I’m sending in my first monthly attendance report for the year. How is that even possible? I also love having the lessons plans for the full week finished on Sunday night. It makes such a difference in my stress level. I’m not prepared to write them up further ahead of time than that, because I have this terrible fear of getting off track and having to redo all my hard work, but on a weekly basis, this is rocking my socks of.
We had another productive week at the McLernins house. Captain Science finished the mapping lesson in PLATO Earth/Space science. He’s going to take the mastery test again on Monday, because he’s having a hard time with topographical maps. I think this is less a comprehension issues, however, and more a vision one. His current glasses aren’t up to prescription and the teensy lines are so hard for him to distinguish. He just doesn’t have the patience to trace the lines w/ his finger and relies on faulty eyesight alone. I know this will be better when his knew glasses arrive, hopefully next week.
Captain Science completed lesson 12-15 in Fred’s Home Companion/Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra, which included a Your Turn to PLay, and the cities of Admire, Elk, Fairburn, and Halstad. Though we had a little initial trouble with him sneaking peaks at answers, he did very well. Officer Daddyman helped him with a quick review of mixed fractions today. On Thursday, he had another Math Olympiad meeting, which he really seems to enjoy. I’m glad for the additional math outlet.
MCTLA is great, as always. Captain S read pgs 46-87 in Grammar Voyage and is looking forward to finishing it up, so he can start essay voyage. He took and passed the Caesar’s English I chapter 18 cumulative quiz and read chapter 19. He’s getting close to the end and will soon be ready to start Caesar’s English II. He also started World of Poetry this week, just doing a little bit of reading. He’ll begin poetry writing next week or the week after, as next week only has two instructional days for us.
To wrap up the unit in ancient China and work more on his formal writing skills, Captain Science research and wrote an essay on the life and teachings of Confucius. He did one-point outline using two sources, wrote a first draft from his notes alone, and then rewrote the draft to include more details and better structuring today. He’ll write a final draft on Monday. We’ll start ancient South and Central America the week after next!
Piano practice started back up this week and Captain Science received his two pieces for his December recital: Amazing Grace and Toyland. We’ll hold a small Christmas party so he can have a formal recital. He’ll dress in nice clothes and perform his pieces from memory. I’m very excited!
Captain Science also completed another lesson in KidCoder computer programming. Now that he’s over that first hump of “this is so tedious! I just wanted to make games!” he seems to be moving right along. Thursdays are electives day, so he spends a few hours each morning doing computer programming with Officer Daddyman, before we start our out-of-the-house activities.
Speaking of out of the house, Captain Science and Tank started homeschool soccer league this week! Tank is with the 4s, so he’s there with Gretchen’s youngest son Gus, and Captain Science is in 8-9 Boys with her oldest son, Ari. Sadly, my kids aren’t with either of Patchfire’s soccer-aged kids, but since our middle children’s “fields” are right next to each other, Babypie and Purple Child can play together while we watch the little boys. Tank threw himself into soccer headlong and loved every minute. Captain S is always the “watch and adjust” kid; I caught him on the sideline in the shade, socks and shoes off, where he complained, “I didn’t realize the shin guards would be uncomfortable.” I told him to put his gear back on and get out there to play, which he did. He was on goal initially, but asked if he could have a shot at playing forward! Once he started playing, he really tried hard. His team played the 11 year old girl team — they apparently like to play boys against older girls, as the same-age girls are often a little less competitive. It was a tie: nothing to nothing. Both boys are looking forward to next week’s game.
I bought Tank a bunch of stuff from the Target dollar spot this week, including dry erase print and cursive letter tracing. Today, he surprised me by sitting down and tracing all the cursive letters. He did a beautiful job! He also finished his robot with Daddyman this week, did a little bit of workbook work, and started his new favorite activity, stamping. He used letter stamps to sound out and spell names. We sounded out words that started with A, D, and J, then stamped them. He then dumped an entire container of fine glitter on his paper, which means we now have a layer of glitter over everything in the house. It looks like a fairy was sucked up into the air conditioner outside and spewed into the house.
Babypie’s new accomplishments this week are an annoying tongue clicking noise (she learned from Tank, of course) and the words “dressed” and “cold.”
This weekend, we’re going to the Love the Lake festival in Acworth, probably both days, and next week, we’re off to Biltmore for their homeschool days. Let me know if any of you will be there!
