It's a bit difficult to stay on top of the blog these days. Mane & I have been busy, and I seldom keep track of every little thing we do anymore. We've been reading about and watching the Olympics, reading more of The Hobbit, and continuing to plod along in math and reading (finishing lesson 22 of MUS this week & beginning the Blue Book in 2nd grade Hooked on Phonics).
On the subject of the Olympics, we've been reading athlete profiles from Great Skates by Laura Hilgers, and we've been closely following the snowboard halfpipe competitions and the pairs figure skating.
Mane has been having regular playdates on Fridays with another girl close to her age, who is also homeschooled, we've been attending a homeschool group twice a month and Bible Study once a week. We've also been getting back into weekly visits to the library. On the weekends we attend Vespera's soccer games, where Mane has gotten to know several other children. This has been serving as both social time and phy. ed.! Our lives are once again feeling rhythmic and settled...thanks be to God.
I'm also proud that Mane has finished memorizing The Lord's Prayer! I'm trying to settle on what to have her memorize next. It has worked well to find scripture for which we also have music. She listened to Psalm 23 by Temple & Brent and to As It Is in Heaven by Michael W. Smith, as she was learning the corresponding passages of scripture.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Tough times
We've been struggling for structure (have I written this before?) because it's been such an off year. The last few weeks have been challenging but productive. We're starting out every day with math & reading, followed by a break, then Story of the World (SOTW) or Five in a Row (FIAR). Whenever anything gets challenging Mane claims she's tired or she doesn't understand and wants to quit. These few weeks have been practice in perseverance. I'm insisting that she either go take a nap if she's that tired OR finish the work. I'm trying hard to avoid "school at home," monotonous drudgery of workbooks and assignments, but I do insist that math & reading practice need to happen. She doesn't balk at SOTW or FIAR...unless I try to get her to write something down or have a conversation with me. She wants me to read her stories and expect nothing of her. We've been doing that. Now I need to step it up. She's so proud of her school notebook when she actually puts work into it, but it's been like pulling teeth to get the work to happen. She's been in a slump. But, I guess, I have been, too...or, rather, one after another since November.
So, as I said, it's been tough but productive. It's been bumpy, but I'm seeing a trend toward more willingness to work, to have a Socratic conversation here and there, to look things up and write things down. I think we're seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. We've both needed to dig our way through.
What have we been doing? Well, Mane will be moving on to lesson 21 in math by the end of the week. She's finishing up the 2nd Hooked on Phonics chapter book. (There are 2 chapter books in the middle of the 2nd grade level.) She's very proud of her reading and actually told me a few days ago that reading goes better for her if she practices every day. AND she announced that she can't wait to read big chapter books on her own. This is a huge increase in motivation. I've been trying to pace her carefully to keep her from tiring and continue her feelings of success.
We've been reading The Gullywasher for FIAR. We found some National Geographics about Mexican cowboys and U.S. cowboys and looked at the pictures. One article about Mexican cowboys told of a pilgrimage that many hundreds of Mexican cowboys make to a statue of Jesus in the mountains each year for Epiphany. So, Mane & I asked Vespera & Niteo if they'd heard of this pilgrimage. They both had, AND Niteo ended up telling us about a bicycle pilgrimage that he made to a sanctuary with a statue of Mary in Juquila, Mexico. He told us about the journey and the other people that went, and he looked up youtube movies for us to watch about it. Then Mane took a picture with Niteo, and she wrote a little paragraph about talking with him in her school notebook.
Later we read a book about cowboys in the "Wild West" and listened to cowboy/cowgirl songs. Mane printed some pictures that she liked from google images for her notebook, and she drew the 4 major trails on a U.S. map that the cowboys(girls) followed to bring the cattle to market each year.
We dug out this timeline that I printed a long time ago for our history studies and marked several key events from SOTW that we've studied this year. We looked at where the Greeks fall on the timeline and began talking about the beginning of the Olympics.
Yesterday we watched footage of the torch relay for this year's Olympics. We watched the torch lighting in Olympia and talked about how the torch is lit using a mirror and the sun's light. Then we found Greece and Canada on the map. We found Vancouver, along with several other places where the torch has been.
The plan is to pick some Olympic athletes to follow and learn some things about them before the games begin. We'll record the opening ceremony tomorrow night (because we're going to be our with friends) and watch some on Saturday.
So, as I said, it's been tough but productive. It's been bumpy, but I'm seeing a trend toward more willingness to work, to have a Socratic conversation here and there, to look things up and write things down. I think we're seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. We've both needed to dig our way through.
What have we been doing? Well, Mane will be moving on to lesson 21 in math by the end of the week. She's finishing up the 2nd Hooked on Phonics chapter book. (There are 2 chapter books in the middle of the 2nd grade level.) She's very proud of her reading and actually told me a few days ago that reading goes better for her if she practices every day. AND she announced that she can't wait to read big chapter books on her own. This is a huge increase in motivation. I've been trying to pace her carefully to keep her from tiring and continue her feelings of success.
We've been reading The Gullywasher for FIAR. We found some National Geographics about Mexican cowboys and U.S. cowboys and looked at the pictures. One article about Mexican cowboys told of a pilgrimage that many hundreds of Mexican cowboys make to a statue of Jesus in the mountains each year for Epiphany. So, Mane & I asked Vespera & Niteo if they'd heard of this pilgrimage. They both had, AND Niteo ended up telling us about a bicycle pilgrimage that he made to a sanctuary with a statue of Mary in Juquila, Mexico. He told us about the journey and the other people that went, and he looked up youtube movies for us to watch about it. Then Mane took a picture with Niteo, and she wrote a little paragraph about talking with him in her school notebook.
Later we read a book about cowboys in the "Wild West" and listened to cowboy/cowgirl songs. Mane printed some pictures that she liked from google images for her notebook, and she drew the 4 major trails on a U.S. map that the cowboys(girls) followed to bring the cattle to market each year.
We dug out this timeline that I printed a long time ago for our history studies and marked several key events from SOTW that we've studied this year. We looked at where the Greeks fall on the timeline and began talking about the beginning of the Olympics.
Yesterday we watched footage of the torch relay for this year's Olympics. We watched the torch lighting in Olympia and talked about how the torch is lit using a mirror and the sun's light. Then we found Greece and Canada on the map. We found Vancouver, along with several other places where the torch has been.
The plan is to pick some Olympic athletes to follow and learn some things about them before the games begin. We'll record the opening ceremony tomorrow night (because we're going to be our with friends) and watch some on Saturday.
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