Week 1 in CTG

Well, Week 1 went really good. We had school Monday through Thursday. I didn't count Friday, even though we were learning about another culture.

Bible time has been interesting. I read the passage(s) suggested, and then the kids narrate. Sometimes I read a paragraph and then pick one of the kids to narrate. Tigger and Pooh don't always quite get it yet. Rabbit usually does fine. After we're done with that, I ask, "What does this passage teach us about God." Sometimes their answers are cute. I've been writing them down in our special Bible notebook. I keep my NIV Study Bible handy to check the notes for anything interesting.

History was just going through Dinosaurs of Eden. The boys really like looking at the pictures. It is kind of neat because the children are going through the "Seven C's" curriculum from Answers in Genesis in Sunday School this summer, and the information they are learning there has applied to both Bible time and "History."

While some may find the Science book, Genesis for Kids, corny, we've been enjoying it. Thursday we had an experiment to show how we all have a blind spot. The kids thought that was especially cool. I was really glad our first experiment worked. I had tried it over the weekend before to make sure.

At this point in the day, Rabbit usually breaks off to do her "homework" as she calls it. Mostly this is a handwriting page, her notebook page, math drill, and sometimes English from the Roots Up work. On Thursday, she actually did her Writing Strands work by herself. I was so proud of her. She needed a little help with the last sentence, but she did most of the work herself, and didn't complain.

So, I've been working with the boys while Rabbit does her homework. We start with Phonics, and that works pretty well. Then we do handwriting. I have to work with one at a time when we do handwriting. I've been throwing in activities from Handwriting Without Tears, like pencil grip activities, using the wooden pieces to build the capital letters, and writing on the slates. Then we have Phonics Review time, which is usually some kind of game. We finished all the pages from the first lesson in Math-U-See's Primer this week. One day I let the boys do the "I" pages from the Cuisinare Rods Alphabet Book. They loved this. Pooh said, "This is fun, but tricky." Just up his alley. They've asked every day since we did that activity to do it again.

Once the boys have finished, they are free to play. Sometimes they draw or color, sometimes they go outside, and other days they play in the basement. Rabbit and I are then free to continue working on school. Monday through Wednesday we have English, so we work on that. Wednesday and Thursday were Writing Strands. She's been reading to me from the Pathway Reader for 4th grade. She has only done the workbook pages once. We are continuing on through All About Spelling Level 2. We're half way through step 8.

Math and Art has fallen in the afternoon. Rabbit has had some issues with the Math. Not that she can't do it, but it is a lot of writing when you have 3 or 4 digit numbers times 2 and 3 digit numbers. Sometimes Art is just art history, and other times there are actual lessons. I think she has been enjoying it.

I'm so pleased with how the first week of school has gone.