3/6/10

TOG Y2 W27

We are finished with Unit three. I'm getting excited for Unit four, as I believe that it is this portion of history - the American Revolution, the writing of the Constitution, the faith of the founding fathers, and the establishment of our great country - is so important for the preservation of our freedom. It is so sad that the public schools rush through this time period, and trivialize it's importance. Most textbooks are so generalized that students no longer know what is in the Constitution, much less the importance it plays as the second most important piece of writing after the Bible.

Princess E

Latin: Lesson 13.2, Exercise 13.1 to 13.4, Word Power G1-3
Math-U-See: Finish lesson 16
Literature: The Witch of Blackbird Pond-finish
TOG: vocab, important people copywork, geography study
Reading: The Awakening of Europe (excerpts), Making Thirteen Colonies, George Washington's World (excerpts), Colonial Crafts
Read Aloud: The Story of the World 3 (excerpts), Colonial Living (excerpts)

Princess S
Growing with Grammar: 3.21 to 3.22 and Chapter 3 review
Math-U-See: Finish Lesson 16
Literature: The Farewell Symphony
TOG: same as above
Reading: Life on a Southern Plantation
Read Aloud: same as above

Princess L
MFW Kindy: Lesson 14 /h/ is for horse and Lesson 15 /e/ is for elephant
Math-U-See: Primer finish lesson 15
This week, Princess L read her first book. It was called The Sled. It was part of our curriculum. But after we were done, we added the Bob Books. I couldn't find the first book (which was odd because it was with the group last week when I pulled them out) but it wasn't there yesterday. But she read books two through four. And though she approached it begrudgingly, she was pretty proud of herself when she was done.

Princess M
It is fun to hear new words each week. I wish I remembered the funny one from this week, but I forgot to write it down and now it's gone.

We're taking this next week off. My mom is coming to visit from NC, and Princess L is turning 5! She is getting her first party on Friday. (We do group parties at 5, 10 and 15 - which pretty much leaves us with one group party every year for the next several years.) I told her who is coming for kids, but am keeping her in the dark about the theme. Her wonderful dance teacher is coming to give a one hour "God's Praising Princesses" dance class. My mom sewed little tutus for all the girls, and they will all be designing their own crowns. I bought pink strawberry cake mix, creamy white frosting, pink sprinkles, and Disney Princesses cupcake liners. Should be a blast.

2 comments:

Shannon said...

Oh! I love that idea for a birthday party! :)

My almost 5 year old, Little Punkin', and I had to come to an agreement this week about learning to read: We'll wait until after she turns 5 to come back to it.

Any tips on making it more fun? I usually try to use my hands as puppets to be her teacher, which she loves, but she gets overwhelmed with the actual reading part (even though she knows all of the sounds).

Teacher/Mom said...

Teaching this little princess has been a bit different than teaching her older sisters. With them, I used the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons book. They did well. This princess, though, had trouble with that book, which is why I ended up using the MFW curriculum this year. Part of her issue, I think, is that when she started talking, she sounded like she was from New York - the Bronx to be exact. No idea why - we don't sound that way, nor does anyone else we know. But it caused issues for her being able to read the words because she wasn't hearing them the way I read them and then couldn't translate that into reading the word as it was written.
All that to say, don't go any faster than what she is ready for. There is some need for a gentle push. I found that there were a few videos (Leap Frog videos were great as well as PBS's SuperWhy series) that she loved and taught her all the short sounds of the letters. There are tons of free lapbooks on the internet that you can use for games they can do. Encourage her to "read" books that she knows well out loud. Even if she isn't getting the words right, the point is to get her looking at the page, communicating what is on it verbally, then making a big deal about it when she does. This will get her wanting to be able to do it with books that she has never seen before.
And you'll discover later on, that your oldest will be your best weapon with the others. The younger ones will want to be like their older sister and do what she does. They will, most likely, "play" school and she will impart her wisdom to them in a way that you are not able to. Sometimes, frustratingly so.
When Princess L was almost three, we were at our local library. They have this bin of foam letters. I was looking through some books and not paying attention to Princess L, who was taking the letters out and saying their names and most of their sounds out loud. There was a man there with his kids, and he said to me, "Wow! How does she know so many letters?" I had no idea that she did, but her older sisters had been playing school with her on a regular basis and had been teaching her, along with the aforementioned videos. I was floored, and a little bit annoyed because I felt my position as teacher had been trumped. Now I embrace it as proof that I must be doing something right - especially on those challenging days when it seems nothing is going the way I think it should.