The only new thing since last update is that I've been playing with Microsoft OneNote. Very cool program! It has a free app for my phone (Android), and while my kids' computer is using an older version that can't sync with Skydrive, I am able to pull it up online on their computer so Tornado Boy and use it. I put any "computer work" in one tab, so he can click each thing and follow the link. Very handy! I can see us using this a lot as he gets older.
Tornado Boy
Math: We completed the main sections of Chapter 1 of AoPS Prealgebra this week. We just have the Review and Challenge sections left to go. While working through things, I decided that he could use a little more practice with order of operations involving larger equations and also with the associative, commutative, and distributive properties. So I pulled out Dolciani Prealgebra and put sticky flags on Section 1-2 and Section 1-5. He did 1-2 this week. Next week, he'll do 1-5, then he'll continue with the Review and Challenge sections of AoPS Chapter 1. The Dolciani went fine. He found it fairly easy. And of course, there were zero problems with order of operations during those 20 problems (he did all the odds).
I also signed Tornado Boy up for Alcumus at the Art of Problem Solving site. He's done several problems so far. No quests yet. Hopefully he'll get one soon.
Reading: I did not assign any reading the last few weeks, though I should have had him reading the last 3 books of Core D. Oh well. He can probably read them all in a week. :)
Grammar: We did R&S English 5 Lesson 2 this week. Yes, we hadn't picked it up in a while. :P Nothing really exciting.
Writing: We completed WWE3 Week 2 this week. He is doing well with the dictation, and his narrations have come back to the land of normal (last year I dropped the ball and didn't have him doing narrations for a while - bad move!).
Handwriting/Typing: He has done several pages of Pentime 3. I've also had him start doing typing lessons daily, first thing in the morning.
Spelling: Another one we haven't picked up as much... He's done part of week 15 of R&S Spelling 4.
Latin: This has been done every single day that we have done school. :) He completed Lesson 1 and is halfway through Lesson 2 (of 16). Vocabulary B will certainly slow him down a bit. This is by far his favorite subject, so he's always excited to get to it.
Read-Aloud: We finished The Horse and His Boy and began The Magician's Nephew. We will finish that this week. We are also nearing the end of Swift Rivers. Just 60 pages to go...
Bible: We have read through Acts 17-23, and we also have been doing our daily Proverbs.
History: We have read through Chapter 18 of Landmark History of the American People. Core D goes through Chapter 23, so we have some reading left to do! I'm hoping to start Core E soon.
Science: Another subject that has been done fairly regularly is science! This is only barely behind Latin as far as favorites go. We are almost done with Module #1 of Apologia General Science. We just have one reading session left, and then we'll do the study guide via a lapbook. We did experiments 1.3 and 1.4. We had a lot of fun with 1.3!
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| Red cabbage water mixed with vinegar at start of experiment 1.3. |
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| After adding the baking soda, the balloon blows up and the water turned clear. |
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| Experiment 1.4 shows how the larger ellipse looks more round, similar to planetary orbits. |
The Brute
Math: He learned how to add double digit numbers vertically without regrouping and horizontally with regrouping (mental math).
Reading: He read the -ch/-tch page in Phonics Pathways and also did another pyramid.
Handwriting: He worked on the letters 'Bb' and 'Cc', with some copywork.
Grammar: We have been learning about common vs. proper nouns, which he seems to understand pretty well. He doesn't need 45 lessons, but that's ok. He enjoys FLL1, so we'll keep going. He has memorized "The Catepillar" by Christina G. Rosetti, and we have done a story narration and a picture study.
Writing: We completed week 2 of WWE1. This has gone very well so far! He answers the questions with ease. He has figured out how to make his answer into a complete sentence (though still has to be reminded, of course). He also gives good narrations when asked "What is one thing you remember from this passage?" His goal is to fill up the page, apparently. :)
Excuse the messy handwriting. That would be MY handwriting on those huge WWE1 lines, trying to keep up with an eager beaver. :) In that last narration, we had one blank line left, and I said his narration was good. Then he saw the blank line and added "He was happy," to fill up the page. Silly boy. Soooooo different from his big brother!
Other: We are almost done with Sonlight P4/5. Just have a couple Uncle Wiggly stories and a couple Peter Rabbit stories left.
Mischief
Math: He's about halfway through Book A of Singapore Essential Math K. He's now practiced writing all the numbers.
Reading: He finally moved his sticky tab past the first section of Phonics Pathways, into the CVC words section. There is more on a page, which is why he didn't want to read those pages at first. He's gotten over that now. :)
Mischief largely does his school independently. He likes to self-teach, apparently. Of course, none of what he is doing is really "new". ;)
