Reading today was, unsurprisingly, like pulling teeth. Monkey's fluency is well behind his skill, and today we were working on his fluency. For this, we read one of the Hooked on Phonics books. The same one. Then I keep track of how fast he's reading in the middle of the book. Last check saw him reading 6 words per minute. He sounded out every one, and dawdled between them. Today, we were at 10 words per minute. He didn't sound out as many, but the dawdling was ridiculous. You'd think the boy never saw a book with illustrations before. He spent more time telling me about what colors the hangers were in the second picture than he spent on the entire rest of the book. GAH. Slowly but surely, right?
In mathy news, he is apparently good at geometry. The first task set to him was to look at honeycomb, then take a stack of hexagons and put them together to make the best use of space. This took a whopping two seconds for him to decide how to best do it, and then it was all over but the repetition. Craziness. Same applied for lines of symmetry, shapes, and counting by twos to 30. I was pretty impressed, actually. I was expecting this lesson to be difficult, or at least time-consuming, and that's not what happened at all. I have tomorrow/Wednesday slated as an as-needed day, maybe we'll review equations and lines of symmetry, plus anything that was either really fun or really hard. Seems like a good use of time. I'm not sure if I'm surprised by how fast he's going through this or not, but he's on his way through kindergarten math, and he's just finished lesson 27. I think there's only been one or two that he's needed to spend more than one day on.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Week 9, Day 2.
Yes, I am writing a ridiculous amount on all this. It will probably level out in time, but until then, I find it to be a helpful record of what is going on in our homeschool, so it is what it is.
Today in reading, we covered the Big Words from Lvl 1, Unit 3. These words are harder for Monkey, as he doesn't really have the patience to deal with them. Words like muffin and kitten, which are words for things he likes, are easier for him than words like happen and Dennis, which are words he knows, but doesn't really care about either way. However, while he is still slow on the fluency side, he more than understands the concept of figuring out how these words work. I think putting them on a once-per-week rotation should be good - it's enough that he can review them without being so often that he's bored out of his skull with them. I wrote both the syllables and the words on the whiteboard. He was able, once we were done doing the reading, to erase all the words and syllables, which made him happy. Hopefully, I can keep coming up with entertaining ways of reviewing so he doesn't mind continuing.
Math was a little harder. It was much harder to keep him focused, which presents a challenge when you're working with manipulatives. Once we got going, though, it seemed to be a review, mostly, for him. There were some issues with evens/odds, and thinking a problem through, but all in all, he did well. Today's lesson was #26, Equations and Overlapping Tens and Ones. He's doing a really great job of it, despite his having a case of the wiggle britches all morning.
This afternoon, we did a bit of what could probably be called social studies. We went out and interacted with our town. We walked (okay, I walked, Monkey rode) 4.21 miles to run errands. We saw vegetable stands, we saw stores, shops, traffic, lights, crossings, streets with no crossings, cashiers, sales people, and the basic etiquette of the bank lobby when the clerks are closed. I think this afternoon I'll show him the map of where we walked, and we'll go over basic geography as well. Really, a very full, albeit not feeling very full day.
Today in reading, we covered the Big Words from Lvl 1, Unit 3. These words are harder for Monkey, as he doesn't really have the patience to deal with them. Words like muffin and kitten, which are words for things he likes, are easier for him than words like happen and Dennis, which are words he knows, but doesn't really care about either way. However, while he is still slow on the fluency side, he more than understands the concept of figuring out how these words work. I think putting them on a once-per-week rotation should be good - it's enough that he can review them without being so often that he's bored out of his skull with them. I wrote both the syllables and the words on the whiteboard. He was able, once we were done doing the reading, to erase all the words and syllables, which made him happy. Hopefully, I can keep coming up with entertaining ways of reviewing so he doesn't mind continuing.
Math was a little harder. It was much harder to keep him focused, which presents a challenge when you're working with manipulatives. Once we got going, though, it seemed to be a review, mostly, for him. There were some issues with evens/odds, and thinking a problem through, but all in all, he did well. Today's lesson was #26, Equations and Overlapping Tens and Ones. He's doing a really great job of it, despite his having a case of the wiggle britches all morning.
This afternoon, we did a bit of what could probably be called social studies. We went out and interacted with our town. We walked (okay, I walked, Monkey rode) 4.21 miles to run errands. We saw vegetable stands, we saw stores, shops, traffic, lights, crossings, streets with no crossings, cashiers, sales people, and the basic etiquette of the bank lobby when the clerks are closed. I think this afternoon I'll show him the map of where we walked, and we'll go over basic geography as well. Really, a very full, albeit not feeling very full day.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Begin Week 9
This week is beginning a day late. We had our backyard fence put in yesterday, and I'd have gotten all of nothing done, so I figured to start on Saturday instead of Friday. Good plan.
Of course, no good plans come without their challenges. It took about half an hour to get Monkey settled into his reading lessons this morning. He spent a large portion of time resisting anything that wasn't throwing toys around, which he's not allowed to do anyway. Sigh. However! Once he settled in, he blitzed through Unit 2 without any problem. I typically sit with him and 'help' him sound out words, as if there is too much repetition, he loses interest and is easily distracted. So I sound out one word (today, things like "m-i-lk"), and then he sounds out the next. He goes through these units so quickly.
Again, in the "challenges" department, we had L pop by to see if Monkey could come out to play. At 10:30. And 11:00 and 11:10, and 11:20, and I finally told him we would come out when we were done and refused to answer the bell or knocking any more after that. This, of course, made everything take tons longer.
Today being Saturday, when we finished our reading, we hooked up Skeeve's computer, and got going on a video call to Hammie. This is a great deal of fun for us (and for Hammie!), and helps Monkey keep track of his weeks, and keeps him from missing his Hammie and Buppa too much. This takes about an hour, which I consider time well spent. We eat lunch while we chat, and then move along.
Math took a whopping 10 minutes. We did a review of Lesson 25, as we've not done any math in several weeks. He blew through it like I couldn't believe. It was a bit of a struggle when we left, but this time he flew through it. I'm looking forward to tomorrow!
Now, we also have history today. This will be our first lesson out of Story of the World. I'm actually rather looking forward to using the book, though I'm a little unsure why. Monkey, on the other hand, found this to be the most traumatic subject in the history of EVER. There was a page and a half to read, and it was a fight to get through it. We also did the student pages, which he colored while we talked about what went on the pages. The topic was "My Family History," so at least it starts out with the familiar. I strongly suspect this will take us double time to complete. However, as I have us planning for about half an hour of history on each of two days per week, it isn't exactly hard to spread it out. We'll see how the pace goes for him, and adjust from there. I don't want history to be awful for him, but I do want him to learn it, so it's really just a matter of getting it together - it's not like we're behind, so I'm not particularly worried, even if this year's history curriculum takes two years to go through.
Of course, no good plans come without their challenges. It took about half an hour to get Monkey settled into his reading lessons this morning. He spent a large portion of time resisting anything that wasn't throwing toys around, which he's not allowed to do anyway. Sigh. However! Once he settled in, he blitzed through Unit 2 without any problem. I typically sit with him and 'help' him sound out words, as if there is too much repetition, he loses interest and is easily distracted. So I sound out one word (today, things like "m-i-lk"), and then he sounds out the next. He goes through these units so quickly.
Again, in the "challenges" department, we had L pop by to see if Monkey could come out to play. At 10:30. And 11:00 and 11:10, and 11:20, and I finally told him we would come out when we were done and refused to answer the bell or knocking any more after that. This, of course, made everything take tons longer.
Today being Saturday, when we finished our reading, we hooked up Skeeve's computer, and got going on a video call to Hammie. This is a great deal of fun for us (and for Hammie!), and helps Monkey keep track of his weeks, and keeps him from missing his Hammie and Buppa too much. This takes about an hour, which I consider time well spent. We eat lunch while we chat, and then move along.
Math took a whopping 10 minutes. We did a review of Lesson 25, as we've not done any math in several weeks. He blew through it like I couldn't believe. It was a bit of a struggle when we left, but this time he flew through it. I'm looking forward to tomorrow!
Now, we also have history today. This will be our first lesson out of Story of the World. I'm actually rather looking forward to using the book, though I'm a little unsure why. Monkey, on the other hand, found this to be the most traumatic subject in the history of EVER. There was a page and a half to read, and it was a fight to get through it. We also did the student pages, which he colored while we talked about what went on the pages. The topic was "My Family History," so at least it starts out with the familiar. I strongly suspect this will take us double time to complete. However, as I have us planning for about half an hour of history on each of two days per week, it isn't exactly hard to spread it out. We'll see how the pace goes for him, and adjust from there. I don't want history to be awful for him, but I do want him to learn it, so it's really just a matter of getting it together - it's not like we're behind, so I'm not particularly worried, even if this year's history curriculum takes two years to go through.
Monday, July 23, 2012
End of Week 8
I'm calling this week something akin to a wash. Monkey has been sleeping poorly, and this has led to an absolute lack of planning time for me. As a result, I have a whole load of nothing planned, and have been mostly winging things. Math, however, does not lend itself well to winging it. I also still have to do our science and history read-alouds. So, it looks like several things get pushed back to next week, which is workable, but not what I'd hoped.
However, Monkey blazed through 14 reading lessons in the last three days, so it's not all a loss. I'm now putting him into a bit of a holding pattern, and adjusting my expectations so that he does not finish level two in three days. I'm going to instead spend one day on The Big Words (like happen and traffic), one day on his sight words, one on new lessons, and one on fluency. He can watch his current (and past) lessons as often as he'd like, but we're not covering more than one unit per week until I can get the next level in the house - I don't want him to get used to not doing any reading again.
For history, I'm going to give Story of the World a go. We'll see what Monkey makes of the text and the student book. I'm not sure how it will go, with his fine motor skills being fairly on target for an early-three, but we'll certainly try it.
Science I need to plan. I don't know what the next experiment is, so I don't know what to be reading. I need to get on that, and hope for the best. Usually, it's no problem, but I'm so scattered from lack of planning I feel almost adrift!
Tomorrow should be swimming. I'm not sure if that will get pre-empted for grocery shopping, but we'll see what happens.
However, Monkey blazed through 14 reading lessons in the last three days, so it's not all a loss. I'm now putting him into a bit of a holding pattern, and adjusting my expectations so that he does not finish level two in three days. I'm going to instead spend one day on The Big Words (like happen and traffic), one day on his sight words, one on new lessons, and one on fluency. He can watch his current (and past) lessons as often as he'd like, but we're not covering more than one unit per week until I can get the next level in the house - I don't want him to get used to not doing any reading again.
For history, I'm going to give Story of the World a go. We'll see what Monkey makes of the text and the student book. I'm not sure how it will go, with his fine motor skills being fairly on target for an early-three, but we'll certainly try it.
Science I need to plan. I don't know what the next experiment is, so I don't know what to be reading. I need to get on that, and hope for the best. Usually, it's no problem, but I'm so scattered from lack of planning I feel almost adrift!
Tomorrow should be swimming. I'm not sure if that will get pre-empted for grocery shopping, but we'll see what happens.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
In The Beginning
Our home schooling journey, moderately regularly chronicled.
In our house, very little is normal. Certainly not Skeeve, absolutely not me, and therefore by default not Monkey either.
Monkey will soon be four. This fall he would start attending junior kindergarten at the local public school. However, this turned out to be problematic for several reasons. Monkey is an asynchronous child. He is unable to sit any kind of still. And if that's not enough, this year our local public school has mandated full day junior kindergarten. Six and a half hours per day, five days per week. This would not work in any kind of way for a little boy who can't sit still for more than three minutes without his own interests driving him.
As we go along, I will keep tabs on what we are doing and how it is going, and I'm hoping to get a better handle on Blogger formatting so I can keep a page of introductions, a page of curricula, and a page of our read-alouds by age. With any amount of luck, this will be considerably more fun than it sounds.
In our house, very little is normal. Certainly not Skeeve, absolutely not me, and therefore by default not Monkey either.
Monkey will soon be four. This fall he would start attending junior kindergarten at the local public school. However, this turned out to be problematic for several reasons. Monkey is an asynchronous child. He is unable to sit any kind of still. And if that's not enough, this year our local public school has mandated full day junior kindergarten. Six and a half hours per day, five days per week. This would not work in any kind of way for a little boy who can't sit still for more than three minutes without his own interests driving him.
As we go along, I will keep tabs on what we are doing and how it is going, and I'm hoping to get a better handle on Blogger formatting so I can keep a page of introductions, a page of curricula, and a page of our read-alouds by age. With any amount of luck, this will be considerably more fun than it sounds.
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