towards biology. We are using Mom's adaptation of Exploring Creation with Biology, which is technically a high school text but I am taking the concepts and simplifying them to a way he can understand. We will do lots of hands-on activities and crafts.

• Other  Since this boy loves science we will probably be doing lots of other science topics throughout the year in our free time, including continuing on with his astronomy love and rock-collecting kick (even though that's not technically our "main" focus anymore), reading lots of science books just for fun, our walk through the science encyclopedias, and whatever other interesting things that come up and we want to learn about.

History and Geography

• Ancient History  We are continuing with our study of ancient history and hope to get much more in depth this year. For the most part we are using the Bible as our core, with James Ussher's Annals of the World, and Streams of Civilization, and lots of books / supplements from the library and web. Our main focus will be from about 4,000 to 500 B.C., maybe going further. We do a lot of crafts and fill in our Book of the Centuries timeline.

• American and Other History  This is not our focus this year but we do like to read through the stories of In God We Trust: Stories of Faith in American History for leisure and other history story books as well, especially around holidays such as Thanksgiving, Cinco de Mayo, etc.

• Geography  Besides learning about the countries in our history studies, our bedtime ritual of finding countries, states, bodies of water, capitals, flags, etc. on bedside world map / flag display. Also reading and praying through the children's book You Can Change the World volume 1 of Operation World, and learning about the countries we're praying for.

Art and Music

• Art  Drawing with Children for realistic drawing, artist study with library books and homemade bits, and occasional different activities and projects from the web (such as Teach Kids Art and Harmony Art Mom) just for fun. Also lots of science and history crafts, and free access to lots of materials to make art whenever he wants.

• Music  Once I get my keyboard shipped out here we will starting keyboard lessons again (hopefully soon, we miss it). For now we are doing Doman-style music appreciation by listening to pieces of classical music throughout the day and naming its composer, name, and key it was written in. Hopefully starting music theory and perfect pitch again with web resources. Also composer study with our fandex bit cards.

• Hymns  We like hymns. And they are good quality music, too. We will be learning the full lyrics to a hymn or two every two weeks. Using an old hymn book and Youtube.

Foreign Languages

• Spanish  We will be doing a lot more with Spanish this year, mostly vocabulary words and sentences, with games from How to Help Your Child with a Foreign Language. I am hoping that with us living in this highly-hispanic area that I can find some Spanish play dates so maybe he will learn to actually speak it. Here's hoping.

• Other Languages  We'll probably do a lot more words from different languages like we have in the past, just for fun. We've learned different alphabets such as the Greek, Hebrew, Russian, Japanese, etc. and are teaching sign language to the daycare babies. Sometimes we learn words from the country we're studying or history topic such as Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

Bible

• Mealtime Reading  I haven't mentioned the our Bible / scripture studies before now because it's really not a separate subject, but incorporated into everything we do. At each meal however, we (ideally) would read the Proverb chapter of the day plus three other chapters at each meal (which takes 20-30 minutes). If we did this at one meal a day, that would get us through the whole Bible once a year. Doing it at every meal gets us through the Bible three times a year. Reading a Proverb a day gets us through the book of Proverbs once a month, with three readings a day, three times a month. He also falls asleep to the reading of the New Testament on his MP3 player. We're striving for more consistency with this this year.

• Memorization  Ideally the whole mealtime reading enables him to memorize a lot of the Bible, especially Proverbs. The goal is to memorize the whole book of Proverbs (eventually, no time limit here) and be very familiar with the rest of the Bible by going through it so often. He will occasionally memorize character-related verses and I want to start using Bible passages for his copywork. 

Life Skills

• General  We learn about all kinds of safety, health, and social topics on an ongoing basis through conversation and real life experiences.

• Character and Responsibility  He helps out a lot around the house and has always enjoyed this, especially if it's something we do together. This year I want to help him get more organized with his chores and also to do them without being told (I can dream, right?).

• Time Management and Goal Setting  I will be focusing a lot on teaching him time management, goal setting, and organization this year now that he writes and reads well. Earlier this year I bought him his own calendar and alarm clock and I am planning to buy him his own day planner now too, and start helping him set his own goals in both little and big areas. He loves talking about "when I'm a dad" so helping him plan for the future is right up his lane. We are using our own version of workboxes now too, to help him organize the things he can do "on his own" for school and do them without being told or reminded (ideally, right?).

• Money  We've started to pay Hunter a small sum each week for his contributions to the family business (childcare and odd jobs). I don't really believe in an "allowance" nor paying him to help around the house, but this is his way to be "employed" while learning about money and how to manage it. Right now he is getting paid $5 per week and the goal is to learn about saving, spending, giving, and investing more this year.

• Speaking and Communication  We are trying to work more on effective communication and assertiveness. Having him practice narration and describing things, reading aloud with inflection, and other "public speaking" techniques to help get him be more "comfortable out of his comfort zone", so to speak. Possibly using From Playpen to Podium.

• Boy Scouts  He is possibly going to be starting boy scouts this year. Either way we will be doing our own program at home, using the Contenders for the Faith program, specifically Little Contenders. It is basically a Christian version of boy scouts. This is just for fun and we are not using the whole program, but just for ideas for interesting activities to pursue in his free time.

• Computer Science  I let him play on the computer a few times a week. We do not have any "educational games" but he instead plays with programs such as Microsoft Word and Paint that are fun but teach him real skills. We are also using an old Usborne Computer Dictionary and bit cards to learn about how a computer works and eventually I'll start teaching him proper typing.

Physical Excellence

• Family Runs  (3-5 times a week). We currently, as a family, run together when we can, usually 2-3 miles (with a walk / run / walk / run pattern). We hope to increase the mileage and straight-running time steadily throughout the year.

• Swimming  Swimming at the year-round lap pool on the Navy base's gym, once the community pool closes.

• Vestibular and Other  Various Doman-style vestibular [balance], strength, and flexibility activities. This stuff is as simple as sending him outside to play with a jump rope or doing somersaults in the house, and we have a lot of fun with it.

• Martial Arts  I hope to start incorporating more martial arts this year. He is learning basic Taekwondo and learning to use the nun chucks (I am teaching him both). Let's hope I can remember how.

Field Trips and Outside Activities

• Field Trips  I don't have all of our field trips planned, and a lot of them our spontaneous, but we will be doing a lot of on-base field trips this year such as the commissary, the jet hangars, security, fire station, vet, hospital, etc. (with the daycare kids) and lots of local and regional museums and national parks, such as the Sequoias, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and trips to major CA cities.

• Outside Activities  I mentioned Hunter might be doing boy scouts this year, and he might do a few seasonal sports such as soccer and little league throughout the year. I don't have him do a lot of classes and outside activities because I feel it takes away from more important things - like family time and free time to use his imagination - when used in excess at least.

Using Doman in the older years

Even though it's not specifically stated, just know that it is definitely implied that we will be doing homemade Doman bit cards for pretty much every subject and they will continue to be incorporated into our day. We use bit cards for geography, historic people, reading words, science terms, grammar concepts, foreign languages, math, art masterpieces, and a whole plethora of other encyclopedic knowledge.

And, obviously, still applying Doman's beliefs of short but frequent lessons, joyful teaching, learning as a privilege, etc. This way lessons are quick, fun, and to the point, and often take only a few minutes or even seconds each, enabling us to accomplish at lot on any given day. We also make learning part of everyday routines (such as playing with the world map before bedtime) enabling us to accomplish a lot with little effort.

In our house, learning is the greatest game we play. We do not sit down and do worksheets and flash cards all day. We do so much learning because we both genuinely enjoy it and would rather learn that do anything else. Most of our day is spend in play, fun learning games, and working and talking together.

If you would like to learn more, please subscribe and come back for the following week's blog hops: Our School Room and A Day in the Life. Thanks for reading!

Go to Heart of the Matter's blog hop to see what other family's are doing this year

"And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship" 

Exodus 35:31

Hunter is 5 years, 4 months old