Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Weekly Report Week 11

We had an up-and-down week, school-wise. We did really well in the beginning, but were really busy at the end of the week. I left on Friday for a women's retreat, so I had to get everything set for the weekend. Shawn is a great dad and more-than-capable of taking care of the boys by himself, but I wanted him to focus on having fun with the boys all weekend. So, I tried to help him out as much as I could before I left. Because of that, we didn't get a lot of school done on Thursday or Friday. So here's how we did.



Sonlight: We finished Week 17. We normally do more than a week's worth of reading, but that's not required. D-Man's favorite story of the week was The Hero of Holland. It's about a little boy who prevented a breach in the dyke by using his finger to plug a hole overnight. D-Man was interested that a boy accomplish something so important. He also loves our new science book: What's Under the Sea?


Math: We didn't do as much in Horizons K this week as we usually do. We still got to lesson 131. The exciting development for the week was that we received our new math programs in the mail on Thursday. D-Man was so happy about Singapore math that he begged me to start immediately and completed 14 lessons after dinner. We did another two on Friday. Here's what he's been doing in his new book.

LA: We really focused on SWR this week. The words are getting harder, but D-Man is still enjoying learning them each week. His spelling test was great. Not only did he get 100% on all of his new words, he got 100% on the review section as well. He was so proud of his "200%," that I wouldn't let Shawn tell him that there's no such thing as 200% on a test. Here's a pic of his hard work:


Despite the success this week, I've decided that we're going to have a review this week. We'll cover lists A-E at 40 words/day. That way, I can see what words he's still having trouble with and we can work on them a little more.


Library: We are still reading our books that we checked out two weeks ago. We finished Two Times the Fun but D-Man really liked it, so we're reading it again (and again). It's an okay book, but not worth reading three times when we have plenty of good books to read. Shawn's theory is that D-Man keeps requesting it because the chapters are long.

5 comments:

MissKNG said...

Hi there!

I'm also on the WTM forum - which is how I found your blog!

The SM 1A you pictured...is that the US or Standards Edition? Why did you choose the edition you did?

Where is Upstate NY is Maple Hill Farm?

Thanks!
Karin

Dinsfamily said...

Karin,
I saw on TWTM forum that you decided to go with the Standards edition. I'm using the US edition because Sonlight sells it and I get 10% off everything I purchase from them. There isn't enough of a difference between the two for me to buy it somewhere else. I guess the main difference is that the Standards edition has more review, but my 5yo doesn't really need any more.

Maple Hill Farm, where the author lives, is in Staatsburg, NY according to the back of the book.

MissKNG said...

Yes, I am thinking of Standards but I was under the impression that Standards was more "advanced" with more topics than US. Which is why I asked why you bought US because I figured you would purchase the more advanced version. The 10% is a great incentive though!

Dinsfamily said...

From reading the FAQs on the Singapore site, I didn't really get the sense that it was more advanced just that it included the additional topics and other topics were rearranged to fall in line with CA standards. We are getting the additional topics in Horizons math so I wasn't concerned about a few new sections. I chose Singapore more for its approach to teaching math. Did I mention that I got free shipping too? :)

MissKNG said...

Wow! Free shipping too! I'm jealous! haha!

We supplement with Critical Thinking Company math books and she is getting all her "brand new" topics from there pretty much. I love those books!

We are probably going to finish Earlybird by the end of the year (I'm now guessing). I'm going to use Horizons K to fill in before we go into 1A and 1B. My kiddo can't write yet (just starting to learn) so I want her writing before beginning 1st grade math. I'll see how I like Horizons. I do plan on using CTC math with SM 1A and 1B unless I absolutely love Horizons!

Thanks for chatting with me! I love talking math curriculum! LOL!