Ari:
Math: roaring through Singapore 6A. I don't think it's at all unrealistic to expect that he'll finish 6 either this summer or early in the fall. Lately I've been thinking he's better at math than he lets on...that he has more natural talent for it, like his Dad, rather than just the workmanlike competence that he lets us see. This past week he had this problem:
John had $50. He spent 60% of the money on clothes and 60% of the remainder on food. How much more did he spend on clothes than on food?He got the right answer...without writing down any of his work. I would wonder if he was cheating if I had ever gotten around to buying the answer key and it was actually in our house somewhere. Which I really need to do, because I did the same problem, showing all my work, and, umm...came up with a different answer. Then scolded him for not showing his work. "I can see where you made your mistake, but a lot of times I would just think you'd gotten it completely wrong if I can't see what you were doing," I explained. Then Dave came home, checked it, and told me that I was the one who had gotten it wrong. Oops. Yeah. REALLY time for Dave to take over math for this kid.
So I'm feeling pretty good about trying out AOPS pre-algebra with him next. He needs to be challenged more. But I'm still gearing up for a fight; Mr. Perfectionism does not like it when he doesn't know the answer right away.
Reading: he's reading Moon Over Manifest right now, and that's going to be his last assigned book of the year. Then I need to start reading all of next year's books and making notes (and continue waiting, not so patiently, for MCT's new literature component to come out)
Language Arts: we're wrapping up all the MCT stuff. He has 2 more writing assignments for Paragraph Town, but they both seem kind of low pressure, so I'm not anticipating a big struggle. We've still been doing operation make Ari write a whole lot, so he's done journal entries and SOTW summaries and MCT assignments over the past few weeks. We're on the last chapter of Caesar's English, and then he'll take an end of the year test on Quizlet. And we just finished reading the poetry book, so I'll give him the post-test from that book soon, too. Practice Town we'll finish up over the summer; he's on sentence 76 or 77, I think.
Spanish: his class at LEO is over for the year. I've been really impressed with it; they've gotten into conjugating verbs and stuff--he's finally past learning the colors and how to ask someone's name over and over again! I surprised myself by picking up Spanish for Children again a few days ago and having him do some of it. He was doing Galore Park's, So You Really Want to Learn Spanish, but he wasn't loving it, and he needed too much help with it. I still don't super duper love SFC, but I think it might be our best bet for now, particularly since the second level is out. I'm considering having Milo do it, too, but I'll probably wait another year.
Milo:
Math: someone on the WTM posted a link to a page on Singapore's site that says that an "average" third grader will do 2B/3A, and this made me happy. Milo is average at math! I am average at math, too, so that works for me. I need another average at math person around here to keep me company. He's working on multiplication in 2A, and it's going really well. His mental math skills are pretty impressive these days, and are making me happy we've stuck with Singapore. He'll keep going over the summer, and I don't think he'll have any problem being ready for 2B in the fall. The only thing I'm a little sad about with math is that he spends so much time doing his regular work that we never seem to have time for any extra fun stuff like games. Next year I have a full 45 minutes scheduled for math for everyone, though, so I'm thinking we can probably spend 20-30 minutes on Singapore for the younger kids and use the rest of the time for games, et. al.
Reading: he can read just about anything now. It's still a little hard to believe it's only been a little over a year since I was sitting next to him while he read Frog and Toad to me, occasionally needing to help him with a word. Right now he's reading Detectives in Togas for school, which is what Ari read before his current book. For bedtime reading, he has something like 3 or 4 books going...last I checked they included The Magician's Nephew, the 5th Harry Potter, and Roald Dahl's The Witches.
Language Arts: he's on week 23 of WWE2. We never seem to be on schedule with WWE. It's going fairly well. Better than it did when Ari was doing it! I actually did drop spelling workout, even though I said I wouldn't, because his spelling is surprisingly good. He rarely needs help with the words in his dictation sentences. So next year we'll keep doing WWE and add in MCT. I am both excited and scared about doing MCT with two kids.
Gus:
Math: he's more than halfway finished with Singapore 1A and doesn't seem to have any trouble with it, so we'll keep moving along with that.
Reading: Gus can read just about anything, too, but he can't really read more than 3 pages before he gets bored and switches to a different book. Except for school reading, where I'm able to insist that we finish one book before switching. Lately he's read a couple of Magic Tree House books, The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo, and now he's reading a book about the Trojan Horse. Last night he started reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's The First Four Years, deceived by the title into thinking it was the first book in the series. When we explained that it was actually the last book, he was undeterred. "But I've already read the first page!" he insisted. But then he got distracted again somehow and wound up taking Little House in the Big Woods upstairs with him after all. For my big scheduling plans to work out, I need him reading to himself for relatively long periods next year. We'll see how that goes.
Language Arts: he's doing ETC still, because I can't decide whether to drop it or not. So we just do it half-heartedly rather than making an actual decision. And he is, at his insistence, doing WWE1 now. He's on week 3, and he's doing really well with it. WWE1 is pretty gentle, so I think it will be fine. I was going to start it in the fall, but he really, really wanted to go ahead, so we did. Hey--maybe by getting a head start, we'll actually stay on schedule with him! I need to order the second RFWP Aesop book for him; he really loves them, and we finished the first one a few weeks ago.
Everyone:
Greek Code Cracker: almost done! Two more weeks to finish up is pretty much perfect, I think. I have Greek for Children and Song School Greek all ready to go for next year
History: we finished SOTW this week! We still have plenty of other books to read for the rest of the year. Everyone's also working on Mary Pope Osborne's version of The Odyssey. Milo just finished it; Ari's on book 4 or 5; I'm reading book 3 to Gus.
Science: we're being fairly good about getting our Science in a Nutshell stuff done. Ari finished up his biology class at LEO a few weeks ago.
Read Alouds: Dave is reading Harry Potter to Gus. Somehow or other, I'm alternating The Two Towers with Watership Down with Ari and Milo. Ari doesn't like Watership Down. Milo does. So this is our compromise.
That's most of it. Homestretch! I'm excited about going into summer not feeling incredibly behind.
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