Week 13 Report - Finally going forward

This week was terrific - busy, but terrific. Things are finally going smoothly, just in time for the holidays to disrupt them.

This week we did THREE lessons in Saxon 5/4 and a chapter from Life of Fred Fractions. Horray! And it is awesome to have BB home to help with the lessons. On Monday or any day when CC is a little slow and unfocused, we start with the math drill to warm her up. We do the lesson together, then she does most of the mixed practice. She usually ends the mixed practice with some variance of, "I'm really good at these." So far so good, but we've been here before all happy with a math program when we start. I am throwing Fred in on Fridays to help keep her excited about math because she loves Fred, but more than one chapter a week would probably progress too fast for her. And she doesn't do math on the day that she goes to enrichment school.

We started the SL 3+4 LA this week. I ordered it after the disaster that Week 10 turned out to be when I was sick. We did the whole week's reading, writing and vocabulary. She and I both liked the reading selection and the check boxes. I think this will work out just fine.

I also ordered LB the SL K LA at the same time, but I didn't order the readers since we have an abundance of readers. We did most of her week's assignments - copywork, word practice and story time. And I really liked having something specific for her to do that was already planned out for me. Now that she's 5, I wanted to do something more specific with her without pushing. I'm not following the plan closely, but she did take each of her assignments this week and put them on the fridge. I think that says a lot about how she felt about them.

We spent some time with our Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia and a Guide to Space taking a tour through the solar system comparing the sizes of the planets, seeing what the sun would look like from each planet and deciding which one we would want to live on when our sun turns into a red giant.

A few other notes - Tuesday is a great wordless story. Wordless Story? Well, yes. Wordless stories are beautifully illustrated stories that allow kids to tell you what is going on by just the pictures. I like the idea of picture narration that CM advocates, but I think wordless stories are another great way to accomplish it.

I ordered LB her own copy of the Usborne Time Traveler because CC feels persecuted if I ask her to let LB use it. I had assumed that she would outgrow it before her sister was ready for it, but I was wrong.

We finished The House of Arden again. I really do love that book. I think that next we will finally read The Long Winter. We had postponed reading it since the beginning of summer, somehow summer just wasn't the right time to read it.

We spent most of the week either getting ready for BB to come home from Japan or getting ready for CC's Roman birthday party feast tunics and all. BB checked his credits and will be a Junior at the beginning of next semester - those classes he took in high school really helped. We ordered him several new pairs of shoes because he walked the soles off of all of his. The girls never tire of asking him what time it is in Tokyo (btw, its 9 am, tomorrow in Tokyo right now).

I think we are going to be super busy until the middle of January. Take a deep breathe and enjoy December.