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.