Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Ahhh . . .

. . . that sound you are hearing is the sigh of contentment as we get back into our regular schedule! We started school back up yesterday after 3 weeks of break, and it was nice. It turns out the boys remember their Latin vocab pretty well. They've lost some speed on multiplication facts, though. We started a new handwriting program for them, Handwriting Without Tears, and I think I am going to be very pleased with it. Luke in particular has picked up some terrible habits, so hopefullyt his curriculum will help with that. Nathan is learning cursive. He's been just doing a big handwriting workbook, but I think the new approach will be better. I've heard good things about this program, especially as it relates to boys, so we shall see if it lives up to what I've heard! Handwriting is definitely a weak link here, so pretty much anything will be an improvement!

I started going through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with Caleb again. We started this in September, but he really wasn't that interested, and it wasn't making much of an impression on him so I stopped. Since then, he's become a lot more interested in reading himself, so I think it will go better this time around. He's also doing the first pre-Explode the Code book, and he's having alot of fun with that.

We're in the middle of My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George as our read-aloud. We are really enjoying learning about how to make acorn flour, bathe with slippery elm bark, and in general survive in the woods. Fascinating! I can't believe I never read this book when I was young, but it is definitely a book with a lot of appeal for boys.

I think that is a good, albeit brief, update. It feels good to be back in the routine. Sometimes I wish AWANA and co-op would not start back up! I'm not that motivated to get back into those things right now! But since I am teaching this unit (space) at co-op, I guess I'd better get on the stick.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hey Claire, I know exactly what you mean. Tuesday morning came (office was closed on Monday) and I was a woman with a mission. No office chatting or other stuff, just straight to work. Head down, full speed ahead. After having spent all last week and half the week before in Denver, I am so woefully behind on all things necessary. Breaks are fun but so is getting back to business. Sounds like the "plague" has passed. Hope you are all feeling back to normal as well.