Weekly Report - Week 7

Tornado Boy

Math: We started Math Mammoth 2B this week. Since we just had a week long break, I only assigned one page each day. Pretty easy. I was surprised that this "review" was actually more challenging in some spots than 1B had been. Interesting! We had to go over 2 of the 4 word problems again, and talk about showing our work. He tries to do things in his head, and is very good at it, but these word problems had multiple steps and it started to catch up with him (though his issues were actually that he didn't read the problems fully).

Reading: Still reading Charlotte's Web. Charlotte has now made her first special web for Wilbur. :)

Grammar: We talked about nouns this week.

Independent Reading: We had a variety of books from the library - several science books (snakes, blizzards, cats, horses), Amelia Bedilia, and some other good books. He finished Grievous Attacks! (Clone Wars), which was a pretty advanced book for him!

Writing: This week's passages were from Peter Rabbit. I had to laugh when Tornado Boy did an excellent (for him) narration, complete with a comma. Then I said "Ok, now your turn to copy it.", and he had forgotten that it was narration & copywork day. I think he would have made a shorter sentence if he had remembered that. :P

Handwriting: The first copywork of the week was "Pencils are for writing, not poking holes." :) The other copywork was the 12 sons of Jacob, split over 2 days.

Spelling: We did 2 steps of level 2 this week. We only did spelling 3 days. So far, so good!

Read-Aloud: We listened to The Tale of Desperauex in the van. I also read several Clifford books today, chosen by Tornado Boy. The Brute liked them. :)

Bible: We studied about the birth and early life of Samuel, right up to Eli's death. We went over all the judges of Israel as memory work. He knows them all like the back of his hand. I'm still learning them.

History: We studied the Assyrians and the story of Gilgamesh. We also learned about Jacob and Esau, Jacob finding a wife, and Jacob and Esau meeting again later.

Science: We started our weather unit this week, using R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey's Earth & Space section on weather. The first weather lab was taking temperature in the shade, in the sun, and inside the house. There was a good 10 degree difference between sun and shade. Tuesday was a perfect day for this particular lab! Nice and sunny and warm, but cool in the shade. On Thursday, we built a rain gauge, just in time for a severe thunderstorm that night! Our rain gauge collected 1/4". I had to place it such that it wouldn't get blown over, so it probably didn't get quite as much rain as it normally would have, but it was close enough. :)

Rain gauge propped up for support during storm

Results!

I had to cut the tip off due to the shape of the bottle, but it still worked!

Art: This week, we drew horses! It was good timing, since we are getting a horse soon, and this horse we drew was the same color. The Brute kept saying we were drawing Final (the name of our horse). He's quite excited. :) I was impressed that The Brute tried to do copywork. See the 'H', 'f', and 'L'? Tornado Boy's copywork is not his best writing, but he did better copywork the rest of the week. I am trying out Getty-Dubay Italics style writing this week in my copywork, and I liked the results. :)

The Brute

I started The Brute on "school" this week, though it's very relaxed and on his terms still. I plan to do math and reading Monday, Wednesday, and Friday... IF he wants to. This week, he didn't want to on Friday, and that was fine! I told him that he can choose at this age, but when he's 5, he'll have to do school. ;)

Math: We started RightStart level A this week. We did lesson 1 on Monday and half of lesson 2 on Wednesday. Both lessons went very well. They were working on recognizing the objects of 1, 2, 3, and 4 without counting the objects. We also added and took away one object at a time, showing a little bit how addition and subtraction will work, though not naming those yet.

Reading: We started All About Spelling level 1, using it for reading. We did step 1 Monday, where you learn all the phonograms. He did very well with this! On Wednesday, we did step 2, where you say the first sound of several different words, and then later in the step you say the last sound of several different words. The Brute had trouble with this because he wanted to say the name of the letter instead of the sound, and being 4, it's like pulling teeth to get him to understand the directions and what I'm really asking for. But that's ok. He was clearly hearing the sounds and understanding those. It's an exercise we might come back to later if we need to. I moved on to pulling down tokens for each sound in a word, and this he did VERY well with. I was actually surprised. At the end, he went to the white board and spelled "cat" and "rat", just because he can. That wasn't part of AAS yet. :)

Weekly Report - Break 1

We took a break this week! Though it was actually one of our busier weeks. Weird. We got a lot of cleaning done the first couple days, then went to see a horse Wednesday, then had a babywearing meeting Thursday, then went to the library and came back home to frantically clean Friday.

We did, however, "do science" this week... Twice, actually! At Grandma and Grandpa's house, The Brute found a pine cone and wanted to take it home. Tornado Boy said that when it rains, the pine cone closes up. He had read that in a book (the Dr. Seuss book about weather). Then the boys decided they wanted to try washing the pine cone to see if it would close up. I said that was a great idea! So as soon as we got home, they filled up the sink and put the pine cone in. Sure enough, it closed up! I didn't think it would do it when not attached to the tree. Neato. We were at Grandma and Grandpa's house twice this week, and the second time, The Brute picked up another pine cone and said "We do science!", so here he is, once again, doing his science experiment:

"We're making science!"

Now part of this week was supposed to be homeschool planning. I had intended to plan science for the rest of the year and next year, and also get everything prepared (all subjects) for the next 6 weeks. Well, I did plan science mostly. I need to post about that separately. I think I have a workable plan... We will be doing planned, interest-led. :) I am trying to encourage more discovery type science, where they come up with their own experiments to do on their own. This week was a perfect example of them doing just that!

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll finish printing things out for the next 6 weeks. I needed 2 weeks of break!

Oh, and the horse... He will likely be coming home in a few weeks:

That would be me, after not riding for 10+ years! I did better than I expected, even though I weigh more and have had 3 kids since I last rode. ;)

Chicken Mummy - Part 2

Just an update on the chicken mummy: I haven't changed his salt as often as I should, but he still doesn't smell horrible. He smells a bit like a pet store rodent section, but just a bit stronger, I guess. Inside the bowl, you can't smell him at all. The bowl is keeping all smells inside very well!

Here are some pictures...

Pouring salt out the pencil hole

Chicken drying out

Pretty mummification bowl :)

Wordless Wednesday: We'll Be Studying Horses Soon :)

Weekly Report - Week 6

Boy was this a lazy week! It was the week before our "pre-spring break", and we had very little to do anyway.

Math: We just did math games this week, since we finished MM1B last week. We'll start 2A after our break. We played Addition Solitaire from the RightStart Games book, did a few math computer games recommended in MM1, and did Personal Trainer Math on his DS.

Reading: We continued reading Charlotte's Web, though didn't get to it every day. I don't think Wilbur has met Charlotte yet...

Grammar: We finished up Unit 1 and did the unit test. Actually, we did half the test, because I didn't realize test 2 was part of the test. I thought that was just an extra test in case you bombed the first test. Whoops! Oh well. He aced the first test and I didn't bother with the 2nd test. :)

Independent Reading: Various library books including some Nate the Great, Amelia Bedilia, some random science books, and a Star Wars book.

Writing: Our passages this week were from Mary Poppins. This went pretty well for the most part. The last day's narration leading questions had to be gone over again (ie, reading the passage completely again and then asking the questions again), but then we were fine. It was an attitude issue.

Handwriting: Boy is this getting better! He did Joshua 24:15 on Tuesday. He had a bad attitude that morning and wrote horribly, so he got that copywork assignment again on Thursday, and it was very nice. :) On Wednesday, he did Genesis 1:27.

I bought StartWrite software this week so I can make my own copywork (I've been using some that I'd made with the demo a while back). It is very nice! I'm practicing my own handwriting, learning italic. :)

Spelling: We finished level 1 on Tuesday! Hooray! Level 2 is ready to go. :)

Read-Aloud: We finished Stuart Little and Little House in the Big Woods via audio books in the van. Finally!

Bible: We learned about Samson's life in a nutshell.

History: First, we finally got to a project we'd skipped earlier on... Cuneiform writing on a clay tablet. Here's what the Sumerians would have written if they'd played hockey:

Next, we learned about Hammurabi's Code. I'm surprised that anyone was willing to be a doctor in those days, since if a patient died during surgery, your hand would get cut off.

We also talked about Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac, and Isaac finding a wife.

Science: We started Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding this week, doing lessons A-1/B-1 and B-2. We discussed organizing things into categories (A-1/B-1) and distinguishing living, natural non-living, and man-made objects (B-2).

I had a talk about science with Tornado Boy the other day, and we are going to change direction for science, kind of doing a mixture of interest-led and BFSU. Probably more BFSU in the near future, and then more of the interest-led as we get further into BFSU. We have a plan laid out. I'll hopefully make a separate post about it soon!

Art: We drew a cow this week. They're so cute!

 

Music: We learned about Beethoven and listened to some of his music via a website made by the author of Math Mammoth: Piano Lessons 4 Children. She has several composer studies on the site, for free. Great resource! We also looked up Beethoven's 9th Symphony, 2nd movement on YouTube because Tornado Boy really likes that one. This caused me to think "Hey, why not play classical music on the stereo I never use?!?!?", so we did that Friday, listening to a good variety... various Canadian Brass, Empire Brass, Pictures at an Exhibition, Firebird Suite. I just stuck the 5-disc CD changer on random and let it go. Tornado Boy loved it!

I did absolutely nothing with The Brute this week, though he did read the word "STOP" at Publix and noticed his name on a store. I can see him working with numbers more lately as well. Of course, Tornado Boy keeps asking him questions like "What's 50 + 50?"

Oh, I should mention that we finished our week Thursday morning before 9am! Woohoo! We spent Friday morning cleaning, and afternoon was for planning science. We're taking all of next week off from school. We'll get the house cleaned top to bottom, I hope.

Wordless Wednesday: The results of a 6 year old's independent work

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!