Weekly update for the week of 12/12/11

This past week was a fun, but busy week.  Between N. and S. we had lots of cooking projects going on.  N. is studying the early explorers and therefore his history project was making hard tack.  After tasting it he decided that he understood why the sailors would stage mutinies after so long at sea.

In Science he is studying all the layers of the atmosphere.  To give a visual of this his science experiment was to make a layered model using edible ingredients.  It really allowed him to see the ratios of the different layers.  He was amazed to see how small the troposphere is in relation to say the thermosphere. He then added a few more ingredients to his model to make cookies.

S. is studying Canada for her World Geography course so she made Blueberry Crisp.

Noah also finished up last weeks science experiment which was looking at the effects of acid rain.  He put a penny in each cup and added water, water and salt, vinegar  and vinegar and salt.  He was fascinated with the fact that the salt and vinegar cup grew blue crystals on the outside of the cup.  The vinegar turned the penny quite blue in just a week.

His written narration this week was about Columbus and his four journey's.  It was by far his best written narration.  He did adapt how he did it now that we know he has some memory issues.  He read the paragraph's about his first voyage and then stopped and wrote those sentences and then did the same thing for each voyage.  I am allowing this because he truly would not remember near as well if he waited until the end of the reading to try and write it.  This way he didn't need to look back at the book unless it was for spelling.  It was more than 8-12 sentences, but I allowed that because usually he gets the bare minimum.

In Boyhood and Beyond we had good discussions on what defines a leader.  I really like how this book makes the types of topics very tangible.

The one other exciting thing this week was that we had a friend give N. an older version of the Lego Mindstorms Robotic kit.  The neuropsych had strongly recommended that we explore Robotics for N. because he tested very high in the engineering related areas.  We didn't know how we would afford a kit for him.  Then this friend called, knowing nothing about the doctor's recommendations and offered the kit to N.
It is like new and N. is having a great time learning how to program it.  This will serve as a nice addition to his studies on days that he has some time.

Update for the week of 12/5/11

Once again this is going to be a bi-weekly update.  These past few weeks have just flown by.  We have had Choir Cantata's to go to and co-op performances and this weekend is the kids/teens musical at church in which N. is playing Isaac.  We have managed to still keep up with school though.

N. continues to really enjoy RTR.  The history projects continue to be his favorite part of each week.  Last week he made a banner like the one King Sigismund carried.

This week he made a replica of a Fra Angelico's painting "The Annunciation".  He really took his time coloring it.  I was proud of how hard he worked at it.

He started Mystery of History Volume 3 this week for his history reading and he is enjoying it.  Even on days he doesn't have to narrate he likes to stop and tell me about each person he is reading about.  For Storytime we are reading "Ink on His Fingers" about Johann Gutenberg.  We both have really enjoyed it.

During the good sales around Thanksgiving we broke down and bought a laptop computer.  Both kids end up needing the computer during the day and with N's CP he really does best if he can type things.  He likes being able to do his research for his postcard right there at the table.

In Science he is now reading A Child's Geography of the World.  He seems to like this book and likes that we are back to a predicable Science routine using Carrie's plans.  Right now his written narrations for science are back to sounding more like summaries, but I know this will improve as he goes along.

He is reading "Guns for General Washington" for his DITHOR book.  He seems to really enjoy this although sometimes he seems to get stuck when it comes to filling out his pages for the workbook.  I think he is afraid to give a wrong answer.  I keep encouraging him to just say what comes to his mind. 

We received the results of his neuropsychological evaluation this week.  It clearly showed his strengths and weaknesses.  HOD definitely teaches in a way that will help with his areas of struggle.  His math and visual perceptual scores were very high, which according to the Dr. is unheard of with kid with CP.  We are praising God for his news. 

The other big news in the past 2 weeks was that N. tested for his Interim Black Belt in Karate and got it!!  This has taken a lot of dedication on his part.  His next belt will be a black belt. When he first started Karate in 2nd grade I never believed he would make it this far.  Once again an answer to prayer.

Weekly update for week of 11/14

I am a little behind in writing this.  It will actually be 2 weeks worth of updates.  I went out of town for 3 days the week of 11/7 and my dh took off and schooled the kids.  Without HOD I don't think he would have been able to do that, but the guide makes it very easy for this to happen.  My dh schooled N. for a few subjects last year and was pleased to see the progress he has made, especially in the oral and written narration area.  He also helped him finish the final draft of his Vikings report for IEW and was very impressed with that.
The project for that week was Chinese Egg noodles.  N. really enjoyed making these, but I will say I think we made them too thick and then we didn't cook them long enough so they were a little tough.

His project for the next week was to make a game so he could see how fast the Black Death spread.  This was a great way to bring this home without dwelling on the gory details of the Pestilence.  He also saw how he would get infected much faster if he was traveling by sea instead of by land.  He couldn't quite figure out why this would be so we had a good discussion about how crowded boats and seaports would be.

He was very excited that he was able to finally draw a Greyhound for Draw and Write Through History.  We have a Greyhound so he has been looking forward to that all year.  He also drew a Falcon.

He continues with Rod and Staff Grammar and is doing well with it.  He has had a few lessons on Poetry lately and he likes those.  CLE math continues to go well also.  He is now learning the Distributive Property as a starting point for Algebra.  I like how CLE gently introduces this and then builds on it.

Overall he continues to make steady progress in all areas.  He has really enjoyed this time period in history. In fact he wants Knights and Castles Legos for Christmas.  I hated history in school so I love that he really enjoys it.

Weekly update for the week of 10/31/11

N. finished week 12 of RTR this week.  He really worked hard this week.  He finished up the Answers in Genesis Science Book Wind and Water.  He said he enjoyed it.  Since in the HOD plans there are 2 more weeks of the Astronomy book we needed something as a filler so for the next 2 weeks so he requested to build and study volcanoes.  Since that fit in well with the Earth Science theme I bought a kit and he will be reading the guide that came with it and seeing how different volcanoes erupt.  Should be fun and messy. 

In independent history he drew Robin Hood.  He enjoyed this as usual. 

For his history project he made Saladin.  He had fun with this and was even able to make the origami turban on his own.  This was a big deal because folding paper is really tough for him. In fact when he read the directions he said "origami oh no!."  It took him 2 tries, but he stuck with it.

He continued to read about the Crusades this week and was able to tell his Dad some of the things he has learned.  His written narration this week on was about what a castle looked like.  He didn't even ask for help with this one.  This was easy for him.  It is when he has lots of names and wars and details about battles that he usually gets confused.

In Boyhood and Beyond we talked about what our response should be when we fall down.  This was very applicable to him this week and he recognized that and made the application.  I really love the way this book presents lessons.  It seems to really strike a chord with him. 

He continues to enjoy doing his Bible Study of Philippians.  I think he likes that he can do it on his own.  He does this early in the morning before really anyone else is up and going. 

Next week I will be visiting a dear friend for a few days so my dh is going to do the schooling.  If it weren't for HOD I would be very nervous about that, but the way HOD is set up and the fact that N. is so comfortable with it should make it easy for dh. 

Weekly update for week of 10/24/11

This week we did week 10 of RTR.  This week the history focus was on the Crusades.  His history project was writing out cards and then going on a Crusade with someone.  During school time I hid the clue cards and he went on the Crusade.  Later that night he went sent Daddy on the Crusade.  This activity was a big hit.  He wasn't able to write the long clues on the fronts of the cards, so I did that for him and he wrote the placement instructions on the back.

This week his history reading on the day of his written narration was 20 pages.  I read half of it for him, but he still had some pre-teen attitude as I like to call it.  I reminded him of some of the things we have been talking about in DITHOR as far as the character trait of diligence and he came around and then did a nice job of writing his written narration on his own.

For his written narration I have realized that I have a tendency to want him to fix everything at once.  I think his content could be stronger so I comment on that, but I often comment on all the grammatical things also.  I think in my head I do too much comparing him to what I have seen other dc do on the HOD board etc. . So I resolved to focus on 1 thing from the written narration checklist and 1 content type thing.  So this week I told him I wanted him to make sure he used different length sentences and also that he should make his narration sound more like a story.  It was tough, but I made sure to not critique anything else that I saw that might need tweaking.  This really worked to encourage him and he seemed to do well with only having 2 major things to focus on.  So here is his written narration, again I know it isn't perfect or even equal to what most kids his age are doing, but it is a improvement for him.

     Bernard was asked to preach about the Crusades. He answered yes and preached to King Louis and Queen Eleanor. He got several workers and towns’ people to go on the Crusade. Then Bernard went to Germany to meet with Conrad and ask him to go. Conrad at first refused to go, but then he did. While Bernard went to France, Lois and Conrad went on the Crusade with several other towns’ people. After a year a knight was sent to France to tell Bernard how it went. The knight said, “It was bad with the Muslims winning Damascus.”  Louis and Conrad went home in humiliation. The knight gave Bernard dishonoring letters from the town’s people. Finally, the Crusades failed after all that work.

 He did more map work using the Map Trek CD.  He enjoys this and I feel like it is a good way to cement some of the geographical locations of the history he is studying.  

In storytime we started reading "Morningstar of the Reformation".  It is about John Wycliffe. We started reading it on Monday and that day we got an e-mail from our youth pastor saying that Wed. night they would be doing an activity centering around the reformation and he would give bonus points to anyone who knew who the "Morningstar of the Reformation" was.  N. was so excited that he actually knew that and couldn't wait to go to church that night to tell what he knew about John Wycliffe.  

N. also finished his report on Charlemagne in IEW Medieval Writing Lessons.  This is a challenging program for him, but I feel he is learning so much.

 

Weekly update for week of 10/17/11

N. enjoyed another week of RTR.  This week he got to cook for his history project.  He always enjoys doing that.  He made Marzipan cookies and then read portions of the poem "The Cyd" to S. and I why we ate them.  They were quite tasty.

He also drew 2 more drawings from his Draw and Write Through History book.  He then later in the week drew more castles and princesses in his free time.

We have one more day of reading in "The Illustrated Book of Knights."  He has found this book fascinating.  I understand there is a episode of Modern Marvels called "Battle Gear" on Netflix that I plan on letting him watch this weekend because it covers some of the things he has read about in this book. 

In Grammar he is working on identifying adjectives.  He is doing well with this although I will say Grammar is probably his least favorite subject.  In dictation he is what I consider behind for his age.  He is in Level 4 and was on around 40 or so.  He was getting where he wasn't missing anything so I jumped him up about 8 passages and he was still getting them all right so I jumped him up another 8 or 9 passages.  He finally missed one, so we will continue to work from there.  I don't want to get caught up in whether he is behind, but I also want to make sure it is challenging for him.  He continues to plug away with the IEW writing. It is a good fit for him.

He still loves the Looking at Pictures Art study.  He does a great job describing the pictures from memory. 

I can tell we are in the pre-teen/teen years.  Some days he is right on his game with everything.  Other days it is as if he has never done any of this before.  Most days thoough he continues to give it 100% and continues to make gains.

Weekly update for week of 10/10/11

We finished up week 8 of RTR this week.  As usual he really had a good week. Unfortunately I wasn't good about taking pictures this week.  He is getting very independent with things.  He is getting to the point where he really doesn't want me to help him which I think is a good thing since he is 12 and moving faster than I would like towards those high school years.  For his history project he made a game called Lord of the Castle.  He and I played it once, but he is anxious to play it with daddy.  It is an easy to play game but reinforces some of the words he had learned in his readings like serf and vassal.

The most exciting part of the week for N. was when he opened his guide to find out that he was going to draw from Draw and Write Through History this week.  He had to do that 2nd each day right after his Bible Study time.  He loves this series of books and loves drawing the different things.  This week it was a Viking Ship and a Long House.

He read about the feudal system and Edward the Confessor this week.  In fact he read about Edward and then when I was busy in another part of the house he sat down and did his written narration all on his own.  This is huge for him.  He had one fact confused that I had to correct him on and we talked about how great it was that he did it all on his own.  I did encourage him to make it more story like next time and not as much like a summary.  That is still a struggle for him, but it is one I see in his creative writing also.  He is a "just the facts mam" kind of person.  With the IEW writing I feel like banging my head against the wall some days when I am trying to get him to come up with more descriptive words and phrases.  I am realizing it is not natural for him and I just have to keep showing by example and encouraging him. 

In Science he did an experiment with Ocean tides that worked exactly like it should and I wish I had a picture of it.  In Story Time we are now reading "The Illustrated Book of Knights."  This book fascinates him.  He has no trouble narrating this and loves to tell his dad about all the cool weapons they used. 

In DITHOR he started in his new 6/7/8 student book.  He is doing the Biography Genre and picked Benjamin West and his cat Grimalkin to read. He didn't do the Bigger guide so he never read it.  Since he loves animals and loves to paint it is a good fit.  It is easy for him to read, but he found that he had no trouble finding 5 new vocabulary words for his workbook pages.  So far he hasn't struggled at all with the new level of student text. I can really see how the thinking required at this level will get him ready for High School Lit.

I love how each week things are different enough to keep it interesting and yet there is enough of the same to make it where he can move toward independence.

Weekly update for week of 10/3/2011

We finished up week 7 of RTR this week.  This week's history focus was on Charlemagne.  I loved how he read from several different books about Charlemagne and other people that were part of his story.Hearing the same story told in different ways really helps him retain things.  Last night at dinner at a friends house he was telling her all about Charlemagne and Pope Leo III.  For his history project he made a shield with the German Eagle on it.  Cutting is very challenging for him due to his tremors, but he was very determined to make a good eagle and cut it out himself.

In Storytime we finished reading "The Mystery of the Silver Coins" and it ended with somewhat of a cliff hanger ending.  N. wanted me to order the next one in the series so I did and he will do it for DITHOR.  I told him it would be a longer book than he usually reads for DITHOR and he didn't care.  He just wants to know what happens with Bree, Keely, Devin, and Mikkel.  I love seeing him excited about a book.

In Science he made a rain gage and we tried to make a Barometer, but our plastic tubing wasn't working quite right.  I think it was too rigid.

He finished his final draft for his IEW writing.  He required a little more help with writing descriptive phrases that refer to your senses.  He just wanted to add a descriptive adjective, but with some examples from me he was able to do it eventually. 

We continue to love Boyhood and Beyond.  This week we discussed what it means to covet something.  I really see him applying the character lessons he is learning as well as the skills he is learning to every day things.  This morning he was on the team that was to cook for the men's bible study.  He got up at 5:45 after being up late last night and didn't whine or complain.  He then went in and my dh said he helped get things set up and turned on and then he fried the bacon on the big skillet all by himself.  He is becoming much more confident in the kitchen thanks to HOD.  He also then helped put chairs away and put tables back after bible study.  Whenever I get a little discouraged about the struggles he has due to his CP I think on these things and remember what is really important in the big picture of things and that is that he is learning to hide God's word in his heart and apply it to his life.

Weekly update for week of 9/26/11

Pretty routine week again this week.  N. is handling all his I boxes well with the exception of needing  occasional help with the Research postcard and sometimes he needs physical help with the history project due to his hand weakness. 
His history project was baking 5 loaves of bread that had scripture verses in them.  He did very well with this.  This is one area I am thankful that HOD has scheduled in.  I don't know that I would work on cooking skills with him due to his hand weakness and tremors, but it is something he needs to learn and he is capable of doing so this pushes me to push him towards independence in this area.

He is working on his project now for DITHOR and is making a timeline for the book "Gentle Ben".  This is a nice way for him to review the different things that happened in the book and for me to see how much he comprehended.  I am really glad I returned to DITHOR this year.  He really gets much more out of it than doing Bob Jones lit. 

In Science he learned about Hurricanes which is a topic of great interest to him so he did a very nice written narration.

In history he read about Mohammed and the founding of Islam.  This led to some good discussions regarding the differences between Christianity and Islam. We also discussed what a Jihad was.   I feel he is the perfect age to be having these discussions. 

I continue to have him do 2 lessons in Megawords a week and I am seeing some pay offs as far as his comprehension of certain words.  I am also seeing some improvements in his spelling although I am not doing it for this reason because I truly believe that dictation is the best way to learn spelling. 

Weekly update 9/19/2011

We finished up another week of RTR and once again things went well.  In Science using the AIG book N. made a tornado using a tornado tube and 2 pop bottles.  He has done this before, but he loves doing it so I let him do it again.

We continue to do Rod and Staff for Grammar.  I will say that the chapter on pronouns has been challenging for him.  He has a hard time remembering the names of the different pronouns.  He usually can pick the right one to use in a sentence, but telling what type of pronoun it is can be tough. 

In Math he is almost done with LU 602.  He is learning many pre-algebra type concepts as well as some Geometry and graphing.

I think one of my favorite parts of this year is Boyhood and Beyond.  It is really challenging him to strive toward becoming a Godly man.  This week his assignment was to pick a task he hadn't done before and do that to take a step towards becoming the man God wants him to be.  He has started going to men's bible study with my dh and they were on the team to fix breakfast today.  So N. decided his task would be to plan and make the fruit salad.  He wrote up the grocery list, shopped and then cut up a lot of the fruit. He even got up at 5:30 so he could get to church by 6:30 am.   One of the leaders even sent him an e-mail checking in with him.  N. was so excited to be treated in a more "grown up fashion".  

His history project this week was a grid of a monastery.  He enjoyed this project as usual. He is wearing headphones in the first picture because his sister was doing an art project and was loud and disrupting his concentration.

He also did a map of the Byzantine Empire.  He likes doing the maps this year because he said he can do them and not struggle with the writing.

In storytime we are still reading "The Mystery of the Silver Coins".  What a fantastic book.  I have trouble stopping each day without reading on.

World Geography Charlotte Mason style

My dd came home last year as a 10th grader.  She was very used to textbooks and so that is what we did.  She had a good year, but she would watch N. doing his projects and commented that she would like at least one subject where she could do something other than textbooks.  She had already done World History and American History so we decided that this year she would do World Geography.  She didn't get much of this in school since it isn't on any achievement tests.  We are using the free plans from Harmony Art Mom's blog.  I tweaked them a little bit to add in "Operation World" and "Windows on the World" to give  a mission focus.  She is loving doing the notebooking, art projects and cooking.  This week she made Irish Stew for dinner.  Not only did we do World Geography, but also Home Economics, because peeling potatoes and carrots is not something she has really ever done.  I think she loves having this class in the middle of things like Physics and Algebra 2 and English Lit..  It definitely breaks up the day.

She is reading about the different World Religions and then doing a notebook page.

 Here is her sketch of Big Ben

 Here is her very creative Coat of Arms

 Notebooking page for Ireland

Weekly update for 11/12/11

This week was interesting.  It started off with N. having a reaction to Claritin.  I had never given it to him before and 1 1/2 hours after giving it to him he became a totally different child.  He became argumentative, refused to do his work and became very mean, which is totally not his personality.  I was totally confused as to what was going on until I googled Claritin behavior side effects and found out that was I was seeing was actually not that unusual. After that was out of his system the rest of the week went very smooth.  He was back to being my hard working kid.

In science we continue with the AIG book and he has had fun doing the small experiments like making fog in a bottle and sucking the air out of a bottle to look at air pressure.  He made the different types of clouds out of cotton balls. 

He also did a written narration for science this week about the dust bowl, and did a pretty good job on it.

In math he continues to plug along with CLE 600 and seems to have remembered most of the things he forgot over the summer. He continues to read Gentle Ben in DITHOR, he seems to have good reading comprehension for this book.  I have him doing Megawords to help with his ability to decode longer words.  I have realized that he sometimes mispronounces words and I think that might interfere with his comprehension. He decided on an easy Megawords sheet to show me how neatly he could write.  He said he can't write like this all the time because his hand cramps.

His history project this week was a board game he made called Race to Rome.  I like that as we play it the different tribe names are reinforced. 

In Storytime we are reading "The Mystery of the Silver Coins".  This is the second book in the Viking Quest series and N. loves it!  He loves doing his oral narration 1x a week with this book and likes to move around and act it out while he narrates.

He continues to make gains in his independence and really only needs help now with the I boxes if it is something to do with his fine motor skills. 

Weekly update for 9/5/2011

This was a very good school week.  We finished week 3 or RTR and N. has really found his groove.  He is finishing in the 4 1/2 to 5 hour time frame now and is becoming more independent daily.  In history reading he is finishing up "Peril and Peace" and that is being scattered between days of reading "The Story of the Middle Ages" and "Famous Men of the Middle Ages".  He has wanted to read everything by himself on some days, but I still end up helping him figure out what the main points of the story were.  He is growing in leaps and bounds with his written narrations and his postcards for research.  He really is wanting to write more complex sentences and that is something new.

His history project was one I was not sure how much he would be able to do.  He was to make a parchment that had a bible verse in Greek and then the translation below it.  I figured he could do the cursive verse on the bottom, but I didn't see how with his dysgraphia he could do the Greek and not get frustrated.  I told him we would be flexible and I could help as much as he needed.  I wrote the first line to give him a model and I put lines on the paper as a guide and then to my amazement he wrote all of the rest!  He really enjoyed it and I think he did a great job.

He and I are really enjoying "Boyhood and Beyond" and I already see him trying to put the things he is learning in there in practice.  This week was his first week in the Wed. night Youth Group at church.  He was so excited to go.  There is a group of about 5 boys that have all just moved up.  They met in a small group for prayer with the Youth Pastor and the Youth Pastor said that he was so encouraged because the first prayer that this group of boys prayed that night was "Lord help us to be godly men."  The boy who prayed that was N.  I got tears in my eyes when I read that on our Youth Pastor's facebook.  I know those ideas are partly coming from our reading and discussion with "Boyhood and Beyond". 

He continues to read "Gentle Ben" for DITHOR and we are talking about perspective and how books are written from a certain perspective.  He has enjoyed taking different scenes and writing them from a different characters perspective than the original.

We started our co-op this Friday and because HOD is a 4 day program this allows us to be in the co-op without getting behind.  He is taking an art class, a science experiments class and a drama class that is Intro to Shakespeare.  Should be a fun year.

Weekly update week of 8/29/11

This week started out kind of rough, but ended on a very good note.  N. was getting frustrated with his history reading in "Peril and Peace".  The readings are long with lots of names and he was having trouble following the story.  Midway in the week I started partnering in the reading with him.  I will read around 3 pages so that he has a good idea of the story and then he finishes it up.  This has really helped him figure out what is going on in the story and to retain more of the information.  God has shown me through some good advice on the HOD board and through just speaking to my heart that it is ok to make this modification for him.  It doesn't lessen his accomplishments in any way and it will help him get the maximum benefit from the program as well as then he is able to give more energy to other subjects.
His history project this week was a stained glass cross that he did with chalk.  He worked really hard on this and really gave it his best effort.

In storytime we finished up reading "Forbidden Gates."  This was another wonderful selection from HOD.  N. loved it and did very well with all the follow up activities.
In Science we continued with AIG's Wind and Weather book.  He enjoys the little demonstration type activities in it.
He continues to love Looking at Pictures.  I am amazed at how many details he can remember from the paintings we are studying.  This box rotates with a Poetry box as well as reading Boyhood and Beyond which is a fantastic book.  This week we talked about honesty and being a man of integrity. 
In DITHOR reading he is reading "Gentle Ben" and he loves it.  I am glad to be back to DITHOR.  He is really enjoying the book and the activities that go with it.
The big gains this week have been in his writing.  He is doing very well with IEW's Medieval writing lessons.  The style of instruction is really clicking with him.  He wrote a nice paragraph based on a source document and did it all on his own.  I am also seeing what he is learning there carry over to other writing assignments like his research post card and his written narrations.  

He is really enjoying school again this year and for that I am very grateful. 

Weekly update week of 8/22/11

We started our new school year on Tuesday.  We started with the official first day of school pics.

N. has grown so much this year.  He is almost as tall as S. and she isn't happy about it. 
N. jumped right in to RTR.  We have taken each box a little slower than usual so I can make sure he sees what is different this year and also I can make sure he knows what is expected of him.  He always starts his day with his bible quiet time.  He is studying Philippians this year and memorizing Philippians 1.  I think he is going to like the bible study book he is doing.  He and I are reading Boyhood and Beyond together and he learned this week to see God in His creation.  Tomorrow he wants to go to a park to spend some time really observing all the wonderful things God has made.  I see a maturity in his bible discussions that I didn't see last year. 
One day a week he is doing a picture study using the book "Looking at pictures".  He really enjoyed studying a painting and then trying to see how much of it we could each remember.  For my visual learner this was right up his alley and much easier for him then narrating after he reads.
In Science we switched things up a little since he had already done the Apologia Astronomy book so he is doing Answers in Genesis Wind and Weather book.  He enjoyed the 2 small experiments we did this week.  He did a great written narration about Joseph Priestly.
In History he is reading "Peril and Peace" and learned about Paul, Polycarp, Justin the Martyr and Constantine.  He enjoys this book, but oral and written narration from it are a little tough for him at this point. I think all the hard  names confuse him.  With a little help he did do a nice written narration.
His history project this week was a Roman Arch with a background.  This is where I am seeing the biggest gains.  He paid close attention to the quality of his work and really took his time each day with this.  Here it is with the background almost done and before he painted the arch.

When we finished the week N. said he thought it was a good first week and a few nights when his Dad would ask him what his favorite part of the day was he said "I can't pick, I like it all."