Back to School

What have we been doing for the last 4 weeks...this!







The boys got a new brother on the 7th of March. We're very excited to add him to the pack and we were too busy loving on him to do any school. Added into the mix, Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Megan visited so we were pretty busy. The weather was beautiful so the extended spring break was perfect.

So where were we before our break?

Math: D-Man is well into Singapore PM 3A. We finished up Exercise 18 today and are almost finished with Challenging Word Problems 2. D-Man finished Lesson 17 in Horizons Math 3 as well. Horizons has been all review so far so it's been very easy.

C-Monster is joining us for school on Mondays now and is almost finished with Singapore Essential Math B. He's been working on the concept of subtraction.

Spelling: D-Man is starting list L-1 this week. We're going to hit our phonograms and spelling rules hard this week since we've taken so much time off.

Reading: Both boys have been doing a lot of reading over break. D-Man has discovered Geronimo Stilton and has been reading 1-2 books per day. Now that we're back to school, he'll finish his reader, The Pony Express, but he'll still be doing a lot of free reading. We often have to turn his light off late at night so that he'll go to sleep instead of reading "just one more chapter."

C-Monster is also started week 28 of Sonlight's Readers 1. He taught himself to read so I just placed him into the more interesting readers. He's reading The Best Trick right now and gets upset if we forget his reading time. His free reading has mostly been Dr. Seuss.

I'm not sure how much we're going to get done in our elective subjects. Going back school often proves to be slower and less enthusiastic after a long, fun break. We're going to focus on the basics this week and enjoy our last week of being with Grandma. After she goes home next week, we'll try to reestablish our routine adjusting for our new family member. Hopefully, I'll be able to add in some fun stuff. We also have soccer starting up this week for the two older boys so we'll have to work around that.

I'll try to get back to at least a bi-weekly update but no promises with so much going on around here. :)

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Weekly Report- Jan 6, 2011

Well, the holidays are over and it's a new year so it's time to get back to the grind. We had a nice Christmas full of family and joy. The boys did A LOT of cooking and baking with their grandmother and me so there was some learning involved. D-Man also convinced Grandpa
to do several science experiments with him and roped Grandma into reading extras chapters of bedtime stories. Gotta love grandparents. Now that they are on their way back to Oregon, we miss them dearly.

We had a rough start to the school week. My parents left late morning on Monday and we were sad so not much got done. We've been doing more and more each day and were in full swing by Wednesday. Here's what we managed to accomplish.

Math: I knew that math was going to be rough when we started the week. It's been about a month since we earnestly did any math and I knew things would be rusty in D-Man's head. Since I was prepared, it wasn't frustrating for either of us and we worked slower than usual. We had finished Singapore PM 2B at the beginning of December so we were just working through the last third of Horizons 2 and Miquon Blue. Horizons is helping pull the cobwebs off of D's multiplication tables. It'll take awhile to get back where we were on 4s and 6s. I plan on finishing Horizons 2 around the beginning-middle of February and starting Singapore PM 3A Jan 31. I'm also adding in CWP 2 when we have time. C-Monster joined us this week and completed several pages in Singapore's Essential Math and Miquon Orange.










Spelling: We're just reviewing this week and will start full up on Monday. Can't add in too much the first week.

Grammar and Writing: These were both VERY easy to restart so we picked up where we left off. Continuing to do copywork for writing and still doing common vs. proper nouns in grammar. Easy stuff.

Reading: Well, D-Man finished his readers a few months ago and I've just been letting him read independently. My mom gave him a bunch of books for Christmas including the #2-#7 of the Boxcar Children. He was really excited and immediately started BC#2, Surprise Island, and is tearing through it. It's the longest book he's read to date. To check off my reading box on my school schedule, I'm having him read a few pages aloud to me each night. I have no idea what's going on in the story (despite the fact I read it to the boys last April) since I'm only getting snippets each day. Once we start our new readers on Jan 31st, his new books will just go back to being free reading. Normally, I'd schedule time for free reading but D-Man reads so much that it isn't necessary.


Art: This is our big addition since Christmas. I ordered D-Man and myself the art program I Can All Things (ICDAT) with the instructional DVDs and supplies. We're still working on the fundamentals in the beginning (before we start the meat of the program). We are both really enjoying it and D-Man's even starting to create his own drawings using the techniques we've learned. I've noticed that I need to keep reminding myself that he is 6 and not to expect his drawings to look perfect. We are also going to start another art program on Jan 31st called Artistic Pursuits that goes along with our history program and includes some art appreciation. AP will be done once a week and ICDAT will be on demand. With the videos, I imagine he'll be able to do it independently.







Well, that's what is happening around here. Hope everyone else is having a good week.

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