Saturday, August 16, 2014

Week Two

A glimpse at week 2:



Lyndie calls all school buses "round and rounds" - complete with hand motions. We sang The Wheels on the Bus all day, every day, all week. She can sing all the verses, complete with hand motions. 

The wheels on the bus go round and round
The mommies say shh shh shh
The daddies say I love you
The wipers go swish swish swish
The doors go open and shut
The children go up and down
The babies say waa waa waa



Whenever Lyndie sees paper and pencil she starts yelling "name." She wants to write her name. She's not content to just doodle by herself. You have to write her name on her paper - and spell it out loud for her. Then, you spell it while she "writes" it over and over again. 



Both Kaelee and Xander are enjoying the new curriculum we chose this year, Teaching Textbooks. One of the big advantages for all involved is that it is self grading. The kids watch a lesson on the computer, using the CDs. Then, they are given practice problems. On the practice problems, they input the answer into the computer. I like that they aren't multiple choice - they must type in the answer. The computer grades the assignment as they go. I've noticed both Kaelee and Xander are trying harder to have the correct answers as they don't like it when the computer marks one wrong! 


Xander is reading Raiders of the Sea this week for literature. He really enjoyed the chapters that were assigned this week. In his class this week, he was the "discussion leader" for his literature circle. He asked the questions of his group and helped lead them in discussing the book. We were really proud of him for volunteering. 


We are all adjusting to Lyndie wanting to be a part of our school day. She is very anxious to do school just like her big kids!






In history this week, Xander studied the story of Saul. Each day he reads one section of his textbook, answers questions provided by his class, and then creates a memory card. On his memory card, he lists the title of the lesson and then one key sentence, or "big idea" to help him when studying the content overall. We also did some map work this week - looking at Paul's travels. 



Kaelee had her first day of co-op this week. She enjoyed her classes and we are learning how to navigate budgeting the work out over the course of the week. She is really enjoying the literature. We are working the hardest at the Latin! 


In Literature this week, Kaelee had to choose a key question from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe that could be phrased as a "whether" or "should" question.

She chose: Should Lucy have followed Mr. Tummis to his home?

Over the course of the week she listed reasons why she should have (affirmative), reasons why she shouldn't have (negative), and in the 3rd section she listed interesting things about that section of the book that may not be supporting either directly.





We are using two websites in school to help with general practice. Xander uses spellingcity.com for his spelling words. We are not using a spelling curriculum this year, but rather focusing on the words that he misspells most often.

We also use quizlet.com for vocabulary. 


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