The kids are enjoying learning about the Vikings in history. I'm so impressed with what even Bryson can pick up from SOTW. The kids love to hear the stories and can answer most all of the questions so I know they are engaged. Plus, the Vikings made life interesting anyway!
Math is going very well. We have pretty much filled in all the 3rd grade holes for Jayden. Starting next week we'll start working on measurement and geometry concepts... something that MUS really didn't have much of. I figure that will take a good portion of the remainder of the summer. I'm continuing on in filling holes for Kylie. I want to make sure she really has some concepts down before we move on. Rylan is working through mainly word problems so I can catch any concepts he might not have. Bryson has started the 1st grade level MM. He LOVES it! I'm amazed at what this boy already knows. He started last September not really being able to count above 10. He now has really mastered early number sense. He understands place value and is easily able to grasp number concepts. It's so much fun to see the progress he's made.
Kylie finished her WWE2 this week! Yeah!! She'll start WWE3 next week. Jayden is still working through the last 1/2 of WWE3 at double pace. We're just doing every other lesson. He's doing GREAT. This curriculum has made writing instruction so easy. And pretty painless for the kids too. Rylan has been loving WWE1. He has been wanting to start the "writing where you read a story and I answer questions". He's doing excellent so far. He grumbles at copy work, but that's just going to have to be. I know already he HATES writing. His writing really is getting better though. Slow, but sure.
I dropped science just for this week because I needed to take a look at what I was doing a little closer. I read an idea on the WTM boards that likened teaching many kids close in age to a bus ride. Start with all of them on the bus (doing the same thing), then you let the littles off the bus and go on with the olders.... I think this method may solve some problems I've been having with science and the little boys. To put it mildly they don't like science. This is NOT what I want.... Rylan LOVES stories and responds really well to them. He keeps wanting me to read a "real" book (instead of the Children's encyclopedia). So... I got a new idea this week that I'll implement next week.
I'm going to start science off with a "real" book about the topic. Then, I'll let Rylan and Bryson leave if they want to. Jayden has LOVED taking the Usborne Science Encyclopedia and doing his own reading and narration by himself so I'll send him off to do that. Then, I'll sit with Kylie and we'll read the Children's encyclopedia together and she'll do the narration sheets from Elemental Science. (Jayden does them too). I think that should take care of the issues I've been having. When we have an experiment I'll pull everyone back together for it. We are studying stars next week... the basics of stars first, then we'll start a couple week study of constellations. I'm hoping to take the kids out in the country a bit to watch stars at night... hopefully the weather will cooperate when we get to that!
Jayden has one more baseball game this week, then a week break. He's been out practicing with mom and that seems to have increased his confidence. He had his best game ever Tu. night. We lost (well, we don't officially keep score, but the boys KNOW!), but for Jayden, it was his best game!
Lots of creativity this week at our house....
Bryson and Kylie have been best buds this week. They spent hours building with the wooden blocks I brought out again after a long time away...
Another one of their creative endeavors. This is a "time machine" created by the
dynamic duo!
The section of our wooden fence that got blown down from the
storm we had last week... the section that's leaning behind the
swingset fell a few minutes after we took the photo!
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It sounds like a wonderful week. We do bus ride science but I'd never thought of it quite like that before.
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