Weekly Report - Year 3 Weeks 6-7

I never got around to updating last week, so I'm doing a combined post this week. :)

Tornado Boy

Math: We've finished the first unit of 5A and done the first review. I don't think there was really anything "new" to him in this unit. We also worked through all of the challenging section of CWP 4 Unit 1. I think we've already done those in Unit 2, so we'll skip to Unit 3 next week, just doing the challenge section. He did a few chapters of Life of Fred Fractions as well.

One day, while he was supposed to be doing a practice page dealing with factorization, I found him doing his for fun:

Finding all prime numbers within 100

Reading: Nothing assigned. I think next week he'll have something from Sonlight.

Grammar: We finished KISS Level 1.2 (Adding Complements). We did a few R&S exercises last week, but didn't plan any for this week.

Writing: Last week, he did "The Donkey and His Driver". This week, he did "Peter the Great". He has absolutely no problem adding a who/which clause. That has become "easy". He usually has no problem adding an -ly adverb, but this week, the material didn't lend itself to obvious usage, so I had to help him a bit. No problem avoiding banned words this week. Last week, he did very well replacing the banned word "said" with "remarked", and that doubled as a strong verb. :)

Spelling: We finished weeks 21 and 22 of R&S Spelling 3.

Handwriting: For grins, I wrote down the cursive alphabet on a white board and had Tornado Boy copy it (note that he has not been taught how to write cursive yet). I was rather shocked by the results! Mischief erased part of it, but you can see some of it still:

Read-Aloud: Still reading The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. We're nearing the end. The Princes Charming have now found Ella ("Cinderella") and are trying to stop the evil witch Zaubera from her plan to take over some kingdoms by killing everyone.

Bible: We started the daily Bible reading that my church elders have put together to study the Life of Christ, harmonizing the Gospels. So far, we're keeping up! ;) We also continuing our daily Proverbs study. Each day, we have found verses that were applicable to situations in our lives.

History: We started Week 5 of Sonlight this week, and have read about the Aztecs. The gross parts were the most interesting to Tornado Boy, of course!

Science: He has been reading a bit about chemistry and also doing some nature study. We did find a weed in the backyard that we cannot identify. I've seen it a lot over the years and know it's common around here, but I can't find it online. If anyone knows what it is, let me know!!! We're in Alabama, btw.

Identify me please!!! :)

The Brute

Math: We picked up Life of Fred Apples for $5 locally last week, so we've been reading a chapter each day usually. The Brute LOVES it! He does very well with the questions, and he likes the "zero game" and even taught it to the eye doctor yesterday. We also continued through Singapore 1A unit 4, chapter 2, learning various methods of subtraction. It's still pretty easy at this point, but that's ok. It's good to give him confidence in a subject like this!

We also built some towers, a la Education Unboxed. What impressed me was that as he was covering the 100 flat with 5-rods, he said, "I'll need 20 5-rods!" Multiplication! I haven't taught him that yet.

And this tower has a electricity/sewer system around it:

Reading: He passed the first Mastery Test in Dancing Bears. Yay! We have begun the next section and are progessing nicely.

Handwriting: We learned 'm' and 'n', which are VERY difficult for him to write (and those are the letters that confused him in speech AND they are letters he gets confused in reading... they are his nemesis!!!). We also did the letter 't'. I had him copy a word that I wrote - "ham", then he had me copy a word he wrote - "cat". :)

Other: We finished Sonlight P4/5 Weeks 4 and 5. Still enjoying it! It really helps to keep it all in one tote bag, so I just grab the bag and sit on the couch to read for a while!

Mischief

We did some rod play from Education Unboxed:

 

We also practiced phonograms from Dancing Bears and read through the first part of the book. He's pretty good at sounding out words and blending.

He did a little bit of handwriting on his own:

He also studied the paranormal a bit...

Weekly Report - Year 3 Week 5

We had a great week, even though we didn't do everything on the schedule. The first 3 days were as scheduled, and then the next day we had a rocketry day at a friend's house - all day rocketry projects! Such fun! Then we recovered on Friday. :P

Tornado Boy

Math: We finished 4B! He got an 80% on the placement test, which is the minimum for moving on. I know that sounds low, but I have tried to get him to a place where he has to work for 80%, so this is GOOD! ;) Most of the problems missed were silly errors anyway. His concepts are solid. We will start 5A on Monday (and work through CWP 4). Of course, I always have him correct missed problems on tests and such, so that 80% will become 100%. ;)

Reading: Nothing specific, but he read lots of library books and such.

Grammar: We did a quick review of complements and a couple lessons in R&S 4 on combining sentences and such.

Writing: He rewrote "The Cocks and the Eagle", including his -ly adverb and who/which clause. That completes lesson 3 (of 15).

Spelling: He did the workbook exercises for Lesson 21. We will do the test Monday. We were supposed to do it Wednesday, but he didn't feel ready. I had him practice the words instead - writing them with his finger on the couch, spelling them out loud, etc. He thinks so much like me... His way of remembering "thousand" is "thou sand". :)

Read-Aloud: Continued The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. Currently, the 4 Prince Charmings have just escaped from the Bandit King.

Bible: Continued reading through Romans and Proverbs.

History: None officially (though he's been reading books about the Revolutionary War, and he and Mischief played "Minutemen vs. the British", where Mischief literally marched around with a hockey stick on his shoulder like a rifle - hilarious).

Science: Various science books around the house, and of course the big Rocketry Day! A friend did a subscription to Aurora Lipper's summer e-science stuff, and she decided to do a bunch of the projects all in one day with several boys invited over to join in. It was supposed to go from 9-1:30, but it ended up 9-4! We had a great day though.

And from last week, pics of our nature study subject...

 

The Brute

Math: We started subtraction. The number stories get pretty silly. One day, he did a number story that went on and on and on and on and on. He really puts the "story" into number stories! Another day, there were 4 frogs on a lilypad and one more jumping off. So his story was, "There are 5 frogs. One turned into a shark and ate the other frogs." I asked how many frogs were eaten, and he said, "4!" :)

Reading: We're on the last drill page before the first Mastery Test. I imagine it will take us all week to finish it.

Handwriting: We did 'k' and 'l' this week. Kind of slacked off the last 3 days. :/

The 'k' in the middle is his... and he demanded checks. :)

Other: We finished week 3 of Sonlight P4/5. We're a little behind on the DEL workbooks, but that's ok. We did several pages this weekend. Clearly, I need to teach my kids to color...

Mischief

He has continued with MEP Reception. We've done 6 or 7 lessons now. One lesson had him tear brown paper to make a bear. We did that (with my help), and The Brute came over and decided to make the bear a girl (top half)... I then added a dress to the bear. :P

Weekly Report - Year 3 Week 4

This was a short week for Tornado Boy, since DH took him on a "field trip" to DC Thursday-Saturday. He got everything done that was planned though, and even finished before lunch the last two days (the first day he finished around dinner time after threat of not getting pancakes for dinner, so he worked much more diligently the next two days). The Brute and Mischief got to continue their normal school week, which of course took very little time.

On the plane, ready to fly...

Tornado Boy

Math: We finished the 4B lessons and just have the last review and the 4B placement test (which I use as an end of book test). We learned about volume this week, including 1mL=1cm^3, and he got to figure out that a m^3=1,000,000cm^3.

Reading: He finished Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I'm still not even halfway through the book. Oh well. He's taken the second book on his trip to DC, along with some other books. He also officially well surpassed his 10,000 page summer reading goal! and I haven't even entered everything. I think he's really closer to 12,000 pages now.

Grammar: We had an early introduction to verbals this week. Those sentences got a bit tricky!

Writing: I only had him write the final copy of his "Zombie and the Nuts" story. The rest of the week was a reprieve, since he was going out of town. Next week, we'll continue on with the next story. :)

Spelling: He did week 19 and only missed one word on the spelling test, which was a silly mistake. He knew how to spell the word.

Read-Aloud: Still working through The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. We're getting introduced to the third Prince Charming now.

Bible: Continued through Romans and Proverbs.

History: Still none officially.

Science: We started reading Introduction to Biology by Holzmann. It's a bit dry, but there is certainly meat there. We'll give it a fair shot. This may be one I need to pre-read, then hand to him to read on his own, so he can really soak up the information.

The Brute

Math: We finished the first unit of 1A. Next, we'll move into Subtraction. These addition pages have been super easy, yet they're confidence building.

Reading: Still making steady progress here. Some words are getting into his brain without having to be sounded out. Hooray! Usually, sentences involving sharks are a-ok. :)

Handwriting: We practiced 'b', 'e', 'h', 'i', and 'j', plus some simple words such as 'be', 'he', and 'bed'. He's doing very well. We are continuing to use the white board right now, but we'll move to a pencil later.

Other: We've done Sonlight P4/5 pretty much at pace this week. Sometimes we rearranged 2 days so that the first half of both days was done on one day and the second half of both days the next day. That seems to help with some of the jumping around between books (like when there is a 4 line nursery rhyme, you don't really want to put the book down and switch to something else). He also continued the DEL workbook 1, and did very well on the pages for this week.

Mischief

Mischief is now bored with the C-rod Alphabet book and wants to do DEL instead, so I've been letting him do that with The Brute. I also have started MEP Reception, just to try it out. Below is a picture of part of the family we drew for lesson 2. He wanted to do "math" this week, and that was math closer to his level. He wanted to do Singapore Essential Math, but I would rather wait a year on that.

I drew DH and a dog, and Mischief drew me :)

Mischief is also joining in on phonogram flash cards for Dancing Bears. He knows almost all of the ones that The Brute is going through. These are one-sound only, not all the sounds. I was surprised that he knew phonograms such as "ar". Crazy.

Weekly Report - Year 3 Week 3

This week was a bit busy, as we had a doctor appointment Monday, then a specialist appointment Wednesday (all things clear - yay!), so we were only home all day 3 of the days, AND we had the A/C guy out Friday. We had a good week though. It was just laid back.

Tornado Boy

Math: We're into measurements now, and we took our time, doing just one lesson per day. :) Next week, we'll do measurements "Practice" section, then Volume, then it's just on to review and placement test. That's it for 4B! I imagine it will take us 2 weeks to complete all that, since those reviews and placement tests are LONG. We also did one section of Life of Fred Fractions this week.

Reading: He is over half done with Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I'm way behind him, but plugging along. :) He is also reading Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, which my dad gave him this week. He got two other books from my dad also, both similarly thick hardback books. They look good. I'm sure he'll enjoy them. No assigned reading yet until we get to week 4 or maybe 5 of Sonlight. In the meantime, he's really close to his 10,000 pages goal for the summer reading program with our homeschool group. Finishing LOTR will do it, and he still has 2 weeks left, though he might meet the goal before finishing LOTR, since we hit the library today and got a bunch of new books! :)

Grammar: We inadvertently skipped grammar this week. Oh well.

Writing: We moved on to Lesson 3 in SWI-A this week. He watched the video, then proceeded to rewrite "The Boy and the Nuts", but he made it, "The Zombie and the Nuts". He didn't get very creative with it, but I'm also not surprised about that. He made it an Athlete Zombie instead of a "Boy" (all the 3rd grade boys around here are into a game called Plants and Zombies right now, and he got to play it at a friend's house Wednesday and learn a bunch about the details of the game, including names of different types of zombies as seen above). Other than it being a zombie and the pitcher being "damaged", the story was basically the same. But hey, it's a good start! This is not my creative child. I know The Brute would be going off into the weeds with such a creative rewrite. :) I think as Tornado Boy gets used to this writing business, his creative side will come out too. ;)

Spelling: We finished the Week 18 review and did the test. He did very well, and I'm seeing better spelling in his writing assignments already. Woohoo!

Read-Aloud: Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom. Yes, Tornado Boy is reading it himself, but I'm also reading it to all 3 children out loud.

Bible: We started reading Romans this week and continued reading a Proverb most days.

History: None (officially).

Science: He finished reading the Apologia Astronomy book on his own. We'll start SL Science next week, I think.

The Brute

Math: We mostly did very early word problems this week. So far, they're easy peasy. While we could probably skip ahead a bit, I'm trying to keep math "easy", since reading is so difficult. I want him to be confident. He already feels bad that he can't read real books yet, so it's good for him to have math be easy, especially knowing that he's working one grade ahead.

Reading: We had a great week here! We have read the "Tim the Dim Cop" story in Dancing Bears multiple times this week, and each time, he has gotten faster and it's been easier. We are almost done with the Power Page after that story, and then we started the next page a little bit as well. He's definitely gaining some confidence. Today, we read part of Hop on Pop, and he was able to read most of it, with just a bit of help on the sounds he hasn't had yet ("all", "mouse", etc.). He did very well with those new sounds, and I think he was even figuring out some on his own, like "play". Yipee! For our 'm'/'n' confusion issue, I got a photocopy of one page of PAL Writing where it shows 'm' as the "mountain letter" and 'n' as the "nose" letter. I showed him those and discussed it some. He definitely had an easier time figuring those two out that day! I will continue to use that method. For 'b'/'d',we're using the instructions in Spalding - 'b' makes a line with your mouth when you say /b/, and 'd' makes a circle with your mouth when you say /d/.

Handwriting: We only did handwriting one day this week. I'm a complete and total slacker in this department, and it's one I need to get back to! Maybe I should put reading and handwriting together in our first session. He can go for about 30 minutes, and we've been doing reading and math, then later we do handwriting... maybe. Anyway, we did the letter 'b' this week. He tried to make it like a '6' (the HWT style '6'!), and it took some work to get him to stop doing that, but I did get some nice 'b's out of him eventually. I'll definitely have to watch how he does that each time for a while, so he doesn't keep a bad habit of the weird way (he goes straight down, then goes along the base line and around back to the line). I wonder if it's partly because the clock letters all go counterclockwise, and 'b' goes clockwise. So confusing.

Other: This week, we had box day! Sonlight P4/5 came in on Tuesday, a day early! The Brute was so excited!! He LOVES the Bible and is enjoying the stories we're reading. We went ahead and started it Wednesday and Thursday, and we finished the whole first week. Oops! We are doing the Developing the Early Learner books that come with it, and I think they will be nice for figuring out The Brute's strengths and weaknesses, since he's so hard to figure out most of the time. He's done well on the exercises so far except the tracing one. He can't remotely stay on the line without stopping! I don't know that Tornado Boy could do that. :P

The Brute enjoying the Sonlight box :)

Mischief

Mischief worked on his C-rod Alphabet Book and also started the DEL book above (I made a copy). He is likewise doing well in the book, missing the tracing completely and having some issue with the missing object exercise (4 objects on the table, take one away and they circle which object is missing). After completing the page, we practiced it a bit, and once he understood what he was supposed to do, he had no problem with it. I'm sure he'll do fine with that exercise next time it comes around.

Weekly Report - Year 3 Weeks 1-2

This should technically be week 3, but we took off a week for VBS (with a gospel meeting in the evening and a singing with a new song book at the end of the week... what a great week!). So we've done weeks 1 and 2 of 3rd grade/K, and it's gone very well so far!

Tornado Boy

Math: We did some geometry and have now gotten into data and probability, bar diagrams, etc. We should finish 4B (including review and placement test) in the next couple weeks.

Reading: I'm not assigning reading right now, but he reads all the time anyway. Recently, he has re-read the entire SOTW series (volumes 1-4), the D'Aulaire Norse Myths book (multiple times), and The Hobbit (which I read alongside him... he beat me). He'll start Fellowship of the Ring soon, once he pries it out of my hands. Ha! He also reads various and a sundry books that he finds around the house, library books, etc. The kid is always reading.

Grammar: We've done 2 exercises of KISS since we started. We're in level 1.2 and did exercises 5 and 6.

Writing: Here is where things are really shining right now!!! We have done 3 paragraphs for IEW SWI-A, and it is going fabulously. He enjoyed the lesson we watched on the DVD, he has no problem doing a keyword outline, and best of all... He can WRITE from the keyword outline! Woohoo! It's pretty painless for him. He thinks of a sentence based on the keywords, and he writes it down. He writes in pen and asks to spell words or tries to spell them phonetically. I have been so pleased with this program so far. It's like a light bulb has gone on!

At the end of SWI-A video - gravity at work :)

Rough draft of "Starfish" paragraph - written "with ease"!

Spelling: We've done 2 weeks of R&S Spelling 3. Next week, we'll finish week 17 and start reviewing (week 18).

Read-Aloud: None going on right now.

Bible: We've been continuing through Acts and also reading Proverbs daily (the chapter that corresponds with the day of the month), discussing the different themes we come across and applying them to our lives.

History: None right now (though again, he's read SOTW 1-4 recently ;).

Science: We have done lessons 2-5 in Apologia Astronomy the last couple weeks. We've learned about the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Earth. We did the crater demonstration, where you drop rocks into flour. I learned that that is not one you want to do in the house. Just sayin'.

Crater demonstration

The Brute

Math: We have started Singapore 1A, and it is going swimmingly. This part is pretty easy, as he understands basic addition and has several number bonds memorized (thank you C-rods!). We have done number bonds under 10 and then focused on making 10's. Next week, we'll start working on early word problems. If he has any problem, this might be it just because language is an issue. But we'll see. He tends to surprise me! :)

Reading: We have conquered a few pages in Dancing Bears the last 2 weeks! I can really see his reading coming along. He still tries to guess sometimes, but then I tell him to read the word, and he will sound it out. :) He's starting to remember some words later in the page, so that's wonderful! I think it will still be a while before he's ready for real books, but today he successfully read about "Tim the Dim Cop". :P

Handwriting: We are using the Writing Road to Reading handwriting instructions, and this week, we finished the clock face letters. Next week, we'll get to b, e, and some others.

Science: Tagging along in Apologia Astronomy, he remembered that Mercury is really hot during the day and really cold during the night because it has no atmosphere, and Venus is really hot all the time because it has a thick atmosphere. He contributes a lot to our notebooking!

Mischief

Mischief has been doing a Cuisenaire Rod Alphabet Book and loves it. He is so proud of himself for doing his "school". When he finishes that, I plan to do R&S ABC series. I think he could handle that now. He's pretty good with fine motor skills. We'll also play with the C-rods to learn their values a bit more. I work with him first thing in the morning, then work with The Brute, then finally Tornado Boy. It's working well so far.

"That's an 'A'!"

2012-2013 Curriculum Plans

Since I start up in a month, I do have plans made already. :)

Tornado Boy - 3rd grade

Math: Singapore 4B/5A/5B, then probably some Math Mammoth 6 and start Prealgebra
Grammar: KISS Level 1 (3rd grade workbook), mixing in some Rod &Staff English 4
Writing: Writing With Ease 3 using the instructor text to pull stuff from our history/science, Institute for Excellence in Writing SWI-A
Spelling: Rod &Staff Spelling 3/4, Spelling City
Handwriting: Cursive instructions from Writing Road to Reading
Poetry: Michael Clay Thompson's Music of the Hemispheres
Vocabulary: Michael Clay Thompson's Building Language
Latin: Getting Started With Latin
History/Reading/Read-Alouds: Sonlight Core D with Advanced Readers
Science: Apologia Astronomy, followed by whatever we feel like doing :)

The Brute - Kindergarten

Math: Singapore 1A/1B
Phonics/Reading: Dancing Bears A, Reading Eggs, I See Sam readers
Handwriting: Instructions from Writing Road to Reading
Read-Alouds: Sonlight Core P4/5

Mischief - PreK3

Reading: Reading Eggs
Other: Rod & Staff ABC series, used workbooks from The Brute, continually make mischief
Read-Alouds: Library books, listen in on Sonlight Core P4/5

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My goals for this coming year:

• Get Tornado Boy comfortable with a little bit of original writing - putting words onto paper even if he doesn't know how to spell them. ;) 
• Get the Brute reading well.
• Keep Mischief from being too much mischief during school. :)

Year End Wrap Up - 2011-2012 School Year

I haven't done my weekly updates in a long, long time. One reason is that I haven't really been doing "everything" consistently the last several months, as my house has been in renovation chaos. We kept up with the basics and did everything we needed to do, so it's fine, but it wasn't worth blogging about. ;)

Excitement in our lives since February:

We got a new pony. Her name is Roxy. She's very sweet and follows you around like a little dog. She also is small enough that the boys are more comfortable getting on her! She is Final's "pocket pony", much to Final's chagrin.

Then we had our windows replaced... all of them. Most walls in this house have at least one window, which means almost all of our furniture had to move to the center of the rooms. In the meantime, we were also removing two large bookcases to get ready for a piano (we'll put in a custom bookshelf structure over it that my dad will build). So I had a lot of books in boxes. As I said, chaos. The new windows look great though!

New windows on left, old one on right.

Tornado Boy and The Brute had a little run-in with each other, racing to the kitchen from different directions, trying to get to the van first. Tornado Boy lost that race...

My friend and I went to Memphis for the Greater Homeschool Convention. It was a fun girls-only trip, and we were both able to recharge. The convention was smaller than last year. Not sure if we'll go back next year or find a different one. I like going, but I imagine the better speakers may not come back next year. Plus a lot of the speakers are more "world view" type speakers instead of "homeschool" speakers. I go to church and read my Bible for my "world view". I'd like to learn about teaching reading, writing, and math when I go to a homeschool convention. ;)

And finally, about a month ago, my husband went outside to go to work and found this:

Our truck had self-ignited in the middle of the night, causing smoke and heat damage to just about everything in the garage. My van was parked next to the truck and had lots of pieces melted on it and some engine stuff damaged. It's running now, but has to go back to the body shop to take care of the corroded metal (which is all over, inside and out!). On a good note, it now has a new timing chain, water pump, cam shaft sensor, belts, motor mounts, and other such things. We were able to find a new (used) truck to replace the old one, and that's how the family has gotten around while the van was out for several weeks. We are BIG fans of detached garages now! Thankfully, the garage was well sealed, and the fire smoked itself out. It could have been a lot worse if we'd opened a door earlier.

That's what we've been up to the last several months. So our end of year progress:

Tornado Boy

Math: Finished through the Decimals unit of Singapore 4B. We'll do the rest this summer, then start 5A when we're ready. We've also been working through Beast Academy 3A and Life of Fred Fractions.

Reading: Tornado Boy has been reading, reading, and reading some more. We recently started Sonlight Core D with the Advanced Readers, and he's reading those faster than the schedule, so I don't think we'll have any trouble keeping up with that! He's also tracking his summer reading for our local homeschool group, and his goal is 10,000 pages. He has read almost 3000 in the first 1 or 2 weeks (I forget when it started - ha!), so I think it's definitely a doable goal in 8 weeks. Last year, he won for his age group with just 3800 pages. He certainly loves to read!

Grammar: We've kind of bounced around based on my mood and what I felt like Tornado Boy needed at the time. We are definitely staying with KISS Grammar next year. I've also been throwing in some R&S English 3 for the written grammar exercises. With KISS, he truly understands the parts of speech and how they're used. He analyzes real sentences. And even when we took a whole month off from it, we came back and he remembered what predicate nominatives, predicate adjectives, and direct objects were. Pretty impressive! We kind of let FLL3 fall by the wayside, not because I didn't like it, but because I've been using KISS for the teacher-intensive stuff and R&S for the more independent work (give him an assignment to go off and do on his own).

Writing: I think I've slacked off here the most the last several months. My last post in February had us at week 17 of WWE2. We have now finished week 21. Oops! I've really been a slacker in the narration department in general, and I intend to hit narrations hard this summer to get us back up to par. He's usually good at narrations, so I don't think it will be a problem. On a good note... My child who would say his hand hurt when copying ONE sentence last year can now copy 6 sentences with no pain whatsoever!!!!! Hooray! He's still absolutely terrified to write originally, due to perfectionism with spelling, but we'll work on that next year.

Spelling: We did several lessons of Apples & Pears and liked it overall, but we've kind of moved back toward R&S Spelling. The reason? It gets done more easily. Recently, he's been getting more independent with his work, and R&S has been easy enough to say, "Go do this," and he does it. I've also started putting the word lists into Spelling City, and he enjoys doing that too.

Read-Alouds: We've done pretty well with read-alouds, especially since starting Sonlight. I can't remember what all we've read, unfortunately. :P

Bible: We did very well keeping up with the "Daily Bible Reading" schedule my church put out up until about 3 weeks ago. Now we're hopelessly behind, which is why I dislike daily Bible reading schedules. I feel icky getting off schedule. So we're just plugging along through Acts right now. We have also done several lessons in Bible Study Guide for All Ages and really like that. We'll plan to continue it in the next year.

History: I think we got somewhere in the 20s in SOTW2 before switching over to Sonlight Core D. We've now done about 4-5 weeks of Core D and are loving it. It's US History, first half. We've learned a lot about Native American Indians, both North and South America, as well as the early Spanish settlers.

Science: We're somewhere in chapter 2 of the Apologia Astronomy book, which is funny, since last update (again, in February), we were in chapter 1. :) We've watched lots of Mythbusters and done our science kits though, plus read various library books.

The Brute

Reading: He is halfway through Map 5 on Reading Eggs, doing very well with that. He is also plugging away through Dancing Bears. Confidence is coming, slowly but surely. He said to me one day that he could only read "baby books", and he was sad about that. I showed him big boy books that he was reading, and that perked him up. He's not really ready for real readers yet. He can sound out a lot of words and is starting to recognize them more quickly, but he still can't read a sentence and comprehend it. We'll get there. He's "K" next school year.

Math: This is where The Brute has started to really take off! He has about 4 or 5 pages of Singapore Essential Math K book B left to go, and then he'll start 1A when we start back up (in about a month). He's totally ready for 1A. He is adding and subtracting with ease. His concept of place value is rock solid, up into the ten thousands. He can skip count by 2's, 5's, 10's, 100's, 1000's, etc. He can even add some easier 2-digit numbers mentally, like 30+31. I can't believe that 6 months ago, this child could hardly count past 10 and had NO clue about place value or adding or subtracting. He's a totally different child in the math department! He's even started saying, "Let's fly!" when I pull out the math book, and he means skipping stuff that he already knows. :)

Handwriting: We're practicing making decent circles, but haven't practiced a LOT. Obviously, his numbers are great, given how much he's flying through the math workbooks. ;)

Mischief

Reading: He just finished map 4 of Reading Eggs today. Yes, he's really able to read a little bit. He'll be 3 years old this week! He's not picking up books and reading them yet, and I don't expect that to happen for a good while yet, but he is able to sound out a word, blend, find a word that you say, and even spell a CVC word. Craziness.

Math: Tornado Boy has started teaching him math. Of course, he's teaching him the multiplication tables. :) One day I asked Tornado Boy what 3x3 was, and Mischief said, "9!" I was quite shocked! The next day, I was showing The Brute 3x2, and Mischief said, "6!" Ok kid, stop scaring me! Mischief does not actually know what multiplication is. He's just memorized a few facts that big brother has taught him. I figure he'll have all his facts for the 4 operations memorized before he's 5, and my work will be done! :P