My computer! It is broken! I am typing this on DH's work computer, but the problem with it is that it goes to work with him every day (also, I hate the keyboard). So I'm hobbling along with my iphone and our little, very slow netbook during the week. This makes science and some other stuff difficult, since we bought the netbook so that I could send Ari off to work independently on it while I sat with the younger kids at the regular computer. A new motherboard has been ordered after extensive diagnostic assistance from my computer engineer brother and after the purchase and return of a new power supply that did not fix anything. If that doesn't fix it, then I need a new computer I guess. I don't want to need a new computer because that will mess up my Disney fund. But anyway. We did school despite the hardship of only sort of having a computer. Actually, it didn't completely die on me until Wednesday, I think.
Ari: is reading The Egypt Game now and enjoying it considerably more than Summerland. He's enjoying it so much, in fact, that he's been inspired to create The Rome Game and play it outside with his brothers for long periods every day. It's a little odd since we've studied Egypt all year and haven't done anything with Rome yet (except what he gets from Caesar's English, but I'll take it. Time outside + imaginitive play + evidence that my kids are really enjoying history = me being happy.
His Life of Fred Pre-Algebra came last weekend, and he immediately took it upstairs and did several sections of it. It's all he's wanted to work on math-wise this week, so he took the week off of Singapore. He got through the first 7 chapters by Wednesday and tried the first bridge Thursday. LOF bridges are a problem for Ari, historically. Yeah--the still are. He missed 2 on his first attempt, tossed the book on the floor, and declared that he quit. We went over what he missed and he gave the second try a chance on Friday...and missed 2 again. Blast it all. There's a good bit of information in there that's new to him, so he's getting tripped up on fairly minor stuff like adding instead of multiplying when he's supposed to square something. Also, the book says it's okay to use a calculator, so he really wants to, but he's not used to using a calculator, so it keeps messing him up. But he still wants to keep using it. Monday will be attempt #3 at the bridge. I might try sitting with him and stopping him if he starts to make a mistake (if he'll let me); it's just a supplement to the Singapore, so I really just want him to have the exposure/practice.
He still needs to take the Caesar's English quiz for last week, because I always think we'll be able to get more done on Fridays before park day than is actually possible. But we did the third lesson in Paragraph Town; the paragraph lab was to write what's outside an imaginary window in a certain order (Ari picked left to right). He really enjoyed that one.
He had Spanish and biology classes at LEO. I haven't looked at the homework yet to see what they're working on in Spanish. In biology, they looked at insects under microscopes, and he learned that he's going to dissect a cow's eyeball in the next session. I'm so glad we're not dissecting a cow's eyeball at my house.
He had his penultimate soccer session. He continues to really enjoy it, so I went ahead and signed him up for basketball at the Y starting next month. It's a little annoying, because you have to sign up not knowing what evening the practice is going to be on. I'm not sure if there's any flexibility if they give you a night that doesn't work. Also, one place it said "evening" for practices, and somewhere else it said 2-5, which I would call "late afternoon." I'm sure it will all work out somehow.
Milo: is reading The Indian in the Cupboard. I let him bail on Pippi Longstocking after 2 days of reasonable effort. Since he's liked pretty much every single other book he's ever read, I guess he's entitled to mysteriously dislike one. He's enjoying TIITC, but it's kind of slow going. I think it's probably the most challenging thing he's read yet.
Speaking of bailing, I lasted about a week in my "make your own WWE" plan. After all my big talk about how using the workbooks was kind of a crutch for people who didn't have the time or energy for picking their own passages...as some character or other says in Diane Keaton's directorial debut, Unstrung Heroes, "a crutch isn't a bad thing, if you need it." They were talking about religion, not homeschool curriculum. But you see, I had already bought WWE 2, so it was just there on the shelf, tempting me. So we're using it. I might, as a compromise with my guilty conscience, assign some of the books used in WWE for him to read. Anyway, we just did the first two days of week 1, and he did well. I was worried about the copywork getting longer, but so far it's fine. We haven't tried the first dictation yet, though...
Singapore was all about patterns and telling time this week, so he breezed through it. His spelling list this week focused on long O words...he missed "those" on the test, and promptly used it that night when he played hangman with Dave. I ordered the rest of the Aesop books from Royal Fireworks Press 2 weeks ago, and we're still waiting...I'm starting to get a bit impatient.
Gus: is reading Mouse Tales now, having finished Mouse Soup. Dave is reading Tale of Desperaux to him at bedtime, and sometimes he reads to Dave, too. I keep suggesting he try a Magic Treehouse book or something on his own, as I'm pretty sure he could handle it (I almost never help him with words in the level 2 I Can Read books, which I think are at about the same level), but he's not really interested.
Lots of work with patterns in math this week. He did several pages in Explode the Code, and we read bunches of library books.
We learned about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt in SOTW. Ari wrote a lovely summary, and the other kids did narrations. We read the last of our extra books about Egypt, and the kids watched Ancient Egypt: Engineering An Empire on Netflix instant viewing. (We recently switched from the 3 out at a time to 1 out at a time, but I think I may have to switch back; we've been doing lots of family movie nights, which doesn't leave any space for getting the non-instant documentaries, and it's kind of driving me crazy). We're all kind of over Egypt at this point, and I'm looking forward to getting to Greece in a few weeks. I'm thinking of getting the Duke TIP online course about Greek mythology for Ari.
2 comments:
I was thinking about the TIP mythology course, too.
EG & Ari keep reading the same books! :)
I'm pretty sure your blog or a post of yours is where I first heard of it. You really need to hurry up and get it so you can tell me how it is before I order it ;-)
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