Update for the week of 1/21/13

Last week I posted that we had had 2 rough weeks, well this week was a complete turn around.  This week went really well.  So many things seemed to come together for N. this week.

Science went much better now that the scale is built and he is doing experiments with it.  He is in the Chemistry unit of the science and he hasn't done much of that in the past so he is excited.  He even was able to separate hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water using a battery and paper clips.  I was helping him with this one so no pictures.

His history project was to make a sign like the one used in stage coaches.  I modified this a bit for him.  He was supposed to write out the rules on his paper that he had made to look old.  I knew this would be way too challenging for him so I found an old west font that he could use and he typed out the rules instead and then glued them to the paper.

For Draw and Write through History he drew a stage coach.  He was so careful drawing this one.  He used a ruler when needed and found circular objects to trace around.  He took him awhile,but he was really happy with how it turned out.

Last week in the Exciting World of Creative Writing he was supposed to write a 200 word descriptive paragraph and he really struggled.  I had him do one of the suggested topics which was springtime at the zoo.  This week he had the same assignment and I told him to describe the animal shelter where we volunteer each week.  He sat down and typed out 350 words without a problem.  This showed me that it isn't the descriptive writing that is the problem it is more due to again his memory of details.  He can't recall details from the zoo, but he sure can from the shelter.  He loved doing this assignment also.

The other huge accomplishment this week was with his written narration.  He did his voice notes on his Ipad as he read again.  I could hear what he was recording and then I was able to hear how much he really listened to it as he wrote.  He actually listened to it very little.  He said he found he didn't need to that just the act of stopping every now and then and reflecting on what he read and vocalizing it made a huge difference.  He then sat down and wrote his longest narration ever.  It was on a reading from The Story of the Great Republic which is the type of book that usually causes huge struggles when it comes to written narration.  He didn't struggle at all this time.  He couldn't wait to show it to me and then kept asking me that night if I had shown it to his dad yet.

Teaching Textbooks Prealgebra continues to go well.  It does add probably 15 minutes to our day, but it is worth it to have a math he enjoys and gives him the spiral review that he needs.

We finished up Seaman as our storytime book and are reading "Only the Names Remain".  It is a different type of storytime book in that is non-fiction genre more than historical fiction.  This is a new topic for him and I like how it presents the Cherokee Indians and what happened to them.