Catching up

Whew, this last month has been a doozy.

Reading
Wystan is becoming a more confident reader. It seems to depend on the day with Asmund. :/

Asmund and I just finished reading Beowulf.  We chose the Michael Morpurgo/Michael Foreman edition. We're also reading Geronimo Stilton.

History
We're continuing with our Revolutionary War studies. I've been impressed with Liberty's Kids. I didn't expect the show to include so much nuance or ethical tension.

Today we read Paul Revere's Ride, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and we're starting the American Girl Felicity series.

Math
Perimeter of a polygon and review. Asmund has fallen in love with Math Antics, and we've finally chosen a curriculum--Math U See. We'll be ordering Gamma to begin in January. Wystan is doing well with basic addition and subtraction.
 https://www.youtube.com/user/mathantics

Misc
We've fallen behind in science. Wystan is learning ukulele from youtube right now, we start lessons in January. We continue to listen to various classical pieces. Soccer coop is done for the fall, we'll start up again next semester.

--C

Henry Knox, free reading, and letters to friends

We're reading the graphic novel One Dead Spy, roughly about the life of Nathan Hale. We just finished reading about Henry Knox bringing artillery to Boston, so there's lots of talk of cannons. 

Both Wystan and Asmund are venturing out of their phonic readers into easy readers. I Love Trees, and Robot Go Bot are favorites. 

Asmund has begun writing letters to friends, or, missives to fellow spies.

We haven't finished the MFW kindergarten program, and I'm not planning on it. We went through the vowels, but they've advanced beyond it, and are bored to tears with it. 

Asmund's journal, drawing of the cannon being pulled across the ice on the Hudson, "I still don't know why cannons shoot cannonballs instead of cans."

--C

Friday review

Friday review

Asmund is struggling with his concentration when he reads, so we did a very light load today. Wystan is doing better, and excited about reading new books. He's almost ready for "real" books.

We did a mixed media art project--crayons, stickers, watercolors and salt.

We're starting two new topics. History this year will be the Revolutionary War. We're watching The Events Leading Up to War today.

Wystan is just learning about place value, and Asmund is starting subtraction with regrouping. These have been helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buyaqe_L5-Y

--C

Friday review

Friday review

Asmund is struggling with his concentration when he reads, so we did a very light load today. Wystan is doing better, and excited about reading new books. He's almost ready for "real" books.

We did a mixed media art project--crayons, stickers, watercolors and salt.

We're starting two new topics. History this year will be the Revolutionary War. We're watching The Events Leading Up to War today.

Wystan is just learning about place value, and Asmund is starting subtraction with regrouping. These have been helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buyaqe_L5-Y

--C

Julius Caesar

The Flint Hills Shakespeare Festival is this weekend, and the play is Julius Caesar. We'll be attending Saturday night, so to prep we've listened to The Young Person's Guide to Shakespeare and watched a few youtube videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgyAPrv30eg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPf27gAup9U

Today was also the first day of our soccer co-op.

--C

Butterfly Time

It's butterfly time again. We've been learning about the human body for science, but this week we're taking a break to review the Monarch migration and talk about insects.
http://www.flightofthebutterflies.com/home/

We've discovered Vowel Owls and C-V-C world building cards, which have been great for cementing those vowel sounds. I've appreciated the MFW curriculum for their slow and steady phonics learning, but we are skipping many of the easier worksheets, they're mind numbingly boring for the bigs at this point. Asmund and Wystan are both reading easy reader books.

--C