Just plugging along...

 

This week Emma decided that she wanted to learn to read. I've been making a real effort to read to her this last little while, so I think she just got inspired. So we sat down with OPGTR and turned to lesson one--the short-A sound. We went through it and repeated the poem and had a grand old time looking for the A's. And when we finished she looked at me and said, "thanks Mom, for teaching me to read." Then she climbed off my lap, went running through the house yelling, "Annika, Annika, I know how to read too!" Thankfully Annika didn't burst her bubble. (Aside: she's not really ready for formal reading instruction like OPGTR she just likes having lessons like everyone else.)



Annika though is reading amazingly well. She's really taken off with it! I turned to the last lesson we did in OPGTR and started again with the next one. She read it and the next five lessons. I knew she was reading--she hasn't kept that a mystery, but it was fun to have her on my lap zooming through the book. Annika also grabbed on of the math workbooks we have and went through seven or eight pages in that. I kind of lost track and she just kept going. We got her report card this week which said something like "she's about to start reading and is doing well in class." It really annoys me that her teacher doesn't know that she's reading, but that's why she's not going to first grade there next year.



Sam is doing well, plugging along with his work. He actually finished two lessons in MUS Beta this week. They were easy and he's ready to be finished with the book. He's started to read Little House in the Highlands also, so I'm getting a bunch of questions about "bairns" and "lairds." History was about King Richard, King John and Robin Hood, so I think we'll have to have a viewing of Robin Hood tonight. (Viewing sounds way more educational than watching, doesn't it?) FLL and WWE are going well, just plugging along in them. I don't think anything exciting happened with them this week. Oh...I had a great idea this week. I usually listen to the kids' narrations and try to write them down while they are talking which leads to me saying, "wait a sec" and them forgetting what they wanted to say. So I decided to have them speak into the microphone on my iphone. That way they can talk for as long as they want and I can transcribe it later. The only problem is that the iphone is a fascinating toy so they talk for a long time just to get to use it.




Harry, let's see. He finished The Time Machine and is still (right now) reading The Impossible Journey. We are so far behind on his reading it's not funny. If a SOTW lesson is to take a week and they should do all of the other reading, how do people keep on track? I have never been able to figure that out. So, he'll keep doing readings that are a few weeks behind where we are and I'll keep feeling guilty that I can't keep it together and we'll both go on like we have been. Practice Island was better this week. I had him review direct and indirect objects and I'm keeping a closer eye on him while he does his assignments. Last week Harry decided to write his metaphor poem about Roman gladiators but he couldn't think of any metaphors for it so he switched to birds and planes. I'm hoping to get some of it written today. Math--kilograms and grams. He's doing well in Singapore Math. The best part is that I can see how he thinks about math changing. He's better able to solve problems in his head and way more confident in his math abilities. Yay! Latin was a review week, SOTW was the lead up to WWII. It's one of my favorite time periods and I get to use some of my old teaching stuff. I love it.

Lots of text, I know. I'll try to take more pictures next week. This week the only ones I took are from our Scout Den Meeting and they have lots of other kids in them, so I can't post them here.