Weekly Report: Week 12

This was a shorter than usual school week.  We only did 3 days of actual school.  I've been feeling unwell all and that combined with Halloween and my brother-in-law's wedding reception, it just didn't happen as much as I'd like.  Halloween was great, though.  Lydia and Eleanor did very well.  This time last year, there was no way that I would have thought Lydia would be able to go trick-or-treating.  But she did!  I was so proud of her.  She was very nervous and done with the experience after about 10 houses, but she still did it.  At the end, when she said, "You want to go home and go to bed...but no shower!" I decided that we could call it quits.  Eleanor kept going with Daddy for a little while longer, though.

 

Math: 

Lydia did pages 15-24 of Essential Math B.  She seems to be catching on, but I'm sort of getting the feeling that we are going too fast for her right now.  She has a long attention span for math, but I think the concepts are moving quicker than she is capable of.  So I think starting this week I'm going to back off EM for a little while and work primarily with Miquon, which has been sitting more on the back burner for a little while.  Considering the fact that she has already finished Essential Math A, which was my goal for the whole year, I feel very comfortable with this decision.  More than anything I want her to get a strong foundation and I just need to keep telling myself that there is no hurry.

Reading:

Lydia's attention span for reading is improving.  Where before, it was all I could do to get her to read 2 pages of my homemade readers (approximately 2 sentences per page), now she's reading 4-5 pages per sitting.  It helps that she's getting faster and starting to recognize words.  She finished lessons 41-44 and we'll start on lesson 45 tomorrow.  I've found a good motivator for her.  She likes for me to tickle her whenever she gets at the end of a sentence.

Memorization:

Lyddie loves memorization time.  She always tells me, "Don't forget memorization!"  So we do this more often than normal school.  Lydia started "At the Seaside" by Robert Louis Stevenson.  She is reacting more to this poem than most.  She recognized Robert Louis Stevenson from a previous poem she memorized, but I think she likes that it is about a beach and digging with a shovel.

I'll be figuring out and starting Handwriting Without Tears once I feel better.  I've skimmed the manual and I'm excited to start some of the activities with Lydia.