Weekly Wrap Up

This week we only had a 4 day school week. We went to South Carolina last week drove home Monday. This week was extremely busy for us. The kids had karate, dance, baseball, and a karate graduation! Even with all this we managed to get everything done and start Five in a Row.  Oh, and the weather here was FANTASTIC. We spent a lot of time outdoors this week! The highlight of the week was attending Master M's karate graduation to an orange belt today!

We own several of the books needed for FIAR book 1 and since this was bought so Pork Chop could really join in on school I allowed her to pick the first book. She chose Madeline. I didn't think Master M would enjoy Madeline and that I would hear grumbles about it. I was pleasently suprised and he really enjoyed the book.  Today both kids were able to finish almost every sentence. Master M even asked to start with Madeline today. We did every activity listed in the book and the Madeline lapbook on homeschoolshare.  I loved that my kids can now show you where France is on a map! Pork Chop will say "It's where the Ipal (Eiffel) Tower is.". We aren't doing lapbooks right now, but we are doing a large scrapbook. It will contain all the info from our book of the week.

Math:
We are at a point in Singapore 1a where it is important for Master M to know his mental math (addition and subtraction 1-10) very well. He can tell you the answer, but it's not immediate. We took this week for review and did lots of addition and subtraction problems. He can spit the answers out much faster and accurately now, but I still feel he needs another week of review.

Reading/Phonics:
We have finally moved beyond the constanants in OPGTR and Master M is starting to read words and short easy sentences. Since OPGTR is so dry I write the individual words on our whiteboard for him to read. The short stories (really short just 3-4 sentences) I type up and put a box under each one. This gives Master M a space to illustrate the sentences which helps make OPGTR not quite so boring.  He really doesn't like to practice reading. Since he is a perfectionist and reading isn't something that comes to him immediately he doesn't want to do it.  I really have to push and help, but he is starting to get it.  I have started doing 3 20 minute reading sessions with him each day (morning, afternoon, and night).  He is reading basic readers and with lots of help.

Science:
We have started using R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life and I have to say we LOVE it! Since it's only 1 page of reading to several labs it works well for us.  Pork Chop sits in on the labs and "helps" and Master M really likes having hands on science. This week we did plot study and the kids had a lot of fun finding all the living things in our overgrown flower bed (I pulled the weeds while we were out there!). Our 2nd lab was a cell lab where we looked at an egg and labeled the parts.