We began this week on Sunday because Jonas and I were so excited about starting a new reading program that a friend of ours lent us called Right Track Reading Lessons, by Miscese R. Gagen. Jonas began straight away with lesson 1: sounds m, t and a. Once we talked about the individual sounds of these letters Jonas was asked to form a few words (I gave him the words and he put them together from tiles with the sounds written on them). After forming the words he was asked to read some words with the same sounds from the book. He did great!
On Monday we continued with the reading/writing lessons and he learned the sounds s and d. Once more he wrote the sounds and we talked about reading from left to right again. He formed words (given him again) with the sounds from lessons 1 and 2 and then he read more words from the book. We also have been making flash cards to practice the sounds from every lesson.
In addition to reading on Monday we also began to put more math exercises in the notebooks. Jonas and Ronan explored the concept of most and fewest. In this exercise I wrote a list of many members of our family and they had to decide which name had the most letters and which the fewest. Jonas counted all the letters in each name and wrote the number next to the name so that he could more easily figure out the answer.
On Tuesday we began with geography, talking about the earth. We looked at pictures of what the earth looks like from space, we talked about water and land masses and cloud formations and we began to discuss the 7 continents. Both boys drew a picture of the earth in their books with North and South Americas in green and water in blue.
After geography we started a science project. The boys each planted a bean on the side of a clear plastic cup so that they can watch it grow.
They also had horseback riding lessons in the big arena!
On Wednesday we started school-time with a Spanish lesson on animals. As a family we are trying to incorporate more Spanish into daily life. Wednesdays are Spanish days though, and we try to do everything in Spanish including bedtime reading and songs. One exception to this, however, is our reading lesson. Jonas did lesson 3 in his reading book studying the sounds i, and f. This lesson was particularly difficult, not in the subject matter, but in the length. He was asked to make many words, and also to read quite a few. I think in future I will pick and choose which words he needs to make/read.
Wednesday night in our math before bedtime we discussed the concept of half. I used their "tippy taps" (pogs as I remember them) and gave each of them several groups of them that they were asked to split into halves. Ronan needed some help to figure his out but Jonas took to the concept quite easily.
On Thursday we talked in more depth about plants. Both kids drew a diagram of the parts of a plant (Jonas drew a tree that even included a woodpecker's hole and the seed from which the tree grew and Ronan drew a remarkably good flower with seeds, roots and lots of leaves). They also both drew a picture of the cup with their bean sprout in it and we talked about what plants need to grow (sunlight, water, air, mineral rich soil). Jonas began an observations page for keeping track of his bean's progress and he noticed that his bean was bigger! He observed that this was probably because of all the water it had taken in.
After our talk about plants we continued with geography, studying maps and the four main directions. We drew our own maps and tested our ability to recognize the directions on the map. Ronan did a remarkably good job at writing out the directions on his map!
Music: Several days this week the boys practiced their violins. Ronan is just beginning and therefore we talked a little bit about the parts of the violin and he started to play open G and D strings. Jonas is coming back from over a month without practicing but he can still play his G major scale remarkably well and his sight-treading is pretty good on Good King Wenceslas.
On Friday we made more observations about our bean plants. The kids also began helping me more with household chores, Jonas put away the dishes and Ronan swept the stairs. This is something that I will be adding into our learning: how to care for yourself and your home. Included in this will be cooking, cleaning, organizing and projects.
What a fantastic week we've had!
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