1850MOD: Week 8

We finished up Week 8 today. This week had more times where the boys sat in on the older reading. The boys really like the See the USA and the Fun Facts workbooks. They like to read the paragraph on the one page and then answer the questions on the next. Yesterday there was a question and although the boys couldn't do the math, they recognized that they needed to do multiplication to solve it. I think they like the challenges the books present, but the lessons only take 5 or 10 minutes. This week I've really tried to make sure we play the state games in the teacher's manual. The State Food game was a challenge. There are only so many "n" foods we could come up with: nachos, noodles, nectarines, nuts. The letter "m" was also a challenge. 

The boys are really enjoying the science, too. They love the experiments. We had to be a little creative on yesterday's experiment because we don't have rectangular margarine tubs here. So, I had them find one of their smaller Lego boats. Then we found a couple of rods from their Legos and K'nex blocks. We duct-taped those to the side of the boat, and then made the paddle as suggested in the book. It didn't seem to work as well as the book said, but we did get the paddle to turn and move the boat some.

The history for Rabbit seemed a bit lighter this week - I think because there was no reading on day 2. But that was good, because some of the chapter in Across Five Aprils have been long! We've been listening to the audio book (from the library) at lunch - I highly recommend doing that. I've been reading On the Banks of the Plum Creek to the kids at lunch, too.

We started up multiplication this week. The boys are kind of liking it because it is something new. They are not liking having to memorize the facts, though. I have made several different helps. The first is a multiplication table, with the numbers across the sides and top. The second is a book with each set on a different page. So all the times 1 are on the first page, times 2 on the second, etc. I dug out my multiplication flashcards, and I found some multiplication drill sheets in my Calculadders. I'm not timing the drill sheets yet, but I do think the idea of just writing the answers, even if they are looking at their multiplication table or book for the answers, will help them memorize it. Today Tigger figured out that times 2 just means to double the other number. He knows his addition facts pretty well, so that made the times 2's easy. Not so much on the times 3's.

The last couple of days, Rabbit has listened to her science by herself. She said today she took lots of notes because she found it really interesting. She has also been trying to read through the math lessons on her own and at least attempt them. Today was working with decimal numbers. She said at first she had trouble understanding about where to place the decimal point after multiplying, but then after she copied the problem from the book it finally made sense to her. I'm really proud with how hard she is trying.

We're still having trouble working the Progeny Press guide and Writing Strands into our day. We finally finished a Writing Strands lesson and moved on to the next section in the Progeny Press guide. Not only do the kids need check-lists, but I need one to remind me what I need to work on with her each day.

Over all it's been a good week. Tomorrow we have Presentation Day with our homeschool group. That always messes up the schedule. Plus we have piano lessons. We may end up doubling up some assignments on Friday just so we don't get our days off.