2 Week Update

Sorry I have not blogged an update for 2 weeks. We have a few new additions to our curriculum. The Tank is now working through AAR Pre-1. Ziggy the Zebra puppet is a huge hit and even Monster begs to join in on her lessons (giving her all the answers ). I don’t mind, though. Next year the Tank will be home alone and we will probably run through AAR Pre-1 again at an accelerated pace before moving on to AAR 1.

Last week we rowed Mirette on the High Wire to continue our study of France. However, Monster was done with France about halfway through the week so we didn’t focus too much on it. He also started Karate at a nearby gym last week and the excitement pretty much took over the week.

This past week we rowed Harold and the Purple Crayon. This is a book the kids already love. We mainly focused on the purple factor and spent the week talking about colors. We watched two videos on the production of crayons that Monster loved (Tank not so much) and we colored the crayons we had previously made from old ones melted down. I decided to make this a science heavy week as we spent the past two weeks focused on History/Social Studies.

We worked with vinegar and baking soda and food coloring (can you tell how much Monster loved this!):

 

Another day we worked with magnets to mix red and blue paint:

         

This is the most focused I have seen either of them during paint time!

Math: Monster has made the permanent switch to Horizons K. He loves the colorful worksheets and that he isn’t focusing on one concept for several sheets or even from one problem to the next. This would drive me crazy, but he loves it. He has now completed 16 lessons in just 2 weeks! We also worked through 3 chapters in Life of Fred: Apples. We played a few addition games and he is starting to memorize his addition facts. Math is Monster’s easy subject just like his Mom .

Reading: Reading however is not. This is a tough one for Monster, but AAR makes it easier and is taking him step by step. Monster is now on Lesson 16 in AAR 1 and Tank had completed the first 6 lessons in Pre-1. Tank is starting to understand rhyming and Monster is perfecting his rhyming skills with Ziggy. We started reading My Father’s Dragon this week as our read-aloud. Monster is loving in, but Tank usually wanders off half-way through the chapter which is ok as she is only 3.

Handwriting: I am so impressed with the progress Monster is making in handwriting. A few months ago he was beginning every letter at the bottom and reversing almost every letter. He is not starting most of his letters from the top and writing them to scale. I love Explode the Code for this purpose. I knew Monster would balk at direct handwriting instruction, but doesn’t mind (at least not as much) the daily writing in ETC. He is still using it with dry erase markers. I think we will stick with that through the first book and then move to a pencil when we reach book 2.

Other: Monster is still working through Developing the Early Learner Book 2. He  still enjoys it, but we are skipping over some parts that I think he has mastered until it gets a little harder. I bought him a cutting book and a maze book from Kumon and he is finally working on his cutting skills. Anything that requires fine motor skills is very difficult for him so even a page of cutting for him is progress . He enjoys mazes and I think I will need to get a more difficult book soon.

Tank: The Tank is constantly asking for more school work. This week she worked on her sorting skills, pouring skills, and one-to-one correspondence skills. Unfortunately for Mommy, she has mastered all of these . She has 1-10 down cold, so we are now working on 10-20 which is a little more difficult for her. We are working mastering all the basic sounds of the alphabet (she still struggles with a few letters – which is perfectly normal, but unacceptable to her ). She spent a lot of time this week on learning how to form letters. She actually has wonderful fine motor skills, but is still learning how to form each letter. She mostly works in her salt box or with a dry erase marker in her Tot Book.

All in all this was a very busy two weeks. I hope to keep up with the weekly updates. It not only updates every one else, but keeps me accountable for keeping records.