Fourth Week of School

Right now, P13 and E11 are on an airplane somewhere over the Pacific, on their way to meet Ari’s parents at LAX. I’m really excited for them, but I’m going to miss them a lot! It’ll be interesting to see how the dynamics of life in general and school in particular change without the two oldest children around. I plan to do full school with B7 and H5 next week (adding in Sonlight history and read-alouds).

This past week, I added writing to our daily school lineup. H5 jumped in with enthusiasm, dispatching a letter to his cousins on Monday and updating his journal with illustrated stories like, “The ripped book is magical. Flip to a page becomes real.” (I wrote the words on the board, and he copied (most of) them). He has been working through the Handwriting Without Tears kindergarten-level workbook, and is writing quite neatly. I also added reading lessons for H5; this week focused on words using the long /i/ sound. Daily practice yields excellent results, and he is able to read sentences like, “This is mine.” It’s fun to see the satisfaction in his face as he deciphers each word.

B7 has been working on cursive handwriting. He is careful and precise, but doesn’t enjoy it! He can now write his name in cursive, as well as all the vowels and the letter B. He updated his journal, adding a second sentence with reluctance after I told him I expected a 2^nd grader to write at least two. He’d far rather read a chapter book like Holes than write words on a page. Artistic expression is another story – he asked me to position 10 points evenly around a circle, and carefully connected the points in a mystic rose. He colored each small section, leading to a remarkable work of mathematical art. (I think he may have seen E11 start working on a similar project with 13 points, which he planned to complete on the plane)

E11 continued to happily produce large volumes of written material in response to science questions (though he objected to the fact that one of the assignments was a quiz). I don’t proofread or correct his journal entries, so he happily writes quantities there, and he sent a letter to his cousin, and updated his blog (which I DID proofread). He is happier to correct assignments if they have been typed in on the computer, so we have a deal where I look at his Word document and bold any mistakes I find. He tries to correct them without me telling him what they were, which is like a game and thus easier to stomach.

P13 watched the first DVD of Andrew Pudewa’s Student Writing Intensive B, detailing how to take notes on a passage or article and use them to re-create a written document, and practiced a little. She also sent a letter, updated her journal regularly, and updated her blog. While they are on the mainland with their grandparents, the only school-like assignment I have asked them to complete is a daily journal detailing their activities. Since they will be experiencing geological sites all the way from California to Texas, the educational potential in this assignment is rich. Of course, I also look forward to reading what they've done.