Weekly Wrap-Up: 3/7 to 3/11/11

We had a pretty productive week despite my tentative plans to take it easy on weeks Steph is here. 

Language Arts

Georgie has completed all the lessons on short vowel words in Explode the Code and All About Spelling.  Things have been pretty easy up to this point but I expect they will start getting harder soon.

We began working on Grammar using the Scholastic Skill Builder: Grammar, Usage and Mechanics book with supplementation using the MacMillian/McGraw-Hill Treasures Grammar Workbook.  Both were free resources but I decided to use the Scholastic as our primary because I have a Teacher’s Manual for that one.   We started with recognizing nouns and Georgie had no problem with the concept.  We also played Very Silly Sentences to help reinforce what he's learning.

I’m getting ready to order Handwriting without Tears for Georgie soon.  He is still reluctant to write lowercase letters and I think HWT may help him get past it.

Vicki has shown a lot of interest in learning to read ever since Georgie's bookworm was set up.  I’m going to start going through AAS with her, in a light relaxed way to see if she’s ready for blending the sounds (which she already knows) into words.  I’m not going to worry about spelling mastery at this point in time.

I’m also thinking of getting the Handwriting Without Tears Pre-K workbook for Vicki.  She’s starting to show more control when coloring and I like their easy introduction to writing.

Math

We are still using MEP and will probably continue to use it as a supplement but we are definitely switching to Math Mammoth as our primary program.  It is available through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op this month and has already hit the 40% off level.  If it reaches 250, it will go to 50% off.

I stopped using the Money workbook since the addition was getting too hard for Georgie without understanding more about place value.

I also stopped using the Time workbook since it was just doing time to the quarter hour and at this point I think Georgie can handle learning about the minutes associated with all the numbers.  He can count by 5’s, which should make it pretty easy.  I made him a clock where he can lift up the number and see how many minutes are associated with it.   He’s been using it to compare to our clock (that shows the actual time) and see what time it is.

I’ve started doing calendar time with the kids again.  I have a bulletin board set with pieces for the months and dates but it was hard to keep all the pieces together and keep the kids from pulling them off, so I stopped doing it.  Oriental Trading recently had reduced price shipping and, in their clearance section, clear plastic calendar templates.  I made a file in Word with a graphic in each space that should get a number for the month (I did start March too early) and the month at the top.  I taped this behind the plastic template and we use our dry-erase crayons to write the date in each day.  Then we go over the Months of the Year and the Days of the Week.  The plastic keeps the kids from ripping it and if they scribble on it or write in too many dates, I can just erase it instead of having to print out a new calendar.


We continued our Geography study this week with India.  More information on that can be seen here.