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Education is a Process, Not a Destination
Jan. 13, 2008
This week's report
We are all now recovered from the stomach bug that knocked everybody out for a while. The first half of last week was basically wasted because we were all ill--8th illness for the poor Bear this year--but the second was reasonably productive. I'm working like crazy, so I don't have as much time as I'd like.
Anyhow, as far as accomplishments go, the Bear only read five picture books last week. Lowest grade level was 3.2, highest 4.5. He breezed through them and has declared that for his birthday, I must make him a Thunder Cake from the book of the same name. So that's what we shall do!
I was worried that he wouldn't take to Patricia Polacco because her books are more touching than funny, but he loves the two he's read. So we'll look for more now. Though I am the last person in the world to get my undies in a wad about multy-culty issues, I believe that it is important to expose children to many different ways of living and different cultures. For me, historical variety is as important as cultural variety, and I'm having great fun introducing the Bear to all sorts of new worlds. It's keeps your world from being too small. Polacco's books are Russian-themed and are often about her own immigrant family, who came to the US in the 1800s. They're wonderfully illustrated and competently written, and the stories are lively. I really enjoy introducing the Bear to them. It's a shame he hasn't taken to Tomie de Paola with the same enthusiasm.
The books for this week were:
| And to Think the I Saw It On Mulberry Street |
Dr. Seuss |
| The Keeping Quilt |
Polacco, Patricia |
| Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation |
Stanley, Diane |
| Angelina and Henry |
Holabird, Katharine |
| Thunder Cake |
Polacco, Patricia |
We did much better with math than reading--it requires less of him. I backed up one lesson to Lesson 12 of RightStart A, so as of Friday, we'd done 12-24, or 13 lessons total, in 5 days. I am still over the moon with this program. It's just the thing to completely bypass all the Bear's audio processing problems and get straight tot he heart of the concepts. I know from how he works automatically with number things that his fundamental understanding of math is very good, but getting into his brain via the ears was tough. This does it, and we're flying along.
Reading ahead has really helped me figure out where Dr. Cotter's going with some of the things she's doing. I'm actually teaching the material while introducing concepts from later, though at a low level, and the Bear's grasping it all without hardly blinking. The Swim to Ten game, simple version, is pretty pointless because it seems way below his ability level, but he likes it, so I'll see if he gets whatever can be gotten out of it with a few more repetitions. He's had an understanding of things in his head at a much higher level already--he just needed to consciously call on that understanding and to connect it to the words that describe it.
I intend to finish RightStart B in time for his official enrollment as a Kindergarten homeschool student. We'll see where we go from there. I have a number of alternative plans depending upon what path he ends up taking. |
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