Derail

This week has been shot to hell by the stomach flu.  We'll try again next week.

Spring Term Week 2

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Penmanship	Page	Page	Page	Page	Page
Phonics	EZ28 ETC31	EZ29 ETC32	EZ30 ETC33	EZ31 ETC34	EZ32 ETC35
Math	Spectrum 33	Pg. 34-35	Pg. 36	Pg. 37	Pg. 38
Nature Study	Check on nest	Check on nest, draw a picture of what you see	Bird Book ch. 27		Check on nest
Art				Artistic Pursuits Lsn 1
Music			Listen to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”		Listen to Vivaldi radio show
Handicrafts	Knitting	Knitting	Knitting	Knitting	Knitting
Russian	Букварь Аа	Букварь Уу	Букварь Оо	Букварь Мм	Букварь Сс
History	CHOW ch. 2 “People Who Live in Caves”	FFS “Damon and Pythias”			FFS “A Laconic Answer”
Geography		Paddle to the Sea ch. 2
Poetry	1 poem	1 poem	1 poem	1 poem	1 poem
Literature			ATFP “Why Mr. Great Horned Owl Hatched the Eggs”	Aesop “Belling the Cat”	Aesop “The Eagle and the Jackdaw”
Free Reading	TVR	TVR	TVR	TVR	TVR

Key—

CHOW – A Child’s History of the World

FFS – Fifty Famous Stories Retold (Kindle)

ATFP – Among the Forest People (Kindle)

ETC – Explode the Code

EZ – Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

TVR – The Velveteen Rabbit

Changes with Misha

I think I mentioned awhile back that Misha and Oak Meadow were becoming a bad pair.  Once he finished up the review of the upper- and lower-case letters he was pretty much over Waldorfy education.  But at the same time, with his speech and occupational issues he's also not a sit-at-a-desk-and-do-schoolwork type of boy.  So, always and forever, working with Misha is a lesson in figuring out what to do next.

So I was thinking, what can I do that blends some more vigorous academics than OM was offering while not chaining him to a desk? Charlotte Mason education.

This week we've been trying it out, a kind of secularized Ambleside online with stuff that seems to work for him thrown in.  We have had the BEST week! Obviously no guarantee that next week will be any kind of success, but for now I'm a god amongst ants.

Here's what we've been doing--

Daily
Penmanship--his name in Russian, the corresponding writing assignments in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  You can actually print these writing assignments off of Donna Young's website but my printer is being stupid about formatting it for some reason (it's a really nice printer too so I don't know why it's being weird)
Phonics--a lesson per day in 100EZ, plus a page or two of Explode the Code (ETC)
Math--a page or two per day in his Spectrum first grade book.
Handcrafts--knitting a row or two per day on his scarf, which is nearly finished (probably will be done just in time for spring, lol)
Poetry--one poem per day from A Child's Garden of Verses
Russian--Writing the alphabet, grammar, nouns

Weekly--
Nature Study--I've actually scheduled this three times this week and it has worked out well.  The local homeschool group shared a link of a hummingbird nest webcam so we've been watching mama and baby hummingbirds online.
Art--Mike Venezia's "Da Vinci" from his Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series.  I have several of his books (my favorite is the one on Picasso) and I chose Da Vinci at random since it seems like kids are often more familiar with his work that some of the other artists.
History--Our Island Story chapter one and "The Sword of Damocles" from Fifty Famous Stories Retold.  Now, if you're familiar with the various CM curricula available online you know that history seems to be the most varied option among them.  I'm not 100% sold on British history for the long term and I rather enjoy Child's History of the World, so we might add that in along with or in place of OIS.  I don't think Holden has the scope yet to understand history the way that, say, The Well-Trained Mind approaches it but at least I can expose him to some history.
Literature--Aesop's "The Tortoise and the Ducks" and "The Wolf and the Kid", "Whale" from Kipling's Just So Stories, and "Mr. Red Squirrel Lives in the Forest" from Among the Forest People.  In addition we're reading "The Velveteen Rabbit" for free reading.
Geography--chapter one from Paddle-to-the-Sea.

This seems so much less forced than what we were doing with OM and I hope that it continues to work for him.  

Good First Week

It was a nice first week of classes.  I have chemistry, microbiology, algebra, and anatomy and physiology 2 this semester.

On today's agenda--clean my neglected house and study.

Back to the Grindstone

Oh, what a wonderful break we had! It was, needless to say, much needed.  I got straight A's again.  The kids needed to decompress.  Even the Big Guy had a break from his work.  We had some of our best friends in town from Michigan and they stayed with us for a couple of days and the kids' grandmother stayed on Christmas Eve.  I had grand plans to work hard preparing for next semester (mine, not the kids') but I haven't done much besides read a bit of Microbiology.  There's still a week, right?


I've spent the morning making a worksheet for the kids for Russian.

урок номер один

упражнения -- Practice

Instructions—This is common Russian dialogue.  Cover up the English translation and do your best to understand the Russian text.  Then reverse the process and try to make good Russian of the English.  This will help your progress! Copy the dialogue in your notebook.

Practice the dialogue with each other, as each line is meant to be read by a different person. 

Что это?                                                                                                          
What is this?

Это карандаш.                                                                                              
This is a pencil.

А это?                                                                                                             
And this?

Это книга.                                                                                                      
This is a book.

Это комната, а это стол.                                                      
  This is a room but this is a table.

Это письмо, а вот слово.                                                      
This is a letter whereas this is a word

Это письмо?                                                                                                 
  This is a letter?

Нет, это слово.                                                                                              
No, this is a word.

Это книга?                                                                                                     
Is this a book?

Нет, это стол.                                                                                                 
No, this is a table.

Это дама?                                                                                                      
Is this a lady? 

Нет, это Вера.                                                                                               
  No, this is Vera.

Кто это?                                                                                                         
Who is this?

 (can also mean “Who is it?” or “Who is there?”)

Это дама.                                                                                                       
This is a (or the) lady.

Эта дама?                                                                                                     
  Is it this lady?

Нет, та.                                                                                                          
  No, it’s that one.

Кто там?
Who it there?

Иван.                                                                                                             

Ivan.

Где Иван?                                                                                                       
Where is Ivan?

Там Иван.                                                                                                      
Ivan is there.

 (Or “There’s Ivan.”)

Иван тут?                                                                                                       
Is Ivan here?

Нет, он там.                                                                                                    
No, he’s (over) there.

Где Иван и Вера?                                                                             
Where are Ivan and Vera?

Иван тут, и Вера там.                                                                      
  Ivan’s here and Vera’s (over) there.
Где тот карандаш?                                                                                       
Where is that pencil?

Этот карандаш?                                                                                           
  This pencil?

Нет, тот.                                                                                                         
No, that one.

Вот он.                                                                                                           
 Here it is.

Вот он где, карадаш!                                                                                     
 So that’s where it is!

In addition we're going to listen to Spoonful of Russian today; I have all of her podcasts on my iPhone for the kids to listen to while we're out.