Weekly report...

We experimented this week, shifting toward the CM/child led focus that I want, more so than the path the charter school has been helping me mold. And I think it worked pretty well overall! It was a lighter week - next week will be more intensive.

Language Arts
Both children did some good copywork this week. Elf is teaching himself cursive from a set of 3x5 cards that I made, as he is frustrated with the very slow pace of the handwriting book he was using. His handwriting is lovely! He also did a few pages in his grammar book, and listened in on Fairy's First Language Lessons. He is now reading the third book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and has informed me that there is a movie version of it coming out later this month. He is also researching codes and ciphers, so there are little pieces of paper about the house with mysterious scrawlings on them!

Fairy is - YAAAAY! - making progress with Phonics Pathways! She actually remembers the sounds now. Finally. I think now that she is grasping the vowels, etc., she'll make a lot more progress more quickly, as I really have this gut feeling that once she gets the sounds of the letters down, she'll really take off quickly. We'll see. In the meantime, I am trying not to push too hard, but she's eager to get going, since she is now 7, and according to her, she "should absolutely be reading already, Mommy."

Math
We've been working on times tables (and the related division) with Elf. I found a website that does timed exercises that he likes. I like it because if he can't get the answer, it will (briefly) show the answer, and then he fills it in. I noticed after a couple of rounds, he was filling in more of the answers without the assistance. He also plays Circles and Stars, writing down both the multiplication facts and the division. I had him fill out as much of a times table chart as he could - he got all the 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's... so next week we will focus on 4's and 6's.

Fairy is now working on unit 6 in MathSteps, which is fact families up to 10's. It seems pretty easy for her, but I'm glad she's building a solid base with addition and subtraction. This is a simple, mastery-based workbook. I have her use manipulatives (mainly linking cubes) with it, since she is a very visual/hands-on learner. I am still up in the air about math for her next year. Elf wants to try out Teaching Textbooks, or maybe stick with Saxon, but for Fairy? I am considering McRuffy Math as it seems to be geared toward visual/tactile learners, or maybe something else? Stick with Saxon? I'll gladly take recommendations!

History
We read two chapters from The Story of the Romans this week. The kids seem to like the flow of the writing so far. They looked at Italy on our wall map and globe, and we talked about mountain ranges in Europe.

We also read about 30 or so pages in Valley of the Moon: The Diary of Maria Rosiala de Miligros, for our local history. Having visited the site of an adobe rancho, the kids had an easy time visualizing the main character's surroundings. A couple of years ago, we visited a Living History Day at the local rancho, and so they are familiar with the foods, clothing style, etc. of that bygone era. We are really enjoying this book!

Science
We assembled the heads from The Body Book. We read about the five senses, and skin. I have an interesting book on eyes and ears on hold at the library for next week, and we hope to assemble the mouth, eye, and ear models over the next several days as well. We also read about snails this week, using a book I had on hand - Snailology - since Fairy insisted on bringing home snails from her garden class, as if we don't have enough of our own!

Other
Fairy had a delightful birthday. Everyone, from family to our favorite librarian, to the waitress at the Chinese restaurant, made a fuss over her. The librarian even hunted down a book to give her as a gift! The waitress brought her green tea ice cream and chilled lychee fruit free of charge (and brought ice cream for Elf as well, and lychee fruit for the adults). Her favorite gifts seemed to be the jewelery box and the Enchanted Fairy Garden kit we gave her, along with the Beauty & the Beast playset her brother very carefully picked out for her. She is very proud to be 7, an official "big kid"!

And that's our week. Now I am off to finish cleaning the living room because we have relatives coming over tomorrow for a birthday party.