Week 5 No Focus this Week

This week started with me planning a change of direction.  Well, I did have a change of direction, but I think I moved from overwhelmed to completely lost then headed back on a path.

Monday was good.  We did our work, added in some more reading and had some time leftover.

Tuesday was good.  LB went to her school and had a terrific day.  CC worked hard on her work and a productive day.

Wednesday, which is my hard day, started off in a different direction.  The girls started with their work, but after our friends came over for science, we weren't able to get back to work. The weather was clear with that first touch of fall coolness. They spent the rest of the day playing outside.

Thursday turned out to be more of the same.  They played in the morning while I was working on a big project for work.  I spent the rest of the day either distracted myself or watching them enjoy playing outside in the wind.  I marked it as a day off.

How could we work on a day like this?

Friday, we finally made it through our work again just in time to reassure myself that we're doing okay.  Although, you would not believe how many times I had to say things like, "No whistling while your sister is doing phonics" and "No whistling during phonics!" and "No singing during math" and "Wait until after she reads to start reciting your poetry, PLEASE!" and "Let her sound out her own words."
Goodness.   However, it is noonish, and CC is in the library reading and has completed her written work for the day.  LB has finished her work except for some stories and is upstairs playing. 

Highlights:
I did decide that CC would do more of a WTM writing plan integrated with our other subjects.  She's already writing summaries, but we've formalized that she'll do two history summaries per week.  We added one-level outlines which I have realized are brilliant.  Her current problem in writing is figuring out what belongs in a paragraph, and the outlines are forcing her to look at a paragraph as a unit.  Additionally, she does a science write-up from our lab each week and writes a one-page paper on a topic of her choice using at least two sources for reference.

CC enjoying a day off instead of doing school.

LB's reading is getting smooth.  She's only on the fourth McRuffy First Grade reader, but she's making wonderful progress.  The stories are funny, the length is just right, and they do a great job of making a story using a phonics rule and reviewing rules that were previously covered.  This week's story had -ice words and included silent e words and ai words.  She is also starting to spot words instead of strings of letters that need to be sounded out.  It is such a big improvement from last year when her letters wouldn't stay still on a page, and she saw them upside down or backwards just as often as she saw them the correct way.  She's also lost her midline jump.   I was very skeptical when our eye doctor said she's outgrow it before she was seven, but he was exactly right.

LB made this dress for her doll after we read Kaya.