Week 11, Day 1

Thankfully, week 11 was already decided to be a review week.  Skeeve is home from work ill today, which throws a lot of things out of whack if we're looking at new learning.  Obviously, not his fault, but I'm really glad for the review, as it means there's less concentration needed in most things.

Reading: Reading went remarkably well.  We reviewed Unit 3, going over the review page.  Monkey still has an issue with slowing down to read the words that are printed rather than the words he wanted to see there, but since I had the same problem as a child and read absolutely voraciously (and always have), I see no reason to worry.  Particularly not since when I slow him down, he has no issue sounding out the correct word.  His fluency still pretty well bites.  He sounds out everything, rather than using past knowledge - his use of past knowledge comes into play for things like "dented" where he says /d/-/e/-/nt/... dentist!  So he is capable of the fluency, he just needs to actually use it appropriately.  That's okay, though. We're working on that.  It would be less of an issue if he didn't need the repetition for this, but he hates repetition.  Reading and re-reading the same things makes him nuts.  This review week is only bearable because he's able to color his sheets, and he's able to jump and play while he reads the words.  I know he needs it, but holy WOW is it difficult to get done.

Logic: He re-did the lesson 1-3 worksheets.  He understands exactly what the lesson wants of him, but refuses to slow down to get the right answers.  There's a lot of scaffolding going on here, largely because while I know he knows this, I also know that getting them entirely wrong isn't a matter of lack of understanding, but instead lack of care.  I'm not sure how to instill that care, though.  I suppose we'll see as we go.

Math: This will go all day.  Literally.  We're reviewing the values of a penny, a nickel, and a dime, and how to enter them on the abacus.  This is, again, something he full well knows.  He just doesn't want to slow down enough to make sure the answers he's giving are the ones he wants to give.  And so, we review, and hope for the best, really.  He's good at it, but it's a challenge trying to make sure he slows down enough to demonstrate what he knows versus what he simply can't be arsed to do.

All in all, this is a good day. A little awkward, with Skeeve home and Monkey's penchant to not learn well with many people around, but that's okay.