School Week 5 2010

This week A8 is rowing the Vol 4 book The Raft.



X6 is rowing the book Dandelion.




After 3 weeks of school I'm starting to get a better idea which direction I need to go with each kid. We started science last week which is a lot of reading and doing projects, because of that I made the decision to do science this semester and American history next semester.

Science is 2 times a week for 28 weeks, which means we can do it 4 times a week for 14 weeks... also we are covering birds and flying insects which we have plenty of right NOW...

Like I said before each science lesson has a lot of reading, so I decided to do all FIAR Vol 4 books this semester. A8 has 6 boxes of work everyday, the 1st box has our FIAR book and the last box has science. It works out pretty good that way. Next semester she will have her My America history books, which averages 10 pages per day and we won't have to worry about science, only history!

She is doing her spelling book this semester... next semester she will do her vocabulary book.
The only thing she will have year round is math and language lessons. Speaking of math, she is doing very good with math this year!! I have stopped my obsession with making her do every single problem on the paper... I think that has really helped make it more manageable for her!

X6 has hit a road block when it comes to explode the code... it is not making any sense to me the direction they are taking in the workbook. X6 is having a hard time connecting the pictures with the words... The primer code workbooks were a perfect way for him to learn letter sounds, however it is not working out so well for him putting all the sounds together to make a word... which means it's finally time for Reading Made Easy!!!

I feel X6 is now at a perfect place to start RME, plus the activity sheets look very similar to the ones he's been using with explode the code... only they make more sense... He has the a sound down, all he needs is to learn how the other letters connect together... RME is very good with this!!!

He is doing very well with everything else, although picture study is a bit of a challenge for him... he is not very comfortable making up stories based on a picture... he usually only gives me the facts... "there are 3 cows in the picture and they live in a barn" ha ha!! A8 has no problem making up stories... in fact I have to limit her to 5 minutes, if not she will keep making stuff up!!

As far as science, zoology seems to be a bit advance for him, so I will include him on the projects and some of the lessons but I do not expect him to remember all of the info in the book... it is just too much for a little guy like him... he should be able to work on his journal just fine.. I have a lot of coloring pages and mini books perfect for his level.