Weekly update for week of 3/21/11

   I seem to have this every other week thing now as a habit.  Problem is this week I forgot to take pictures so all of the pics are from last week.
  One of the things I love about HOD is the bible quiet time.  I love how it is teaching N. to make this an important part of each day.  He loves reading from the Illustrated Family Bible.  For my visual learner it sure helps to cement things he reads in his bible. 

He also has been memorizing Philippians 2.  This week was a review week and I loved sitting and listening to him sing the verses as his way of remembering them.

In Science he is now reading Exploring the History of Medicine by John Hudson Tiner.  This has been a somewhat challenging book for him.  He has to answer questions every day after he reads.  This has on occasion brought him to tears.  He still can struggle with his reading comprehension if it is something that is totally unfamiliar to him, which the subject matter in this book is.  I am using it though to have him practice the skills of skimming back through several pages of text to find the answers.  This past Friday he did much better with this and was proud of how few he missed.  His science experiment last week was looking to see how fast bacteria multiplied.

This week he is doing an experiment with germs growing on apples.  Will have to see in a few days how that one turns out.

His history project last week was to make a paper doll dressed in the clothes of a Roman Soldier. He really enjoyed this and worked diligently on getting each piece the way he wanted it.

His attention to detail with projects like this is improving.  This week he made a wheel with the names and information about the 12 apostles.

For storytime we continue to read "Traveling the Way".  I think this may be his favorite book this year.  What I love is after I read he will sit quietly and then say "I am thinking about how David must feel... ".  This is a big step for him to start putting himself in the position of the book character and really trying to make those connections.

For his history reading he is now reading the book of John.  He is enjoying reading John all the way through which is something he has never done before.

Next week I will go to the local homeschool convention and will get to talk to Carrie the author of HOD and her sister Julie.  Last year that was the highlight of the convention for me.  I love the fact that I can ask them specific questions about how to make things work for N. and talk through any concerns I have.  I know we will be using the next guide RTR, but not totally sure how each aspect will work for him.  I look forward to getting their input.

Weekly update for the week of 3/8/2011

Once again it has been 2 weeks since I updated my blog.  Hard to believe we are heading into the homestretch of the year.  Overall this has been a very good year.  I am continuing to learn how to draw the best out of N. as well as how S. prefers to learn. 

The highlight for N. last week was his history project of making different types of catapults.  He worked so long on this I finally had to make him stop so he could finish the rest of his school.  When school was done he went back to designing catapults. (Please overlook the mismatched pj's.  He usually doesn't get dressed until after lunch, that just works best for him).

Last week he and S. worked on painting a night sky.  I didn't get any pictures of him painting, but here is S. working on hers.

We have started a new storytime book called "Travelling the Way" and N. just loves it. The first day we read it he had do to a detailed oral narration.  I was amazed how many details he included.  I was really able to see how this skill is improving.  He is also getting better at making it more like a story verses just summarizing it.
His written narrations the past two weeks have also shown improvement.  He still isn't one to use lots of flowery words during his written narration, but he does blend some of his words and some of the authors.  You also can see the things he thought were important in what he narrates.

The highlight of this week was the Roman feast.  N. was so excited to do this.  He worked hard on making his Roman custard. 

He then used his special safety guard from Pampered Chef that allows even a kid with tremoring hands to cut up vegetables safely and proudly displayed his handiwork.  He didn't have a robe to wear so he wrapped a blanket around his shoulders.

Then he served the meal and washed his sister's hands in between courses.  She would have preferred he use warm water.

I really enjoy seeing my 2 dc having fun together.  This year has been a good one for improving their relationship and letting them see each other in all situations.  This week was a pretty stressful week since our sweet dog Bailey was nearing the end of his battle with bone cancer.  N. handled it by taking good care of him and S. handled it by coming down one day after lunch dressed as "Super Sarah".  N.  laughed all afternoon.  It was good for all of us.