Monday, August 25, 2008
Week One Wrap-up
This is my 3rd year maintaining this blog, and I confess that I'm not sure what direction it will take this year! I have a feeling that it will be sporadic once again, as life tends to intervene. I do like having it encapsulated here, however, so maybe I'll try for weekly updates.
Last week was our first full week of school. The boys both had great attitudes and we got every bit of work done that I had hoped for.
Daily, both boys completed math workbook pages. C worked ahead of the number of pages assigned, but that's fine. N did just as he was asked, but did so with perfect accuracy.
Each day, we worked on reading out loud. N is definitely a beginning reader who is easily frustrated, so I'm trying to work throughout the day in very small chunks. C is an excellent reader, but he tends to skip words when he reads out loud. I know he reads them to himself, but he reads faster than he speaks and leaves things out. We're working on having him read more slowly, and address each word.
On Tuesday and Thursday the boys worked on their spelling workbook and took a test on Friday. N was terrified of the test and terrified that I was making him write out the words instead of spelling them orally as we had done last year. He scored 100% on his test. C refused to look over the words before the test, insisting he knew how to spell them all. He missed 3 words. For each missed word, he wrote it out 3 times.
Both boys work on journals during the week. On Tuesdays, C wrote in his topic journal (the journal page gives them the beginning of a sentence and he runs with it.) The minimum I ask him to write is 7 sentences. N also has a topic journal, but it is just completing one sentence. On Thursdays, both boys draw a page in their nature journal and write an entry. So far this year, I'm still writing N's entry as he dictates it to me. On Fridays, C writes in a free journal. The 7 sentence minimum applies here as well. On Saturdays, the boys both write in their book journals. This got skipped this week because of baseball and a few other obligations.
C worked in his grammar workbook 2 days last week, while N worked in a phonics workbook. Both boys completed handwriting lessons each day.
Both boys had religion. I read N's chapter to him, and he answered the questions orally. C read his chapter out loud and he answered questions orally. C has religion studies 2/week as we are preparing for his First Communion in the spring. His second lesson was about touring a church.
On Tuesdays, we'll have Art and Science. The boys completed an art lesson that focused on drawing different kinds of lines and created a design-filled caterpillar. For Science, we're studying mammals and after some discussion, the boys watched one episode of the "Life of Mammals" from Netflix.
On Wednesdays, the boys attend their enrichment program, and then come home to play baseball, so we don't do any lessons that day.
On Thursdays, the extra lesson is Maps. We're starting to work in Map workbooks and will also begin CHC's Tour of the Continents. We haven't started that yet, but will in the next week or so. They did do a few pages in the map workbook.
On Fridays, we also do History. We're using the Story of the World for history. I have the book, but I also have the cd's. The boys listened to a number of chapters while drawing at the kitchen table.
On Saturdays, it's a day like the others, and also built to be catch-up if needed. Right now, the boys are playing baseball on Saturday mornings, so I'm trying to get all we need to do done by Friday. It worked this week!
Last week was our first full week of school. The boys both had great attitudes and we got every bit of work done that I had hoped for.
Daily, both boys completed math workbook pages. C worked ahead of the number of pages assigned, but that's fine. N did just as he was asked, but did so with perfect accuracy.
Each day, we worked on reading out loud. N is definitely a beginning reader who is easily frustrated, so I'm trying to work throughout the day in very small chunks. C is an excellent reader, but he tends to skip words when he reads out loud. I know he reads them to himself, but he reads faster than he speaks and leaves things out. We're working on having him read more slowly, and address each word.
On Tuesday and Thursday the boys worked on their spelling workbook and took a test on Friday. N was terrified of the test and terrified that I was making him write out the words instead of spelling them orally as we had done last year. He scored 100% on his test. C refused to look over the words before the test, insisting he knew how to spell them all. He missed 3 words. For each missed word, he wrote it out 3 times.
Both boys work on journals during the week. On Tuesdays, C wrote in his topic journal (the journal page gives them the beginning of a sentence and he runs with it.) The minimum I ask him to write is 7 sentences. N also has a topic journal, but it is just completing one sentence. On Thursdays, both boys draw a page in their nature journal and write an entry. So far this year, I'm still writing N's entry as he dictates it to me. On Fridays, C writes in a free journal. The 7 sentence minimum applies here as well. On Saturdays, the boys both write in their book journals. This got skipped this week because of baseball and a few other obligations.
C worked in his grammar workbook 2 days last week, while N worked in a phonics workbook. Both boys completed handwriting lessons each day.
Both boys had religion. I read N's chapter to him, and he answered the questions orally. C read his chapter out loud and he answered questions orally. C has religion studies 2/week as we are preparing for his First Communion in the spring. His second lesson was about touring a church.
On Tuesdays, we'll have Art and Science. The boys completed an art lesson that focused on drawing different kinds of lines and created a design-filled caterpillar. For Science, we're studying mammals and after some discussion, the boys watched one episode of the "Life of Mammals" from Netflix.
On Wednesdays, the boys attend their enrichment program, and then come home to play baseball, so we don't do any lessons that day.
On Thursdays, the extra lesson is Maps. We're starting to work in Map workbooks and will also begin CHC's Tour of the Continents. We haven't started that yet, but will in the next week or so. They did do a few pages in the map workbook.
On Fridays, we also do History. We're using the Story of the World for history. I have the book, but I also have the cd's. The boys listened to a number of chapters while drawing at the kitchen table.
On Saturdays, it's a day like the others, and also built to be catch-up if needed. Right now, the boys are playing baseball on Saturday mornings, so I'm trying to get all we need to do done by Friday. It worked this week!
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