Weekly Report - Combined Week 1 and 2

I am a little late in posting this but I really wanted to start from the beginning so here we go... our first ever (Two Week) Weekly Report. If you like this idea of doing an online weekly report, look at these blogs for more inspiration and ideas: My 5 Wolf Cubs, Trivium Academy and My 3 Boybarians. Lastly before we get started I talked more about our first two weeks in a recent post if you want to read all the (gory) details!

Math:

The first week all we did was review flash cards. I prefer to make my own because it allows me to drill certain "math families" one at a time. Each set is color coded so that the days we mix sets they can be easily separated again. In week one we started with the +0/-0 and +1/-1 cards to build up confidence then added +2/-2 and +10, and finally doubles and near-doubles (ex: he knows 7+7=14 so in our near-double set it has 7+6= and 7+8= ) and lastly what we call subtraction doubles (ex. 10-5= with the thinking that he knows 5+5=10 so he should recognize 10-5= as the reverse of that)

For week two we added the +9 cards (again, since he knows the +10 cards he should realize that 9+6 is just like 10+6 but one less) and +3/-3. Here is a picture of a few sets of our super-simple (and super-cheap) flash cards!


Also in week 2 we started back with Horizons 2. Here are Thatcher's first four lessons:

We also reviewed skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's - each all the way to 100. We introduced counting by 9's which he mastered almost instantly and we are still working on the 4's - they've been really tough on him for some reason. Overall, math gets an "A" for the first two weeks. Everything went so well and I was so proud of how hard Thatcher worked and how quickly things came back to him!

Reading:

You can read all the components of our reading program in this recent post. I will say overall reading gets a "B" for the first two weeks. The changes I outlined in the aforementioned post are going beautifully but I cannot for the life of me get Thatcher to slow down and stop mumbling. He also is terrible about skipping over words or saying "almost" what it says on the page. I have tried twenty different things but nothing works for long and he's back to his old ways. This will be a huge goal for this year. When he skips/changes words he never alters the meaning but I still want him to read exactly what is on the page and he CAN do it. He just has to exercise self-control and slow down.

Here is a picture of the books Thatcher read independently in week 2 after we started "Independent Reading Time". Included in this picture is his reading log where he writes the date, title and author of each book. The last column says "One interesting thing..." and I fill this in for him as he dictates to me.
Phonics:

Explode the Code is going beautifully again, so phonics gets an "A". This is our third year to use ETC and it's a little like an old friend. Thatcher is familiar with the format and can do most of the work independently. He has learned so much from this series.

Bible:

Bible gets an "A+" because I wouldn't change a thing! We started with Wisdom and the Millers and it's been great. It seems like almost every lesson is right where we are. Perfect example is last Sunday at church Thatch made some really poor decisions because he was following a buddy of his who can be a little naughty at times. The next day the story in Wisdom... was based on Proverbs 13:20 "Anyone who walks with the wise grows wise. But a companion of foolish people suffers harm." (NIrV) While I wouldn't say this little boy was a fool, he was behaving foolishly this day and Thatcher was all too happy to join him. Hearing this story really struck a cord with Thatcher and opened up a great opportunity for us to talk more. You know how you can say the same thing 100 times but a new person can sometimes walk in and say the same thing and...BOOM they get it. Mr. Miller has that effect on Thatch and I am so glad he does!

Here's a picture of our whiteboard after the first few days. We've been writing the Proverb from each lesson on our board so we can continue talking about it throughout the day and beyond.


Other:

I decided to add "tying shoes" to his list of school tasks for week one and it didn't go over well. We may just switch to Velcro shoes and call it quits until he's 15! He is just not interested and each time he tries it's like he's all thumbs. Like most things he's behind in, I've learned that it will come in its own time and there's no need to stress or rush!

In week one Thatcher memorized our family rules and that went great. Here is a sample of his first every copywork writing our rules. He is doing so well with his writing. Go, Thatch!


One last thing I included in week one was coloring and cutting practice. Last year he could never get a grip on scissors that felt comfortable and allowed him to cut anything at all. Coloring was another struggle. Leave it alone for a few months and see what happens...

Oh, I should mention, Thatcher's work is on the left. Each day Haddon would color his own picture, cut it and hang it up all by himself so he could be just like "Ya-Ya." (He can now say Thatcher but he still chooses to call him by this nickname and I love it!) It's his artwork that graces the right board.

Ok, I will not be nearly this long-winded in the future but this first one was covering two whole weeks right???