Weekly Report: 5/3/10-5/7/10
We’re slowly getting back into the groove. I have to admit that the beautiful weather makes it so *I* don’t want to do school. But, ah, self-discipline … need to keep working. We’ve been doing a lot more read-alouds. I used to loathe reading aloud. My throat got dry, my my nose got stuffy, and it just wasn’t fun. As we’ve been doing more in smaller pieces, it has gotten so much better and we keep adding more and more. I’m certainly reading an hour a day (spread throughout the day) and maybe more. It feels very good.
Memory Work:
Bible: Added Genesis 1:11
Catechism/Creed: I think after recitation tomorrow, we’ll move to the next set of questions for everyone.
Hymn: We started How Great Thou Art this week (this was sung at Jason & my wedding, I’m loving having the children learn it.)
Poetry: They’ve started Jonathan Bing and seem to like it, they find it amusing.
Phonics:
M-girl: I am loving the McGuffey readers; they force M-girl to read for comprehension and they have a list of new words at the end of the section that I use for spelling. She worked on several more lessons in OPG as well.
N-boy: N-boy struggles through the lessons in OPG, we’re doing 1/2 a lesson or so at a time, but he’s progressing.
Math:
M-girl: M-girl flew through about 10 lessons in MEP this week, it is behind where she is (adding 4s), but a good refresher and the logic problems are great for her.
N-boy: N-boy is still working on Lesson 5 in Ray’s … he won’t move on until he can read through the whole page with ease.
R-girl: I think R-girl now recognizes numbers 1-10. We need to finish her number book.
Grammar:
M-girl: Can I say how much I love FLL? It is so thorough and fun. We’re part-way through the pronouns lessons … Verbs next Wednesday! Hooray!
Penmanship: Despite our informality with penmanship, M-girl’s print has improved greatly. I think we really need to get moving with Cursive First.
Geography: We found Europe on the globe and looked at parts of Europe in the atlas.
Spanish: We haven’t gotten back into this groove yet.
Science: We went to the Park Pals program and learned about baby animals. We’ve been watching our baby birds, too.
Art: none this week.
Bible: We’ve read our Proverbs most days, family devotions from Big Thoughts for Little Kids, read more of Catherine Vos’ story Bible.
Read Alouds: We’re reading the Just So Stories and enjoying it. We’re also reading Aesop’s Fables, The Burgess Bird Book, Oxford Children’s Poetry, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, Winnie the Pooh, and started Peter Pan. Fun!
I just love reading aloud- we spend hours doing it every day! The older children (PET, BMT & MIT) are enjoying reading aloud too. 🙂 (oh, and we're fans of FLL too!)
Winnie the Pooh is my favorite read-aloud. Our Pooh books are so dog-eared from years of reading to four kids. It sound as if you and your kids had a wonderful week!
It's good to hear someone who dislikes reading aloud is overcoming that and that it grows on one. I also dislike reading aloud, and I've come close to overcoming it through habit, but I've not kept that habit unbroken long enough to beat it yet. 🙂
Sigh. Next year?
I've gotten lazier about reading aloud. We've come to rely on books on CD more and more often. Plus, we listen a lot in the car.
We are loving FLL too! I thought I wouldn't like the script but it's so easy and fun, what's not to love?!
I don't know how much M-girl loves FLL, but *I* do [grin]
R-girl doesn't seem excited about Winnie the Pooh, but the other kids enjoy hearing it. I'm really enjoying reading the Just So Stories despite the difficulty of reading (tongue twisters & strange, vowel-less words)
Mystie, it is getting better, slowly. Plenty to sip on and changing reading material often. I also weave it in with our memory work so when they do their Bible, I read Vos; when they recite poetry, I read poems, some reading at lunch & dinner. That has helped a lot!
I've had to add more reading aloud myself because my kiddos don't listen well (except in the car) to read alouds if I'm not doing it.
Thanks for the comments, ladies!