What's working, what's not this year

Braxtyn - All the Abeka K-4 is working for her, she loves to sit with the boys and take in history and science

Graham - Saxxon K was a bust. So boring! I ordered the Abeka K and he is doing great! He loves it and it is something he is successful at each day.
Things Graham has accomplished this year so far: Kindergarten (6yrs.)
1. writing his name on his own
2. Writing all his numbers 1-20
3. All the vowels and there sounds
4. Blending vowels with consonants
5. SLOWLY - reading three letter words of the consonants he knows
6. Consonants are slow and he only knows about 8 at this point. Still knows there sounds better than the name of the letter.
Writing without tears is good, Explode the code is the perfect slow pace and repetition that is helping him to know letters. We are not at K level yet, we are still at pre-K, Abeka ladder book of vowels is a great repetition for him.
Giddy UP Round UP is good but its hard to fit it in the schedule sometimes.

Noah - Abeka English is easy this year, mostly review from 1st grade. Spelling is still tough for him it takes a lot for him to remember some of the special sounds. He is great at Saxxon math 2, he is almost ready for Saxxon 3. He is reading third grade level books quietly to himself and retaining the story. Abeka science is lame this year, we are looking into a coop with a science teacher. History of the World is great for everyone, we all enjoy it. He is doing cursive this year and doing great, his handwriting is improved. He is typing with his spelling words, using Spelling City.com, that has improved both his spelling and keyboard use.

Breakthrough!

I have stopped working with Graham on schooling, other than a few special projects and a little un-schooling. This has seemed to relieve some of the pressure and is allowing him to shine. Happily he is now copying the letters that are in his name and working on their order. He has memorized his birthday and today, I brought him into a math lesson with Noah. We were doing weight measuring and estimating weights of items found in our house with small blocks. We measured four objects and tracked on paper how many blocks each item would weigh. We first guessed how many blocks we thought it would weigh and then recorded the actual weight. We then used our data to see which object we collected weighed the most and which object weighed the least. To my delight, Graham was the best estimator! He could easily guess just by feeling the objects in his hands and looking at them how many blocks he would need. He also remembered which item weighed the least! He was very proud of himself that he knew something Noah did not. Noah is very factual and only used the numbers to make educated guesses, Graham relied on his very developed common sense to figure it out; making him a much better estimator! I love it when he is able to do projects that allow hi abilities to shine. I am realizing that when things matter to him he can answer very quickly. A few weeks ago we were drilling him on numbers and letters and seemed like he didn't even know the difference between the two, however, today he was watching soccer on TV and when the score popped up he was able to tell us very quickly that the score was 4/1.

I am working on a new unit study to start with him in September, he will be 6 and will need to be learning to read. I am a little nervous to start this process and I am trying to begin with something that gets him excited. So, the unit study is called Gidee Up Round up. It is an entire study about the Wild West, using western books like, The Three Little Javalinas and Jalapeno Hal. I hope that this will help him to realize that letters make words, and words make stories and stories are fun...

Graham's frustrating Lesson

This is us doing "How To Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", we have done this lesson at least twice and I had been working with him for about 10 minutes before I started recording him. The "t" sound was our new sound and he could not get it. We had gone over the "t" sound using other exercises to help him. He has done this with every letter we have learned. The other sounds have been drilled into him for the last few months. But we are still on lesson 9 after three months and with each new day is a huge review on sounds. He did finally get it the last time we went through it, we will see how tomorrow goes. He is actually extremely good at recognizing shapes, colors and he can memorize verses well. He is very good at figuring things out, like tying knots, riding his bike, doing things with the animals. Telling a story back to me and recognizing letters and numbers seems to be very difficult.

Braxtyn's K-4

Braxtyn's k-4 curriculum

How to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons
Abeka's ABC-123
Abeka ABC writing tablet
Abeka Art projects K-4
Abeka God's World (science)
Prayer request booklet
The word and song bible
The story of the world (history)

Graham's K -5

Graham's K-5 curriculum

Saxon K - meeting book and lessons
Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons
Explode the code - order online (August)
Abeka Numbers writing tablet
Abeka K-5 writing tablet
Abeka Writing with phonics k-5
Prayer request booklet
Abeka God's world (science)
Story of the world
The word and song bible
PE

Noah's second Grade

Noah's Second grade curriculum guide

Saxon Math second Grade - will need Grade three by January 2011
Abeka Letters and Sounds book 2, test book and test key
Abeka Spelling and Poetry2
Abeka Language 2
Prayer Request booklet
Enjoying God's World (Science)
Story of the World (history)
Stick Figuring through the bible New testament
Cursive writing tablet
Piano lessons
PE