Weekly Report - Week 5

We're still trucking along! Looking forward to a break to deep clean the house in a couple weeks! My current plan is to school 6 weeks on, 1 week off.. year round. We may sometimes adjust that based on vacation plans and such, of course.

Math: We finished first grade math this week! Took the end of year test and everything. :) He only got one point taken off (out of 117) because he didn't say a math fact within the 5 seconds allotted, but he did say the correct answer. Before the end of year test, he took the chapter 7 test (yes, he actually enjoys tests). The funniest part was when he got to "What is the difference between 90 and 99?", he wrote the answer in a complete sentence, with a period! "99 is 9 bigger than 90." I was shocked, given the fact that he's not huge on writing in general. Definitely seeing improvement in the writing, thanks to the copywork and narrations and such we've been doing!

Reading: He finished Boxcar Children #1 and started Charlotte's Web. I think we did one narration this week.

Grammar: This week we worked on putting words in proper order to form sentences. He has no problem with this.

Independent Reading: Just did "anything on the library book shelf" this week. He read Star Wars a lot. I checked out a Star Wars book from the library today that is reading level 5.3, so we'll see if he reads that or not. It's probably a bit above him (he's reading around an early 4th grade level), but he might read it just because it's Star Wars (well, Clone Wars). I couldn't find any that were a lower reading level. Many of them were level 6+! I also checked out some Amelia Bedelia, Nate the Great, and some other good books that are definitely at his reading level or below. So he will have plenty for free reading next week - a good mixture of easy and difficult.

Writing: This week's passage was from Grimms' Fairy Tales - The Frog Prince. Day 4 is now narration, followed by copywork of that narration. I'm happy to say that he didn't skimp on the narration just because he would have to copy it. I was afraid he might. :)

Handwriting: He finished up copying the Judges of Isreal and also copied Genesis 1:1. His handwriting is getting quite nice! I love copywork!

Spelling: We only have 2 steps left to go in level 1 of AAS!!! Spelling has gone GREAT. The dictation of phrases is awesome, and he's been more willing to write more because he knows how to spell the words! He's really starting to apply the rules to his spelling. I'm excited to continue on to level 2 after our break! We'll finish up the last 2 steps Monday and Tuesday of next week, then just dictate phrases from previous steps for the other 2 days that week.

Read-Aloud: Slacker again. We started Stuart Little in the van today, and I checked out Little House in the Big Woods on CD today, so we can listen to that after Stuart Little. I've given up on actually getting that book read by me. :P

Bible: We learned about more judges this week, and how the Ephraimites couldn't say Shiboleth, so that was the test to see if someone was an Ephraimite.

History: We studied Abram leaving Ur, and the various things that happened after that, up to the point where he had Isaac.

Science: Slacker again. I'm changing course in science. We'll check out lots of library books, and maybe do some basic unit studies on an interest led basis. The first unit study I want to do is the weather section of R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Earth & Space. I'm just trying to figure out when I'll do it - now or after I order second grade curriculum materials (and thus science experiment materials). I'll just have to see what materials I need. If it's all stuff I already have, we'll go ahead and do it during the next 6 week period.

We did get the Snap Circuits out yesterday. Tornado Boy had a fun time with those. I think he's up to around project #38.

Art: This week we drew a sheep! I drew the whole background scene. Tornado Boy chose not to do that. I'm not surprised. Now you will notice that he copied two sentences this week. The reason for that? Well, he was counting letters in each of the sentences, trying to determine the shortest sentence. It came down to a tie between two sentences. I said that since he was trying to copy the shortest sentence, he would now have to copy both sentences. I don't think he'll be counting letters again. ;)

I must say that partway through drawing that background, MY hand was hurting. I guess I need to strengthen my hand too. I don't write very often. Typing is more my thing! So the color pencil drawings are good for both of us!

The Brute's progress this week... As usual, still not doing anything formal or even on a regular basis, but he did ask to read a Bob Book, so we did Set 1 Book 2. He's so funny. We get to the word "cat", which he immediately recognizes and reads as normal. BUT... before turning the page, he had to sound out the word "cat" also, and by sounding out, I mean sounding it out very slowly, then a little faster, then a little faster, and then finally saying the whole word in a high pitched happy voice. It's pretty amusing that every.single.word must be read that way (even if he doesn't have to sound it out, as was the case for "cat"), and it just makes me want to bang my head against the wall, but I just reminded myself that he's a 4 year old. This is perfectly normal for a 4 year old. I didn't push him. I just let him do his thing and be 4. :)

Another thing he did this week was to start some basic addition. He's figured out how to add on his fingers between 1-3. So he'll do 2+1=3. He's just starting to get that concept. I'm thinking he'll probably be ready for RightStart A by next fall, if not this summer. I'm just trying to put it off, as I'm trying to put off anything formal with him. So far, that's going ok. He's not nearly as mature as Tornado Boy was at this age, especially academically. I think when he does get ready for formal school, he's going to do great though. He's an interesting little critter...

His imagination is really coming out now. We spent a lot of time tonight at dinner trying to figure out what "yens" was. He talks about the yens being far away and they're in a building. He has pronunciation issues, so I've been trying to figure out what he's talking about. I had him describe one to me tonight, and he went through a very elaborate description (one that Tornado Boy wouldn't have given at this age), and apparently the yens is black with white up on the front of its neck and down its sides and a bit on its ankles. We asked if he was saying penguins, and he said no. He also demonstrated that he can say "penguins" just fine, so that's definitely not what he's talking about. It finally dawned on me that maybe this is an imaginary creature! He had mentioned it Wednesday night on the way home from church, and now he's mentioning it again. This is the age that Tornado Boy had an imaginary hockey team, so I'll bet that's what the yens is.

Oh, The Brute did science this week, I guess. He looked at lots of pictures of sharks. He's into sharks lately. In speech therapy, he tells his ST how to make a shark out of Playdoh, and he has to say whether the "mouth" is open or closed (he tries to say "nouth"). Of course, clever little guy, he sometimes will say "teeth are closed" to avoid saying "mouth"!

ETA: After a good night's sleep, I figured out what a "yens" is... NUNS! I forgot to add in here that we watched The Sound of Music this week. The nuns lived far away (in Austria) in a building (an abbey). Though it threw me off that a "yens" would sink if you put them in water (as opposed to a penguin who swims). Guess who has never been swimming? Today I'll correct his pronunciation of that word. It's just a new word to him, and he probably didn't hear me clearly when I said what they were. I am still impressed with his color description. This child notices every little teeny tiny detail sometimes!