Week three...

...and he's reading!!!

My baby is reading. Wow! Unbelievable to think my chubber bug is big enough to read all by himself, ok, almost all by himself... But still, just two months ago I thought he'd NEVER start blending sounds together, and here he is READING!

Have a listen.



This last week we went over the letters u, f, n, k, and l. Each lesson has him blending the consonant with each short vowel sound and it's (obviously) done wonders! I love this curriculum! We're still having some difficulty in enunciating the difference between the short i and the short e. Then when we introduced the short u on Monday that seemed to add to the confusion and Aidan has begun to mix up the short u and the short o. Can't say that I blame him, it's all very confusing, even to me. So, my evening free time (HA) is spent looking up ideas to teach the difference between the sounds and creative ideas to reinforce those differences. Found a short vowel workbook that I can supplement with in the $1 bins at Target today, was pretty excited about that..

Math is STILL review!!! We're starting our 4th week, and we'll be on lesson 31 come Monday morning. There have been 4 new concepts introduced, but he picked them up the first day they were introduced. These new concepts include tally marks, using a number line, counting by 10's which I thought for sure would throw him, but he did really really really well with that! If there is one area I need to review more it's the calendar. He's got his ordinal numbers down and can recite them back and forth and pick objects out of line ups no problem. But I think it really messes with his little brain when for instance, he is asked to determine what the 4th Friday in September will be. He'll point at either the 4th day of the week, or the 4th of the month. So, again in my free time (HA) I am searching for a good calendar program to use, as my creative juices have all but dried up.

Science this week was a lot of fun, but I'm going to write a separate post about that.

History is going well, this last week we went over the beginning of history, that is to say, the creation week, what was created day 1-6, and we added those things to our time-line.

Social studies we went over the five senses and did blindfold games. Aidan and I took turns leading each other around the house... I have to admit he was NOT a very good guide. I also sat him blindfolded at the dining table and had him guess different household noises, such as turning on the faucet, opening the pantry door, clapping hands, clanging cups together, and the garbage disposal (which he guessed was the lawnmower). Then I moved him to the kitchen counter and had him taste and smell different items, lemon juice, salt, instant coffee grounds, brown sugar, carrots and a tiny drop of liquid dish soap (which he guessed was yogurt).


All in all it was a much better week. I instituted the sticker chart. He earns a sticker for every class he does well in. He loses a sticker every time he complains, doesn't try or put forth what I know to be his best effort, anytime he asks when school is going to be finished, etc.. At the end of the week if he has 10 stickers left that were not crossed out his reward was going to Chic-fil-a. I can't remember exactly how many stickers were left on the chart but I think it was about 15, so it seemed to work. My plan is to up the required amount of remaining stickers, so this week he'll need to have at least 15 stickers not crossed off to earn a meal at Chic-fil-a, 20 next week, and so on...


Russian and Phonics are going well. He has already learned probably 6-8 new Russian words and has experimented using them, so YIPPEE!!! Phonics, well, if anything gets left out of the program that does... I have him scheduled to do Phonics Tuesday and Thursday evenings for 30 minutes, just as a supplement to our morning "English" class... I think on average he's done it once a week.

His choir class with church starts next Sunday, so that will be one more thing added to our schedule, and in November he starts flag football. So when people ask me what I plan to do for field trips, or if when and how many support groups I am going to join I fight the urge to laugh. I have enough on my plate thank you, I think the company would be nice, but not the stress of having to schedule anything else into our days. I'll be pleased if I can get us out and somewhere that both boys will enjoy once a month, but even if that doesn't happen it's not something I'm gonna sweat this year.

Well, apart from the separate science post I think that about sums up week three! Thanks for stopping by Iz'achestvo Academy.