Our Week In Review

What a couple of weeks we’ve had!  But, we finally did some schoolwork this week!!  And I’ve decided on some important curriculum changes.  I’m going to summarize what’s happened over the last two weeks since they’ve kind of run together in my mind.

Rosie Girl

Math – is now doing ALEKS online.  She enjoyed the story form of Life of Fred, but just wasn’t getting through the lessons and wasn’t learning as well as she did when she was in ALEKS.  So, she and Mr. Math Tutor decided to go back to a known commodity.

History – I originally was going to have her just read up to where we are in her curriculum and not do questions until next week (Week 18), but I’ve decided instead to ditch all the questions.  I planned to have her outline the chapters in the book, but the chapters are all so short that I am going to have her write a minimum of four bullet points to summarize the chapter.  She and I are both happy with this plan.

Science – Since she was going to finish her science book before the end of the year, I’m just going to push back science until she’s caught up in History.

Choir – Rosie Girl has the Pops concert next week so she had an early morning practice today and has a practice tomorrow evening.  Thankfully, the director said that she is mostly needed to keep the choreography balanced and that her voice isn’t as important because singing for any length of time still hurts her voice.

Piano – Rosie Girl is working on her pieces for festival.  They include pieces by Chopin, Prokofiev, and Mozart.  Wow!

Writing – I’m loving the WriteAtHome writing program.  Rosie Girl is also doing the Short Story workshop for the next six weeks.  She’s been writing a lot of “fan fiction” lately for Pokemon and Johnny Test websites and has asked me to help her with the grammar (she might learn punctuation yet!).  What’s most exciting, though, is that Mr. Math Tutor submitted one of her writing papers to Heart of the Matter and it was published yesterday!!  Read it here!!

Wild Man

Math – is using ALEKS online and almost has his addition and subtraction math facts down.  Because of his dyslexia, he has a hard time with subtraction – it’s not just addition backwards for him – it’s like a whole new operation.

History – We are definitely behind in History, but it’s because I need to read aloud more.  The migraines this week really messed with the reading aloud.

Spelling – We did spelling a couple times this week.  I was quite impressed with how much Wild Man has remembered.  He still does not have the spelling enough embedded in his brain to spell well when he’s writing for other activities such as writing a paragraph or writing an email.  Spelling is definitely a cognitive task that can only be done alone right now.

Reading – Wild Man is now on the last Explode the Code book!  He also chose a book from the library that he had no previous experience with and has been reading and enjoying it – without my telling him to!

Both

We watched movies about the War of 1812 and Andrew Jackson this week and last week.  I’ve been quite pleased with how much of this Wild Man retains.  He fusses about watching documentaries, but I think they are an excellent learning tool for him.  And they’re great when I have a migraine!!

Rosie Girls’ tonsillectomy and complications were quite stressful all the way around, but both kids learned a lot.  They learned about biology, medicine, hospitals, family, and love.  It doesn’t hurt that I’m a doctor, so I explained a bunch of stuff during this whole time.  But, mostly, they learned to support each other as a family.

  What has your family been up to?  Check out the Weekly Wrap-up to see what other homeschooolers are doing!!