What we are using

11 January 2008

Weekly Report - Week 19


"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." That is a line from the poem we are learning this week. I think it is a great little piece to have stored away.
This week we focused on getting back into a rhythm with school. I think that starting the day with a reading and practicing memorization has been great for us. I read while they are still at the table for breakfast then it is easy to move from that to our next school task. We read a different subject each day (Roman History, fairy tales, natural science, geography). This gets us efficiently through our subjects.

LB's
(dd3) attitude has improved this week. I think that having a more solid focus for the day really helps everyone's attitude. I also have been giving her intentional time early each school day. She has really enjoyed joining in our crafts. Creating things for herself givers her confidence and seems to be inspiring her. This morning she wanted a diaper her baby doll, but didn't have one small enough so she sewed one herself from some extra fleece we had. A whip stitch is easy and useful. We have been working on habits and right now we are working on taking turns which is hard for her since she wants every turn.

I have stopped having CC (dd7) read aloud to me. Instead she has reading time set aside each day. We alternate who gets to chose what she reads. One unexpected side effect is that she has started reading to herself more. She is allowed to read in bed after her sister goes to sleep and she has been speeding through easy chapter books like The Magic School Bus and Magic Tree house books this week - two a night. She also has been reading longer than her thirty minute requirement. She is moving from learning to read to reading to learn and is enjoying it.

BB (ds17) enjoys making voices for different characters when we are reading Hamlet. Our readings are probably much more lively than you would expect. I have also been having him read several criticisms and a biography of Shakespeare. We are going to spend the month on Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

This week has been great. The only thing that we planned that we didn't include was doing exercise. There is always next week.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

K, what poem is that? We've just started boy scouts and gotten back to church, so the boys have a ton of oaths and prayers to memorize so I'm not really going to focus on poetry for a bit, but when I do, I would like them to memorize the "cultural literacy" ones, yk...

Check out my new hs blog (my friend and I are doing it together). It's new and a little pathetic, but hey. It's keeping me focused, which is what i need.

Loving your blog. I subscribe on Google Reader, so don't comment often, but read and enjoy keeping up w/you and the cuties. :)

Gina

Karen said...

Gina here it is as best I can tell this one by our favorite poet, Anonymous.
It's a lesson all should heed,
Try, try, try again;
If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try, try again;
Then your courage will appear,
If you only persevere,
You will conquer, never fear!
Try, try, try again.

I found your new blog last week - even added it to my sidebar. I have been keeping up with you and the boys. I don't comment either. btw, can I interest you in a leopard gecko? He needs some boyish attention, Alexis finally decided that a cuddly hamster was a better pet.

Anonymous said...

Perfect, thanks! I realized I probably could have googled it too late, lol. I LOVE Anonymous, btw. Rockin.

Wow, a leopard gecko, huh? LOL. We have a cat and a dog--do you think that ecosystem could be compatible? My kids would LOVE it, but I'd hate to see him become a tasty morsel within the first week. :)

Lisa~ said...

Sound slike a great back to school week to me!

Lisawa

Tina in WA said...

Sounds wonderful to me also!

I love your book choices! :o)

~Tina