An update while the kids are swim class with Dave....I just updated the sidebars, which helps me remember what we're doing differently now from 2 months ago. Milo's finally moved on to the kindergarten book in Handwriting Without Tears; really, he could have handled it much earlier, but I was kind of lazy about ordering it. He writes all his letters fairly well, but could definitely use some practice on form. It's funny--I think of him as one of those boys for whom handwriting is tough and tiring, and try to limit how much I have him do...but it really seems to be more my perception of things than his. It LOOKS like writing is hard for him, but he rarely complains about it. Of course, maybe that's because I don't make him do too much...at any rate, I think his handwriting's perfectly fine for a five year old boy, so I guess we'll keep doing what we're doing.
We've started using "Are They Thinking?" from Tin Man Press; it's a year long critical thinking curriculum, with a new activity for every day. It's supposed to be for grades 2 through 5, but Milo does fine with almost all the activities, and a lot of them are a bit easy for Ari. It's a fun way to start out the day and get their brains geared up for school. We have the beginning of the day routine down pretty well these days. We're all together for the Are They Thinking book (I have to print a copy out for Gus or he freaks out), Spanish, a Bible story, and the word of the day (from an Evan Moor book). Then I send Ari off to do math and grammar and Milo to do Explode the Code while I do "Gussie school" with Gus (mostly just reading stories). Milo usually finishes and comes back to listen to the tail end of that, and then I work with him on math and have him read to me. Then Gus and Milo are free to go play (or do some Starfall) while I go over Ari's math and grammar with him and we do Spanish and writing together. Afternoons are still a little more up in the air. We still generally take a long break for chores, free time, lunch, etc. after the morning stuff--but this is a holdover from when Gus still took naps, so we probably need to start moving right into independent reading (for Ari) and history or science so we can finish up by early afternoon. But then I'm kind of at the point in the year when I feel too set in our ways to change before the end of the school year.
Speaking of the end of the school year, I'm contemplating actually taking a long summer break this year (we usually go year round, but are pretty flexible in summer). Maybe we'll just take off from when Dave gets out of school until early July when we get back from our trip to the Cape. I feel like I might need a break to plan and refocus...and I'm also thinking school is going to start taking longer, at least for Ari, next year, so it might be good to have break before we transition to that.
The Nebel science book is still going well. I'm trying to decide whether I want to add something else in for next year...it does feel a little light at least for Ari's age. I'm thinking of getting Pandia Press' REAL Science. Right now we're also doing science once a week in co-op, so I feel like we're pretty covered at the moment.
Well, that's that. I've been slack not only on updating here but on taking pictures. So I'm going to try to do better on both counts. But we'll see....
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