Weekly update for the week of 1/23/12

N. had another good week with RTR.  I asked him this week since we are a little over half way through how he has liked it this year.  He said he has liked it a lot and really enjoys all the books. 

I see him making progress in so many areas.  DH and I were talking about how much his writing is improving and how he is really making connections now in his reading. He also is picking up on things in ways he hasn't before.  He has really enjoyed his study through Philippians. This week he noticed that the verse said "every knew should bow and every tongue confess...".  He came to me and said "I thought it was every knee will bow and every tongue confess..".  This prompted a comparison of different versions, but no that wasn't the issue.  He then told my dh about it and dh spent time researching it and finding out that in the Old Testament God says about Himself that "every knee will bow.." and in Philippians Paul is saying "every knee should bow.." about Jesus.  We then had a very good discussion about why that was.  I was just amazed that N. picked up the difference in wording, just 6 months ago I don't know that he would have done that.

Every week he does a Research postcard about a city that is important to the history study for the week.  He has decided that each week he will write to a dog that is at the animal shelter we volunteer at.  This weeks was a little shorter than most, but usually I am pleased with what he writes.  I was also very pleased with his written narration this week.  You can see on this page the compensations we make for his C.P. and writing challenges.  He types anything of length and I write the labels for his timeline.

The big hit this week was his Science experiment.  He made an edible groundwater contamination model.  It didn't go exactly as planned with the the contamination getting through the containment layer, but then his dad explained to him how real to life that was and how he was presenting such a case to our State EPA this week.  He continues to play around with the notability app. for writing up his experiment sheets.  This week went better.  He still needs practice drawing with the stylus and he is going to play around with it some and see if he can type the labels for his drawings. Of course I missed a capitalization error and also a typo because I was focused on the layout.

He also wrote an imaginative paragraph for a story in his IEW program.  This program continues to be a good fit for him.

His history project was a Spanish Doubloon, but no pictures since it was still drying at the end of the week and he actually still needs to paint it. 

Weekly update 1/16/12

This week started a little rough because N. who had just gotten over his cold came down with a stomach virus.  He did manage to catch up on all his school work though.  He is really enjoying this time period in history.  This week he read about some of the explorers as well as about Martin Luther and his 95 Theses.  His history project was making a salt dough map of the world and then drawing Magellan's voyage. 

He also learned about Pizarro and Cortez and his mapping activity was marking the Aztec and Inca civilizations.  It is tough for him to write small enough on these maps, but I have him do it anyway so the locations get imprinted in his brain.

He finished up his report on Knights in IEW medieval history based writing lessons.  My dh read it last night and was very impressed.  He had a hard time believing that N. did it on his own because it was so much better than anything he has written before.  IEW doesn't fit my learning style at all, but it is perfect for N.  He loves the step by step progression and how it tells him exactly what he needs to add and make sure he has.  I see carry over in his other writing assignments also. 

In Science he did an experiment that showed how salt water from the ocean becomes fresh water when it comes down as rain.  He used his ipad and the Notability app to write up his experiment sheet.  He typed a much longer guess and conclusion than usual which is exactly what I was hoping for.  The drawing is still a little rough.  He used the stylus, but had trouble getting it to write every time. 

In storytime we are reading Mr. Pipes and the Hymns of the Reformation.  He loves it.  He has become quite a fan of hymns so if it talks about one he doesn't know he wants to find it on youtube to listen to it.

Since we are halfway through the year my dh and I sat down and looked at the progress N. has made this year and it is very encouraging to see the gains, especially in expressing his thoughts that he is showing.  Sometimes it is easy to think that gains aren't being made because he does make them slower than a neurotypical kid, but they are definitely there. In fact I see the narration skills he is learning in HOD carrying over to other things.  He is in a constellation class in co-op and last night he gave a presentation to the family about what he is learning. 

Week in review 1/9/12

This was a little bit of a tough week since N. wasn't feeling well for the last part of the week. He managed to get all his school done until day 4.   By Thursday he ended up doing most of his boxes, but skipped Math and DITHOR because I knew his thinking wasn't clear enough for those and those are his most taxing subjects. 

In Art Appreciation we read about the uses of various pigments to achieve the colors.  We looked at Monet's Water-Lily Pond.  He was pretty excited because his assignment for his Discovering Great Artists Co-op class was to bring in a Monet picture and try to paint it.  He said it was much harder to do those little brush strokes than he thought.  His co-op class and the things he is learning in RTR really compliment each other well.

In History reading he read about Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and several other painters.  He also read about Niccolo Machiavelli and Cesare Borge.  We had some good conversation about some of the quotes in Machiavelli's The Prince and how they were the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches.  I love how HOD teaches him to look at things and then compare that to what the Bible says.

To go along with his readings his history project was painting like Michelangelo.  He found out this was much harder than he thought. 

In Science he continues reading A Child's Geography of the Earth and learned about Ocean Currents. He did an experiment involving currents and used his Ipad to write up his lab report.  We decided he needs a stylus to be able to draw the pictures the way he wants. 

In Boyhood and Beyond we talked about not being a spectator in life and if you have something you would like to achieve you don't just sit around and think about it.  You should take steps towards doing it.  He said "I want to experiment with tape and string so can I do that?"  I agreed and walked out later to find he had done this after school.

I don't know that this was exactly what the book was talking about, but it made me laugh.  Also discussed if you see something that needs done around the house doing it and not waiting for someone else to do it.  I have seen him put that principle in to action a few times this week.  I love our time with Boyhood and Beyond.

In Rod and Staff he did an oral presentation about a story from his life.  He presented it to his Dad who thought he did a great job.  In CLE math he has been working on calculating how much he would pay for something if it is a certain percent off.  It is not his favorite thing, but I told him it will come in useful the next time he sees Lego's on sale.

Weekly update 1/2/12

After taking a full 2 weeks off it took us about a day to get back into the groove.  My ds and dd went to a Winter Youth Conference with church so they were pretty tired at the beginning of the week.  My ds got quite a surprise for Christmas.  One of the recommendations by the neuropsychologist was an Ipad due to the ability to use dragon dictation and also other apps that could help streamline his work some.  Also since he needs to see things more than once it is beneficial to have the ability to call up videos and multimedia to reinforce what he is learning.  We knew we couldn't get him one, but my dh's family went in together and got him one.  He was very surprised and excited. 

In history he learned about what was going on in Africa during this time period. He enjoyed telling his dad about the different empires. For his history project he made an African mud cloth.  He really took his time with this.  He then made a virtual one of the computer.

In Storytime we are reading Leonardo DaVinci by Diane Stanley.  He knew some of the information from other times we have looked at Leonardo, but this book went into more detail about all the things he invented.  He continues to love Mystery of History 3.  He seems to really grasp this book.  His written narration this week was also on Leonardo and he choose to write on the section about the Mona Lisa.  He continues to show improvement in this area.

In Science he did a simple experiment with Graham Crackers to show how faults develop and how earthquakes occur.  I thought it might be too easy, but it really helped him visualize things and he applied what he learned later in a conversation we were having.  One area I feel he could improve on is his Science Experiment sheets.  I have had him write them and he always writes short answers and doesn't go into as much detail as I would like on his experiment sheet.  I have found an app for the Ipad called Notability that will allow him to type out the question, guess and conclusion and also draw the procedure.  Once he has it done we can convert it to a pdf and print it.  He didn't do an actual sheet yet, but I am anxious to see how it works.

In Grammar he continued to learn more about comma placement and he started working on an oral presentation.  He needed to take brief notes so he dictated it on the Ipad on dragon dictation and it typed it for him.  He loves this even if he does have to edit when it doesn't understand him.

In Boyhood and Beyond we talked about not complaining or whining.  That is a good lesson for all of us.  Talked about being willing to try new things.  My dd listened in and it challenged her also.

I really think if we weren't using HOD I would be completely burned out at this point, but as it is I have as much fun as he does seeing what all each week holds.