Week 9 Report

I can hardly believe we are one week away from completing our first quarter! It's gone by so quickly. Here are some of the things we did in Week 9...

Reading:
Here is a photo of the books Thatcher read independently this week. He reads each book on his own and a short (or long, depending on his interest) discussion ensues to be certain he understood what he read. It's not at all unusual for him to disappear into a room to be found reading an hour later. It is also not unusual for him to be staring at the ceiling or playing with his matchbox cars an hour later either! A quick few (& fun) questions and I know whether he read the entire book or not! :) He is really enjoying non-fiction but the Henry and Mudge series is a big hit here, too!

We are still reading one Magic Tree House book together each week, too. We alternate reading chapters and we read two to three chapters a day. He could read these independently but he gets overwhelmed with all the words on the page (ADHD kicking in for sure!). At bedtime we are still reading The Last Battle. I think we will read Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling next and then move onto Favorite Thornton Burgess Animal Stories after that. They will nicely compliment our animal studies in science.

As a side note, I almost always link to Amazon in my blog because you can often see "inside" the book and I love that feature. It doesn't always mean that it's the cheapest place to buy though. Do your research before you buy. You can save some serious money if you do!!! :)

Math:
Here is a photo of one of Thatcher's math lessons. I was much encouraged by a mom who shared that her child also used to take about as much time to complete each lesson as Thatcher but has steadily improved each year with maturity and familiarity. Oh I do hope so!

Also, I don't put a number or letter grade on Thatcher's math assignments but I do put how many problems he missed at the top of the page and we correct all mistakes off to the side before proceeding to the next lesson. Recently he missed 15 problems on one page and made the comment, "That's a lot of problems wrong mom." He was so discouraged until I counted that he had 15 wrong but 92 correct! He brightened tremendously. Now I write how many he got wrong and right at the top of each page. It just feels like we not focusing so much on the negative that way! :)

Phonics:
He's doing so much better now that I am taking the time to really sit with him as we introduce
the rule and also make a point to review the rule(s) each day. Here's one of his "tests" this week. If it's difficult to read (insert drumroll....) he made 100%! I was so proud of him.

We are really using this as more of a spelling program than a true phonics program, so I really want him to understand the rules. I have said all along I would switch to Spelling Workout when we finish ETC but I just found out about SpellWell, a spelling program by the authors of ETC that I want to take a look at, too!




History:
Here is a photo of Thatcher's copywork from The Epic of Gilgamesh this week. I had never even heard of the Epic of Gilgamesh until just a few months ago when I was pre-reading SOTW1. Dh was shocked. I still wonder, "Was I truly never introduced to this material or did it just not stick?" I have referred to it before but it's worth repeating...I love the quote on Mater Magistra's blog, "To teach is to learn twice." It's so very true! I have learned so much already and we've been on this journey such a short time.

Also since we are studying the ancients this year I have been reading one story from Aesop's
Fables each week to Thatcher. One of my biggest goals for this year is character development so these stories serve a dual purpose: supplemental history readings and character building. The language is rich and beautiful in the classic version I chose so we read the same story each day at lunch M-Th. By Thursday the lights are really coming on for him.

This week we read The Lion and the Mouse and we discussed the moral, "A kindness is never wasted." There is a coloring book that I considered ordering but decided against it at the start of the year. Now that Thatcher has grown to love coloring I may just need to order it! It's called Aesop's Fables Coloring Book and it would be a great thing for Thatcher to do while I was reading to him.

Art Appreciation:
Someday I hope for this subject to list Art Appreciation & Art but I have not made time to sit down with my copy of Mona Brooke's Drawing with Children yet...although I did find another mom's generously shared plans for using this book on Paula's Archives. This is another one of those subjects I feel I know so little about and that makes me hesitant to teach it. Plus, I can wing a lesson in just about any other subject right now, but I definitely cannot wing this one! I need to sit down and decide if I can really use this book or if I would be better off with another program like Atelier or Draw Squad.

We did cover Rembrandt this week though. It was short meeting with this great man, but next week I am introducing a new artist and composer so that we can stay on track and cover all 10 artists and composers I chose for this year. This picture shows the books we read this week and the Dover Art Postcards ($1.25 per artist at Rainbow Resources) we used to help discuss the man and his works. I laminated the cards and will post the ones from the artist we are studying each month.

Be back next week with our Week 10 Report!

PS. I just viewed this post and I don't like how it formatted the text around some of the photos. I am not certain how to fix it and too tired to try! Oh well, that's what I get for trying something new! :)