EXP1850 Week 2

Whew. We went camping before starting this week on a Thursday. I had nothing prepared like I like to. That made it a little bit hectic.

This week started the memorization of James. Right now we're doing Plan A. That could change as AWANA starts up in September, but right now, we're going for Plan A. It has been challenging, but well worth the effort, so far. I've needed some reminder of those first 4 verses.

I found a History Scribe pack over at CurrClick (for $5) that had lots of topics we'll be covering this year and next (Egypt to the Present). It also included pages on the Indian tribes we'll cover, too. So I bought that to use for some of our History Notebook Pages. Using the "blank" pages from that and good old Photoshop, I made some pages for the kids to fill in for their "summary pages" this week. We did make the Shortbread as described in the T.M. We used fresh-milled whole wheat flour and honey to make it "healthier." My husband said it reminded him of pie crust. He said, "Leave to the Americans to add apples and call it pie." Here's a picture:

In Science, we started looking at the Classification System and Vertebrates. The kids liked the activities. I made a Vertebrates page in Microsoft Word for the kids to show them the fun we can have with our science pages. The boys have been working out of the Complete Book of Animals some, too. We made the model backbone as described in the text.

Math is going fine. Rabbit takes a little bit longer on those Review pages in the Singapore Textbook. It took us 3 days to complete one. We're working on Order of Operations. I let Rabbit use the calculator a little bit, or it would have taken us hours and hours to do those problems. (I only let her use it if a step was NOT a common math fact.) The boys seem to be doing okay with math, though Pooh Bear often needs two or three explanations before it sinks in. He's really having trouble with his math facts, so I get out beans for him to use to do subtraction. Tigger loves Quarter Mile Math, and it really seems to be helping him.

Tigger continues to plow on in Reading and Spelling. He's over halfway through the Abeka 1st grade readers, and he's only got two more steps to finish in All About Spelling Level 1. Pooh Bear continues the slow and steady pace. He can read, but it is a lot more work for him. Spelling goes even slower. But, I've found if I let him do it on a whiteboard, so his letters don't have to be on lines, he does better. Rabbit is reading fine these days. We've been in All About Spelling Level 5 for a while. She is really struggling with some of the concepts at this level.

We've missed quite a few God and the History of Art pages. If I have to let something go, I feel like letting Art go is the easiest thing, because it's not always my interest. But, two of the three kids like drawing. If our days weren't so long, I'd probably do more.

Pooh struggles with Rosetta Stone, but part of that is he doesn't always speak clearly. I've also read that dyslexics have a hard time learning a Foreign Language. Rabbit seems to be mostly liking it - except when she has a hard time pronouncing things. Tigger enjoys it and isn't taking it too seriously. They are all doing Spanish.

I come up with a way to create a flexible schedule. I am using a pocket chart and some wipe-off word strips. Basically it is just to give us the order of the day. If multiple things are listed, the left column is for Rabbit, the middle for Pooh Bear, and the right for Tigger. So, if I'm working with Rabbit on English, the other two have independent stuff to do. Here's what it looks like:

It makes it pretty easy to change the order of the day if I know we have an appointment or something. We turn the cards over as we work through each section. I am thinking about moving Math and Reading before lunch, and History and Science afterwards. I really feel that sometimes the 3 R's get neglected if they're not done right after Bible. But, that is a lot of writing right in a row for the little guys, so I don't know.