Weekly Report - Year 4 Week 1

Oh, by the way, we finished our year back in May. Ha! We took off a good month for camp, playing outside, etc. Now we've started up again so I don't go insane. It's too hot to be outside past about 9am these days. Though we are still doing swim lessons some days, as well as other occasional distractions.

Tornado Boy

Math: We started AoPS Prealgebra this week. This is kind of scary for me, as it's a hard book, and the kid just turned 9 yesterday, but so far... it's going well! Hooray! I'm discussing things with him and working through it with him right now, just to get him used to the book. We read the material, do the problem set, read the solutions that teach the concepts, then do the exercises. He LOVES the exercises! The problem sets are a bit boring because this chapter talks about why 2+3 = 3+2, but then they use that knowledge to solve much more difficult problems. So the exercises are fun. We did sections 1.1-1.4 this week.

Reading: We didn't quite finish Sonlight Core D last year, so he read Robert Fulton: Boy Craftsman this week.

Grammar: We started R&S English 5, but only did one lesson this week. The first lesson is an intro to the book plus a bit of review. He had to look in the table of contents and index for things. He had to notice the publisher, copyright date, and title of the book. He had to use the TOC and/or index to find answers to some of the review questions. We also discussed how to label his paper (I gave him a different way to label than what the book says). We talked about the importance of having your name on your paper, because in college if you turn in a paper with no name, you'll get a big, fat zero. :)

Writing: We started WWE3 Week 1. He did very well with both the narration and the dictations.

Handwriting: He did a couple pages of Pentime 3 (cursive).

Spelling: He started week 14 of R&S Spelling 4. Unfortunately, we didn't really get to it but one day, so only Part A is done. Oh well. We'll get to it next week. :)

Latin: We began Lively Latin Big Book 1, and this is by far his favorite subject so far!!!! He really loves this curriculum. He loves the history lessons added in, and he enjoys the derivatives work. We actually did about 3 lessons, a couple exercises, a history lesson, vocabulary A, and a derivatives exercise. All that in 4 days!

Read-Aloud: We are reading through the Chronicles of Narnia series and are currently about halfway through The Horse and His Boy. We also read a bit of Swift Rivers, though I didn't get to it every morning as I meant to. Oops. That's another holdover from Core D. :)

Bible: We read Acts 16. The adult class at church is going through the book of Acts right now, so we read the chapter at breakfast and answer my class questions. Tornado Boy does pretty well with the questions. Some require a bit more logic stage thinking, so he doesn't get those. But most he's able to answer.

History: We read chapter 16 of Landmark History of the American People.

Science: Coming in a very close 2nd for favorite subject, Apologia General Science is going really well so far. He is enjoying the text (even though it's module #1, which is supposed to be the boring one!). And he loves the experiments. We've done 2 experiments so far. They were both super easy, but demonstrated the concepts being taught.

Experiment 1.1: Density in Nature

So we learned that cork floats on top of oil, ice floats on top of water, grape floats on top of syrup, and rock sinks to the bottom.

Experiment 1.2: Atomic Motion - part 1

Part 2 (after sitting for a while - the one on the right looks like the left)

In the 2nd experiment, we were seeing how the atoms in water are in constant motion. The boiling water dispersed the drop of food coloring very quickly, while the tap water was much slower.

Please excuse the food on the stove. :P

The Brute

Math: We worked on adding/subtracting tens and ones (separately) within 100. We also did greater than and less than. This was all easy, but we're taking our time. :) Still working through 1B, but we'll probably finish it in a few weeks.

Reading: We did a couple pages of Reading Pathways (he LOVES the pyramids) and one little "box" in Phonics Pathways.

Handwriting: We did one page of Pentime 1, book 2. We never did finish book 1, but book 2 goes over each letter again AND adds words and sentences. He's totally ready to do that, so we split up the page into two days.

Grammar: We started FLL1, which he enjoyed. I had one little issue... When the book says, "Everyone has a mother and a father," The Brute said not everyone has a father. Our preacher had done a sermon recently and mentioned the problem of many kids not having fathers. He was talking about cases where the father is absent (not involved in the kid's life). So I had to explain that everyone has a father technically, but some fathers aren't a part of their kids' lives. Oh, the joys of teaching a very literal child who thinks too much. :)

Writing: We started WWE1 this week, and he did very well! He loves Little House in the Big Woods, which was the first passage. His first "narration" was the same as his copywork from the day before: "There were no roads." :) He technically can't read the copywork when he first sees it, but we go over the phonics involved, and I think it will only serve to help his reading. So it's all good.

Mischief

Math: We started Singapore Essential Math K this week. He did at least 30 pages in the first 3 days. He loves it! He also insisted on doing much of it on his own, unless he needed me to read the directions to him. :)

Reading: He did all of that first section of Phonics Pathways with the two-letter blends. He loves that section and does it VERY fast. He actually did that all on his own too. In fact, one day I got out of the shower, called up to him to ask if he was ready to start school, and he said, "I've already started school." Crazy child.

The Brute and Mischief demonstrated recently that they can both read Go, Dog, Go! The Brute is a good bit faster at it, but both can read it. Yay!