Through November 20

I'm not one to sit down before a school year starts and map out exactly what pages we'll be doing week by week or anything like that.  I spend a good bit of time researching and putting materials together, but when it comes to the execution my planning method is more like: "finish Singapore 4 this year."  But then it seems like a good idea every now and then to take a look at where we are and whether we're making adequate progress toward these very broad sorts of goals.  The past couple of weeks I've been paying attention to where we are in our different subjects, and I'm pleased to report that we're not as hopelessly behind as I sort of felt like we were.  The halfway point for Dave's school year is the beginning of his Christmas break, and we're on track to be very close to halfway through with most all of our subjects.  This pleases me, as I was sure we were going to be trying desperately to finish up in July.  We made need a week or two past when Dave finishes, but not more than that.  History might be the exception...I bought a whole bunch of books last year, put them in chronological order on the shelf, and we've just been reading through them.  There are a lot of them left.  But that's okay, because they're enjoying the books, and that was the whole point of this year of history.

Tuesday was our last day of co-op classes until after the New Year.  Ari's chorus class had a little concert for the parents, during which they sang "Walk Like and Egyptian" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday."  I would post a picture of this, except blogger is not letting me post my pictures.  For reasons unknown.  I am frustrated.  Wait!  I figured it out!

This means I am all finished doing board game club!  Board game club was fine, but it was a little crazy and overwhelming at times. Lots of 4-6 year old boys and game pieces flying everywhere.  Next session, my friend Kristi and I are teaching a class on Caldecott winners for four to seven year olds.  We'll read and talk about the story the first half of the class, then do a craft relating to it the second half.  I saw the preliminary class offerings for the next session, and it looks like there will be a lot of good stuff.  I showed the list to Ari, and he took it off with him and rated each class based on how interesting it sounded to him, using OWL grades from Harry Potter.  Interestingly, creative writing (which he didn't take this session, but which I spent a lot of time talking up to him in anticipation of next session) got the highest grade.

We've been very diligent about our morning schooling, which is math and writing and reading and all that stuff.  Somewhat less so with history and science.  Ari just finished reading Afternoon of the Elves from his books you have to read before you're 13 list.  Somewhere around here I have The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles for him to start on next.  He's also finished with his self-imposed Harry Potter break and is well into book 6 now.  

Milo finished "Mouse Soup" and started Amelia Bedelia.  But then we misplaced Amelia Bedelia for a few days, so I pulled "In a Dark, Dark Room" (another "I Can Read" book, of silly-ish ghost stories) off our shelf for him. Ari read this to him a couple of years ago, so he was immediately intrigued.  And then an amazing thing happened.  He read me one of the stories during his school time and then, later that day, asked me to listen to him read another one!  And THEN he read yet another one, to himself, later that same day!  This has never happened before.  We're all very excited, and a little worried that he's finished the whole book now (I think--there may be one more story).  I found another book of stories by the same author at the library, so we'll hope that holds his interest, too.  His reading is coming along so well.  I've always had to fight off worry, because Ari was just such an early, strong reader that it was tough not to compare them.  But I looked up the reading level of Mouse Soup and the other level 2 I Can Read books the other day, and they're listed as 2nd grade. "Oh!" I said, "so he's FINE!"  He is.  He'd be a young first grader this year.  Yay Milo.

Gus is already reading tons of words without any instruction whatsoever--both sight words and sounding out simple words.  He read "jac" off the bag of Bil-Jac dog food (which, btw, we only have because that's what we're supposed to use for treats for Gable's obedience class) the other day. Now that I'm no longer worried he's going to pass Milo, I might start a reading program with him after Christmas.  If he wants to do it.  I feel perpetually guilty about not spending enough one on one time with him, and something scheduled helps with that. It was easier when we were doing the Sonlight pre-K thing last year.

Milo's really enjoying Right Start.  He's been working on the other side of the abacus the past couple of lessons. I might get Level A for Gus, too.  I think we already have all the materials; I'd just need to buy the book.  But I'm also a little panicky at the thought of doing 2 kids at the same time with Right Start.  How does anyone do it?

 

Ari just finished up a section on fractions in Singapore. He and Dave haven't been getting to Life of Fred too much lately, but now that they've finished Ari's big K'nex project, maybe there will be more time.  I've been slack about giving him his multiplication drill every day.  He's getting much faster with the multiplication tables, and it's helped a lot in cutting down his frustration level with things like long division.

We started Writing With Ease 3!  Finally!  Ari's been getting very frustrated with the narrations, but I'm not sure why.  They don't seem substantially different from what he was doing at the end of level 2, so I think it's him more than the material. I'm hoping that will get better next week.

We read a book about the Statue of Liberty and started a biography about Thomas Edison in history, and both were big hits.

Science...ah, science.  We're almost finished with the "try it before you buy it" from Real Science Odyssey...and I'm not sure I'm going to buy it after all.  It's not them; it's me.  I've never wanted to admit to being the sort of person who can't get the materials together to do science, but...I think I might be one of those people who can't get the materials together to do science.  Sigh.  I'm thinking of buying several experiments kits, materials included, for the rest of the year, and doing those plus a lot of reading from the library/our shelves.  I've been looking at the Science in a Nutshell kits.  Thank goodness for co-op; at least my kids are getting SOME organized science, even if it's not from me.  Of course, when I look at what they know, it's clear they're managing to pick up quite a bit of knowledge and understanding about science, despite my scatter-shot approach.  It's the last subject I haven't settled into at all....I have something I'm happy with for pretty much everything else.

We'll do a very light week this coming week (in fact, I doubt will do anything after Monday) because Dave is off and my in-laws are getting into town tomorrow evening.

November 2-6, 2009

Okay--back on track!  Hooray for me.  Next week, I might even take some pictures!

Odyssey of the Mind is no more, and we're probably not doing Spanish class anymore, at least not until after the first of the year (longish story, and not interesting), so our Mondays are mostly open now (except for book club once a month).  This is good because I've been feeling kind of rushed and behind, and we can definitely use another morning home.  And bad because I kind of liked not having to rush around Sunday night getting things ready for Monday morning.  Sunday night is, after all, usually when I'm finally getting around to updating my blog.  Oh well.

Ari:
WWE: we've finally done it!  We are FINISHED with WWE 2!  I just need to get WWE 3 now.  I've decided to buy the e-book, so I need to go do that after I finish here. 

Reading: after a failed attempt at having Ari read  Roger Caras' Yankee: Inside Story of a Champion Bloodhound (which I LOVED as a kid, but maybe a kid a little older than Ari) and a failed attempt at Turn Homeward Hannalee, I pulled out my copy of How to Get Your Child to Love Reading and showed him the list of books you must read before you're 13.  He's read several of them and liked them all, so I figured maybe the author is sort of on Ari's wavelength as far as good books go.  We have a couple of the books on there that he hasn't read yet, so I let him pick one of those and he chose The House with a Clock in its Walls.  He's reading that with no complaining thus far.  I know eventually he's going to need to read things that aren't his very favorites, but for now I'm good with him just reading lots of well-written books that he enjoys.  He's funny--he was an early reader, and he's a very strong reader, but he's never been one of those kids who always has his nose in a book.  He has to really like something.

Milo:
Reading: he's almost finished with Mouse Soup, and I checked Amelia Bedelia out of the library for him to start on next.

Math: Milo can finally remember how much pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters are worth!  I remember despairing of him ever learning it last year when he was doing Singapore EB, but turns out he just needed to be six.

Together:
History: more pioneers!  We, uhh, tried making sourdough starter last week, but it didn't turn out so well. I had Ari do a narration page about a chapter in Caddie Woodlawn, and he did a great job.

Science: we're nearly finished with the "Try it before you buy it" part of REAL Science Odyssey, so there's another e-book I need to buy soon.  We learned about the digestive system this week.

Other stuff: co-op's going well.  Milo's liking his science class, and Ari loves all of his classes.  They're learning "Walk Like an Egyptian" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday" in chorus, and Ari came home on Tuesday and made tape recordings of himself singing both of them.  Only another 2 or 3 weeks this semester and then we're finished until after the new year.  I'm probably going to actually teach a class next session--exciting and nerve-wracking--more details to follow :)

So there are the highlights!

Behind again!

Yes, I skipped a few weeks.  We went to Disneyland, you see.  It's true, we didn't go to Disneyland for an entire month (though that might have been fun), but I get kind of thrown off by big trips and upsets to my routine.  I am much like a toddler that way.  Anyway.  Disneyland was fun!  To prove I have been documenting our lives somewhere, here is a link to my trip report (almost finished!) on the Disboards:

Disneyland 2009

We're just over a quarter of the way through our school year (well, with some luck. We may spill into the summer a bit, and that is okay.  That's my mantra: and that is okay), so I thought I'd do a catch-up/where we are right now kind of post.

Ari:
Ari's just about halfway through Singapore 4A....he just finished up a section on fractions, and is doing a review now.  He's been working through the Life of Fred fractions book with his Dad at night, so the fractions section of Singpore was really easy for him.  I'm having him drill multiplications facts for 5 minutes or so every day as a warm-up, and I think he'll finally get those down soon.

We're STILL almost finished with Writing With Ease 2.  We tend to forget about it some days, which I think is a problem with how I have the morning scheduled....I try to come back to it after he does all his independent work and I'm finished with Milo and Gus, but by then my mind's often on lunch and the afternoon already.  I think we need to start doing it first thing.  Narrations are coming easier to him; I'm having him do them in other subjects a couple of times a week, and I think he actually does better writing them out than doing them orally with me.  Of course, on his own, he does things like write Harry Potter fan fiction, so I'm not overly worried about his writing, despite his mental block when it comes to narration.  He's chugging along with First Language Lessons 4--no problems there.

He just finished reading the 5th Harry Potter book.  I think he's going to take a break before tackling the 6th one, which means we'll spend a lot of time trying to find something he likes to read at bedtime. For school time reading, he's just started Turn Homeward, Hannalee.

Ari's moving slowly but steadily through Lively Latin.  He's in Lesson 3.  I don't really care if we take a couple of years to get through the first book there--I'm just trying to have him do 20 minutes or so, 3 times a week.  I need to catch up with him and learn the chants!

Milo:
Milo's on lesson 34, I think, of Right Start Math, so pretty much where we need to be.  He's enjoying it a lot and it's pretty clearly working well for him.  I'm glad we did it!  I might get level A for Gus and go ahead and start him on that after Christmas, as I think he'd enjoy it.

Reading is coming along.  He's about 2/3 of the way through Explode the Code 3, and he's doing it on his own pretty easily, if with some careless errors.  He's reading Mouse Soup aloud to me right now.  We're moving through First Language Lessons and Writing with Ease at a decent pace, too.  I'm amazed at how much his handwriting has improved this year!

All together:
We finished up the Civil War a couple of weeks ago (and topped it off with a weekend hike up Kennesaw Mountain, after I forced them to sit through the (boring, I admit it) movie at the visitor's center) and are now doing some reading about pioneers and westward expansion and all that.  I'll have to update the sidebar with our history reading. 

We're working through Real Science Odyssey, and are still on the human body.  Ari and Milo are also taking a science class at our homeschool co-op, so that takes a bit of pressure off of me.

Other stuff:
Odyssey of the Mind kind of imploded, so we're not doing that anymore this year. This is too bad, but it does free up my Mondays, so that's a nice side effect.

And I'll end with that....I've been putting off updating forever, because it felt overwhelming.  I'm hoping that now that the catch-up post is finished, I'll be able to handle weekly updating again!