Day 105, and Week 25

I am a bit bored with just listing what we did on a given day, especially since it's just duplicating what I type out in a Word document. It seems to me that it would be better to save this space for actual notes, though.

If you look at the gif you can see what we got to this week and what we didn't get to. Or you can look at it in doc form.

What we didn't get to on Friday, we usually carry over to Monday which is a light day if everything else is up to date.

Day 104

Kieron

• Bible & Creed Creed in Slow Motion, started chapter 11
• Poetry: Tennyson
• Math chapter 15.1 – negative numbers
• Language Arts Latin p 58
• Artist study wanderer above the mists
• History: This Country of Ours chapter 54 – war in Canada -- narrated and discussed
  
• Exercise or play with guys
• Johny Tremain -- didn't do that because I had phone calls to make, he read GWW and narrated instead
• 2-15 min clean
• Literature: Robinson Crusoe chapter 5 -- narrated
• outdoors went out for a few minutes with siblings

Didn't get to:

• Science: Lab or Research
• recorder

(the day was already feeling a bit packed -- and he did science stuff earlier in the week when he did some magnet projects Brendan decluttered from his closet).

He did quite well on the narrations today and seems to accept the value... so far... I have been having him compare his retention of the readings he DOES narrate, compared with the ones he doesn't.

The first Art Study went well -- I like this artist's mountain pictures, they remind me of Albert Bierstadt's. We looked at it for a bit and he commented spontaneously. He seems to have the kind of mind that does well "dwelling" on something. A more contemplative mindset? I have been trying to narrate after readings myself and I have trouble, so I understand why he finds it difficult.

Paddy

• We are reading Lightfoot the Deer now, having finished Jimmy Skunk.
• I had him draw BIG S's tracing over mine, on construction paper with markers -- this he did much better.

Aidan

• typed and printed out some numbers
• worked on word cards a bit.
• He's going to a PT/OT eval later today.

Day 103

Kieron

• Bible & Creed --remainder of chapter 10 -- discussed
• Poetry: Tennyson --
• Math --Chapter 14.4
• Language Arts --Latin -- adjectives
• Science:The Boy Scientist --did lab instead – magnets
• Ways of the Wood Folk---Merganser Duck -- narrated a portion
• George Washington's World -- Phillis Wheatley, and George and Mary Washington
• Exercised while listening to Johny Tremain
• 2-15 min clean
• Literature: Robinson Crusoe -- chapter 4 -- narrated a portion
• In addition, we read chapter 53 of This Country of Ours, on Bunker Hill, and discussed and narrated.

What we didn't get to (I'm going to start mentioning that because it seems to help me think):

• Outdoors -- didn't get outside -- icy and miserable out there. Maybe I should have us just go out for 10 minutes -- start small just to breathe the air and get a feeling for the weather? (but that will mean I can't be a wimp!)
  
• piano -- didn't get to that

He narrated George Washington's World but not very well. On the other hand his narration of Bunker Hill was pretty good. Obviously we're still adjusting. We talked a bit about retention strategies, like making a visual image in the mind, and also reflecting a bit while reading to check one's attention status (these are things I got from reading that book about the Right Brained Learner -- I don't remember the exact title -- and also there is a list of reading strategies here, and these in PDF and a list of others). He has been very agreeable, not arguing, but sometimes making excuses for not paying much attention. I have become more aware of the natural noise level around here -- it's true, it is challenging for him to focus with everything going on around him.

Paddy --

I read him Cincinnatus from 50 Famous Stories. I asked him to tell what it was about and he said, "He was a king for 16 days" (which was the last sentence of the story). Other than that, he was fairly vague. That was a tough choice for a beginner narration though, since it was 3 or 4 pages long.

We finished reading Jimmy Skunk. He certainly loves to listen to stories and brings a book every time I sit down.

I read a couple of poems from A Child's Garden of Verses. I found a more general anthology of poetry for young children and am going to use that sometimes since I have to admit I am not particularly fond of RLS's Child's Garden. I am very sure it is me and not him, but it's hard for me to read them to Paddy when I don't really care much for reading them. Right now I've started just skipping through the book and having him look at the pictures and then listen to the ones I prefer of the lot.

We worked a bit on math. He can add two 2-digit numbers in his head. And he likes picture stories with his math.

We tried to do "S's" in HWT but he had a lot of trouble. If anything he seems to be worse than he used to be.

Aidan

We worked a bit on adding and recognizing larger numbers. He listened in to some of Jimmy Skunk. Maybe by the time we get to Year 1 with him it will already have a bit of familiarity -- that would be nice.

Day 102

We didn't get to history or religion today. I was talking to the older kids and the younger boys were enraptured by all the things Brendan brought out of his closet and handed off to them (every Lent he goes through his old treasures and discards what he can bear to part with, and this year it was some old Star Wars lego sets and some Lord of the Ring figurines). So I had Kieron do his independent work -- Math, Latin, Poetry, Science, Bulfinch's Mythology.

He took photos of Brendan's old treasures so I could have them as a keepsake (seeing the old things makes me feel sad remembering the days when he was that young) and also kept the little ones entertained while I worked on decluttering.

Paddy and I finished reading Old Man Coyote and started reading Jimmy Skunk together.

Day 101

If you look on the sidebar you can see Kieron's weekly schedule. Monday's a light day -- we save it for catch-up and for errand running and housecleaning. So besides cleaning and going to the library, he did most everything on there.

• Chores (dishwasher, room)
• Poetry: Tennyson --In Memoriam (part), and one other
• Math (computer) ---That Quiz -- place value
• Language Arts --talked about narration; copywork
• Nature Study --listened to coyote, loon and fox on youtube
• History: GWW --Frederick the Great, George III -- narrated
• Weekly House --Pick up, wipe
• Library and market

With Paddy, over the weekend I read How the Whale Got His Throat (from the Just So Stories), plus a bunch of stories from the Collier Junior Classics. We finished Mrs Peter Rabbit and are now started on Old Man Coyote.

Aidan did a few more "reading lessons" with his Spell to Read and Write cards and with me writing down a story he told. Aidan also did a bit of math from a first grade workbook.

I forgot to mention last week that we played a lot of card games -- UNO and Go Fish and a few hands of poker. ... the three younger boys and me.

The main habits we've been working on are using nice voices and picking up/cleaning up after selves. Still a ways to go.