The last week has seen a change in Lydia's therapy here at home. She has a new therapist that is alternating times with her old therapist and her program has changed to be a bit more rigorous. She is struggling a bit with the expectations of her, but she is equal to the task and has been able to keep up with her basic school lessons. The last day for therapy is in the beginning of May, so she only has a few weeks left and we want to make the most of her time.
I'm also giving a lot of thought to how I will do school after we move. It is very likely Lydia won't be in any therapy at all after we move. Tyler will also be a 1st year resident and will be gone almost all the time. I will have my kids 100% to myself and I would like to up our schedule and formalize a little more of our learning time. I just need to figure out how to do it. We'll re-institute memorization time which we are currently ignoring because of Lydia's tough schedule. The rest of it is up in the air. I'm sure I'll be talking more about that as time goes on.
Lydia
Reading:
OPGTR is going well. She is on lesson 169 and moving along nicely. She also reads an easy reader book from the library almost every day with her therapist and is now reading two verses every night at family scripture study. Her reading is starting to show a little more fluency and she has started adding emotion to her reading and sounds a lot less like a robot.
Math:
I have some big changes in store for Lydia for math. As you might have noticed, we are sort of floundering with math right now. Lydia seems to have hit a wall with my current methods and I don't think what we have been doing is particularly effective for her. Lately she has been working on Xtramath as a sort of minimal math and placeholder while she's been doing therapy, but I think I have come up with a solution for our math woes with her for after we move. I'm going to take a very new approach that I'll talk about in another post.
Spelling:
Spelling is going well, although it is fairly low on the totem pole right now for us. She just finished lesson 17 in AAS1.
Handwriting:
I realized that I never had her finish the HWT book a little while back, so she's been working on the last few pages.
Eleanor
Reading:
While Eleanor isn't going to officially start school until this fall, it seems like we are unofficially going ahead with it. Most days, Eleanor will practice her letter phonograms with the LOE phonogram app. She has them down pretty well by now. I usually quiz her on first sounds of words at random times throughout the day as well ("Can you tell me the first letter of the word 'TABLE'?"). Now I am starting her on blending. I'm using an app for this, but it is almost as easy on my own. Basically I just say the three letter sounds of a simple word separately and help her figure out what word it is. Once she gets that, we'll start OPGTR.
Math:
Almost daily Eleanor asks to do math. I went ahead and started her in Essential Math A and she is flying through it. She loves doing her own math and I usually have to cut her off. Right now she is on page 36.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Weekly Report: Days 81-99
It has been a while since I did an update, so I thought I should probably do one. One of the reasons for this is that Lydia's schooling is at a minimum right now. Her therapy takes up so much of her time that I am focusing on the 3Rs and that's it. Her therapy should end here in a month or two, though, so we should be getting back to normal after that.
Another reason for my long silence is my trip to Japan! Tyler and I were able to visit his parents in Tokyo for a little over a week while the girls spent the week with my parents. We all had fun, but we were happy to be back together.
We also just found out where Tyler matched for residency! So we'll be moving to North Carolina in a few months. I am so excited and think this will be a great thing for our family.
Reading:
Lydia is now a mostly fluent reader and is able to decipher many of the words she comes across. She is on lesson 163 in OPGTR (r-changed vowels) and is zooming through it. I think she understood about r-changed vowels naturally, so she isn't having to struggle with it at all. Our OPGTR lessons take 5 mins or less per day right now.
She is also still participating in Book-it. She reached her February goal and is well on her way to get her March goal. Book-it ends this month, so I need to figure out if I want to do a mommy-subsidized book-it program or what in the meantime. For Book-it, she is checking out several leveled readers from the library every week and can read almost all the books in the beginner reading section of the library.
Finally, we've had her start reading a verse every night when we do family scripture study. She has been doing a great job and I'm surprised at how many words she can read.
Math:
Lydia wasn't loving the flashcards for math facts practice, so I started xtramath.org. After the placement test, she scored a 1 (out of 100) for addition facts. We do xtramath every day now and she now has a score of 17, so that's good progress. I feel like for now, this is enough. After Lydia's therapy is over, I will add some extra math concepts, but right now, she's making lots of connections like I hoped she would. I think Lydia works the opposite of a lot of other kids, so while I wouldn't go this direction with my other children, math facts and then concepts may be a better option for her.
Eleanor wanted to do some math too, so I went ahead and started her Essential Math A book. She breezed through several pages and keeps asking for more. I also showed her the Arithmetic Village pdfs I have and she LOVED them. I told her I could make them into books for her and she said yes. So I made the first one and she has made me read it to her several times over the last few days. I'm going to work on making the other four in the next week or so. She also did some of the stick designs from the vintage book, Primer of Industry that I found a while back.
Spelling and Handwriting:
Lydia is in lesson 17 in AAS and progressing nicely. She is understanding when to use c or k as the first letter in a word. I also have her finishing up her HWT K book, which I sort of ignored for a while. She is writing noticeably faster now and fairly legibly.
The other day she wrote the word "William" as "Wileeyum" on one of her pictures. I thought is was super cute.
Another reason for my long silence is my trip to Japan! Tyler and I were able to visit his parents in Tokyo for a little over a week while the girls spent the week with my parents. We all had fun, but we were happy to be back together.
We also just found out where Tyler matched for residency! So we'll be moving to North Carolina in a few months. I am so excited and think this will be a great thing for our family.
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| Me and Tyler in Japan |
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| All three girls at a science center in Lubbock |
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| Eleanor the vet |
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| Eleanor and Lydia walking Grandma's dog Brodi |
Lydia is now a mostly fluent reader and is able to decipher many of the words she comes across. She is on lesson 163 in OPGTR (r-changed vowels) and is zooming through it. I think she understood about r-changed vowels naturally, so she isn't having to struggle with it at all. Our OPGTR lessons take 5 mins or less per day right now.
She is also still participating in Book-it. She reached her February goal and is well on her way to get her March goal. Book-it ends this month, so I need to figure out if I want to do a mommy-subsidized book-it program or what in the meantime. For Book-it, she is checking out several leveled readers from the library every week and can read almost all the books in the beginner reading section of the library.
Finally, we've had her start reading a verse every night when we do family scripture study. She has been doing a great job and I'm surprised at how many words she can read.
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| Paper dolls I printed for Ellie |
Math:
Lydia wasn't loving the flashcards for math facts practice, so I started xtramath.org. After the placement test, she scored a 1 (out of 100) for addition facts. We do xtramath every day now and she now has a score of 17, so that's good progress. I feel like for now, this is enough. After Lydia's therapy is over, I will add some extra math concepts, but right now, she's making lots of connections like I hoped she would. I think Lydia works the opposite of a lot of other kids, so while I wouldn't go this direction with my other children, math facts and then concepts may be a better option for her.
Eleanor wanted to do some math too, so I went ahead and started her Essential Math A book. She breezed through several pages and keeps asking for more. I also showed her the Arithmetic Village pdfs I have and she LOVED them. I told her I could make them into books for her and she said yes. So I made the first one and she has made me read it to her several times over the last few days. I'm going to work on making the other four in the next week or so. She also did some of the stick designs from the vintage book, Primer of Industry that I found a while back.
Spelling and Handwriting:
Lydia is in lesson 17 in AAS and progressing nicely. She is understanding when to use c or k as the first letter in a word. I also have her finishing up her HWT K book, which I sort of ignored for a while. She is writing noticeably faster now and fairly legibly.
The other day she wrote the word "William" as "Wileeyum" on one of her pictures. I thought is was super cute.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Weekly Report: Days 76-80
It has been a cold, cold week and for the most part we spent the week hunkered down in our house staying warm. I've been thinking a lot about next year, but I won't talk about that now. I'm sure I'll talk about it plenty when we get closer.
Reading:
We've now officially transitioned to reading her lessons straight out the book. No more iPad or computer screen for Lydia! She's doing a great job. She has finished through lesson 146 and is still working on silent letters. She's also working on her Book-It goal for February which is 10 books. She's well on her way.
Math:
I've been giving Lydia's math future a lot of thought. I've been feeling like she's not really progressing for a while and I've been wondering where to go from here. After tons of though I've decided to start drilling her math facts. I wasn't planning on doing that this early, but as we do all of her math, she doesn't seem to be picking up on the patterns in math and it feels like all of the discovery activities we are doing are wasting her time. I'm thinking that if she memorizes her math facts first and then we do the discovery activities, she'll learn a lot more. This is not an approach I would take with most kids, I think, but for Lydia's unique learning style, I think it will work very well. Here's hoping.
That said, I've started her on addition with zeros and ones first while she continues to work on patterns with her therapist.
Grammar:
Both girls are still loving LLTL. We learned about capitalizing and writing the titles "Mr." and "Mrs." I also discovered that there are some really cute Beatrix Potter videos on YouTube, so after we read the stories and do the copywork, I'm letting the girls watch the related video and they are loving them.
Lydia also wrote a thank you note for a gift. I walked her through what to say and then wrote it out for her on a different page. She copied it and then drew a picture.
Spelling:
Lydia finished Lesson 15 in AAS and will start Lesson 16 next week.
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| In their blanket fort in their room. |
We've now officially transitioned to reading her lessons straight out the book. No more iPad or computer screen for Lydia! She's doing a great job. She has finished through lesson 146 and is still working on silent letters. She's also working on her Book-It goal for February which is 10 books. She's well on her way.
Math:
I've been giving Lydia's math future a lot of thought. I've been feeling like she's not really progressing for a while and I've been wondering where to go from here. After tons of though I've decided to start drilling her math facts. I wasn't planning on doing that this early, but as we do all of her math, she doesn't seem to be picking up on the patterns in math and it feels like all of the discovery activities we are doing are wasting her time. I'm thinking that if she memorizes her math facts first and then we do the discovery activities, she'll learn a lot more. This is not an approach I would take with most kids, I think, but for Lydia's unique learning style, I think it will work very well. Here's hoping.
That said, I've started her on addition with zeros and ones first while she continues to work on patterns with her therapist.
Grammar:
Both girls are still loving LLTL. We learned about capitalizing and writing the titles "Mr." and "Mrs." I also discovered that there are some really cute Beatrix Potter videos on YouTube, so after we read the stories and do the copywork, I'm letting the girls watch the related video and they are loving them.
Lydia also wrote a thank you note for a gift. I walked her through what to say and then wrote it out for her on a different page. She copied it and then drew a picture.
Spelling:
Lydia finished Lesson 15 in AAS and will start Lesson 16 next week.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Weekly Report: Days 70-75
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| Crystal Bridges |
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| Eleanor's favorite: "Pinocchio" by Jim Dime (neither marble or bronze... wood!) |
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| "The Life of a Hunter, A Tight Fix" by Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait |
This week in OPGTR Lydia has been learning about silent and not silent "gh". They are more complicated than I realize before teaching them and Lydia is struggling with them a little, but I am completely confident that she will pick them up soon. She also read several books with her therapist.
Grammar:
This week we started Language Lessons Through Literature (LLTL) and it has been a hit so far. We've done 3 lessons and both Lydia and Eleanor seem to look forward to it. We are still reading Beatrix Potter stories and although we've read all of them before, the girls are really connecting with the stories this time around.
Math:
Lydia is still primarily doing math with her therapist. They are focusing on patterns and sequences right now and Lydia is getting good at them.
Spelling:
We finally got through Lesson 14. I don't know why it took us so long, but it did. We're well into Lesson 15 now and she's doing well. Also, the SoundLiteracy app is finally updated so it doesn't crash all the time! Its a little thing but I'm glad to have it working.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Language Lessons Through Literature
Lydia finished Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten. I decided a while back that once she learned how to write her letters, we would start copywork. I've had Language Lessons Through Literature on my radar for a few months and bought it back in December. It is a fairly gentle, Charlotte Mason/Classical hybrid grammar program. It uses children's classics, poems, art, and copywork to teach grammar and writing. I decided to give it a try, thinking I'd like it well enough.
I bought the book and the PDF workbook. The workbook isn't required because the book has all the assignments and copywork sentences in it, but the PDF has all the copywork in several different handwriting fonts, including HWT, which was huge for me. Rather than copy each onto paper individually, I can now just print them right off!
Today we did our first day, so this is by no means an exhaustive review, but we had a good first experience and I wanted to share. The first book is Peter Rabbit. Lydia, Ellie, and I sat down together and read the book. The girls really enjoyed the story and when it was time to do copywork, Lydia was very interested in the sentence that was from her story. We talked about sentences starting with a capitol letter and ending with punctuation (she already knows about period, question marks, and exclamation marks). At the end I had her draw a picture from Peter Rabbit and she loved doing it. She loved it so much she kept on drawing the rest of the day. Eleanor saw her having fun with it and decided she just had to join in and do her own "copywork" (scribbles with crayons). Lydia also pretended Peter Rabbit later. I played Mr. McGregor.
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| Peter (complete with shoes), Mr. McGregor, and the garden gate. |
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| "Mr. McGregor said, 'Who ate a bite out of my tomato!? I'm going to eat you up!" |
Friday, January 24, 2014
Weekly Report: Days 56-69
School is back on full-swing. We are behind schedule a bit so we've been careful to do at least 5 days of school a week for the last few weeks. Everything is going well and it has been handy because Lydia's therapist has taken over some of the schooling duties for me, but I'm still completely in the game.
Reading:
Lydia is through lesson 138 in OPGTR. She has started silent letters and is rocking them. I'm pretty proud of her. She also reached her January Book-It goal of reading 8 books. Next month I think we are going to go with 10. Book-It has really motivated her to read. She is very excited to "reach her goal" every month. She's been really enjoying Syd Hoff books lately and I actually caught her reading one to herself a little bit before we read it together!
Math:
We're still working on counting-on and counting-back, but Lydia's biggest achievement is that she can now read an analog clock. Her therapist has been working on it with her and she went from not being able to read one at all to now she can read to 5 minutes every time and to the minute sometimes. She's been doing so well that we bought her a new clock for her room. She loves it.
Memorization/ Spelling/ Handwriting:
Spelling and handwriting are still coming along, although fairly slowly. Lydia did finish learning her lowercase letters, so I guess I need to start doing copywork! Man, I guess I should come up with a plan for that, huh? Lydia also finished memorizing "The Swing" and has decided to start "The Fisherman" which will be her longest poem yet.
Religion:
We usually read a page from the scriptures every night when Daddy is home before bedtime. But when Daddy isn't home, I've been reading the girls a section from the Illustrated Book of Mormon. The girls enjoyed it well enough, but we finished and it was a little above their level anyways. When we were at my parent's house for Christmas I was able to convince them to let me take home their complete set of Illustrated Stories from the Book of Mormon which have been out of print for a long time. Although they are a little dated (from the 60s), the girls are loving them and we already finished Vol. 1.
Reading:
Lydia is through lesson 138 in OPGTR. She has started silent letters and is rocking them. I'm pretty proud of her. She also reached her January Book-It goal of reading 8 books. Next month I think we are going to go with 10. Book-It has really motivated her to read. She is very excited to "reach her goal" every month. She's been really enjoying Syd Hoff books lately and I actually caught her reading one to herself a little bit before we read it together!
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| Playing with their "romper-stompers." They are "so tall!" |
Math:
We're still working on counting-on and counting-back, but Lydia's biggest achievement is that she can now read an analog clock. Her therapist has been working on it with her and she went from not being able to read one at all to now she can read to 5 minutes every time and to the minute sometimes. She's been doing so well that we bought her a new clock for her room. She loves it.
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| Eleanor insisted that she should be called "Super Ballerina Eleanor" |
Memorization/ Spelling/ Handwriting:
Spelling and handwriting are still coming along, although fairly slowly. Lydia did finish learning her lowercase letters, so I guess I need to start doing copywork! Man, I guess I should come up with a plan for that, huh? Lydia also finished memorizing "The Swing" and has decided to start "The Fisherman" which will be her longest poem yet.
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| My little engineer practicing her handwriting. (I promise she has better pencil grip than that). |
Religion:
We usually read a page from the scriptures every night when Daddy is home before bedtime. But when Daddy isn't home, I've been reading the girls a section from the Illustrated Book of Mormon. The girls enjoyed it well enough, but we finished and it was a little above their level anyways. When we were at my parent's house for Christmas I was able to convince them to let me take home their complete set of Illustrated Stories from the Book of Mormon which have been out of print for a long time. Although they are a little dated (from the 60s), the girls are loving them and we already finished Vol. 1.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Weekly Report: Days 51-55
With Lydia's new therapy getting started and Christmas, complete with Tyler's interviews and a trip to Grandma's house, we had a busy December. We really didn't do much school, but we are back to the grind now and did a full week this week! But first, here are some pictures from Christmas. Thanks to my sister for taking most of these.
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| Christmas morning in their Christmas pj's, wings, and crowns. |
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| Great Grandma reading Lydia and Adelaide (and Brodi) a story. |
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| Lydia playing with cousin Sam's tee-ball set |
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| Eleanor got lots of dress-up stuff for Christmas |
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| Grandpa reading all the girls and Aunt Hannah a story |
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| Eleanor got a manicure |
Reading:
Lydia got through lesson 126 in OPGTR. I forgot to mention that she read her 5 books in December for her Book-it goal as well. 5 was a little easy, but I knew it was going to be a short month school-wise, so I didn't up it. This month she has a goal of 8 books and has already completed two, so I think she'll make it again. We've started just picking out books from the beginning reader section at the library for her to complete it and that is going well. For December she read Happy Birthday, Thomas!, Summertime in the Big Woods, Thomas and the School Trip, Mother Bear's Robin (Little Bear), and Wintertime in the Big Woods.
Math:
I've been mostly staying away from curricula for a few weeks and don't plan on going back much for a little bit. Right now I'm working on Education Unboxed video suggestions but mostly I'm focusing on getting her to be able to count-on and count-back, with a goal of being able to count-on a specific number of times. Once she gets this concept, I think I'll be ready to start letting her memorize math facts and maybe get back to the curricula.
Handwriting/Spelling:
Lydia is only a few letters away from finishing learning how to write lowercase letters. Once she does that, we'll be moving to copywork while she learns how to write her numbers. Spelling is going well and there is a lot of cross-over between spelling and handwriting, but not much else to say except we are moving forward with it.
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