Friday, July 20, 2012

Weekly Update - July 20th

This is the first week that I'm joining in on the Weekly Wrap up on Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

I know this week is the Curriculum Edition and if you would like to see what we are using for 2nd grade or Pre-K look here for a post from a few weeks ago when we started our new school year - I Puffy Heart New School Books

Otherwise it was another odd week in our house.

E continues to work odd shifts (mainly being gone 12:30pm - 11:00pm) so our schooling is happening at all hours of the day to work around his schedule.

The kids have been spending many hours playing with their playmobil in the afternoon when it is just too hot to be outside.

I have been working with D and S first thing in the morning while E is here to play with the little boys and then later in the afternoon when little E is napping we finish up our work and play some games.

Highlights of the week -

D finished 4 books this week - 2 Magic Tree house books, one Magic Tree House Research Guide, and a Geronimo Stilton book.

Many nights you will find the two big kids trying to get in a little more reading time before I turn the lights out for the night.

S continues to impress me with how well she taught herself to read. We blasted our way through 8 lessons in OPGTR getting up to the first lesson on blends. I'm still making sure to hit every lesson so I don't worry about her missing something. She is also working through Explode the Code 1.

R has randomly started singing his ABC's - Most of the time I hear him singing them to himself in the bathroom!

In the past month S has gone from not being able to recognize any number over 15 to recognizing and reading any number up to 100.

Low points of the week -

D continues to whine and complain about the amount of writing I am making him do. I don't feel that it is too much for a boy of his age (and he used to do at least this much writing last year without complaint) I've been trying to find ways to reduce his writing or split it up as much as I can but there is only so much I can do to reduce the writing. If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with a pencil phobic 7 year old boy I'd love to hear them!!!

D working on a Dinosaur puzzle/model

3 comments:

  1. Aw! What a cute photo of the kids reading before bedtime!

    Pencil phobic? Well, I have one of those. He's 7 too. Maybe it's the age? I use Handwriting Without Tears with him. The lessons are short. But he still has a hard time with writing for Science or another subject. Sometimes he's OK when I give him some therapy putty to "warm up" his hands before writing. (It's stiff "Play-Doh".) He doesn't get to play with the putty otherwise.

    Anyway, stopping by from Kris' Weekly Wrap-up!

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  2. Writing can be physically painful for boys, they just don't want to do it. What are you having him write? Copy work? Handwriting workbook? I think it is reasonable to do handwriting practice or copy work once a day. If it is writing answers to questions or grammar exercises, let him tell you the answers and you fill it in for him. As long as he knows the material, that's what matters. I do this quite frequently with my eight year old, but only when he makes the complaint about writing. Good luck! Oh, they eventually grow out of the "don't want to write stage."

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  3. On a normal day he has to either do his copywork or write his spelling words/dictation phrases for spelling. I will help write answers in math when he asks. I also generally have him write part of his grammar because he is currently working on a few topics that I feel he needs to write in order to fully understand (contractions and making words plural)

    I try to scribe as much as I can for him, but with 3 other little ones around writing for him all the time makes his schoolwork take a lot longer. I'm always having to stop to help out a little one.

    I will definitely try some therapy putty with him to help warm up his hands to see if that helps. He loves to color but complains about writing. I'm not sure if it's the physical act of writing that bothers him or just having to think about two things at once - both the answer he wants to write plus still thinking about how to form certain letters.

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