Another discombobulated week

All of these holidays in the month of November are throwing our routine off! We were off to a good start this week but Veteran's Day threw a wrench in the works. But that's ok - we're ahead in most subjects so it really doesn't bother me.


The Boy and The Girl were able to participate in the local Veteran's Day parade with The Boy's Cub Scout group. We discussed the difference between Veteran's Day and Memorial Day and the significance of each.


The 3 Rs continue to go pretty well. The Boy is about done with his spelling for the YEAR so we're going to pick up Wordly Wise and Explode the Code for him to start after the new year. I'm planning to add Wordly Wise in for The Girl as well. NOT that I think she needs ANY help in the vocabulary department...


Our time spent reading together/aloud has increased a bit which is good - we had been neglecting it. We are currently reading "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane", which we had started reading this past summer. I backtracked a few chapters to reacquaint us with the story and the kids are really enjoying it. I either read to them while we're eating lunch or after we are done with history. They seem to prefer that I read to them after history (which usually follows lunch) as they are a bit sluggish from lunch and their friends are not yet home from school so they have downtime. The first day, I read just two short chapters and then stopped and they clammored for more. So I kept reading until something stopped me. At that rate, we will be able to complete at least a book per week. I told them that I wanted to read through the books we have on our own shelf (mainly books that have been given to us or that I loved as a child and bought for them to read as they grew older) before we start looking into other books to check out from the library.


In the meantime, we are creating a list of books we want to read. Our library has some great lists - Caldecott Award winners, Newberry Award winners, Theodore Seuss Geisel award winners, etc. In order to teach them how to navigate the internet, I have them each choose 2 books to research and report back on (right now, we are sticking to the lists that the library has to make things easy. Once we exhaust those, we'll move on to letting them choose books on their own to investigate). They have to share with us the title, author, and a brief summary of the book. For now, I let them copy down what they find on line (we use either Wikipedia or Amazon for now) as they have not read the book yet and cannot give me a summary in their own words. We then choose one of the two that they researched and add it to our list. They've enjoyed learning about the different awards given to children's books and they've enjoyed learning about different types of books. And just because a book doesn't make it to our "Read Aloud" list doesn't mean THEY can't check it out from the library and read it on their own! And they have, which I love!


The other thing that I'm finding I love is that, when they come across a passage (say, for example, a passage in their Writing With Ease workbook) that they have to listen to/read and summarize and they find that they are intrigued by what they've read, they LOVE to go and find the actual text at the library (or, even better, in our reading room)! The first time it happened, it was a book that we have here at home but that they had not yet read. The Girl was so excited to run into the reading room and find it on the shelf. She spent the rest of the day reading the entire book and, for the first time, was EXCITED to do her Writing work the next day (she's not a fan of summaries but is starting to enjoy them more). I love watching their faces light up when they read a passage from a book they've already read and I love watching their faces light up when they read a passage from a book they have NOT read but now WANT to read.


Math is moving along well. The Boy is just 2 lessons (and a "final exam") away from being done with 1st grade math. He is thrilled that he gets to take a "final exam" like I did last year in my college classes. I told him he could wait until after Christmas to get started on his next math level but he told me that he wants to get started right away. "Wouldn't it be COOL if I made it to THIRD GRADE MATH before I move into second grade?!?" I told him it would be great but not to pressure himself too much. The fact that he's done with 1st grade math is AMAZING in and of itself.


The Girl hit a challenge this week in math. We're working on double digit multiplication (i.e. 23x41). The thing I really like about Math U See is that she was given two different ways of working the problem - procedural (multiply the 3x1, then the 3x4; use a zero to hold the unit's place in the second line, multiply the 2x1, then 2x4; then add) or expanded (3x1 + 3x40, 20x1 + 20x40; add like terms and condense into a 3-digit number). SHE gets to choose what works best for HER. I would have thought that the expanded method would have worked better for her but she prefers the procedural. The fact that SHE gets to choose is what I like. The schools here are very strict about "doing it their way" - not just in the lower elementary grades but all the way up into Algebra and beyond. I don't care HOW you get the answer as long as you can explain to me how you came up with it and it's not just a wild guess. I make sure she understands both approaches and can perform them adequately (I have her complete at least 1 problem using each approach) but, after that, she's free to do them any way she chooses.


History took a backseat this week so we're a wee bit behind. We read and did the map work but that's about it. I'm currently trying to wrap my brain around this post that I found on making geography come alive and I"m trying to figure out where to put maps up like this and if there's even a point to doing so if we wind up having to leave the island before the end of the school year. I need to get down to the education store downtown and see what size maps they have. I have already scoped out bulletin boards - I just need to know if I can get my hands on maps (world and US) that fit. Then I need to figure out if they'll fit on the wall I'd like to use. I think the kids would really enjoy it!


But, for now, the weekend is upon us. As you can tell by my complete lack of photographic evidence, I have yet to pick up the slack in that area. We have BMX racing and the Awana Grand Prix coming up this weekend so hopefully we'll get some pictures in there somewhere!




Pau.




- hfs