Week Ending January 13th

I don't like January.  There I said it.  

It is a rather depressing month; all of the Christmas decorations are taken down, no more joyful Christmas music on the radio, the weather is cold, the days are short, there is virtually no sun to speak of, school gets back in session, and everyone just feels BLAH.  Including me.

So why do I still expect that our regular schedule will be followed?  I really should have adjusted my expectations this week.  It was our first week back.  It wasn't awful.  It wasn't great.  It just was.

(Gosh - this post isn't sounding very positive!)

It was a busy week; Brownies started again, piano lessons for all 3 started again, orthodontist appointments and then Mommy had to go into the office for a few hours.  No easing back into the schedule at all.

Mr R struggled the most; but in his defense, he was fighting a cold so he wasn't feeling 100%. 

I was SO excited to start WWS with him!  And he was pretty excited as well when he saw that it was all on the IPad.  We got through Week #1, Days #1-3 and so far, so good.  It is clearly very different from WWW so it is taking a bit of getting used to for him.  I personally find it very comforting to be back to a familiar look/feel/style, if that makes any sense.  

We started Spelling Workout again, which he hasn't done in over a year.  We stopped doing it mid-way through last year because he was getting 100% on all of the pre-tests that he did every Monday and I didn't want it to turn into busy-work.  But lately I've noticed some really silly errors in his spelling; it is almost like his spelling has regressed?  So I pulled out SWO Level E and we're going to work on this for a while.

In math this week, Mr R had a lesson about Pi and calculating circumference.  I had him start the lesson by reading Sir Cumference & theDragon of Pi.

These books are so simple yet really engaging for the reader - even the 10 year olds :)  I think I will include some of the other books as part of his math lessons next week.

Basically, Mr R had a fairly productive Monday, and then got very little done until Friday when he plowed through a tonne of work.  He will also be doing some work over the weekend to get caught up (yes I am mean that way). 

Miss Muffett had a GREAT week.  She jumped right back in and was very motivated this week.  

I decided to drop GWG 3 for now.  I think she is going through the motions with this and not really learning that much.  I'd rather wait and let her focus on her other subjects rather than get frustrated.  And as I think about the various work she has been doing, I have to remember that she is a young grade 3 student.  She just turned 8 so there is no rush to push her into things when she clearly isn't ready.  I know I've said this before, but I really have to look at FLL again for her.

Saxon 3 Intermediate is working really well for her and she has been doing all of it on her own this week!  We did run into some trouble with her novel study this week.  She is working on Charlotte's Web (Progeny Press) and one of her assignments this week was to look up & define some words.  We realized that the dictionary we have is useless.  It is a cheap little pocket one.  It didn't have any of the words she was supposed to look up.  So I will need to order something this weekend.

I'm also realizing that WWW is not exactly a hit with Miss Muffett either.  I was listening to SWB's audio lecture (A Plan for Teaching Writing:  Focus on the Elementary Grades) and it really resonated with me this week.  I need to go back to the basics with her: narration, dictation, copywork.  I need to stop pushing her along and meet her where she is at.  So I will dig up our WWE books this weekend and move her back into them for next week.  I am sure she will be less than enthusiastic - she prefers to work independently and WWE is definitely not an independent curriculum.  

Hug-A-Bug had an OK week.  He got most of his work done but it happened in fits & starts.  He has a little bit of work to finish up this weekend but he enjoys it so I don't think he really sees it as "work".  He is working on SWO A and LOVES spelling, especially the pre-test on Monday and the final test on Friday.  He wants to do a full lesson EVERY DAY so he can have the tests!!!! He has finished up the Abeka Language Arts 1 book now & I had him start the MCP Comprehension Plus Level A book but I'm finding it to be a lot of busy work and essentially redundant for him.  I went back and re-read some of TWTM and decided to get him started on FLL 1 and scrap MCP.  

In the land of Chunky Monkey, we continue to work on getting him to sit still and play with his toys.  He has also been climbing out of his crib when he is supposed to be having a nap or down for the night.  Last week he was getting out of bed in the middle of the night, multiple times!  It was exhausting to be up every hour or two!  But he seems to have finished playing that game and now he just keeps getting out of bed when we initially put him down.  Yesterday, it was 19 times before he finally stayed!!!!  Mr W has decided to lay down on the floor beside his crib every night just to keep him from climbing out.  Once Chunky is asleep, Mr W leaves his room but I'm not sure who falls asleep first - Chunky or Daddy :)

I am swamped myself at work.  This is the start of our planning season, which typically lasts a few months.  Last year at this time, I wasn't working so I really hope I can manage to juggle all of this.  Stay tuned!