We finally managed to string a few days together last week--all five of them, in fact! Things went really well; I'm simultaneously surprised by how much we're managing to get done and how long it's all taking us. Which seems incongruous, but there you have it. That's just how I feel. So let's see:
Gus: I'll start with Gus for once. Poor kid.
*started tap class! As usual with any sort of class that he takes, he reported that, "my class was awesome," in a monotone that didn't really go with what he was saying. There were three kids in the class, which seemed really small until we went again today, and he was the only one there this time. So at the moment we're getting a really good deal on private tap lessons for Gus. I peeked through the windows at him some. Tap dancing looks hard. Better him than me.
*working on some book Dave's aunt sent us a long time ago that seems to be extra practice for Singapore 1. He'd kind of a hit a wall with adding past 10 in Singapore last spring, so I'm having him go through this to kind of stall him until he seems ready to pick back up with it.
*reading The Littles. Gets headaches whenever he reads. He's going to the eye doctor tomorrow. I don't know if it's really something with his vision or just his allergies/asthma stuff. I'm hoping for vision because it's more easily fixable.
*still loving those RWP Aesop books. I was kind of hoping the last 3 books would last him 2 years until he's ready to start MCT. But it's not looking good. WWE is going well, too.
*starts drama class tomorrow
Milo:
*cannot think of any part of school that he doesn't enjoy. That seems like a good way to start the year.
*started Charlotte's Web last week and is on the last chapter now, I think. The Indian in the Cupboard is up next. This year the plan is to hit all the must reads he hasn't read yet (I did read Charlotte's Web to him when he was younger, of course, but he doesn't remember much of it) and do the MCT literature.
*working on mental addition in Singapore (he finally made it to 2B). It's going really well. His speed is increasing, and his frustration-induced meltdowns are very rare. I'm hoping to go through 2B quickly and start on 3...by Thanksgiving, maybe? So he'll have more of 3 under his belt before he takes the ITBS in spring. Not that it really matters, since I'm the only one who sees the scores. But he does have to take it, so he might as well be as prepared as possible for it.
*really loving Grammar Island so far and doesn't seem to be having any trouble understanding or retaining anything. I was/am curious to see how this would go, since by the time Ari did Grammar Island he'd had 3 1/2 years of First Language Lessons. Milo hasn't really had much formal grammar; we've talked about stuff as we've done Writing with Ease, but that's about it (we did start First Language Lessons with him, but it was awhile ago, and I don't think we made it too far).
*Writing With Ease going well; he still writes very s-l-o-w-l-y, though. But pretty neatly and without complaining, so I'll take it.
*starts guitar tomorrow. He's doing guitar because we insisted he pick something (in addition to homeschool soccer, which they're all doing again). But once he picked it, he got very excited about it. We bought him a guitar last night. We'd been thinking acoustic at first, but several people told us that electric was easier to start on for kids and that he'd be more likely to stick with it that way, so that's what we got.
Ari:
*really liking (both of us are) Writing With Skill so far. It's very systematic, and Ari likes systematic. I have a 45 minute block of time set aside for writing/logic, so so far he's doing WWS and then filling in any extra time with Mindbenders. I think we'll do another year of various logic puzzles instead of a more official curriculum. Because we have no time! I'd rather have a very writing-intensive year for him than try to fit in a critical thinking course.
*alternating Greek and Spanish, and doing well with/enjoying both. His Spanish classes start up the first week of September. I ordered the DVDs for Spanish with Children, so I'm having him catch up on watching the lessons before he moves on in the book (I think he's on lesson 6 or somewhere thereabouts; he's watched through lesson 4 as of today, I believe).
*started Grammar Voyage and Caesar's English II. I let him drop Killgallon, since he's doing so much other writing, but we're also working through Figuratively Speaking, and he's enjoying that.
*read My Side of the Mountain last week, which ended up being lovely timing as his friend Lula had a wilderness survival themed birthday party on Saturday. He's reading the second book from the Hunger Games series at bedtime. I hesitated to let him read it, as it sounded pretty intense, but most of his friends have read it, so I relented.
*started Math Olympiad on Sunday.
Defying easy categorization:
*I toyed with the idea of having Milo do Spanish for Children along with Ari this year, but halfway through the first chapter I decided it would be better to wait another year. So he and Gus are watching Discovery Streaming lessons plus doing this website: https://www.foreignlanguagefriends.com/
*started Song School Greek with Milo and Gus
*history! We're still feeling things out with this. Ari's also doing Mapping the World with Art. He did the first lesson of that the other day while Milo, Gus, and I played around with some Usborne Quicklink stuff. What we're trying for now is listening to SOTW in the car, then half an hour on history days reading aloud and doing the review questions. Then we split up for independent reading (me to Gus, Ari and Milo on their own). And then there's the map stuff for Ari and computer stuff for Milo and Gus. I think we're just doing that once a week, though that will probably mean taking a couple of years to go through MTWWA.
*Science! I'm planning to sign Ari up for PLATO maybe next month, but for now we're all working on a Science in a Nutshell kit about fossils. And watching documentaries about dinosaurs.
Phew! I suspect my weekly reports could get long this year. Or, you know, less thorough.
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