Wrapping Up Week 26 (2015-16)
Preschool
Arianna (4) is at that beautiful stage where she’s just discovering the wonder of learning. In addition to continuing her lessons on Reading Eggs, we’ve been reviewing the Primer level of Math-U-See, and she’s absolutely loving it. She even begged to bring it along to our music classes on Friday so she could work through a few pages during a break. I love seeing the delight in her eyes and her smile as she figures things out.
Spelling
Another product we’re currently reviewing is Essentials 2nd Edition from Logic of English. I don’t normally go for such formal curriculum, but this was a review I really wanted to get on. I’ve taken a pretty relaxed approach when it comes to writing and spelling with the the boys, hoping they would fall into it naturally since they’re both such a strong readers. Elijah seems to have an intuitive grasp of spelling, but it just hasn’t clicked for Ian as much as I had hoped. We’ve spent some time with Spelling You See, but never as consistently as we probably needed to in order to see results. Ian just was never enthusiastic about it and other things always took priority.
However, realizing that he’s almost through second grade and still is struggling with spelling (at least when he’s writing in context–he does great with lists in the “Skills Bank” on Reading Eggs), I found myself starting to feel some concern that he needed a more direct, analytical approach to spelling, something that would help him make sense of the crazy rules that make up the English language.
I think we’ve found that in the Logic of English program. Last week we went through all the Essentials “pre-lessons” (I bribed Ian with screen time in exchange for doing school work on our week off), and this week I dived into Lesson 1 with both boys. I can tell already that this program is going to be beneficial for us. Each day has some sort of game and hands on activities, so they have really enjoyed our time and are working hard without even realizing it. I’m looking forward to getting through the first few weeks of it and sharing my full review.
Reading
I really want to start having the boys get in the habit of having a chapter book they can read and take with us. We tried to start in on that this week, though we didn’t get as far as I would have liked. Elijah started Voyage with the Vikings from the Imagination Station series. We were just trying to kill some time waiting for Ian and he got through a couple chapters reading out loud to me.
Ian has been a reluctant reader. He is an auditory learner, amazing me with what he picks up just by listening, but that has made him prefer audio books and being read to rather than actually reading himself. I’ve often tried to encourage him but trading chapters (or pages), but I really want to start having him read independently more. This week I introduced him to Concord Cunningham the Scripture Sleuth. I intended it as a read aloud, but he was so into it he actually chose to read a chapter all on his own (which I’ve suggested with other read alouds he loves, but he has NEVER once been willing to try). If his interest holds, I’ll definitely be getting the next book in the series.
History
This week in Ian’s Veritas Press Self-Paced History Course he learned about Gutenberg’s printing press. We’ve talked about it a little bit before, but he enjoyed going into more depth on the subject. He’s looking forward to our field trip in a couple weeks to the Huntington Library to see an actual Gutenberg Bible. (If you want to know where to find the nearest copy to you, check out Where to see a Gutenberg Bible for copies in the USA. Wikipedia has a list of all surviving copies in the world.)
A few final thoughts
The kids and I are really enjoying A Family Journey with Jesus Through Lent: Prayers and Activities for Each Day
Upcoming Reviews
We’ve got a whole bunch of products we’re in the process of checking out, so watch for these reviews in the next few weeks:
- The Dragon and the Raven from Heirloom Audio Productions
- Math-U-See – Primer level with Digital Pack
- Essentials 2nd Edition (Multi-level reading, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary
from Logic of English) - Owlegories: The Ant, The Fruit, The Butterfly
(DVD)
- TimesTales (videos teaching the multiplication table)
- Stopmotion Explosion Animation Kit
- Plug n’ Play Hub by Securly (helping provide safe wifi for kids)
After we read, we turn down the lights (our dining room has no window), sit around our table and one child moves the candle and Christ figure on our “
In the evenings, we’re also going through 
by Arnold Ytreeide. It doesn’t have a chapter for each day, so we’re just reading it with Daddy a few evenings a week. We’ve enjoyed two of Ytreeide’s Advent books, so I knew this would be a special treat for everyone to help us draw our hearts to Jesus during this season.
by Dandi Daley Mackall.
.
by Gertrude Chandler Warner. I remember loving the Boxcar Children series as a child, but I’m not wild about some of the newer additions. Thankfully, this was one of the books written by the original author, and we both enjoyed it.
by Joann Johansen Burch. Ian was more interested than I had thought he would be, and we had no problem getting through the book in three days.
by Roald Dahl. I’ve actually never read it before, but I enjoyed many of Dahl’s other books growing up, and after a friend mentioned this one I thought we’d give it a shot.
by Eleanor Porter, just finishing it up this weekend. I wasn’t sure how a book almost entirely about one little girl and the adults around her was going to go over, but it was a big hit all around. Ian was constantly begging for more chapters, and Elijah and Arianna actually stayed and listened for most of it as well, which is unusual for them.
We also enjoyed stepping back in history with 
by Sarah Young (adapted by Tama Fortner) is due to be released February 2, but the publisher was kind enough to send me a copy a little early so I could share about it as soon as possible.
, in which she shares daily devotions written from her personal prayer time. They are written as though Jesus is speaking directly to the reader, and this intimate style and the encouragement Young’s writing brings has made that book the #1 bestseller in Christian devotionals on Amazon. I’ve been going through the kids version (
) with my children, so I was eager to get a glimpse at Young’s latest offering.
, ECPA 2013 Christian Book of the Year). The bright, sturdy hard cover with a ribbon bookmark makes it practical for daily reading. It continues Young’s signature style of writing, where each devotion is a personal message from Jesus, along with related Scriptures for each day. The simplicity is what makes it profound. My children really respond well to starting each day with a little note of encouragement and time in the Scriptures to give them food for thought.
, which is a great DVD for learning more about the subject from a biblical worldview.
, and then the boys and I played several rounds of our new favorite, 
emergency room to stitch up Arianna after she split her chin open on our patio, followed by a complete crash of the hard drive on the computer where Ian does his 
I think I may have found a good option. I decided to go back to the curriculum I used with Ian for Kindergarten and most of first grade: 
We made our first visit to the 
set for Christmas. Eli really prefers creative construction to following directions, but I wanted him to learn about specific building techniques that he could use, so we pulled out 
to learn about different types of bridges, and each boy built one of the models in the K’NEX kit.
I’ve missed the way we used to start our school days together, so I decided to begin cultivating the habit of “circle time” each morning once again. We do our main family Bible study together with Daddy in the evenings (now that we’re through the Advent season, we’re back to 
a few years ago. We revisited some of our favorite books, CDs, and videos about Venice and the famous Venetian composer 
(Lovely picture book that tells the story of Vivaldi’s life)
(story about a girl who sings with at the Pieta school in Venice where Vivaldi worked. Not completely accurate, but still gives a glimpse into this piece of history.)
Ian has listened to this several times a year since we first found it. I think it’s his favorite of all the titles in 
and 
(though we’ve enjoyed them all). I didn’t realize there’s also a 
to go along with the story, so I just ordered it to surprise him. (We have a couple of the others that complement the CDs in the series already and love them.)
(8-minute streaming video featuring a Venetian boy sharing about his home)
(25-minute streaming video that provides a good introduction to the city)
(This is a fascinating program about how Venice was built and the dangers facing it in modern times. I watched it on Netflix years ago, but now that’s it’s no longer streaming I bought the DVD because it’s so interesting.)
is still a little too advanced for my kids this time around (though we probably could have done some of the projects), so we stuck with 
, which has a great map in the front of it which I copied and laminated so the boys could follow along as I read the book (as well while we read 
during Circle Time one day).
, in which Patick and Beth travel to the court of Kublai Khan and meet Marco Polo. The biggest hit of the week, however, was a series I stumbled across on Netflix called 
, part of the Basher Science Books collection.
(He took care of the volcano models and spared me the mess.)