Feb. 19, 2009 - January and February School Update
I was hoping to include pictures with this update, however the computer had other plans. I'm having trouble loading my pictures onto the new computer, so I may just have a post full of pictures in a few days. Until then, here's my lengthy update from the last two months of school.
Reading: Both Big Man (9) and Little Monkey (6) have passed Level 3 in Barton and are now in the first couple of lessons in Level 4. I hear from everyone that this is the toughest level, and that on average it takes 4 - 6 months to get thru. I'm trying to go very slowly so I'm confident they are solid on the concept being taught in the lesson before I move on. This is also the level that many people say they've seen the most progress in their kids once they've completed the whole level. We'll see what happens with my kiddos. Little Monkey has his official reading evaluation in three weeks. We won't get the results until at least two weeks after the evaluation. I'll be holding my breath to see what our reading evaluator says. Big Man did so much worse than what we expected, I'm worried it will be the same way with Little Monkey! I've seen great improvements with both of the boys this year since beginning Barton, but I'm anxious to see how he does with the formal testing. I'm sure he needs more fluency work, so we've already decided to add in the One Minute Readers like Big Man does. I'm also considering switching the Great Leaps fluency time over to the fluency drills provided on the Barton website. These fluency drills are a recent addition, if they were offered last summer I wouldn't have needed to purchase Great Leaps. One thing that I really like about the Barton fluency drills is that you print them to match whatever level you are on. This eliminates all of the mismatched skills between Barton and Great Leaps. I haven't decided for sure one way or the other. Decisions, decisions.
Math: Big Man continues to do very well with Math U See. It is amazing to me the difference a curriculum can make. He went from failing Abeka math to aceing Math U See. He has learned all of his math tables up to ten, and knows how to multiply by 11's. He is a little shaky on a couple of combinations, but he continues to work flashcards with his dad to keep those things improving. He has worked on rounding, estimating multiplication problems, multiplying a number with zero's at the end (like 400 x 7), and reviewed how to multiply a large number by a one digit number (like 47 x 5). After our break he will begin to learn how to multiply multi-digit numbers by multi-digit numbers (like 152 x 38). This is where the sequencing problems of dyslexia could become a big factor. We'll take as much time as needed to get this solid in his head. I am also continuing to give review papers for clocks and subtraction with borrowing to keep those skills fresh. Little Monkey continues to fly thru math. He has begun to do some multiplication as well. He has covered the 0's and 1's, and a little bit of the 2's.
Grammar: Going well for both boys. I had to gloat when a speech evaluation test result showed above average grammar usage. 
We continue to color code our parts of speech, which works very well for Big Man when he's trying to diagram sentences. Little Monkey is working on the 4-part definition of a verb.
History:
We are still enjoying Tapestry of Grace very much. There are weeks where we are so busy with other things we don't get to do some of the fun things I had hoped to get to in history. That's okay, I can use the ideas the next time we hit this time period! Anyway, we've covered things like the building of the Erie Canal, and had a fun time constructing a locks system in pans in our kitchen. Once the weather is nicer we'll go down to our local shipping area and see real locks doing their thing. It should be really neat. Also, we spent some time learning about Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson, and the beginnings of westward expansion. The kids enjoyed learning about the Alamo. We were going to set up a recreation of the attack with our building blocks and army men, but that was a busy week so it got dropped. We also learned about the Trail of Tears and built an interactive map. If I can get that blasted camera to load pictures on the computer, I'll have lots of pictures to show!
Science: We've been doing our experiments as we have time. We'll still easily be able to get thru all of the lessons by the end of the year. After this weeks break, we'll really start getting into the fun stuff. The first week back, we'll be showing how chemicals react by putting Mentos in Coke They're going to like this in a very big way! There may be a river of Coke flowing from our yard by the end of that week. Well, that's only one of the experiments, but I have a sneaking suspicion it will be a favorite.
Extras:
Well, I started doing an update on the kids here, but it got very long an involved. I'll do this one in a separate post! I've got a lot to get off of my chest! Other than that, we've been busy with life. Various appointments, playdates, and homeschool group events have kept us on our toes. I've already put in my resignation for the homeschool group next year. As much as I enjoy doing it, I just don't have an ounce of time to give it....and next year is going to be even worse! I have one more big group event that I'm putting together, then it's just a few playdates to finish out our year. I'm hoping we'll still be able to be involved in the service projects the homeschool group has put together around Easter, but I guess I won't know that for sure until it gets closer.
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