4/24/10

TOG Y2 W28-31 Princess L &M

Even though we're not doing TOG with these princesses yet, I'll title it this way because it's the same time frame. Princess L is taking off with her reading. She loves to re-read the books she's done. She complains that the new ones are too hard, but she is so proud of herself when she finishes a new one. She has fun reading to her little sister. But Princess M doesn't sit around for long.

Potty training for Princess M is going well. There are still some accidents in the day, but it is more so because of the nice weather. Trying to come up the steps and get into the house when you have to go is hard. She has more words and expressions every day. It is a fun age, though it is also difficult when you have older sisters around to try and copy.

TOG Y2 W28-31 Princess S

As with her sister, we are moving this princess up a level to UG books for this last unit. I wanted to ease her in to it rather than overwhelming her in the fall. The first week was a bit of a shock to her as her reading amount doubled. She also started vision therapy, so we have to work that into our schedule every day.

Growing with Grammar: Chapter 4 through Chapter 5.5
Math-U-See: Lesson 17 and most of 18. I'm having her do the online drill at Math-U-See for a few days. She needs to increase her speed on these. Hopefully, we'll do the test next week.
Literature: The Sign of the Beaver and The Arrow Over the Door. We tried doing the first one with the audio CD and book at the same time. Haven't figured out yet if it made a difference.
TOG: vocab, important people copywork, geography study
Reading: From Colonies to Country (excerpts), Battles of the French and Indian War, George Washington, And Then What Happened Paul Revere?, The Declaration of Independence
Read Aloud: same as above

TOG Y2 W28-31 Princess E

So I'm a bit behind. I'll post each girl separately and try to just hit the highlights.

Latin: Lesson 13.3 to 15.2, Exercise 13.5 to 15.1, Word Power G4 to H4
Math-U-See: Lesson 17 to 19
Literature: Gulliver's Travels and Early Thunder
TOG: vocab, important people copywork, geography study
Reading: The Awakening of Europe (excerpts), This Country of Ours (excerpts), George Washington's World (excerpts), The Struggle for Sea Power (excerpts), America's Paul Revere, Why Not, Lafayette?, Our Living Constitution (excerpts)
Read Aloud: The Story of the World 3 (excerpts), With Pipe, Paddle and Song

With the beginning of week 29, which is the start of our last unit, I am working at moving this princess to the dialectic level. I wanted to get a head start on it so that next fall is not quite so overwhelming. So I added in the AQ and TQ questions. So is to do them in writing, then we have a discussion on Friday. The first two weeks were slow and laborious! I had to have her read a paragraph at a time and have her narrate it back to me in her own words. She doesn't like having to do that, but she was starting to see that the work you put into it does make it easier. I have purposed to find a different dictionary for her. She hates looking up words because the collegiate dictionary I have seems to use even bigger words in their definitions, and the children's dictionary doesn't have many of the words in it to begin with.

Next year we will add in a timeline project, which I have yet to decide on how we will do it. I like the idea of a visual one that can go on a wall, but it isn't very practical to our space. I'm leaning toward getting her an index card holder and having her do cards each week. Then they can be added to and moved around as need be and it won't take as much space. They could also be easily placed in a book some day.

We watched the videos for the first two IEW units. So she worked on doing some KWOs with some paragraphs in her books. We learned quickly that if we do the KWO one day and an oral report the next, the key words that were picked weren't always the best. She didn't really remember what some of them meant. Next year we will be doing SWI-A.

We are nearing the end of the Latin book. Now I need to decide if I want to stick with this series or go another route. Decisions, decisions.

4/7/10

This One's For You - Pam

So I finally got to meet my friend Pam. We "met" in an online prayer/support group for TOG. But today, she had a layover at our airport. So I picked her up and took her to lunch before her next flight. It was so awesome! It shows how God has His hand in every aspect of our lives - even in our online friendships. Pam told me I needed to post more photos - so here is the photo of us. (It's small, but if you click it you can see the photo larger on Photobucket.)

Secret Sis Meeting 4-7-2010