We have officially finished our one hundred eighty days of school for the 2009-2010 school year. Huzzah! Days 176-180 were completed on our trip to Washington, DC, last week. I need to write an entire post about the trip, but suffice it to say that I love that city and am having withdrawal symptoms. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it. EG's favorite thing was the National Cryptologic Museum. FB wanted to take home a pair of ruby slippers just like Dorothy's.
We did come home to the news that our neighbor has decided not to pursue buying our house. We had hoped this was a viable possibility, especially since it would ensure our having to move only once (instead of possibly twice, after finalizing the sale of this house but before finalizing the purchase of the new house). It also means we do have to do those final staging projects which we were hoping to escape. So far, I've been mostly paralyzed by the thought of how much more I need to pack and rearrange, but I haven't exactly had copious amounts of work time, either. Maybe I'll feel more energized after we start.
I should probably also warn you all that I will probably blog extensively about food over the summer. Luckily, everyone alive more or less likes food, and everyone is required to eat it, making food quite possibly the most universal subject about which to blog. Except breathing. I'll devote a post to breathing, maybe.
Showing posts with label homeschool: 0910. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschool: 0910. Show all posts
7.5.10
Weekly Report: Day 175
EG's formal bookwork for the year is 99% done! The next two weeks will involve lots of field trips, annual ITBS testing, and a lesson each in Paragraph Town and Caesar's English I! This week marked 175 days of school, so I'm calling it done - the remaining actual work was planned for summertime, not schooltime!
EG started the week strong by beating one of her drills. She'll continue the other drill until she beats it, which hopefully won't be too long. She also finished Life of Fred Beginning Algebra! I'm so proud of her.
She also finished Building Poetry, as well as continuing to work in the aforementioned Caesar's English I and Paragraph Town. She did ten sentences in Practice Town, which leaves 16 or so to finish over the summer, just as I'd hoped.
She also completed chapter 2 in Latin Prep 1. Her summer work will be to continue reviewing the vocabulary and grammar she's currently covered, as well as learning the vocabulary for chapter 3.
She finished her study of modern history by taking a look at 9/11 and a few other events post-1994 (when SOTW 4 concludes). She read A Nation Challenged as well as An Hour Before Daylight.
She read the final chapter in CPO Physical Science that covers physics, and answered the reviews and assessment for me. She also did her memory work and three Mind Benders!
EG & I did sit down to talk about what she liked the most and the least this past year, in terms of outside activities, schoolwork, curriculum, etc. I was gratified that she had liked my homemade history pages the best - all those hours were hours well-spent. :)
Tonight is EG's end of the year performance for band, followed by the end of the year performance for Master's Academy tomorrow. Busy weekend!
EG started the week strong by beating one of her drills. She'll continue the other drill until she beats it, which hopefully won't be too long. She also finished Life of Fred Beginning Algebra! I'm so proud of her.
She also finished Building Poetry, as well as continuing to work in the aforementioned Caesar's English I and Paragraph Town. She did ten sentences in Practice Town, which leaves 16 or so to finish over the summer, just as I'd hoped.
She also completed chapter 2 in Latin Prep 1. Her summer work will be to continue reviewing the vocabulary and grammar she's currently covered, as well as learning the vocabulary for chapter 3.
She finished her study of modern history by taking a look at 9/11 and a few other events post-1994 (when SOTW 4 concludes). She read A Nation Challenged as well as An Hour Before Daylight.
She read the final chapter in CPO Physical Science that covers physics, and answered the reviews and assessment for me. She also did her memory work and three Mind Benders!
EG & I did sit down to talk about what she liked the most and the least this past year, in terms of outside activities, schoolwork, curriculum, etc. I was gratified that she had liked my homemade history pages the best - all those hours were hours well-spent. :)
Tonight is EG's end of the year performance for band, followed by the end of the year performance for Master's Academy tomorrow. Busy weekend!
30.4.10
Weekly Report: 10 Days To Go
Just ten more days remaining in our school year! A lot of EG's curricula is coming to an end but she's finishing strong.
She finished Story of the World Volume Four this week, writing two summaries for the final chapter and reading the afterword as well. She read a biography of Nelson Mandela, as well. EG will spend the final two weeks reading about what's happened since 1994, American government, and personages of importance.
EG has finished through Lesson 102 in LoF Beginning Algebra (out of 108 lessons)! She still loves it. :) She also beat one drill level and came close to beating the other. She finished one Mind Bender exercise.
In Latin, she did several exercises from the text as well as the workbook. She's nearly finished with Chapter 2, which is where we'll stop for the summer.
EG read The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems for literature this week, as well as finished up The Wind in the Willows from last week. She wrote the narration for The Wind in the Willows as well. In other language arts work, she finished ten sentences in Practice Town, two lessons in Paragraph Town, two lessons in Caesar's English I, and learned about emjambment vs. end-stopped poems.
She did memory work daily, worked in Physics Workshop for a couple of hours, and read about vectors and force.
We're so ready for our break, though!
She finished Story of the World Volume Four this week, writing two summaries for the final chapter and reading the afterword as well. She read a biography of Nelson Mandela, as well. EG will spend the final two weeks reading about what's happened since 1994, American government, and personages of importance.
EG has finished through Lesson 102 in LoF Beginning Algebra (out of 108 lessons)! She still loves it. :) She also beat one drill level and came close to beating the other. She finished one Mind Bender exercise.
In Latin, she did several exercises from the text as well as the workbook. She's nearly finished with Chapter 2, which is where we'll stop for the summer.
EG read The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems for literature this week, as well as finished up The Wind in the Willows from last week. She wrote the narration for The Wind in the Willows as well. In other language arts work, she finished ten sentences in Practice Town, two lessons in Paragraph Town, two lessons in Caesar's English I, and learned about emjambment vs. end-stopped poems.
She did memory work daily, worked in Physics Workshop for a couple of hours, and read about vectors and force.
We're so ready for our break, though!
27.4.10
End of the Year Musings
I'm so excited because, including today, we have nine more days of bookwork! We have fourteen days remaining until we hit 180, but five of those are educational field trips, so no bookwork then.
The best find this year was Michael Clay Thompson's language arts series. Around the time there began to be a lot of buzz about it, I was feeling frustrated with most of our language arts curriculum. We had just finished Writing Tales 2 and began Classical Writing Homer A. Homer was excruciating. It was taking a lot of time every day, yet it didn't feel like it was developing skills particularly quickly. EG didn't feel like she was learning anything new.
Similarly, I could see that she wasn't having good retention with our vocabulary program (Vocabulary from Classical Roots) or grammar (Junior Analytical Grammar). No matter how much I wanted each of these programs to work for us, and I did, the facts were staring me in the face - they just weren't working for EG!
I knew what curriculums did work well for her, so I had a good idea of the type of curriculum for which I was looking. Luckily, along came all those discussions about MCT. Looking at the discussions and the samples, I realized that it just might be a good fit - and I was, thankfully, right.
What about Classical Writing? After all, it wasn't that she wasn't learning. It was just going painfully slowly. Yet, I wanted the progym for EG...
Around the same time, I listened to SWB's writing lectures on mp3 - each individual one for the three stages. I also reread WTM for the billionth time. After reading, listening, digesting, and ruminating, I felt confident enough to stop Classical Writing and move forward "WTM-style." We'll get to the progym, around 8th or 9th grade. She'll be able to move faster through it (something that we'll appreciate) and have the time now to do more cross-curricular writing and other important things. It was a balance with which I felt (and still feel) comfortable.
So that's our best curriculum find of the year. :)
The best find this year was Michael Clay Thompson's language arts series. Around the time there began to be a lot of buzz about it, I was feeling frustrated with most of our language arts curriculum. We had just finished Writing Tales 2 and began Classical Writing Homer A. Homer was excruciating. It was taking a lot of time every day, yet it didn't feel like it was developing skills particularly quickly. EG didn't feel like she was learning anything new.
Similarly, I could see that she wasn't having good retention with our vocabulary program (Vocabulary from Classical Roots) or grammar (Junior Analytical Grammar). No matter how much I wanted each of these programs to work for us, and I did, the facts were staring me in the face - they just weren't working for EG!
I knew what curriculums did work well for her, so I had a good idea of the type of curriculum for which I was looking. Luckily, along came all those discussions about MCT. Looking at the discussions and the samples, I realized that it just might be a good fit - and I was, thankfully, right.
What about Classical Writing? After all, it wasn't that she wasn't learning. It was just going painfully slowly. Yet, I wanted the progym for EG...
Around the same time, I listened to SWB's writing lectures on mp3 - each individual one for the three stages. I also reread WTM for the billionth time. After reading, listening, digesting, and ruminating, I felt confident enough to stop Classical Writing and move forward "WTM-style." We'll get to the progym, around 8th or 9th grade. She'll be able to move faster through it (something that we'll appreciate) and have the time now to do more cross-curricular writing and other important things. It was a balance with which I felt (and still feel) comfortable.
So that's our best curriculum find of the year. :)
23.4.10
Weekly Report: 165 Days Completed (15 Remaining!)
EG had another excellent week. The most notable thing was passing another level of drill - on only her second try!
In other math work, she completed Lessons 91-95 in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. She also finished Key to Percents Book 2, but was stymied in her attempt to begin Key to Percents Book 3 because... we can't find it. I bought it as a set (with the answer key for all three books) from Rainbow Resource, but we can't find it in any of our school stuff. I'm going to have to spend more time searching over the weekend.
EG read about the vocative case, subjects & objects, and transitive & intransitive verbs in Latin Prep 1, did five exercises in the textbook, and completed two exercises in the workbook. So far this is mostly review material, although presented in a slightly different way than it was in Lively Latin. EG really like Lively Latin, but this appeals to the same part of her that loves Fred and MCT.
Speaking of MCT, EG finished four sentences in Practice Town, read about and practiced using figures of speech in Building Poetry (including an apostrophe to a personified iTouch), studied two lessons in Caesar's English I, and completed two lessons in Paragraph Town.
Literature this week involved beginning The Wind in the Willows. Because she had so many books for history (see below), she'll finish it over the weekend and at the beginning of next week before writing a narration. We're spending our remaining weeks of school on various modern poets, so no narrations will be required.
In history, she read Madam President and They Led the Way, as well as the Sterling biographies John F. Kennedy and Neil Armstrong. Her reading in The Story of the World Volume Four covered 1989 - Tiananmen Square, and the fall of Berlin Wall. EG is nine now; I was nine when these things happened. In addition to her summaries, I found video on youtube for both events. I've tried to convey to her how it felt to see the Berlin Wall come down, but I sense it may it one of those things where she will not understand it fully. Similarly, I can't quite understand when my mother says that she thought, growing up, that there had always been a war in Vietnam, and that there would always BE a war in Vietnam. Since the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" was released in 1989, I realized EG had studied all the years covered by the song, and played it for her. She was excited at how many of the named things she knew.
For science this week, the kids calculated their footprint and read about Earth Day, since science lab is on Thursdays. EG also read a chapter in CPO Physical Science about force and answered the reviews orally. Finally, EG did two Mind Bender puzzles, and did memory work each day of the week.
I have still not been very good about getting to formal school for FB, but he's doing all right anyway. He pretend-reads all sorts of book and does read basic words (CVC, CCVC, etc). He's currently working his mind through subtraction as well as the fact that there are multiple ways to add numbers to get the same sum - at least six, depending on your point of view, for 10, for example. He also has told me once or twice while out that someone nearby "looks like a President." At first I was confused, and I managed to elicit that he thought the person in question looked as though he could be a President. I realized quickly that FB only remembers one President - the current one. In his mind, Presidents are young black men. Say whatever you personally want to about Obama's policies, but I am heartened by this.
PC continues to be small yet in charge. Her receptive vocabulary is scarily large. As long as I can find a way to phrase things in a yes or no manner, I can ask her pretty much anything and get a response. We also can't talk about something without her understanding. It's a little freaky!
This weekend: RenFest!
In other math work, she completed Lessons 91-95 in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. She also finished Key to Percents Book 2, but was stymied in her attempt to begin Key to Percents Book 3 because... we can't find it. I bought it as a set (with the answer key for all three books) from Rainbow Resource, but we can't find it in any of our school stuff. I'm going to have to spend more time searching over the weekend.
EG read about the vocative case, subjects & objects, and transitive & intransitive verbs in Latin Prep 1, did five exercises in the textbook, and completed two exercises in the workbook. So far this is mostly review material, although presented in a slightly different way than it was in Lively Latin. EG really like Lively Latin, but this appeals to the same part of her that loves Fred and MCT.
Speaking of MCT, EG finished four sentences in Practice Town, read about and practiced using figures of speech in Building Poetry (including an apostrophe to a personified iTouch), studied two lessons in Caesar's English I, and completed two lessons in Paragraph Town.
Literature this week involved beginning The Wind in the Willows. Because she had so many books for history (see below), she'll finish it over the weekend and at the beginning of next week before writing a narration. We're spending our remaining weeks of school on various modern poets, so no narrations will be required.
In history, she read Madam President and They Led the Way, as well as the Sterling biographies John F. Kennedy and Neil Armstrong. Her reading in The Story of the World Volume Four covered 1989 - Tiananmen Square, and the fall of Berlin Wall. EG is nine now; I was nine when these things happened. In addition to her summaries, I found video on youtube for both events. I've tried to convey to her how it felt to see the Berlin Wall come down, but I sense it may it one of those things where she will not understand it fully. Similarly, I can't quite understand when my mother says that she thought, growing up, that there had always been a war in Vietnam, and that there would always BE a war in Vietnam. Since the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" was released in 1989, I realized EG had studied all the years covered by the song, and played it for her. She was excited at how many of the named things she knew.
For science this week, the kids calculated their footprint and read about Earth Day, since science lab is on Thursdays. EG also read a chapter in CPO Physical Science about force and answered the reviews orally. Finally, EG did two Mind Bender puzzles, and did memory work each day of the week.
I have still not been very good about getting to formal school for FB, but he's doing all right anyway. He pretend-reads all sorts of book and does read basic words (CVC, CCVC, etc). He's currently working his mind through subtraction as well as the fact that there are multiple ways to add numbers to get the same sum - at least six, depending on your point of view, for 10, for example. He also has told me once or twice while out that someone nearby "looks like a President." At first I was confused, and I managed to elicit that he thought the person in question looked as though he could be a President. I realized quickly that FB only remembers one President - the current one. In his mind, Presidents are young black men. Say whatever you personally want to about Obama's policies, but I am heartened by this.
PC continues to be small yet in charge. Her receptive vocabulary is scarily large. As long as I can find a way to phrase things in a yes or no manner, I can ask her pretty much anything and get a response. We also can't talk about something without her understanding. It's a little freaky!
This weekend: RenFest!
16.4.10
Weekly Report: Week The Somethingth; 160 Days Completed!
EG had an exceptionally productive week, especially since we were coming back from our spring break!
She passed two different levels of drill (we alternate between two levels, one M/W/F and the other T/R) this week, in addition to finishing lessons 86 through 90 in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. She completed nine pages in Key to Percents Book 2 between the week of spring break and this week of school, as well.
In Latin, she finished the first chapter of Latin Prep 1. I told her ahead of time that I would "grade" her on the material in the last three sections of the workbook ("Consolidation") and she passed with flying colors - 93% correct. Her weakness lies in translation from Latin to English, which doesn't surprise me, since I would consider Lively Latin somewhat light on translation.
EG read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler and wrote a narration of it during spring break, and read Maniac Magee and wrote its narration this week.
Ten sentences from Practice Town were completed, leading me to the conclusion that we're going to review gerunds this coming week (she has a solid command of the other verbals). She also finished two lessons in Caesar's English I, and wrote a compare/contrast paragraph for Paragraph Town. In Building Poetry, EG studied stanza.
During spring break, EG did one week's worth of history work, in an effort to have it concluded a week early. She read Gay America and I Have A Dream in addition to a chapter in Story of the World Volume Four. This past week, she read the COFA biographies of Thurgood Marshall and Joe DiMaggio, as well as 33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women's History. She wrote her summaries about Chernobyl and the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
She completed her memory work each day and two exercises from Mind Benders C2. Science was a little light this week; she did read some, but didn't do lab this week, as vision therapy had to be rescheduled. Overall, I was anticipating a bit of a "draggy" week-after-spring-break, but EG did exceptionally well at getting back down to work. She concluded the week with her final testing period for band and passed off five additional songs!
She passed two different levels of drill (we alternate between two levels, one M/W/F and the other T/R) this week, in addition to finishing lessons 86 through 90 in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. She completed nine pages in Key to Percents Book 2 between the week of spring break and this week of school, as well.
In Latin, she finished the first chapter of Latin Prep 1. I told her ahead of time that I would "grade" her on the material in the last three sections of the workbook ("Consolidation") and she passed with flying colors - 93% correct. Her weakness lies in translation from Latin to English, which doesn't surprise me, since I would consider Lively Latin somewhat light on translation.
EG read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler and wrote a narration of it during spring break, and read Maniac Magee and wrote its narration this week.
Ten sentences from Practice Town were completed, leading me to the conclusion that we're going to review gerunds this coming week (she has a solid command of the other verbals). She also finished two lessons in Caesar's English I, and wrote a compare/contrast paragraph for Paragraph Town. In Building Poetry, EG studied stanza.
During spring break, EG did one week's worth of history work, in an effort to have it concluded a week early. She read Gay America and I Have A Dream in addition to a chapter in Story of the World Volume Four. This past week, she read the COFA biographies of Thurgood Marshall and Joe DiMaggio, as well as 33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women's History. She wrote her summaries about Chernobyl and the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
She completed her memory work each day and two exercises from Mind Benders C2. Science was a little light this week; she did read some, but didn't do lab this week, as vision therapy had to be rescheduled. Overall, I was anticipating a bit of a "draggy" week-after-spring-break, but EG did exceptionally well at getting back down to work. She concluded the week with her final testing period for band and passed off five additional songs!
9.4.10
Weekly Report: Spring Break Version
We took our much-anticipated spring break this week! All of our outside-the-house activities were cancelled, with one exception - EG still had trumpet lessons. Those are in the late afternoon, though, so our days still stretched in front of us without end.
The first three days of the week were not spring-like. They were summer-like. I sent the children outside quite often those days. On Wednesday, we even had some friends over to play. Thursday, the rain came, sending the 5,000+ pollen count plunging back down. I still have a nasty residue all over things in the sunroom, since I like to keep the windows open and the ceiling fan going. Today, we're preparing for FB's delayed birthday party tomorrow, and band meets today for EG.
I did challenge EG to practice each of her instruments for a full 45 minutes a day this week, and she has risen to meet that. She also had a small amount of schoolwork to do, primarily because our last five official days of school this year will actually be spent traveling. So she worked on history some, read a book, did a bit of math, and finished two Mind Benders.
We made some progress on our efforts to ready the house for sale, as well. Slowly but surely, we're getting there!
The first three days of the week were not spring-like. They were summer-like. I sent the children outside quite often those days. On Wednesday, we even had some friends over to play. Thursday, the rain came, sending the 5,000+ pollen count plunging back down. I still have a nasty residue all over things in the sunroom, since I like to keep the windows open and the ceiling fan going. Today, we're preparing for FB's delayed birthday party tomorrow, and band meets today for EG.
I did challenge EG to practice each of her instruments for a full 45 minutes a day this week, and she has risen to meet that. She also had a small amount of schoolwork to do, primarily because our last five official days of school this year will actually be spent traveling. So she worked on history some, read a book, did a bit of math, and finished two Mind Benders.
We made some progress on our efforts to ready the house for sale, as well. Slowly but surely, we're getting there!
2.4.10
Weekly Report
One hundred fifty-five days completed!
Previously, on a week not reported, EG finished Lively Latin. Hooray! She also beat level thirty-two of drill and moved on to level thirty-three.
This week, EG continued forward in Latin Prep 1. So far, the material is a review of things she already knows, so she's doing well. Some of the material is presented differently and there's more emphasis on translating, I think. She finished five exercises in the text and five in the workbook.
EG read Plain Girl this week and wrote a short narration of it. She also finished eight sentences in Practice Town, two lessons in Paragraph Town, and two lessons in Caesar's English I. We read a chapter in Building Poetry together and she worked on writing some poetry of her own.
Her readings for history in SOTW this week covered terrorism (1972 Olympics) and Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. She wrote a summary about each section. Her reading is still lagging a bit behind the SOTW timeline, just due to sheer volume, but she read the COFA biography of John Glenn, an interesting book about various decisions made by Eisenhower while he was president, and Ain't Gonna Study War No More, about, as you may have guessed, various peace movements.
EG finished four pages in Key to Percents Book 2, and five lessons in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra, plus did drill for five days. She also finished her current Mind Benders book. She's progressing steadily with her memory work, though I'm considering finding another history-related piece to memorize. I do think I'll have her work on "The New Colossus," as well.
She's reading a bit in CPO Physical Science each week in addition to lab work in Physics Workshop. It's her first experience even attempting to use a textbook for a content subject, so that's been sort of interesting for both of us. We're going over the section reviews and the chapter assessments together, orally.
FB & I didn't do any math this week, due primarily to the math supplies being (finally) relocated upstairs, followed immediately by the upstairs becoming so messy that I just couldn't tolerate trying to do actual work in such an environment. He continues to love handwriting, and he's definitely making progress with phonics.
PC continues to get into trouble as much as possible by climbing, running, or otherwise being the queen of the world.
And that, as they say, is that - we are done for the week and are taking spring break next week. Hooray!
Previously, on a week not reported, EG finished Lively Latin. Hooray! She also beat level thirty-two of drill and moved on to level thirty-three.
This week, EG continued forward in Latin Prep 1. So far, the material is a review of things she already knows, so she's doing well. Some of the material is presented differently and there's more emphasis on translating, I think. She finished five exercises in the text and five in the workbook.
EG read Plain Girl this week and wrote a short narration of it. She also finished eight sentences in Practice Town, two lessons in Paragraph Town, and two lessons in Caesar's English I. We read a chapter in Building Poetry together and she worked on writing some poetry of her own.
Her readings for history in SOTW this week covered terrorism (1972 Olympics) and Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. She wrote a summary about each section. Her reading is still lagging a bit behind the SOTW timeline, just due to sheer volume, but she read the COFA biography of John Glenn, an interesting book about various decisions made by Eisenhower while he was president, and Ain't Gonna Study War No More, about, as you may have guessed, various peace movements.
EG finished four pages in Key to Percents Book 2, and five lessons in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra, plus did drill for five days. She also finished her current Mind Benders book. She's progressing steadily with her memory work, though I'm considering finding another history-related piece to memorize. I do think I'll have her work on "The New Colossus," as well.
She's reading a bit in CPO Physical Science each week in addition to lab work in Physics Workshop. It's her first experience even attempting to use a textbook for a content subject, so that's been sort of interesting for both of us. We're going over the section reviews and the chapter assessments together, orally.
FB & I didn't do any math this week, due primarily to the math supplies being (finally) relocated upstairs, followed immediately by the upstairs becoming so messy that I just couldn't tolerate trying to do actual work in such an environment. He continues to love handwriting, and he's definitely making progress with phonics.
PC continues to get into trouble as much as possible by climbing, running, or otherwise being the queen of the world.
And that, as they say, is that - we are done for the week and are taking spring break next week. Hooray!
19.3.10
Weekly Report: Week Thirty (Through Day 140, Anyway)
Billy Joel's been on my mind this week, through a combination of factors. I won't detail that for you, but I am taking a lesson from one particular song. Hence, we have weekly report in moments and, well, days to hold to. ('Cause we won't, although we'll want to.)
The best moments of the week were non-academic. Discussing some recent national news over dinner, the Spousal Unit and I were thrilled when the kids reacted just as we would have desired if we'd programmed their response. Sure, they'll change their views as they get older, but at least we're managing to teach them our values.
Then there was EG in all her righteous indignation, when an activity was characterized as "just for girls." Her fury was magnificent; her words persuasive. I felt downright called to action myself. Best of all, she's not afraid to go against what friends or peers may state, just to "get along."
Memory work yields its own priceless moments. FB loves to recite one of his poems with odd rhythm or a strange accent. He usually focuses on "After the Party" for these shenanigans, but has been known to give this treatment to "The Yak" and "The Little Man Who Wasn't There" as well. And then there's EG, reciting an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream." Because she memorizes the quickest when she can listen to the material, she spent the first two weeks of work on this listening to the great man himself, on that famous day in 1963. The result is a tiny white girl speaking with the cadences of a black preacher. At least she is from Atlanta!
We've had great conversations as EG heads into the 1960s for history. President Kennedy's assassination, the Cold War, the Space Race, the Civil Rights movement... her ability to discuss the deep, underlying issues surprises and gratifies. Next week, she'll be reading about the Vietnam war and talking to some of her relatives who were alive during that conflict.
FB wants so badly to be just like his big sister. I'm impressed with his tenacity and perseverance; despite the inability to read most written directions, he plows forward. He asks for more time to do math. He volunteers to help with diverse tasks.
EG finished Grammar Town this week, and heads ever forward with Caesar's English and Paragraph Town, writing an excellent two-paragraph composition with the Cold War as her subject of choice.
Moving ever forward... tomorrow marks the equinox and spring's return, not a day too soon. Today we finally saw the good side of 70°F. I missed it so! But we're ready for spring. Happy equinox!
The best moments of the week were non-academic. Discussing some recent national news over dinner, the Spousal Unit and I were thrilled when the kids reacted just as we would have desired if we'd programmed their response. Sure, they'll change their views as they get older, but at least we're managing to teach them our values.
Then there was EG in all her righteous indignation, when an activity was characterized as "just for girls." Her fury was magnificent; her words persuasive. I felt downright called to action myself. Best of all, she's not afraid to go against what friends or peers may state, just to "get along."
Memory work yields its own priceless moments. FB loves to recite one of his poems with odd rhythm or a strange accent. He usually focuses on "After the Party" for these shenanigans, but has been known to give this treatment to "The Yak" and "The Little Man Who Wasn't There" as well. And then there's EG, reciting an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream." Because she memorizes the quickest when she can listen to the material, she spent the first two weeks of work on this listening to the great man himself, on that famous day in 1963. The result is a tiny white girl speaking with the cadences of a black preacher. At least she is from Atlanta!
We've had great conversations as EG heads into the 1960s for history. President Kennedy's assassination, the Cold War, the Space Race, the Civil Rights movement... her ability to discuss the deep, underlying issues surprises and gratifies. Next week, she'll be reading about the Vietnam war and talking to some of her relatives who were alive during that conflict.
FB wants so badly to be just like his big sister. I'm impressed with his tenacity and perseverance; despite the inability to read most written directions, he plows forward. He asks for more time to do math. He volunteers to help with diverse tasks.
EG finished Grammar Town this week, and heads ever forward with Caesar's English and Paragraph Town, writing an excellent two-paragraph composition with the Cold War as her subject of choice.
Moving ever forward... tomorrow marks the equinox and spring's return, not a day too soon. Today we finally saw the good side of 70°F. I missed it so! But we're ready for spring. Happy equinox!
12.3.10
Weekly Report: Week Twenty-Eight
Normally, this time of year, I'd be talking about spring fever makes it hard to concentrate. This, however, is the year that winter just wouldn't go away, so while there are a few signs of hope, overall, it's not been springy enough to result in any fevers.
It's been a pretty good week. We found out the local ice skating rink does a homeschool skate on the 2nd Tuesday & 2nd Friday of each month, so the Spousal Unit took EG & FB on Tuesday while PC & I went to La Leche League, and they've convinced me to take them again this morning prior to band. Johnny Weir & Apolo Ohno may have inadvertently created a couple of monsters. I take no blame, even though I have been letting FB watch Be Good Johnny Weir.
EG read T. S. Eliot this week (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats), as well as The Cricket in Times Square. I didn't make her write a narration of the former because that seemed a little ridiculous. She's chugging right along through Grammar Town - we'll probably finish it next week - and Caesar's English I. We've also started on Paragraph Town, since she's already familiar with the four-level analysis. The last two paragraph lab assignments have focused on Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which has amused her, I think, since she memorized it earlier this year. As I told her, "This is based on something that you are really familiar with." We're still not formally covering spelling. At this point I think we'll wait to review after Grammar Town is finished, at least.
Math continues to go well. EG wrapped up another chapter and did well on the Cities. I love when she talks about math - "It's kind of hard, and challenging, but it's fun!" She's still doing drill, and finished five pages in Key to Percents Book 2.
History this week covered the Space Race & landing men on the moon. She wrote a summary for both sections of the chapter in SOTW, and read Team Moon as well. Her biography project this week was to read part of McCollough's Truman, and she finished two chapters. She said the first chapter was boring (Truman's family history), but started enjoying it in the second chapter. Over the weekend, we watched Guns, Germs, & Steel and she enjoyed that, too.
She finished reading Touch This! for physics and will work in Physics Workshop for a couple of hours this afternoon, after ice skating and band.
Latin is still going well, steadily but surely. Two more weeks and Lively Latin will be finished! Logic is going well, too; she completed two or three problems in Mind Benders, and four pages in Orbiting with Logic. We both are enjoying having the Level 1 poems on an every other day schedule (for memory work).
Last week was a break from piano lessons (her teacher was out of town), and thanks to snow, there was no trumpet lesson last week either! Both returned to the schedule this week, and FB had tumbling class on Wednesday. They're in the throes of learning their lines for the end of year play for Master's Academy, and PC continues to be dragged along 'most everywhere.
It's been a pretty good week. We found out the local ice skating rink does a homeschool skate on the 2nd Tuesday & 2nd Friday of each month, so the Spousal Unit took EG & FB on Tuesday while PC & I went to La Leche League, and they've convinced me to take them again this morning prior to band. Johnny Weir & Apolo Ohno may have inadvertently created a couple of monsters. I take no blame, even though I have been letting FB watch Be Good Johnny Weir.
EG read T. S. Eliot this week (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats), as well as The Cricket in Times Square. I didn't make her write a narration of the former because that seemed a little ridiculous. She's chugging right along through Grammar Town - we'll probably finish it next week - and Caesar's English I. We've also started on Paragraph Town, since she's already familiar with the four-level analysis. The last two paragraph lab assignments have focused on Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which has amused her, I think, since she memorized it earlier this year. As I told her, "This is based on something that you are really familiar with." We're still not formally covering spelling. At this point I think we'll wait to review after Grammar Town is finished, at least.
Math continues to go well. EG wrapped up another chapter and did well on the Cities. I love when she talks about math - "It's kind of hard, and challenging, but it's fun!" She's still doing drill, and finished five pages in Key to Percents Book 2.
History this week covered the Space Race & landing men on the moon. She wrote a summary for both sections of the chapter in SOTW, and read Team Moon as well. Her biography project this week was to read part of McCollough's Truman, and she finished two chapters. She said the first chapter was boring (Truman's family history), but started enjoying it in the second chapter. Over the weekend, we watched Guns, Germs, & Steel and she enjoyed that, too.
She finished reading Touch This! for physics and will work in Physics Workshop for a couple of hours this afternoon, after ice skating and band.
Latin is still going well, steadily but surely. Two more weeks and Lively Latin will be finished! Logic is going well, too; she completed two or three problems in Mind Benders, and four pages in Orbiting with Logic. We both are enjoying having the Level 1 poems on an every other day schedule (for memory work).
Last week was a break from piano lessons (her teacher was out of town), and thanks to snow, there was no trumpet lesson last week either! Both returned to the schedule this week, and FB had tumbling class on Wednesday. They're in the throes of learning their lines for the end of year play for Master's Academy, and PC continues to be dragged along 'most everywhere.
19.2.10
Weekly Report: Week Twenty-Five [Version One]
I'm beginning to think maybe I slowed down Latin too much - mainly because she's in the throes of more history and derivative work than specific Latin work. One day a week she reviews the previous week's material and then plays the online vocabulary games.
All of her language arts work is continuing to go well, though we're starting to wind down on the Island level. She and her dad are continuing to do her read-aloud nightly, slowly working their way through The Hunt for Red October. The week's literature selection was Code Talker. I had a hunch that she would really like this book, and I was gratified to be right. She's finished The Music of the Hemispheres and we're re-reading one chapter daily, then discussing one or more of her memorized poems that are good examples for the topic discussed in the chapter. She's also reviewing the stems in Building Language, and started a re-reading of Sentence Island. I know we zoomed through the Island level, so this review and re-reading while she finishes up Practice Island doesn't seem like too much busywork. She finished sentences 61-80 in Practice Island and is showing good retention.
More good news in math - she passed drill level 31! She also completed lessons 51 through 55 in Life of Fred, and pages 37-43 in Key to Percents Book 1.
History this week centered around the aftermath of World War II. She wrote a one-paragraph summary for each section of the chapter in SOTW 4, "The Suez Crisis" and "The Marshall Plan." The former was especially detailed and well-written! She also read Victory in the Pacific and Anne Frank; the biographies and supplemental history books are starting to lag behind SOTW, thanks to all the good books about World War II!
Due to our mid-week trip (see Version Two), EG didn't have physics or The Brain this week, but did read in the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science. We also elected not to introduce new memory work this week, but got into a good groove with the new every other day schedule. In Orbiting with Logic, she did pages 31-37, and two Mind Benders.
FB is doing great, too. I've realized that I have no idea what an "emergent reader" actually looks like. EG went from "not really reading" to "reading chapter books" in less than a month, and my mom remembers me being similar. So I think FB would be classified as an emergent reader, but I really have no earthly idea. He's doing well with sounding out two-consonant blends as well as his overall blend-together process. Math is going well, too, though clearly he sometimes thinks RS is too easy and other times strange. So far it's balanced between the two, so that's good. He's progressing forward in handwriting, so I went ahead and bought Spelling Workout A from amazon. We'll start it next week or the week after, if I can keep him away from it for that long!
I can't believe we've finished day 125 already!
All of her language arts work is continuing to go well, though we're starting to wind down on the Island level. She and her dad are continuing to do her read-aloud nightly, slowly working their way through The Hunt for Red October. The week's literature selection was Code Talker. I had a hunch that she would really like this book, and I was gratified to be right. She's finished The Music of the Hemispheres and we're re-reading one chapter daily, then discussing one or more of her memorized poems that are good examples for the topic discussed in the chapter. She's also reviewing the stems in Building Language, and started a re-reading of Sentence Island. I know we zoomed through the Island level, so this review and re-reading while she finishes up Practice Island doesn't seem like too much busywork. She finished sentences 61-80 in Practice Island and is showing good retention.
More good news in math - she passed drill level 31! She also completed lessons 51 through 55 in Life of Fred, and pages 37-43 in Key to Percents Book 1.
History this week centered around the aftermath of World War II. She wrote a one-paragraph summary for each section of the chapter in SOTW 4, "The Suez Crisis" and "The Marshall Plan." The former was especially detailed and well-written! She also read Victory in the Pacific and Anne Frank; the biographies and supplemental history books are starting to lag behind SOTW, thanks to all the good books about World War II!
Due to our mid-week trip (see Version Two), EG didn't have physics or The Brain this week, but did read in the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science. We also elected not to introduce new memory work this week, but got into a good groove with the new every other day schedule. In Orbiting with Logic, she did pages 31-37, and two Mind Benders.
FB is doing great, too. I've realized that I have no idea what an "emergent reader" actually looks like. EG went from "not really reading" to "reading chapter books" in less than a month, and my mom remembers me being similar. So I think FB would be classified as an emergent reader, but I really have no earthly idea. He's doing well with sounding out two-consonant blends as well as his overall blend-together process. Math is going well, too, though clearly he sometimes thinks RS is too easy and other times strange. So far it's balanced between the two, so that's good. He's progressing forward in handwriting, so I went ahead and bought Spelling Workout A from amazon. We'll start it next week or the week after, if I can keep him away from it for that long!
I can't believe we've finished day 125 already!
12.2.10
Weekly Report: Week Twenty-Four
We've decided FB will learn to spell before he officially passes from "emergent reader" to "fluent reader." Hey, I'm all right with that, but it is pretty funny when he takes the magnet board, spells out what he wants to read, and then reads it. He's doing well with Right Start A, too - I think we did three or four lessons this week. I am skipping the writing numbers portions of RS, because we're covering that in Handwriting Without Tears. Speaking of HWT, FB finished with his capital letters! He's excited to learn lower case letters. I think I'll start with 'b,' since he uses it consistently already.
PC remains ruler of the house, Queen of the Universe, etc., etc.
EG continues to be doing excellently. I'll be working on ramping up her stuff after we take our mid-winter mini-break, coming up soon. The big news for this week is that she finished both All About Spelling Level 5 and Sentence Island! She continued working through The Music of the Hemispheres and Practice Island, which combined with penmanship and her reading & narrations of Number the Stars and Twenty and Ten, sums up her language arts work for the week.
In math, she continued with daily drill, finished lessons 46-50 in Life of Fred, and did pages 31-36 in Key to Percents Book 1. She also did three pages in Orbiting with Logic and one Mind Bender. For science, she worked for two hours in the Physics Workshop kit, and read in The Cartoon Guide to Physics.
She read about the beginnings of apartheid for history and read about Jackie Robinson and D-Day in her assigned books. Latin was more vocabulary review and work on diagramming Latin sentences.
I almost forgot - EG also finished Level 1 of Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization. That's nineteen poems! Plus, she's also memorized three history-related poems and two speeches. Memory work takes longer and longer, but now the Level 1 poems go to every other day status. Yay!
PC remains ruler of the house, Queen of the Universe, etc., etc.
EG continues to be doing excellently. I'll be working on ramping up her stuff after we take our mid-winter mini-break, coming up soon. The big news for this week is that she finished both All About Spelling Level 5 and Sentence Island! She continued working through The Music of the Hemispheres and Practice Island, which combined with penmanship and her reading & narrations of Number the Stars and Twenty and Ten, sums up her language arts work for the week.
In math, she continued with daily drill, finished lessons 46-50 in Life of Fred, and did pages 31-36 in Key to Percents Book 1. She also did three pages in Orbiting with Logic and one Mind Bender. For science, she worked for two hours in the Physics Workshop kit, and read in The Cartoon Guide to Physics.
She read about the beginnings of apartheid for history and read about Jackie Robinson and D-Day in her assigned books. Latin was more vocabulary review and work on diagramming Latin sentences.
I almost forgot - EG also finished Level 1 of Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization. That's nineteen poems! Plus, she's also memorized three history-related poems and two speeches. Memory work takes longer and longer, but now the Level 1 poems go to every other day status. Yay!
5.2.10
Weekly Report: Week Twenty-Three
EG is zipping through her work. She's done this to me for three Februaries running now; I'm quite certain it's somehow linked to her half-birthday, but it means that suddenly mid-year I must figure out how to get her work back up to the "challenge" level. I knew it was coming, but I still wasn't fully prepared for it.
EG is still doing well with math. Drill each day, one lesson in Beginning Algebra each day, and I've started giving her an assignment that just says "By Today" on Friday. Right now, that's in Key to Percents, and it's up to her if she spreads the pages out or does them all in one go. Sometimes she'll do them on Sunday afternoon; this week she did them (about six pages) on Wednesday afternoon.
This week for history, she read about the end of World War II, and wrote her summary about the atomic bomb. She read a biography of FDR, as well as Battle in the Arctic Seas and The Great Escape. Science is two-stranded right now; on Tuesday, she completed Chapter 1.5 and part of Chapter 2 in Ellen McHenry's The Brain, and on Thursday, it was back to physics with more about force, motion, and energy.
Memory work is continuing to go very well. She's still working on an excerpt from "I Have A Dream," and is about to complete Level One of IEW's poetry memorization program. I think we're both excited to move to the "every other day" schedule. :) She also finished three lessons in Orbiting with Logic, about logical notation (which, she tells me, she doesn't particularly enjoy).
She completed two lessons, an exercise, and two portions of history for Lively Latin. She's still moving relatively fast, but the slower pace has been good for the vocabulary to cement, I think.
We still love MCT language arts! She's now finished the vocabulary book, and is moving rapidly through the other books as well. Despite the fast pace, I am glad we started with the Island level, if for no other reason than Sentence Island. I can see her using the concepts in her literature narrations and history summaries. She also finished two steps in AAS Level 5, which means we are on track to finish it... next week. Gulp. Level 6 has not been released yet! We will likely take the following week as a break, and then do some comprehensive review for a few weeks. Beyond that, I don't know... she does still need help with spelling, so dropping spelling altogether isn't a good option.
EG is also doing a short story class with Smrt Mama, so she worked on her timeline and discussed conflict and resolution. Finally, she read Escape from Warsaw and wrote a narration for it.
FB is making steady progress, too. He's ripping through Right Start A, which is what I expected, more or less. I like knowing that all of it will be reviewed in Right Start B, so if he doesn't completely internalize the meaning of "equilateral triangle," we're still good. EG likes to do pages in Miquon Orange with him. In fact, she told me the other day that she wished she had less schoolwork so that she could teach FB all of his subjects. I told her that wasn't necessary, but I am happy to let them play together with Miquon. (It was actually at EG's request that I bought it.) FB is also doing well, still, with writing, and I can see glimmers of progress with regard to phonics. He can read, albeit somewhat slow and painfully. He sounded out a consonant blend on his own this week, though!
PC is still being ferociously wild and sneaky. She is also the Queen, and if you don't believe her, just ask her siblings.
EG is still doing well with math. Drill each day, one lesson in Beginning Algebra each day, and I've started giving her an assignment that just says "By Today" on Friday. Right now, that's in Key to Percents, and it's up to her if she spreads the pages out or does them all in one go. Sometimes she'll do them on Sunday afternoon; this week she did them (about six pages) on Wednesday afternoon.
This week for history, she read about the end of World War II, and wrote her summary about the atomic bomb. She read a biography of FDR, as well as Battle in the Arctic Seas and The Great Escape. Science is two-stranded right now; on Tuesday, she completed Chapter 1.5 and part of Chapter 2 in Ellen McHenry's The Brain, and on Thursday, it was back to physics with more about force, motion, and energy.
Memory work is continuing to go very well. She's still working on an excerpt from "I Have A Dream," and is about to complete Level One of IEW's poetry memorization program. I think we're both excited to move to the "every other day" schedule. :) She also finished three lessons in Orbiting with Logic, about logical notation (which, she tells me, she doesn't particularly enjoy).
She completed two lessons, an exercise, and two portions of history for Lively Latin. She's still moving relatively fast, but the slower pace has been good for the vocabulary to cement, I think.
We still love MCT language arts! She's now finished the vocabulary book, and is moving rapidly through the other books as well. Despite the fast pace, I am glad we started with the Island level, if for no other reason than Sentence Island. I can see her using the concepts in her literature narrations and history summaries. She also finished two steps in AAS Level 5, which means we are on track to finish it... next week. Gulp. Level 6 has not been released yet! We will likely take the following week as a break, and then do some comprehensive review for a few weeks. Beyond that, I don't know... she does still need help with spelling, so dropping spelling altogether isn't a good option.
EG is also doing a short story class with Smrt Mama, so she worked on her timeline and discussed conflict and resolution. Finally, she read Escape from Warsaw and wrote a narration for it.
FB is making steady progress, too. He's ripping through Right Start A, which is what I expected, more or less. I like knowing that all of it will be reviewed in Right Start B, so if he doesn't completely internalize the meaning of "equilateral triangle," we're still good. EG likes to do pages in Miquon Orange with him. In fact, she told me the other day that she wished she had less schoolwork so that she could teach FB all of his subjects. I told her that wasn't necessary, but I am happy to let them play together with Miquon. (It was actually at EG's request that I bought it.) FB is also doing well, still, with writing, and I can see glimmers of progress with regard to phonics. He can read, albeit somewhat slow and painfully. He sounded out a consonant blend on his own this week, though!
PC is still being ferociously wild and sneaky. She is also the Queen, and if you don't believe her, just ask her siblings.
29.1.10
Weekly Report: Week Twenty-Two
Number-style, as my brain is fried.
By the Numbers
Five lessons in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra
Four pages in Key to Percents
Three pages of Level 15 drill
Two pages of Level 31 drill
Many sentences in Practice Island
Five stems in Building Language
Four activities in Sentence Island
Three poems analyzed in The Music of the Hemispheres
One literature book
One summary about said book
Two paragraphs of prewriting for a short story
Thirty pages of read aloud
Four lessons or exercises of Latin
Two books about the Holocaust
Two books about World War II
One biography of Eleanor Roosevelt
One summary on how World War II was three wars in one
One unit of The Brain
Three activities in Water Physics
One book about force and motion
Three pages of logic
One hundred twenty minutes of piano practice
Three lessons in Right Start A
Five or six pages in Miquon Orange
Five pages in Handwriting Without Tears
Many, many CVC words
An enormous number of picture books
By the Numbers
Five lessons in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra
Four pages in Key to Percents
Three pages of Level 15 drill
Two pages of Level 31 drill
Many sentences in Practice Island
Five stems in Building Language
Four activities in Sentence Island
Three poems analyzed in The Music of the Hemispheres
One literature book
One summary about said book
Two paragraphs of prewriting for a short story
Thirty pages of read aloud
Four lessons or exercises of Latin
Two books about the Holocaust
Two books about World War II
One biography of Eleanor Roosevelt
One summary on how World War II was three wars in one
One unit of The Brain
Three activities in Water Physics
One book about force and motion
Three pages of logic
One hundred twenty minutes of piano practice
Three lessons in Right Start A
Five or six pages in Miquon Orange
Five pages in Handwriting Without Tears
Many, many CVC words
An enormous number of picture books
22.1.10
Weekly Report: Week Twenty-One
This was a good week.
Let me rephrase that: this was a really good week.
It was one of those weeks that you need to bottle up and save, so that you can open the bottle and remember it during the bad weeks. What made it so great? I'm not sure. I will say that we decided to ditch Classical Writing. Both EG and I felt like we were putting in a huge amount of time for very little, if any, gain. I spent a lot of my weekend listening to the new SWB mp3 talks on writing, and felt confident enough to toss it. So we did.
What did we do this week?
EG wrote a narration for The War of the Worlds (not an easy task), read Journey to America, and wrote a narration for it as well. (Look! Cross-curricular writing! We have time for it without Classical Writing!)
She did penmanship each day, and completed Steps 20, 21, and 22 in All About Spelling Level 5. She finished Grammar Island, started Practice Island, kept working through Building Language, and started both The Music of the Hemispheres and Sentence Island on Thursday.
EG did drill each day, but didn't pass any further levels; she also completed pages 13-16 in Key to Percents Book 1. She did Lessons 31 to 35 in Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra, finishing up Chapter 4.
History this week covered Spain and Franco's rise to power as well as the start of World War II. She read a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as Children of Great Depression, and wrote her summary on Francisco Franco. (See! More cross-curricular writing!)
For Physics, she read Cool Stuff and How It Works, and started doing the workshops and experiments in Physics Workshop. She especially liked the sail car.
Latin is still proceeding well. I've built in one day a week for just review and vocabulary games online, which will slow her down a little more. She will still finish Lively Latin about six weeks before the end of the school year. She did pages 17, 18, and 19 in Orbiting with Logic and is close to having mastered the excerpt of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. She also did two Mind Benders puzzles in book B4.
All of this, plus thirty minutes of piano practice daily, thirty minutes of trumpet practice daily, and fifteen minutes of vision therapy on the computer daily. She also had stroke clinic Wednesday night (and tonight, since the Y was closed on Monday) and Master's Academy on Monday. MIL came to do Christmas with us Monday night, we went to the park on Tuesday, and EG had time to play lots with her siblings all week and even drag out her Snap Circuits for an hour or so.
As I said, a really good week.
FB worked on C, O, and G, and he actually does better making smaller letters rather than larger ones. We're still working on phonics. I think he's putting a little more effort into it but sometimes it is hard to say. Overall, though, I feel like he's making forward progress, and that's a Good Thing.
I put together my shopping list for 2010-2011, at least as far as curriculum resources go. It's actually pretty short: math, Latin, language arts, logic, and drawing skills. Then there are all the lines that just say "x books." History, science, art, you name it, plus science kits. Finally, there's the online courses, which we can't really purchase ahead. We're testing the online course thing later this year. I'm hoping it works, because I'd like for EG to take a few different courses next year.
Let me rephrase that: this was a really good week.
It was one of those weeks that you need to bottle up and save, so that you can open the bottle and remember it during the bad weeks. What made it so great? I'm not sure. I will say that we decided to ditch Classical Writing. Both EG and I felt like we were putting in a huge amount of time for very little, if any, gain. I spent a lot of my weekend listening to the new SWB mp3 talks on writing, and felt confident enough to toss it. So we did.
What did we do this week?
EG wrote a narration for The War of the Worlds (not an easy task), read Journey to America, and wrote a narration for it as well. (Look! Cross-curricular writing! We have time for it without Classical Writing!)
She did penmanship each day, and completed Steps 20, 21, and 22 in All About Spelling Level 5. She finished Grammar Island, started Practice Island, kept working through Building Language, and started both The Music of the Hemispheres and Sentence Island on Thursday.
EG did drill each day, but didn't pass any further levels; she also completed pages 13-16 in Key to Percents Book 1. She did Lessons 31 to 35 in Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra, finishing up Chapter 4.
History this week covered Spain and Franco's rise to power as well as the start of World War II. She read a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as Children of Great Depression, and wrote her summary on Francisco Franco. (See! More cross-curricular writing!)
For Physics, she read Cool Stuff and How It Works, and started doing the workshops and experiments in Physics Workshop. She especially liked the sail car.
Latin is still proceeding well. I've built in one day a week for just review and vocabulary games online, which will slow her down a little more. She will still finish Lively Latin about six weeks before the end of the school year. She did pages 17, 18, and 19 in Orbiting with Logic and is close to having mastered the excerpt of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. She also did two Mind Benders puzzles in book B4.
All of this, plus thirty minutes of piano practice daily, thirty minutes of trumpet practice daily, and fifteen minutes of vision therapy on the computer daily. She also had stroke clinic Wednesday night (and tonight, since the Y was closed on Monday) and Master's Academy on Monday. MIL came to do Christmas with us Monday night, we went to the park on Tuesday, and EG had time to play lots with her siblings all week and even drag out her Snap Circuits for an hour or so.
As I said, a really good week.
FB worked on C, O, and G, and he actually does better making smaller letters rather than larger ones. We're still working on phonics. I think he's putting a little more effort into it but sometimes it is hard to say. Overall, though, I feel like he's making forward progress, and that's a Good Thing.
I put together my shopping list for 2010-2011, at least as far as curriculum resources go. It's actually pretty short: math, Latin, language arts, logic, and drawing skills. Then there are all the lines that just say "x books." History, science, art, you name it, plus science kits. Finally, there's the online courses, which we can't really purchase ahead. We're testing the online course thing later this year. I'm hoping it works, because I'd like for EG to take a few different courses next year.
15.1.10
Weekly Report: Week Twenty
Fabulous Boy is getting tickets.
I should explain. The more I looked into various phonics programs, it seemed like many of them cost more because they implemented rewards. He needed both a change of pace and possibly a reward system. So, now he is getting tickets for his phonics lessons, and we're using the McGuffey's Primer we already had, at least for a little while. He can do this if he will just focus on it. I read early, Eclectic Girl read early... FB is approaching five and though I know I shouldn't, it is freaking me out, just a bit. He's been at the same stage of readiness for over a year, though, and he recognizes some words. He is clearly capable. I just have to convince him to DO IT. We're continuing to do everything else informally, but starting next week we're going to be more formal about handwriting again, and then the week or two after that, more formal math again. He has discovered our Equilibrio blocks & books recently and has done a lot of playing with those. The kids' Valentines Day presents from us for all three is (finally!) our own soma cube and towers of hanoi. My dad has these and I passed many a fun hour with them growing up. I think FB will enjoy them.
Purple Child is trying to learn her alphabet. No, really. We have the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics, and she carries it with her around the house, pressing the button for the alphabet song and trying to sing along. We keep the "B" in it (her first initial). I need to buy a replacement "E," as she sent it down the register a few months ago when we were painting. Oops.
Eclectic Girl had a decent week. Doing Latin for just fifteen minutes a day has been a good change so far. We'll still finish up Lively Latin with weeks to spare, as she's already starting Lesson Fifteen out of sixteen. Then we'll have to decide whether to start Latin Prep 1 this year or just review what she already knows over the summer, starting fresh in the autumn.
Another good change has been the Michael Clay Thompson language arts materials. She finished the parts of speech section of Grammar Island and has started on Building Language as well. Yes, I did back her up to the beginning, though I probably could have put her in the Town level. She's zooming through, and while I suspect she'll be ready for Magic Lens 1 at the beginning of sixth grade, it's not the end of the world if she's *gasp* doing Magic Lens 3 and related materials in ninth grade. The important thing is that she's enjoying it and seems to be grasping the concepts well - in a way that lets her apply them elsewhere. That is pure gold!
Elsewhere in the language arts category, spelling is going decently. She completed steps 18, 19, and most of 20 this week, which puts us on track to finish up All About Spelling Level 5 during the first half of February. I don't think Level 6 is projected to be released before then, so we'll likely take two to three weeks off and then do some extensive review.
For various reasons, EG has been doing both CW: Homer A and CW: Poetry for Beginners A. I'm sort of frustrated with Homer. There is a lot of work but I feel like we're still rehashing Writing Tales 2. I have a sneaking suspicion that since she's ahead (though not as much in language skills as math, obviously), and since WT2 did such a great job preparing her for Homer, I could have gone with Older Beginners. Grr, argh, gnash teeth, et cetera. I am going to do some digging this weekend and I may order the OB workbook and instructor's guide (I already have the core text for Homer). I added poetry thinking it would at least add something different. I can't believe people say poetry is a lighter workload than Homer! I'm not finding that to be the case at all. There's more physical writing with Home, but EG and I both have to think quite a bit more with poetry!
On the math front, this was not a good week for drill. Let's just leave it there. :) EG did lessons twenty-six through thirty in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. She continues to impress me with regards to math. There's very little else to say there. We're looking at possibly enrolling her in one of the Art of Problem Solving courses soon.
In physics this week, the heat unit was concluded, and EG read about heat in the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science. There isn't much to do with thermodynamics at age nine, regardless of how well you may understand the concept.
History this week covered the Great Depression and Hitler's rise to power. EG read Six Days in October as well as a COFA biography of Walt Disney, in addition to her spine reading. She also started a new memory project: an excerpt of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. When we arrive at the 1950s and 1960s in history, we'll spend a day downtown at the historic site. (Speaking of civil rights, everyone should read the back story of General Larry Platt - so cool!)
Miscellaneous... I discovered that FB had memorized six poems just from listening to EG recite them, so clearly, I can require more memory work out of him. EG finished poem #15 of level one. She also worked on several pages in Orbiting with Logic.
Piano lessons resumed this week, as did Master's Academy and homeschool band. FB's tumbling class restarted and I got the "official" permission to enroll him in the last session this spring (technically he'll age out of it three weeks before the start of the last session). I need to start researching gymnastics options for him... I think he would get a kick out of some of the apparatus (I guess that should be apparati or apparata) and the like.
For me, I was excited to see the sessions from the 2009 WTM Conference are now available on mp3! I bought those this morning. I've also been re-reading WTM (which I try to do at least once a year), but this year, I'm reading it by subject, rather than as written. So I've followed the language arts strand all the way through, K-12, and now I'm poring over math, K-12. It's been a good way to notice the "threads" going through it.
I should explain. The more I looked into various phonics programs, it seemed like many of them cost more because they implemented rewards. He needed both a change of pace and possibly a reward system. So, now he is getting tickets for his phonics lessons, and we're using the McGuffey's Primer we already had, at least for a little while. He can do this if he will just focus on it. I read early, Eclectic Girl read early... FB is approaching five and though I know I shouldn't, it is freaking me out, just a bit. He's been at the same stage of readiness for over a year, though, and he recognizes some words. He is clearly capable. I just have to convince him to DO IT. We're continuing to do everything else informally, but starting next week we're going to be more formal about handwriting again, and then the week or two after that, more formal math again. He has discovered our Equilibrio blocks & books recently and has done a lot of playing with those. The kids' Valentines Day presents from us for all three is (finally!) our own soma cube and towers of hanoi. My dad has these and I passed many a fun hour with them growing up. I think FB will enjoy them.
Purple Child is trying to learn her alphabet. No, really. We have the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics, and she carries it with her around the house, pressing the button for the alphabet song and trying to sing along. We keep the "B" in it (her first initial). I need to buy a replacement "E," as she sent it down the register a few months ago when we were painting. Oops.
Eclectic Girl had a decent week. Doing Latin for just fifteen minutes a day has been a good change so far. We'll still finish up Lively Latin with weeks to spare, as she's already starting Lesson Fifteen out of sixteen. Then we'll have to decide whether to start Latin Prep 1 this year or just review what she already knows over the summer, starting fresh in the autumn.
Another good change has been the Michael Clay Thompson language arts materials. She finished the parts of speech section of Grammar Island and has started on Building Language as well. Yes, I did back her up to the beginning, though I probably could have put her in the Town level. She's zooming through, and while I suspect she'll be ready for Magic Lens 1 at the beginning of sixth grade, it's not the end of the world if she's *gasp* doing Magic Lens 3 and related materials in ninth grade. The important thing is that she's enjoying it and seems to be grasping the concepts well - in a way that lets her apply them elsewhere. That is pure gold!
Elsewhere in the language arts category, spelling is going decently. She completed steps 18, 19, and most of 20 this week, which puts us on track to finish up All About Spelling Level 5 during the first half of February. I don't think Level 6 is projected to be released before then, so we'll likely take two to three weeks off and then do some extensive review.
For various reasons, EG has been doing both CW: Homer A and CW: Poetry for Beginners A. I'm sort of frustrated with Homer. There is a lot of work but I feel like we're still rehashing Writing Tales 2. I have a sneaking suspicion that since she's ahead (though not as much in language skills as math, obviously), and since WT2 did such a great job preparing her for Homer, I could have gone with Older Beginners. Grr, argh, gnash teeth, et cetera. I am going to do some digging this weekend and I may order the OB workbook and instructor's guide (I already have the core text for Homer). I added poetry thinking it would at least add something different. I can't believe people say poetry is a lighter workload than Homer! I'm not finding that to be the case at all. There's more physical writing with Home, but EG and I both have to think quite a bit more with poetry!
On the math front, this was not a good week for drill. Let's just leave it there. :) EG did lessons twenty-six through thirty in Life of Fred Beginning Algebra. She continues to impress me with regards to math. There's very little else to say there. We're looking at possibly enrolling her in one of the Art of Problem Solving courses soon.
In physics this week, the heat unit was concluded, and EG read about heat in the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science. There isn't much to do with thermodynamics at age nine, regardless of how well you may understand the concept.
History this week covered the Great Depression and Hitler's rise to power. EG read Six Days in October as well as a COFA biography of Walt Disney, in addition to her spine reading. She also started a new memory project: an excerpt of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. When we arrive at the 1950s and 1960s in history, we'll spend a day downtown at the historic site. (Speaking of civil rights, everyone should read the back story of General Larry Platt - so cool!)
Miscellaneous... I discovered that FB had memorized six poems just from listening to EG recite them, so clearly, I can require more memory work out of him. EG finished poem #15 of level one. She also worked on several pages in Orbiting with Logic.
Piano lessons resumed this week, as did Master's Academy and homeschool band. FB's tumbling class restarted and I got the "official" permission to enroll him in the last session this spring (technically he'll age out of it three weeks before the start of the last session). I need to start researching gymnastics options for him... I think he would get a kick out of some of the apparatus (I guess that should be apparati or apparata) and the like.
For me, I was excited to see the sessions from the 2009 WTM Conference are now available on mp3! I bought those this morning. I've also been re-reading WTM (which I try to do at least once a year), but this year, I'm reading it by subject, rather than as written. So I've followed the language arts strand all the way through, K-12, and now I'm poring over math, K-12. It's been a good way to notice the "threads" going through it.
8.1.10
Weekly Report: Week Nineteen, plus SNOW!
Yes, we have actual snow on the ground! Some of it is bending to the will of the sun and melting, but that's actually a bad thing in this case: the temperature is no where near freezing, much less above it. So here we sit, rather happily snug at home. Even the Daddy character is working from home thanks to the weather!
Our first week of the second semester has gone really well. Big things? We resumed doing spelling, and EG finished steps 16, 17, and 18. We also got the first book we're going to use from Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts program, and started it today. Being obsessive-compulsive, and being that my entire reason for switching was what I saw as an inability to transfer knowledge and apply it elsewhere, we decided to start with the Island level. I anticipate that EG will zoom through it, and I think she'll have finish through the Voyage level by the end of fifth grade, but start at the beginning we shall. We read through the introduction today (got the book yesterday), as well as the sections on nouns and pronouns. We also cracked open Classical Writing's Poetry for Beginners A.
I have to say, either Writing Tales 2 just really prepared EG (& I as the teacher) well for Homer, or I just have a bias against poetry, or something, because lighter workload than Homer? Not so much, in my opinion. Oh, I like it, and yes, I realize we're going to end up with multiple writing and poetry programs thanks to MCT, but lighter than Homer? I'm not so sure about that.
EG worked for less time each day on Latin, but I think it's a good pace. She finished the first eight lessons in Orbitting with Logic, and of course did one lesson per day in algebra. History this week covered Mussolini's rise to power, amongst other topics. She and Captain Science started a unit on heat, which will be short-lived - just this week and next. It's difficult to find appropriate experiments for thermodynamics, what can I say.
FB and I are set to do some phonics work later today and over the weekend, and he's been cutting up a storm (in his cutting workbook) most of the week. PC remains determined to interrupt schoolwork whenever possible.
Finally, I cleared my desk yesterday, and even started hammering out a few details for next school year, such as our overall calendar. Hopefully, I'll get a bit more on that accomplished later today.
Our first week of the second semester has gone really well. Big things? We resumed doing spelling, and EG finished steps 16, 17, and 18. We also got the first book we're going to use from Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts program, and started it today. Being obsessive-compulsive, and being that my entire reason for switching was what I saw as an inability to transfer knowledge and apply it elsewhere, we decided to start with the Island level. I anticipate that EG will zoom through it, and I think she'll have finish through the Voyage level by the end of fifth grade, but start at the beginning we shall. We read through the introduction today (got the book yesterday), as well as the sections on nouns and pronouns. We also cracked open Classical Writing's Poetry for Beginners A.
I have to say, either Writing Tales 2 just really prepared EG (& I as the teacher) well for Homer, or I just have a bias against poetry, or something, because lighter workload than Homer? Not so much, in my opinion. Oh, I like it, and yes, I realize we're going to end up with multiple writing and poetry programs thanks to MCT, but lighter than Homer? I'm not so sure about that.
EG worked for less time each day on Latin, but I think it's a good pace. She finished the first eight lessons in Orbitting with Logic, and of course did one lesson per day in algebra. History this week covered Mussolini's rise to power, amongst other topics. She and Captain Science started a unit on heat, which will be short-lived - just this week and next. It's difficult to find appropriate experiments for thermodynamics, what can I say.
FB and I are set to do some phonics work later today and over the weekend, and he's been cutting up a storm (in his cutting workbook) most of the week. PC remains determined to interrupt schoolwork whenever possible.
Finally, I cleared my desk yesterday, and even started hammering out a few details for next school year, such as our overall calendar. Hopefully, I'll get a bit more on that accomplished later today.
31.12.09
January Itch
It usually starts a bit before January, but it's easy to push it aside in the hustle of the holidays. In January, though, as grey, dreary, and routine replace lights, frivolity, and get-togethers, it returns, with a vengeance. I think it tends to continue onwards into February, as well. Even though planning for school never really stops, it seems like the desire to revamp, toss, discover, and plot reaches its zenith in January, and therefore its moniker - the January Itch.
For us, the end of the first semester represents the halfway mark for our year. It's a good time to assess what has worked and what has not. Since we've been using the materials for half a year, though, it's also easy to be a bit tired of some. It's easy to start wondering about the topics that will be covered in the next year.
This time around, it's not set in so badly with regards to history, because EG is deep in the throes of learning about the twentieth century, and I adore twentieth century history. It's no big deal for me to ignore the upcoming return to the ancients. There's still about eighty action-packed years to go until she reaches the present.
There's still plenty to discover and plan, though, especially as FB will officially be kindergarten age next year - plus I feel that I've neglected him shamefully so far this year. He is, thankfully, only four, so he will survive and prosper nonetheless, but it's a bit bad when the four year old is asking for more school. He's asked for a new, different approach to phonics, as well, which is definitely an area I will have to research.
What am I looking for, this January Itch? Finalizing science plans for next year, and possibly for a couple of years. Planning out a significant portion of the history syllabus. Starting a new approach to grammar and vocabulary for EG. Reworking our approach to Latin. Getting a good handle on Classical Writing: Homer as well as Poetry for Beginners.
And, of course, continuing to pack, followed by selling our house, buying our new house, and moving. Piece of cake, right? Just to be safe, I think I'll start a few hours early... GO!
For us, the end of the first semester represents the halfway mark for our year. It's a good time to assess what has worked and what has not. Since we've been using the materials for half a year, though, it's also easy to be a bit tired of some. It's easy to start wondering about the topics that will be covered in the next year.
This time around, it's not set in so badly with regards to history, because EG is deep in the throes of learning about the twentieth century, and I adore twentieth century history. It's no big deal for me to ignore the upcoming return to the ancients. There's still about eighty action-packed years to go until she reaches the present.
There's still plenty to discover and plan, though, especially as FB will officially be kindergarten age next year - plus I feel that I've neglected him shamefully so far this year. He is, thankfully, only four, so he will survive and prosper nonetheless, but it's a bit bad when the four year old is asking for more school. He's asked for a new, different approach to phonics, as well, which is definitely an area I will have to research.
What am I looking for, this January Itch? Finalizing science plans for next year, and possibly for a couple of years. Planning out a significant portion of the history syllabus. Starting a new approach to grammar and vocabulary for EG. Reworking our approach to Latin. Getting a good handle on Classical Writing: Homer as well as Poetry for Beginners.
And, of course, continuing to pack, followed by selling our house, buying our new house, and moving. Piece of cake, right? Just to be safe, I think I'll start a few hours early... GO!
11.12.09
Weekly Report: Weeks Fifteen, Sixteen, & Seventeen
Yes, I've missed a few weeks. Week fifteen ended with PC's birthday, followed by Thanksgiving, and last week... I have no idea what happened. Suffice it to say that the weekly report just didn't happen.
We've had productive weeks, though. EG has moved firmly into the 20th century in her history studies, which is a time period I just adore. She's read several books about World War I, the suffrage movement, and important figures of the first few decades of the 1900s. Most of her literature reading has been historical fiction about the same time periods. Memory work has gone well, too, and she added "In Flanders Field" to coincide with her study of World War I.
In science, the unit on light was finally completed, and we've proceeded onwards to water physics. At last! That will be finished before we break for Christmas. Math is going well - she's officially started algebra and is having a lot of fun with it! She's also finished all of the Key to Decimals books and all the Key to Measurement books.
Latin is still going well, though I think we're going to take it a little slower in the next semester. Because she still has issues with spelling in English, she uses her flashcards to help her spell the words in Latin. So there's definite value in her study of Latin, but I don't want to proceed too fast so that she becomes frustrated with her inability to put her correct answers in a readable form. Plus, I have to concede that we're not a Latin-centered homeschool, so a time investment of thirty minutes a day seems disproportionate.
EG also started her new writing curriculum - Classical Writing Homer A. So far, so good, though she's told me she thinks it's a little easy. I think it will start to crank up in the next few weeks. She's still proceeding through Junior Analytical Grammar. I love it. It's not seeming to help her retention any more than any other grammar she's used, though. It's strange. She can use proper grammar in writing, and she can complete any grammar text-specific exercise with flying colors. Ask her to extrapolate the knowledge to another context, though, and she just doesn't seem to make the connection. Since she's clearly able to do so in, well, every other subject, she clearly needs a different approach. We're looking at a couple of options.
We haven't done spelling in a few weeks. It was torturous for both of us and I decided it was better to take a break than to forge on hating every moment. We'll resume it after our break, in the new year. She has been able to start doing some work in cursive penmanship - hooray!
Co-op, band, and Master's Academy have all ended until January, but piano lessons will continue through next week.
FB insists that he doesn't need to learn how to read, but continues to work hard on his handwriting and wants a spelling book. Go figure.
We've had productive weeks, though. EG has moved firmly into the 20th century in her history studies, which is a time period I just adore. She's read several books about World War I, the suffrage movement, and important figures of the first few decades of the 1900s. Most of her literature reading has been historical fiction about the same time periods. Memory work has gone well, too, and she added "In Flanders Field" to coincide with her study of World War I.
In science, the unit on light was finally completed, and we've proceeded onwards to water physics. At last! That will be finished before we break for Christmas. Math is going well - she's officially started algebra and is having a lot of fun with it! She's also finished all of the Key to Decimals books and all the Key to Measurement books.
Latin is still going well, though I think we're going to take it a little slower in the next semester. Because she still has issues with spelling in English, she uses her flashcards to help her spell the words in Latin. So there's definite value in her study of Latin, but I don't want to proceed too fast so that she becomes frustrated with her inability to put her correct answers in a readable form. Plus, I have to concede that we're not a Latin-centered homeschool, so a time investment of thirty minutes a day seems disproportionate.
EG also started her new writing curriculum - Classical Writing Homer A. So far, so good, though she's told me she thinks it's a little easy. I think it will start to crank up in the next few weeks. She's still proceeding through Junior Analytical Grammar. I love it. It's not seeming to help her retention any more than any other grammar she's used, though. It's strange. She can use proper grammar in writing, and she can complete any grammar text-specific exercise with flying colors. Ask her to extrapolate the knowledge to another context, though, and she just doesn't seem to make the connection. Since she's clearly able to do so in, well, every other subject, she clearly needs a different approach. We're looking at a couple of options.
We haven't done spelling in a few weeks. It was torturous for both of us and I decided it was better to take a break than to forge on hating every moment. We'll resume it after our break, in the new year. She has been able to start doing some work in cursive penmanship - hooray!
Co-op, band, and Master's Academy have all ended until January, but piano lessons will continue through next week.
FB insists that he doesn't need to learn how to read, but continues to work hard on his handwriting and wants a spelling book. Go figure.
24.11.09
B-R-E-A-K!
Hooray! Thanksgiving Break! Five glorious days before any more schoolwork has to be done. I'm not sure who is more excited - EG or I. :)
Between now and Monday, though, we're going to be relocating our school materials. Yes, part of the staging process. I'm feeling a little uncertain about it, but hoping that it will be extremely temporary. I'm not naive enough to think we'll sell the house, buy the new house, and move before January fourth or so, but by the end of January certainly seems like a reasonable goal... right?
EG will be starting a new writing program after Thanksgiving. She started Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra last week. She's in a good groove with the remaining subjects and materials (with, of course, our usual exception of spelling). Every year, between mid-November and the end of January, she makes a big leap. It surprises me still, because I keep thinking How can she leap still higher, but she does. I'm eager to see where her leap this year takes her.
Between now and Monday, though, we're going to be relocating our school materials. Yes, part of the staging process. I'm feeling a little uncertain about it, but hoping that it will be extremely temporary. I'm not naive enough to think we'll sell the house, buy the new house, and move before January fourth or so, but by the end of January certainly seems like a reasonable goal... right?
EG will be starting a new writing program after Thanksgiving. She started Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra last week. She's in a good groove with the remaining subjects and materials (with, of course, our usual exception of spelling). Every year, between mid-November and the end of January, she makes a big leap. It surprises me still, because I keep thinking How can she leap still higher, but she does. I'm eager to see where her leap this year takes her.
