Break is finally over...

Almost a month and a half later, we are wrapping up our holiday break.

We went to Florida (Gulf side) for Uncle and Auntie's wedding. While we were there, we went to the beach, we collected shells and talked about what lived in them, we went to Dinosaur World, and learned about dinosaurs, including the scale involved... A grand, and educational, time was had by all!

Now that we are working on being back, I decided to start the new year with a sort of review. I took the subjects we were working on and came up with questions for each.  Reading was mildly difficult, as expected. The words to read were: home, out, shut, cheek, target, penny.  The results were not surprising. He needed a good deal of help to get home, shut was easy, out, cheek and target needed reminders of the "what does -ou- say?" or "what does -ee- say?" or "what does -ar- say?" variety, and that was then easy for him. Penny took some doing. He kept going with pen-yuh. That 'y' sound was just going to be the end of him. He did finally get it, though. We will go over the last unit of reading again, just to play it safe. Not actively teaching it, but watching the lessons, just as a refresher.

Social Studies had the question of "Who helps us cross the street?" This didn't go well, as Monkey defaulted to "red man, white hand." This is completely correct, as these are the signals on the crossing light, but I was hoping for crossing guard.  Kind of funny, truth be told. He went through the signals, the crosswalk and holding hands before he figured out what I was going for.

Science saw the sun bigger than the moon, and health saw us brushing our teeth and wearing jackets in the winter and sandal-shoes in the summer.  He was also able to explain why our clothing choices were different by season. Language as a whole went well, as he picked out a comma and a question mark, told me their names and functions with no hesitation.  I was impressed.  Math was a little slower. I'll want to do a few review lessons from the front of the blue book just to get back into the swing. He had three equations to solve - 7+2, 10+4, and 70+8. He used LEGO for the first two, and the abacus for the third, but he needed a little prompting to remember how to make those work.  So we'll get back to that and get moving on along.

All in all, I'm very pleased, and I think his year is going exceptionally well.  Next stop... planning for the rest of the week!

Musings.

We're currently on a break - we're studying Christmas and the winter solstice.  But once again, Monkey surprised me.  This evening, as I was setting dinner on the table, he was sitting in his bean bag chair with a lapful of Dr Seuss books.  I couldn't hear well enough to make out what he was saying as he flipped through them, but I do believe that he was actually reading those books to himself.  Part of confirming that suspicion is that he read the title for "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish," when he would usually say "white fish green fish red fish blue fish," and the rest was that the instant he saw me looking, he dropped the books and ran off to play with his trains.

How very interesting.  Looks like he's more ahead than I thought in reading as well as math.  Should be a fun second semester!

End of week 22.

Well, it wasn't as great a week as I could have hoped for - we came home from Hammie's just in time to get sick.  So, in the end, we didn't get all five days done, but only four.  Still not too bad.

Monkey is now essentially a reluctant reader.  If he wants to read something, he can.  If he doesn't want to, he suddenly finds out that he "can't."  Always entertaining.

Next week we will finish up Right Start Level A, so it's a good time for a bit of a break.  We'll finish that, and then simply move along with a unit study on winter Solstice and Christmas.  It is shaping up to be quite a well-timed season, and I like that.

Really, there isn't a lot new to report, so it could be a lot worse, no matter what we didn't cover this week.

Week 22

We're back from a break, and ready to go again!

It's been a long time since we've had school time, which I think is part of why this has been The Week of Crazy so far.  We cancelled school on our last Tuesday for an emergency dental visit for Monkey. On Wednesday, Monkey had a molar extracted, and I had a cyst removed from my back. On Friday, we went off to visit Hammie and Buppa.  We got back on this past Monday, and I had a Rheumatology appointment on Tuesday, Wednesday/Thursday is our usual weekend, and then... off we went!

Raz-Kids is still doing well for us for Reading.  Monkey enjoys it, but again, we're trying to get back in the swing.  He's progressed from the beginning of level aa to the middle of level A, which is fantastic, and we did some work with word families ( -ab and -ack, -ag and -ail specifically) as well.  There's more work to be done this week, but that's okay, we're moving at a good clip.

Monkey plowed through three Math lessons yesterday.  I only gave him one lesson today, largely because I'm lazy and didn't want to clean up after weighing to then bring out water to measure volume.  But, volume will come tomorrow, and we'll find octagons and tessellating, quarters, fractions, shapes (like cones and prisms)... and he's done with level A.  Holy COW!  I expect that will be next week, and we'll start level B right behind it.

Logic was an interesting time today.  Monkey was doing relationships, which he usually is very good at, and in his primary grouping were grapes, a ring, an orange, and a peppermint.  He somehow arrived at the conclusion that these things were all food, and crossed out everything but the smiling face (which resembles the smile cookie at our local coffee/donut stop).  For the flaw in the logic, it worked well, but it was still not right, and he's still insisting you can eat a ring, so there's nothing to be done there.

In other news (not taking into account the subjects we haven't done yet), I just nabbed an amazing deal.  The homeschool co-op occasionally has people listing the things that they're getting rid of - today I scored the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedias of World History, Science and World Geography (with world atlas) for $30.  As in, $30 got me all three.  If I'd gotten the new books as I'd planned, I'd have spent $75 plus tax and shipping.  I'm THRILLED.  All in all, it's a good week, which is a nice shift for a first week back after two weeks off.

Week 21's wrap up.

This week was surprisingly easy for us.  I've put in a couple changes, which seem to have made a really large difference.

Reading:  Reading is the first big change. Instead of spending the week doing trash words, we've been using "Raz-Kids."  My cousin has a subscription through her school district, and has 5 additional spots for her students that she's not using, so she put Monkey into one of those spots, and off we went.  He read, and read well, all 18 of the Level aa books this week, and is about set to move on to the next level.  I'm really proud of him, he's doing an excellent job using the pictures for clues, and also sounding things out when he needs to.  We'll see how well he does with A next week.

Math: Math is the other big change.  Instead of taking Right Start math one lesson per day and moving along, we've hustled it all up a bit, and he's now skipping anything review-related and working at about two lessons per day.  He was, oddly, bored, and so he was acting out for it.  Next week will be interesting, as I'm going to be trying to plan for it this week.  However, Monkey can now tell analog time to the hours, which he is loving.  I'm very pleased with his hard work, and he's doing a great job, and moving right along!

Logic: I still really need to get Lollipop Logic 2.  Monkey is really anxious to do more than one lesson in a day, and I'd like to let him, but I'd also like the curriculum to actually last us a bit.  He's still doing spectacularly at this, and there's very little else to say about it.

French: French has kind of dissolved on me. It would be easier if I knew what I was doing before I started, but I'm still going to keep trying.  I've been, if nothing else, letting Monkey watch movies on Fridays... but we're using the French audio tracks (and English subtitles), so I'm hoping that counts at least a little.

History: We made our own personal seals this week. Depressingly, our clay did not dry as it was supposed to, so we have a week later, still soft seals. I'm thinking of doing this with Play-Doh tomorrow just to make the point, have the seals dry, and then make our pieces.  Worst that happens is the lesson gets done twice.

Science: Monkey is having a great time with science, and we're averaging two experiments per week.  We are still in The Human Body, and he knows so much about it now that it's almost frightening.  I've never heard a four year old give a minor lesson on digestion or white blood cells before.  However it comes, though, he's really loving it, and I'm thrilled to be able to be involved in it.

Next week will stay with Human Body, move ahead in History, try to move ahead in French, see what we can get to in Math, and for Reading, we'll keep with Raz-Kids, and see what he's able to get to.  I'll pick up actual instruction after American Thanksgiving.

Week 20's Recap

For once, I'm right on top of this.  Turns out, we got our work done today by 10:30, so it's no hurry trying to get the blog updated before gym class.

For the next 8 weeks, our schedule goes:
F: Homeschool
S: Homeschool (video call with Hammie!)
Su: Homeschool
M: Preschool, Science experiment
Tu: Homeschool, Gym
W: Preschool, Weekend
Th: Weekend

We're busy, which is good, but it's a bit of a stretch trying to get our four days of school in.  Monkey has a hard time focusing if more people than just the two of us are around, so Wednesday and Thursday are out, as Skeeve is home.  After preschool, it seems mean to put homeschool on top of it, so we skip Monday as well.  As a result, we're working on four day weeks, and I'm trying really hard to make sure we keep our four day weeks - and not falling back to three day ones.

I've also realized that I'm not really actually teaching much yet. For now, I'm still just finding the bottom end of what Monkey already knows and essentially getting ready for next year.  I suppose that's all JK is anyhow, getting ready for the following year, but it seems really weird to be proposing a JK curriculum that "studies" grade 2 reading, kindergarten math, grade 1 history, logic, French, and some kind of weird K-2 science. I suppose that's the beauty of homeschooling, though.

Anyhow!  The update.

Reading: We've adapted Trash Words for our use here.  Monkey loves it.  I've taken the review words from unit 3, and he reads them to me.  He is better at the beginning of the game than at the end, but that's pretty normal for him, so I'm not worried.  He also LOVES playing, so it's even better.  More often than not, he has a great handle on what is being asked of him, but the problem is that too much review makes him twitchy. So, Trash Words has been working well, and we'll watch Unit 3 a few more times, and then we'll move right on to level 2, and I can toss his sight words in as well, which will help, too.

Math: We've had a bunch of issues with math recently, it's become a struggle to get math done on a daily basis.  However, I have no real way of knowing whether it's because of too much review, or too fast a pace - either way I get the same result - Monkey refuses to do the work. So today, we had a nice chat about how I really need him to answer the questions if he knows the answers so I can move on - otherwise I don't know he knows, and we keep working on the same things.  This resulted in three rapid-fire answers, and so we moved on.  In the last two days, we covered four lessons and skipped several others (all review!), so we're certainly moving right along.  And it keeps Monkey happier, so I'm glad to do it.

French: Really unsurprisingly, French is difficult for us.  I have a hard time trying to get Monkey to understand that it's a real thing, and that people in other countries, and in other parts of Canada, speak this way instead of how we do.  I'm doing what I can, but I have plenty of time. He needs two years of French between now and grade nine, so I think we'll be okay.

Logic: This is still fabulously easy for him. Aside from some confusion over the instructions (he was trying to physically fit items into the starting box, instead of matching their use), it was really easy for him, and he was looking to do some more right away.  I really need to get the next few books of logic so we don't run out quickly.

History: This is still a bit of a struggle.  I'm not too worried, as we'll likely hit on Egypt and Akkadia again eventually, and he is enjoying the mapwork, so it's not a total loss.

Science: This is no end of fun.  Monkey is adoring his unit on the Human Body, and is branching out every which way he can around The Magic School Bus.  It's really neat, watching how quickly he picks things up out of thin air.  I'm really proud of him.

Week 19 Wrap.

This week was a bit of a toss-up for us, honestly.  Some things were easier than I'd thought, others were suddenly like pulling teeth, and then we had a moderate revelation that will hopefully make life easier for all of us.

Reading: This was substantially easier than I'd thought.  I'm still not sure if this is boring to him, or if he's still learning.  Tonight, he wanted to watch one specific episode of The Magic Schoolbus - "the one with Ralphie!"  The title screen came on "Inside Ralphie," and he jumped and cheered.  I have no idea if this means he can read "Ralphie," if he recognizes the episode that starts with I and R is the one he wants, or even if he just knows that the second episode on the disc is the one he wants, but SOMETHING is up.  He's busted out reading things before, and I don't know what his actual reading ability is anymore.  I know his prediction skills are fabulous, and I know he is wonderful at putting in words that match pictures, but his actual ability to read?  No clue anymore.  We're going to look into Magic Schoolbus books for him so we can see if he's willing to read them or not.  Who knows, really?

Math: For whatever reason, this week Math was suddenly like pulling teeth.  Wanted NOTHING to do with it at all.  I don't know if it's just not moving fast enough for him, if there's too much repetition, or if he doesn't like having to work at it, but something is up.  I'm going to see how next week goes, and once we're through that, if it's still an issue, I'll ask him his thoughts, and see where we end up.  We made our way through three lessons this week, each taking one day.  We're rapidly approaching the end of the book, with lesson 52 starting this week, and 77 lessons in the book.  When did this happen?!?  Yikes!

French: We're working on a two-week approach to French as well.  Week 1 is an introduction to the concept, week two is a review of things to date.  I have no idea how this is going to go, as Monkey still doesn't seem to grok the concept that some people speak another language.

Logic: Again, this seems ridiculously easy for him. He's flying through each lesson, then asking if we can do some more.  I have to hold him back, expressly for the reasoning of not having the next book in the series yet, and not wanting to fly through a year worth of curriculum in a month.  I'm looking at getting the next book at the next available opportunity, and we'll see where we go from there.

History: This week, we built a pyramid.  Monkey adored it.  Just adored it.  It took a while for him to understand the "stair step" concept around the design, but once he got it, it was 45m spent building a pyramid, taking it apart, and building it again.  He's LOVING it.  I'm always so excited when he's happy with lessons.

Science: He loves science.  Can't get enough of it.  It's crazy.  This week's experiment was making a stethoscope so he could listen to his heart beat.  We talked about what the heart does, that it's a muscle, it's size, all that, and he thinks this is just the coolest thing ever.  He is really taking off, courtesy of The Magic Schoolbus DVD we got, the LeapFrog Tag board he has, and the Little Labs he's loving so much.  It's so neat to watch him just absorb all this stuff.  He was telling me today during his lab that yes, the heart pumps the blood full of nutrients around the body, and the blood gets nutrients from the small intestine, but really, they come from the villi in the small intestine, which soak up the nutrients from the food we eat, that goes through the stomach, after the esophagus, which is where it goes once you swallow after you chew.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with this child sometimes.

All in all, a great academic week.  He also had a great week at preschool, which is wonderful news.  We also found out that Monkey is a very sensory-seeking child.  He is avoidant in some things, but he is primarily seeking.  We have now given him unrestricted access to an iPod of music, and a pair of child-safe headphones.  Whenever he feels upset, he can turn on his music and calm himself down.  I'm also trying to make a point of keeping music playing all day, so there is some background noise, as the quiet seems to drive him nuts.  We shall have to see, once again, how it goes, and with any luck, this will be a great breakthrough for our sanity!