Weekly Report~ February 27, 2009

The past two weeks have been a mixture of school, vacation days, snow days and sick days. We've lost our routine and the flow of the day that I worked so hard to achieve prior to the holidays. My goal for the month of March is to ease back into that routine so the remainder of the school year has a sense of structure to it. Although it feels like we haven't been accomplishing much lately, D continues to improve his reading, writing and math skills. We're about 1/2 way through Unit 4 in his new math book, solidifying his addition facts (1-10) and currently working on subtraction. D finished the first two lessons in his new ETC Level 3 book and is demonstrating a firm grasp on the concept of words ending with "silent e". He has discovered that learning to read opens whole new worlds for him to explore, from leveled readers to LEGO catalogs.

Our learning about the continents has stalled during the past month. We spent a week on Mexico, reading a few books and coloring the map and flag, but haven't moved on from there. I intend to spend two more weeks on Mexico and South America before moving on to our next country. I'd still like to fit in Russia, the Middle East, Canada, and America before the end of June.

We read about the solar system a lot over this past month, but haven't been doing any experiments to go along with it. Last Friday we spent the afternoon at the Children's Museum, and at the end of the day the boys got to pick out a little pouch and four polished rocks to go in it. I figured this was a great way to introduce them to our next unit on rocks (geology).

The most rewarding accomplishment this past week was reading the Great Illustrated Classics edition of The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Although the story is adapted from the original, it works well as a family read-aloud due to the amount of illustrations included. It is a great stepping stone from reading picture books to reading more advanced books without losing his interest in the process. An additional bonus is that B loves to sit with us and it keeps his attention throughout.

One reason our routine has failed us lately is due to attending gym class every Tuesday and Thursday mornings. It truly takes up most of the day. By the time we get home, it's already into the afternoon. D has made a few friends there, including his new girl-friend Catherine. I am pleased as punch with this new friendship, considering that just a few weeks ago he wouldn't speak to, sit near, play with, or look at a girl. NO GIRLS ALLOWED seemed to be his motto. Luckily, that phase didn't last long and now he has a sweet new friend to show for it. It doesn't hurt that C's mommy is incredibly easy to get along with either. It's hard to find like-minded moms even among homeschooling crowds, and it's been nice to have someone to chat with and get to know while sitting through 3 hours of gym class every week! D has also been taking ice-skating lessons on the weekends, and it is a love/hate relationship. One second he's cold, his feet hurt, and he never wants to skate again. Then in the blink of an eye he's skating around the ice with a huge smile on his face. Personally, I'm looking forward to the lessons coming to an end. It's been a challenge, to say the least.