Well, we've gotten a lot done... except in art. One day we'll get back to that. We've done a lot in other areas though, and Tornado Boy is happy. :) Let's see what I can recap (thanks to HST+ telling me what we've done!)...
Tornado Boy
Math: We've finished up through chapter 9 of MM3B - Division. The last 2 chapters are multiplication in parts (eg, 23 x 7) and fractions. He LOVES fractions, so I can't wait to do that chapter! I've set up the lesson plan in HST+ for MM4, and I printed out 4A so far, so we're ready to go with that around mid-September. I also scheduled out Singapore IP 2B and 3A, plus Singapore CWP 3. I'm going to try to do one of those each day.
I started having Tornado Boy do a program on the computer called XtraMath.org. It's free, and it basically drills them on math facts. I set him up to do all 4 operations, so a week later, he's still in the initial assessment phase. His addition score was 35, subtraction score was 43, and multiplication is not quite done yet. Then he'll do division. Once he's done with the assessments, he'll start practicing each one daily. It will show a fact, and they have to type it within 3 seconds to achieve mastery. If they type it within 10 seconds, they get a check mark. If they get it wrong, they have to type the correct answer. So the scores above are "mastery" within 3 seconds. He did better on subtraction because he had gotten used to where the numbers are on the keyboard by that point. :) I expect his multiplication score will be low, as he hasn't been doing multiplication tables long enough to have them all mastered. He can figure them out, but doesn't have every one memorized. He has his addition/subtraction facts all memorized, but typing them in 3 seconds is harder. He seems to enjoy the program, and I think it will be good for him to get his multiplication and division facts down pat before we hit long division in MM4B.
Reading: He finished Detectives in Togas a couple weeks ago, and started Mr. Popper's Penguins. That is such a fun book! He especially liked the chapter where they made an ice rink in their living room. That was my favorite chapter too. :) I think he has one or two chapters left to read because we didn't do reading Friday. I'll have him read it sometime during our break this week. I think we'll do Charlie and the Chocolate Factory next.
Grammar: We have almost completed unit 1 in R&S English 3, and me being the curriculum hopper that I apparently am... I've decided to switch to First Language Lessons 3. It will be here tomorrow. :) I think Tornado Boy will enjoy it more. He loves the poems and such, plus the diagramming gets more in-depth than R&S 3. He is his mother's child - loves diagramming. And even better, FLL3 has the diagrams already drawn for him!
Writing: We finished Writing With Ease 1!!! I was originally thinking I'd do WWE2 from the text (choosing our own passages), but I chickened out at the last minute and ordered it - thank you Amazon Prime. :P So that is entered into HST+ and we will begin it next Monday. I'm not sure how dictation will go... I might have to have a pep talk with him before we begin. He's used to doing dictation with spelling words, but some of these words he won't know how to spell already, though he will be doing them as copywork the day before. I'll just be sure to point out the spellings so he'll study them a bit and remember them. I can help him with spelling during the dictation, so it shouldn't be TOO bad... I hope. :) He's ready for the narrations totally, so I'm excited to get to that - pulling the main idea out of the story.
Handwriting: We've really slacked off on this, but last week I made my own cursive sheets in Startwrite and tried them out. I actually made one version for Tornado Boy and one version for The Brute. :) The Brute isn't quite ready for pencil writing though. He's still pretty wobbly with it, though he has beautiful numbers with crayon. I need to do the sand/salt/shaving cream stuff with him. Anyway, back to Tornado Boy... He did very well with the cursive. I had him tracing light, solid lines, and then there was space to write it himself. We kept it simple... 'a', 'm', 'n', 'an', 'man'. I actually took this from Word Mastery, which is a learning-to-read program from many years ago, but I thought it might be fun to use it for cursive, and that way The Brute can join in as it progresses through the phonics. Fun, eh?
I still need to put my lessons into HST+, so I can officially make them on the schedule. If they're on the schedule, it will get done. I just hadn't been scheduling handwriting, so it wasn't getting done.
Spelling: We got through whatever step gets into words with /ee/ spelled "ea". Spelling continues to go well. He's very good at remembering rules and rule breakers.
Read-Aloud: We've read some Aesop's Fables and some fairy tales from Lang's Blue Fairy Book.
Bible: We just finished learning about Jeremiah. Tornado Boy has decided to read ahead, as usual. I don't know where he is in the book.
History: We've learned about the rise of Rome, the Roman Gladiators, the Punic Wars, the Indian caste system, and Siddhartha.
Science: Slackers that we are... We finally made bird feeders per our next science lesson. We took toilet paper rolls, spread peanut butter on them, rolled them in bird seed, and hung them (with dental floss) from trees. We're supposed to be watching the birds at our feeders. Ha! I haven't seen a single bird anywhere near the feeders. Oh well. We'll just need to observe birds everywhere else.
Art: No art the last 4 weeks... Oops.
Spanish: We finished Unit 1 Part A, but haven't gotten around to Part B yet. We'll pick that back up next week.
The Brute
Math: We're getting close to finishing book A of his Singapore Essential Math K! I also had him play with some Cuisenaire Rods a bit last week. I printed out a Cuisenaire Discovery Book, and he got to build some creatures with rods, so that was fun. Tornado Boy likes playing the games in the book too (despite it being a PRESCHOOL book :P ).
Reading: We read the 5th Bob book in set 1, and are almost done with lesson 2 in ETC1. He's really been in more of a math mood recently, so that's what we've done. At church, he likes me to point out words in the songs as we sing, so he may be getting closer to making a leap in reading. We'll see. ETC is definitely helping him get a little faster with reading the words instead of sounding them all out, but we are probably sounding out 90% of the words still. That's ok. It will come. :)
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