David has really surprised me with his creativity this last week. One morning when his basic reading was done, he made Elias and himself these pirate hats based off of our art book that he was looking through. He did it all himself without any prodding or help from me.
He’s normally not one to pick up paper and scissors (although he is a fan of tape…). They found themselves swords and started pirating the whole house (which mostly consisted of running and occasionally stopping to say “Argh!!” O, and they also built a pirate ship out of couch cushions in the basement and sailed to many far off places.)
I’m really trying to catch up in our grammar program. Shurley English in my opinion is very detailed and advanced. It’s why we love it. I didn’t learn half the stuff in there until college, and some trains of thought might even think this type of grammar is not necessary until you are passed elementary. Still, we like it and continue to use it. I have been frustrated with it lately, though, and that is the main reason we are behind. I find myself saying (accidentally out loud) “Uh…that’s stupid.”
You see, there are some grammar rules that are hard and fast grammar rules. They are universal. A noun is a noun, a verb is a verb. This program has a few rules that are there for organizational reasons and they are actually not very helpful. So after trying to get Silje to understand what they were saying I have started to tell her to skip those parts. That has opened up a whole can of worms because now she has started asking a little too much: “Do I have to do this part? Can I skip this part?” So I’m trying to be clear.
We’re moving into multiplication in math which she was very intimidated by, but was pleasantly surprised she has no trouble understanding.
Choir has started, piano lessons have resumed, and homeschool group starts next Tuesday. Knut is teaching gym this month and so I’m anxious to see what he comes up with. I don’t at all feel caught up yet personally from our break, but doing school each day has been a welcome routine…even if the suitcases are still out.
Penny says
January 13, 2012 at 6:33 pmWhat are you reading aloud with Silje? You mentioned a book a few weeks ago (21 balloons) and we LOVED it! (Well, parts of it were kinda boring to the kids because they didn’t understand the technicalites of how things work) but overall they liked the adventure. I could use more book recommendations.
Gretchen R says
January 13, 2012 at 6:42 pmRight now we’re reading “Door in the Wall” but it’s actually pretty tough to get through. We’re at the end now so it’s kind of exciting but really I’ve almost thrown out this book a few times because I think a lot of it is going over her head. I’ll probably have her read it to herself in 5th grade again.
J and K Smith says
January 13, 2012 at 10:16 pmI like “Teacher Notes” 🙂