Week 22

PreK:

Emmett is definitely in a slump where he doesn't want to do anything except ride his bike and be loud. That's a four-year-old boy for you! Academics at this age are not formal or mandatory at our house, so he's just taking a break, I guess...

Math:

We worked through week 24 of MEP 1B this week. Abby was fine until Friday. After she had been working on addition facts through thirteen for a week, she flipped out on the last day. And it wasn't because the problems were too hard. I knew it was coming too. We started the sheet and she was fine on the first set. While she was working that first set, though, she saw the third set of problems which had questions like 5=13-9+?. She knows how to work these problems on the number line, knows how to use her rods to find the answer as well. I had told her she could use them. Instead she refused to focus on the problems and tried to write whatever she wanted. When confronted, she complained that she didn't know the answer and then just zoned out. After she cried and I got annoyed with her for not focusing (!), she got to work and completed those problems with 100% accuracy.

Since I've been planning next year, I have been thinking about the differences between MEP and Singapore Math. I want her to complete MEP because I like the reasoning and the math puzzles, if you will. I did go ahead and order Singapore 1B (which I was avoiding doing because MEP is free) to see how she'd do with that.

This is one of those math puzzles that MEP has that I love! She was supposed to move one stick to make the fact true. The original fact was XI+I=X. After a few minutes of thinking, she immediately said, "There are two ways to do it." And then she showed me both.

We did play a math game, Race to 100. All of the kids really liked this one. It was good for Emmett to actually pay attention and practice his one-to-one correspondence and it was good for Abby to practice her adding. After the first few rolls, she had no problems adding in her rolls. Adding past a ten is becoming fairly simple for her...as long as she believes she can do it...

Language Arts:

I was thinking I should probably group all of the like things together....

Spelling:

We are still reviewing words from AAS level one. I did order level two, so we'll fold that in when we get to it.

Reading:

Abby read Mouse Tales this week. She apparently has read it a few times before and loves the book.

Mr. Popper's Penguins is going well. This next week we should have a penguin-filled week as we are scheduled to finish the book as well as study Antarctica in our little continent study! I think we'll be watching the movie next Sunday.

Perhaps the most exciting that happened reading-wise, is that Mommy got a Kindle! It was considered a school purchase since a lot of our curricula is PDF or e-book form. Ellie likes to take it and pretend she's reading on it. I learned my lesson the first time she bought a book (*doh*) and turn off the wi-fi when she gets it.

Abby also loves the Kindle and I let her take it to her bed each night to read a chapter in Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds. I've written that she is resistant to reading most chapter books. I believe part of it is that she does like the pictures in picture books. Just like with her math, though, she is easily overwhelmed. And since things have usually come easily to her, she tends to be a perfectionist and doesn't want to do things that might be hard. Anyway...with the Kindle she can't see if the book is thick or whatnot. She can't be concerned that she won't finish the entire book. I can turn the words to be bigger, so it's she is quickly gratified that she completed a "page." In this way, she's been reading a chapter a night of Cam Jansen with ease. And now, it is very obvious that, since Cam Jansen is a late third grade reader, that she might have started Sonlight's grade 3 readers just fine. At least she enjoys the grade 2 ones... :)

Penmanship:

This is the new one this week! Abby has been experimenting with different ways to write letters, adding loops to her letters, etc. She has very typical kindergartener handwriting and we have worked much through any formal penmanship this year. She has been begging to learn "curtlain" so this week we added in a cursive program: Peterson Directed Handwriting. This week we worked on our "sharp tops" and, even though it was hard and she struggled with it, she loved it. Learning cursive definitely has the appeal to her to keep pushing through even though it might be difficult. She kept telling herself as she worked, "Just because you make a mistake doesn't mean you're dumb; it just means you're learning."

Science:

Whoops! I guess we probably won't get to the final week of our magnet stuff where we were supposed to magnetize a needle and make a compass. Oh well! We have been definitely been more aware of magnetic properties and notice them around the house more. Success!

Geography:

This week we learned about South America. Ellie loves Diego currently and having heard or watched her sister's television shows, she could tell me a whole lot about different South American animals. It found me wishing they could make a Diego equivalent for other continents.

She was amazed to learn about the Amazon and squealed with delight, "Diana is from there!" My little Wonder Woman fanatic. :)