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October 20, 2007
Week 11
This week we: Spent Monday afternoon at piano lessons, Monday evening at Lego League, Tuesday evening at Scouts, Wednesday morning at the ophthalmologist, Wednesday afternoon and part of the evening selling Cub Scout popcorn at the mall, Thursday at karate/drama classes, and Friday evening we were back at Lego League. Connor was sick on Thursday, Aidan on Friday.
Argh
Math
Jeff's been posting Connor's math work, so you've seen that. We've hit a snag in that I've realized Jeff has made some assumptions about Connor's math instruction. Singapore does not follow a typical American course of study. So here we are in pre-algebra, and Connor has never dealt with cancelling terms, or factoring; he's done very little with exponents or negative numbers. Part of his struggle with those problems is that Jeff assumed he could cancel terms, or subtract two negatives. The good news is that he picked it up all fairly quickly on the fly; the only thing I had to explicitly teach him was cancelling.
Aidan - as is typical for us so far, Singapore 3B is way easy. 3A kills us, but after that Connor flew through the next several books, and it looks as though Aidan will too. I've got Right Start E on the way for him.
Griffin continues to confound me. He enjoys his Singapore workbook, but will only add and subtract by counting. When I use the abacus with him, or try to show him how to take numbers apart, or how to use strategies for adding, he'll have none of it. When I pull out the base 10 manipulatives to show him place value, he just doesn't get it (though he can read and write large numbers). This is extremely frustrating to me. I can keep him going in Singapore, and he will learn algorithms but, I think, have no real understsanding; or I can ... what? Wait longer and hope that this is a maturity issue?
Latin
Aidan's Galore Park Latin Prep 1 finally arrived, and I love it. It's thorough, it's rigorous, but it's also colorful and fun.
Connor is ready to start the 4th declension in Henle, and to keep reviewing, reviewing, reviewing. I would love to talk him into using Galore Park instead, because I am tired of Henle. However, Henle is good, and he wants to stick with it, so there we are.
Writing
Aidan has given me permission to share his Classical Writing work here:
Robin Bird was perched on the branch of a tree with the rest of his military air strike force, when he saw a reconnaissance birdie. Robin got an escort and set out to capture the bird. It willingly went with them back to the base. After they landed, the bird told them everything. He was on a reconnaissance mission for the Evil King Rooster to find out everything he could about the whereabouts and status of the outbirds' nuclear poop missile. Robin Bird took three parakeet task forces to attack the king's fortress.EVIL KING ROOSTER'S FORTRESS, 0800 HOURS
The King's birds saw them coming and sounded the alarm. The anti-air beaks started firing. Then Robin Bird's birdie bombers started pooping on Evil King Rooster's cage fortress. Then bird fighters started strafing the king's people. Then they broke into the fortress and found and rescued the beautiful birdie that Allan-a-Birdie wanted to marry. All of Robin's birds retreated.
ROBIN BIRD'S BASE, 1300 HOURS
Control saw the last bird from Robin Bird's task force ome into the hangar as they got a message from Robin Bird to launch the nuclear poop missile.
"Open the silo and begin launch sequence!" ordered one of the birds. "Missile is armed! Beginning launch sequence ... now! Missile launch in 10 ... 9 ... 8 ... 7 ... 6 ... 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ...1 ... launch!"
KING ROOSTER'S BASE, 1400 hours
BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!
And they tell me Classical Writing stifles creativity.
History
We've started listening to "Story Of The World" in the car. Let me just say that I hate Jim Weiss' voice. Ugh. He sounds smug and smarmy. However, we're in the car for classes twice a week, and listening to him read SOTW is a good use of our time. Connor read about Edmund Ironside from "Our Island Story." I don't think Aidan read it at all. Both read from "Famous Men of the Middle Ages." You see? Any sane person would think that SOTW, OIS and FMoMA would be plenty for history. Connor is also still plugging away at History Odyssey, which involves, in additon to what I've already listed, reading from the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and Van Loon's "The Story of Mankind." And coloring lots of maps.
So I'm insane. Is that it?
Literature
Er, well. Still reading "By the Shores of Silver Lake" to the older ones, and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to the younger ones. Jeff is still occasionally reading "A Wrinkle in Time" to the older ones. This week Connor read some of Roger Lancelyn Green's "King Arthur," and another Lamb's Tale - "The Merchant of Venice" (timely, as he had been reading about the persecution of the Jews in the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia). He seems to not be too thrilled about reading the King Arthur, so I may take that over and read it aloud. Or something. I understand that Audible.com sells a version narrated by Sean Bean ... that's got to be good, right?
Science
Lego League (programming and alternative energy). Um, the little boys played with worms. That counts, right? We discussed how rainbows are made. Actually, I've been discovering the hidden power of Books In The Car. Today I left an astronomy book in the car, and Connor read tidbits aloud from it all day. I have underestimated car time as captive audience time. I have seen the light.
Posted by lynx at October 20, 2007 9:20 AM
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Comments
King Arthur with Sean Bean is good.
We still have nightmares about 3A. It was definitely a low point. Once we got to 3B, everything started going smoothly again.
Posted by: Shawna at October 23, 2007 4:36 AM