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!
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