School Days

I'm always amazed at how quickly the time passes between these school updates. We continue to rock right along, learning lots of interesting things and having a blast! So, what have we been doing? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Ruth had her PSIA competition last weekend, as you know, and did very well. Her schedule has changed since then to accommodate more Spelling practice, in preparation for the upcoming State meet. The result is that she is now spending a bit less time on Math, History and Latin until then. These are classes that she is slightly ahead in, so we thought she could spare the extra time. She is working through the 4/5 Saxon Math book and is squeezing in some higher level math stuff (like Algebra) when she has time. She has just finished the 3rd book in our Latin curriculum and will be spending the rest of the school year reviewing all that she has learned so far, before moving on to the next book, which is actually a high school level book. She has really been enjoying studying American History this year, particularly the parts about the Founding Fathers, the presidents and the inventions that came about during the Age of Industry. Last week, she made her own cotton gin, which was lots of fun! She is still doing a couple of Chemistry experiments every week for Science, which she always enjoys. She works fairly independently on Grammar and will often correct Jeff and I when we fail to follow the proper Grammar rules. She is no longer working on Music Memory for PSIA, but she is working hard on her piano lessons, preparing for a big piano recital in May. She has memorized several songs and can't wait to show off her stuff.

Weston has taken his reading to a whole other level. Specifically, Level 3. Most of the Level 3 reading books are designed for 6-9 year olds and are short chapter books. He continues to add books to his reading posters and to be rewarded when they are completed. His goal is to get through the 18 poster (which will be his next one), and then start reading some of the Great Illustrated Classic books, which he is really looking forward to. His writing also continues to improve, and he is working on lots of different kinds of punctuation. Recently, he has been working on using quotation marks and on writing dates in sentences. He generally loves all his school work, but his favorite is still Math. He loves to play a dice game where he rolls the dice and adds up the numbers, and he is really good at it. He also really enjoys the worksheets he gets to do, and he has recently gotten to where he can read most of the instructions on his own. He is also still working on his addition and subtraction facts and his counting.

Max has recently decided that he wants to get in on some of this school action, so he is working on his ABC flashcards and is getting really good at recognizing and sounding out the letters. He is also working on his counting, and he is sitting in on the CC History review with us, which he really loves. He has latched on to some facts about Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, which is pretty funny to hear a three-year-old talk about.

bridge building at CC

Ruth's cotton gin

Counting nails