Week 4

Last week was much of the same. Nothing of tremendous creative schooling to report (what a way to get you to keep reading this post).We had school every day last week, for which I am very thankful. I am learning to push through the many distractions that could easily get me off course.

In phonics we did lessons for letters f, g, h, j, and k. On the day of our g lesson, the read aloud was Lily's Garden by Deborah Kogan Ray. This book would be a good book to own if you were to do a study on gardening or seeds and plants. It has a two-page spread for each month of the year, and what is going on in the garden during that month. Joey and I planted a garden this year, but more for just the enjoyment of seeing things grow with the hope of a little harvest, but no real scientific study of seeds or plants. But since we are daily picking tomatoes, it was a timely read, and as a bonus presented many words that began with g as it is a book about gardening and growing.


Reviewing the short vowel sounds before each new phonics lesson is proving to be helpful. Today Joey could identify correctly each vowel when I would say the short vowel sound. Yay for progress!


The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading creates a poem that grows line by line as each new consonant sound is introduced. I drew a grid to separate the inside of a manila folder into 21 boxes and each day Joey places a sticker of the upper and lowercase of the new consonant in the next box and then draws a picture that corresponds to the rhyme. He can't wait to get through the lesson to get to the part when he can draw the new picture, and the poem and pictures seem to be cementing these sounds into his brain, so I guess that means for now I am happy with TOPGtTR.

For Bible memory, we worked on the second part of I Peter 3:8 -- "love as bretheren, be pitiful, be corteous." The brother and sister dynamic in this house provides many opportunities to be full of pity, and to be courteous and show good manners, so it is a great verse for us to memorize.


In math, just a few more worksheets. The student workbook for Saxon Math 1 should arrive this week, so we will start that soon. I was pleased to discover that Joey thinks solving word problems that I present to him while driving in the car is a fun game. The word problems always seem to relate to how many cookies or slices of pizza we have, or eat, or take from one another. It is all about food in this family. Especially since I am in the throes of my huge mid-pregnancy appetite (and weight gain). Hey -- I could make a word problem out of that: "If mommy gains two pounds this week, and three pounds next week, how many pounds...?" *


Well, that is all for now.

Have a great week!



*too many :P