Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Blissfully homebound

It rained (a tiny bit) this morning and Cameron said that he thought he was coming down with the sore throat and cough that DH and I have had all week, so I took that as a sign that we weren't going anywhere today. After the busy day we had yesterday, I didn't mind a bit! :P So the kids spent all morning watching Time Warp Trio and I putzed around changing sheets and such until about 11:30 when we started school.

We started with Spelling and Cameron was begging me to do Spelling Time again, lol. I had to tell him no though because he only has one part left and I want him to do that on Thursday before the Friday test (that we didn't get around to until Sunday last week). He griped a bit but then saw that he only had one more page to do in the SWO book to finish up the stuff for that lesson, lol.

Next we had mini-pizzas for lunch and Cameron suggested we do Grammar while we ate since that was just oral work (he didn't use those words, lol, but that was his point). I thought that was a great idea and while I was flipping to the right page, he automatically started in by reciting the definition of a noun, lol. I guess the lessons are pretty predictable already. ;) Then he recited The Caterpillar. Then we reviewed common and proper nouns again. I was going to skip it, but it turns out they both needed the review on it. I guess it's tricky to keep track of when you've never even heard the terms before last week. They also had a lot of fun saying a common noun and then coming up with a corresponding proper noun or vice versa. Cassia's favorite proper noun was "Miss Martha," her ballet teacher. :)

After that was Phonics and that was the typical issue of him being able to read just fine when he would stay in one place. But he preferred to jump around and drive me batty. *Sigh* I'm sure I will miss all that energy some day.

Math went really, really well. He only made one mistake in borrowing, unlike yesterday when I think he only got one right on the first try. I guess it was just a bad math day for him yesterday. We're moving through this book really quickly. It's mostly because we are skipping all the Practice and Review sections in the text, but I really don't feel like he needs them! There's no point in just doing busy work, right? There is a review section coming up in the workbook soon and we will do that. If any problems come up during that, maybe I'll assign some of the other work.

And finally we got to History and read a SOTW chapter on the beginnings of the Israelite nation. They colored some pictures and did some map work and it was all very typical. (I think we've definitely hit our groove with this school thing.) Unfortunately, I owe the library a small fortune so I haven't had any books for this chapter or the last. You can't reserve/request books when you owe over $5 so I may spend tomorrow driving up to the branch that has a couple of Ali Baba books that I should've read last week and picking those up.

I spent the rest of the day getting my planner/tracker up to date. Now that I'm "official" I want to make sure my records are complete. I am SO glad that I make such ridiculously detailed blog entries because I never would have been able to do that without them. So there ya go - my rambling nature has been justified. Off to have some dinner now and get away from the computer. :)

6 comments:

Paper Dali said...

Congrats on being official. : D

And I love your highly detailed blog entries!

I hope ya'll feel better, though, soon.

G said...

I too love your highly detailed blog entries! And adding my congrats to being official!

This cold is a bummer, isn't it? Last night I felt like it was going straight to my sinuses, but today am feeling a little better. Hope you and yours feel better soon!

~Mary~ 4boys4me said...

I'm in the same bind with the library. I admit to checking out books on Adam's card today b/c I didn't have the cash to pay my fines. [blushing]

my5wolfcubs said...

I like your detailed blog entries too...I wish I liked making them as much as I enjoy reading yours. :)

I confess to having paid the library a small fortune on occasion...I hope they use the money I give them to buy more books I want!!!

Lee

Cathy said...

LOL...we add review and extra practice to Singapore - there's practically none!

Math is a practice thing though in my mind, like reading and handwriting. If you don't use it you lose it.

Sometimes I will save the reviews and use them a month later to see if they've retained what they've learned.

Or maybe you just have had to have taught Saxon or Abeka to really appreciate how little review there is in Singapore compared to everything else, LOL, or maybe that's what makes me paranoid about the lack of practice/review....I always want to be somewhere in the middle.

And I'm not mathy so I want to make sure I'm not screwing up ; )

Jenny said...

"LOL, or maybe that's what makes me paranoid about the lack of practice/review..."

I bet that ,is it! I find that when Cameron is forced to continue drilling something he already knows, he gets bored, distracted, sloppy, and doesn't do nearly as good a job. I have to know to move on before we get to that point.

Someone on the iVillage homeschool board said that she teaches to 80 or 90% mastery. Any more than that and it's just not challenging enough to be interesting anymore! Also, she said that you've got to leave some wiggle room in the brain for the concepts to sink in on their own, in their own time. If it's completely mastered before you move on, there's nothing left to think about. If it's still a bit of a puzzle, it stays there as an intrigue. Just a theory, but it seems to be true in this house. :)