Week in review 10/27-10/31, 2014

We  finished week 11 this week and things are still going well.  He tends to have 1 or 2 longer days where he works 6 1/2 hours, but then he usually has one day which is usually day 4 that goes shorter, more like 5 hours.  He never complains about the longer days, but he does enjoy the shorter day. 

This week he had several drawings to do.  He drew the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Aural Sea one day.  He did a review map one day and he drew the Iberian Peninsula. He really works hard on all of these.  The review map is usually hard for him and he does end up looking back to remember how to draw the countries and where to label things.

He is really enjoying Treasure Island.  His written narrations continue to improve and contain high level vocabulary.  He now loves to see what challenging words he can put into his narrations.  I am now talking to him about making sure he borrows some of the words the author uses and also to make sure he doesn't use so many big words that it becomes cumbersome to read.  He was starting to get a little confused with what was occurring in Treasure Island so I let him watch the old 1950 Disney version.  This really helped him to picture the action as he read. 

In EIW this week he wrote 2 compare/contrast paragraphs.  What I have been doing is making him write one where he uses one of the given prompts, but then for the second one I give him a prompt that I know will excite him.  He usually writes a much better paragraph if it is something that interests him.  He has just recently watched the new Karate Kid movie and all 3 of the old Karate Kid movies so I let him do a compare/contrast paragraph comparing Mr Miyagi in the old movies and Mr. Han the trainer in the new movie.  What I love is that writing is no longer a burden for him.  He actually enjoys it.  I never thought that would happen.

He continues to read "Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus".  This week we had a good conversation about Jewish blessings.   We want tend to think in terms of bless me, instead of bless the Lord for all He has done.  He then wrote his own blessing, emphasizing God's power and goodness. 

We finished up "A Silk Road Pilgrimage" in the living library and have now started "Where Am I?".  This looks like it will be a very informative book that will back up things he has already read and prepare him for future readings in "A Book of Discovery".  I love that often times he gets similar information from 2 different sources.  It really helps to cement the learning.

He continues to move along in Teaching Textbooks Geometry and I think what he has learned in Logic is actually helping as he thinks through the proofs.  This program is working well for him so far.

I think I have mentioned he is also earning a 1/2 credit in Musical Theater.  As part of that credit we watch a different musical each week.  This week was "Hello Dolly", which he loved, but the fun part came when Louis Armstrong came on the screen.  N. had studied him in I think MTMM and loved learning about him.  So the minute he came on the TV N. immediately recognized him and was so excited that he knew who he was and enjoyed the scene that much more.  I just love that HOD introduces him to so many things that I never would think of on my own.   I also love that my 15 year old son isn't "too cool" to show how excited he is over something like that.  I really do think that is a benefit of homeschooling.