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Princess S: Finishing TOG Y2

As has become our tradition, on Monday the 17th I gave the princesses all the rest of their assignments. I told them that when they were done with their assignments and the CAT testing, then they were done for the year. Princess S, who is normally always behind and unable to focus, pushed on through to finish everything in one week. Last night she said she figured she would be bored because her sister wasn't done yet, and none of the neighborhood kids were done either. Here is what she accomplished.

Growing with Grammar: 5.15 to Chapter 5 review - I really like this series and will be continuing it next year with her. There aren't any pictures or colors on the pages. This is what she needs as pictures and colors are distracting to her. The lessons are simple for her to use all on her own, and she can complete a lesson in about twenty minutes - if she concentrates, that is.
Math-U-See: Finish Lesson 20 and Unit 3 test - I decided to stop this early because lesson 21 deals with multiple digit multiplication. I didn't want her to learn this and then have to remember it over break.
Literature: Amos Fortune, Free Man
TOG: vocab, important people copywork, geography study
Reading: The New Nation (excerpts), Shh, We're Writing the Constitution (excerpts) Napoleon
Read Aloud: We got behind on our read alouds. We need to finish Pipe, Paddle and Song. We will do this over the next week or so during lunch. I haven't decided if we will do the last assigned Read Aloud for Year Two, or if we will pick one from Year Three, which we are skipping.

Princess S took the CAT test, which is one option of many in our state. She did pretty well. She insisted on doing all 6 tests in one day. I could tell by the last two that she was getting tired because she made a few errors that I know she shouldn't have made. Other than that she did great. Of course, that's not from having them scored but from going through and doing it myself. I will work on scanning in some of her work this year and add a slide show later.

TOG Y2 W34

The end is near. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Summer is about to begin! We've got two weeks left, and to continue what has become our tradition, today I will give the princesses their last two weeks worth of assignments. When they are done with them, then they are done with school for this school year. (Except for our required CAT testing, that is.) I think one will be getting done a week early. The other one - let's just say she may take more time than two weeks! Here's what we did last week.

Princess E
Latin: Lesson 16.1 to 16.3, Exercise 15.8 to 15.10, Word Power I1 and I2
Math-U-See: Start Lesson 21
Literature: Johnny Tremain
TOG: vocab, important people copywork, geography study
Reading: Our Living Constitution (excerpts), George Washington's World (excerpts), The Struggle for Sea Power (excerpts)
Read Aloud: With Pipe, Paddle and Song

Princess S
Growing with Grammar: 5.12 to 5.14
Math-U-See: Start Lesson 20
Literature: Amos Fortune, Free Man
TOG: same as above
Reading: From Colonies to Country (excerpts), Shh, We're Writing the Constitution (excerpts)
Read Aloud: same as above

Princess L
MFW Kindy: Lesson 22 through Lesson 24
Math-U-See: Start Primer lesson 18


Princess M
This little princess has totally entered the "I Do It Self" stage. She is always saying that now. Of course, as is par for the course, she always wants to "do it self" when we need to be somewhere and never when I want her to "do it self". She also picked up one of my constant phrases whenever someone calls for me. "Jus a secon!" she is yelling. I guess maybe it's not the best thing to do, but I got in the habit because it lets the person know that I've heard them and will be giving them 100% attention as soon as I finish the task I am in the middle of. (This is opposed to the complete silence that the princesses give me, requiring me to continually call their name several times, which drives them nuts and they respond back, not so nicely, "I heard you the first time.") But Princess M says it back to me constantly.

I have been working hard at next year's plans. We will be skipping TOG Y3 in order to join a co-op a few towns away. Thus, we will be doing TOG Y4. I also have been looking at some other new things to fill in areas of weakness. I'm pretty excited about them, and think it will help us to jump a few hurdles. I'm working at getting all the lesson plans entered into HST+. Some I found already done and am tweaking to how I do things, others I have to do from scratch. My goal is to have everything for next year scheduled into HST+ by the end of June. Then I will have July to get all my copying done and rearrange our homeschool/living room.

TOG Y2 W32-33

Well, we've had a crazy week and a half. First, DH's car died on the side of the road on the way to work. Then we are offered his Grandmother's Caddy to drive until we found a different car, as his wasn't fixable. It died on the side of the road on the way to work. So he took our van, which thankfully, did not die. But it left us without for a few days. But we now have a new-to-us car that should work great for several more years.

Princess E
Latin: Lesson 15.4 to 15.6, Exercise 15.3 to 15.5, Vocabulary I
Math-U-See: Lesson 20
Literature: Johnny Tremain
TOG: vocab, important people copywork, geography study
Reading: Why Not, Lafayette? (excerpts), Our Living Constitution (excerpts), George Washington's World (excerpts), This Country of Ours (excerpts), The Struggle for Sea Power (excerpts), Daniel Boone: Young Hunter and Tracker
Read Aloud: With Pipe, Paddle and Song

Princess S
Growing with Grammar: 5.6 to 5.11
Math-U-See: Finish Lesson 18 and Do Lesson 19
Literature: King Mountain
TOG: same as above
Reading: From Colonies to Country (excerpts), Daniel Boone: Woodsman of Kentucky
Read Aloud: same as above

Princess L
MFW Kindy: Lesson 16 through Lesson 21
Math-U-See: Primer lesson 16 to 17


Princess M
Potty Training is pretty much done. She's doing awesome! I am trying to think through what we will do with this princess next fall. She will be almost three. She will not be able to go into Cubbies yet. She's really at an awkward in-between stage. Too big for somethings, too little yet for others. Isn't that the story of life though?

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.