Weekly update for the week of 1/24/2011

 I am a little late getting this done this week.  This week he was studying Greece and therefore everything revolved around Greece. For his Independent History Box he drew and then colored the Parthenon.  This was a huge hit.  This is such a big deal for him.  He should hate sketching and drawing because of how much effort it takes and how his hand cramps, but in the middle of drawing using the instructions from Draw and Write Through History he says "Have I ever told you how much I love this book?". 

For his History project this week he made a Greek Column.  He chose which style to draw and he picked the most complicated one.  His sister had to get into the act so she made one also.

His Science experiment this week was making a Plant Part Meal.  He enjoyed going thru the fridge and picking out the different things that were different parts of plants like carrots for the roots, apples for fruit, etc.

Archimedes and the Door of Science remains a huge hit for our read aloud during story time.  He likes telling his dad things he learned in this book.

One interesting thing I am seeing with him is that last year I remember posting I was worried how he didn't seem to retain some of the history we read.  I was reassured by Carrie and Julie that he was establishing hooks to hang information on in later years.  Well sure enough as we study things this year he will out of the blue bring up something related that he studied last year.  In fact making connections with his reading is something I am seeing him do more and more.

We did make one minor change to the curriculum and that was we stopped doing Genesis Finding our Roots.  N. was struggling some with understanding this book  and he is now going through a class at church which requires homework and that was adding to his day.  Since this was bible study work he had to do, I decided to substitute it in instead of the Genesis book.

Books 6 and 7

I am better at reading them than I am at blogging about them.  Book 6 was Stars Collide by Janice Thompson.
This book is a fun, lighthearted, entertaining book.  The characters are interesting, likable and sometimes quirky.  It was a great book to read just to relax after a crazy day.  It is a Christian Romance book that takes place in Hollywood, which seems like an unlikely premise, but it works.

The 7th book I read was "An Unlikely Blessing" by Judy Baer.  This book was also a very enjoyable read. The book is about a Pastor who takes his first church in a small town in North Dakota.  The characters in this book are ones you want to know more of.  This book reminds me of the Mitford series by Jan Karon.  The book leaves you with many things up in the air so I am hoping that a sequel is in the works because I find myself wanting to know the answer to several unanswered questions.

Weekly update for the week of 1/17/2011

Another good week.  I feel like N. has really found his groove and is really enjoying his days (other than the rare frustration with math).  This week he had lots of drawing and was back with the painting so that made him very happy.

He and S. both did paintings again this week for poetry.

In Science he started reading "Plant Life in Field and Garden".  He did an experimet looking at how plants get nutrients.  He did a good job of doing the experiment by himself.  He put one stalk of celery in sugar water and one in plain water.  Today he tasted the leaves and discovered that the ones in sugar water were sweet, especially the stems of the leaves.

In Storytime we continue to read "Archimedes and the Door of Science".  This book is a big hit.  He enjoyed telling his Dad all about how an Archimedean screw works.

In History he drew a Greek Soldier using the directions in Draw and Write Through History".  Again I was impressed by how careful he was to follow all the step by step directions for drawing.   This is a huge improvement over last year.

For his history project he made a scytale message and then acted out Phidippedes run from Athens to Sparta. He ran a mile and then we told him that he would have to run 150 of those for it to equal the run from Athens to Sparta.

After the thread on the HOD board about oral narrations we worked on capturing the authors voice when he narrates.  He does better if he acts it out.  Written narrations are still very much a work in progress, but he is showing improvement with oral narrations.

5 of 52

My 5th book of this year is Dancing with Max by Emily Colson who happens to be the daughter of Chuck Colson.  It is the story of life with her severely autistic son Max.  It is a beautiful book full of real life pain, hurt , joy and the ever presence of God.  As a physical therapist that treated children with Autism and the parent of a child with special needs I found this book to be a wonderful read.  It challenged me to embrace my child where he is, but also to be willing to be open to where God might take him.  Emily doesn't sugar coat things and she is very honest with the fact that parenting Max mostly as a single parent has been a real challenge, but she also sees the gift that is Max.  Chuck Colson writes the forward and the afterward and gives some good insight also into how God has empowered Emily to be a fantastic mom to Max.  If you have a child with special needs in your life and even if you don't I think you will find this book encouraging.

Weekly update for the week of 1/10/2011

   N. had another good week this week.  He is really coming into his own as far as the independent boxes go.  He even did his science experiment independently this week.  Usually I have to help him just due to the fact that his hand tremor can make things difficult to do, but I see that he really wants to be able to do things on his own so I am trying to sit back and wait and only help if he asks for it.  What's a few spills if it means he feels more independent. 

Science has been the favorite subject around here.  He has become an avid bird watcher thanks to the book "Birds of the Air".  He worked very hard on his bird notebooking page this week and drew a purple finch.

We have several bird feeders right out the window and he loved watching them this week as the birds stocked up before snow fell. He loves cardinals so made sure to tell me every time he saw one so that I could get a good picture.

 For his science experiment he made 2 feathers out of paper and then coated one in shortening.  He was pretty amazed that the one with shortening floated. He was very careful to follow the directions exactly.

He had to memorize a poem and he chose the shortest one called "Dust of Snow".  I don't think he chose it because it was short, I think he picked it because it talked about a bird.  He dressed up as a crow to present it as his dad and proceeded to "fly" across the room and land on his snowy tree (the couch).

He did some mapping work of Greece for his history project and he started a new book called "Ancient Greece"  in his read about history box.  He struggled more with his written narration this week, but I think because it was a new book with a new writing style.  I also realized that I haven't done a very good job of getting across to him that he isn't summarizing as much as he should be retelling what he read.  So we are going to focus on that more and see how it goes.

We also started a new storytime book called "Archimedes and the Door to Science".  I was afraid that he would have trouble paying attention to this book, but it is written in a style that seems to draw him in.

He finished his project for Drawn into the Heart of Reading and made a puppet of Sheriff J.D. Saddlesoap.

4 of 52

    My fourth book to read this year was "An Old Fashioned Girl" by Louisa May Alcott.  I downloaded it for free from www.manybooks.net for my e-reader.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I think I like this book better than Little Women.  The simplicity of it is charming.  It is the story of Polly, a country girl who is gentle and kind and not enamored with material things.  She goes to stay with her cousins in the city.  Her cousins are the complete opposites and well on their way to becoming brats.  However Polly's appearance in their lives helps prevent this from happening. I am a huge fan of L.M. Montgomery and in some ways this book reminded me of her books. 

  I continue to read "In His Steps" along with my daughter.  This book is different than I thought it would be, but I do find myself anxious to read the next chapter.

3 of 52

I finished my 3rd book for the year.  "Without a Word: How a Boy's Unspoken Love Changed Everything" is by Jill Kelly, the wife of Hall of Fame football player Jim Kelly.  It is the story of their son Hunter and his life.  Hunter was diagnosed with Krabbe's Leukodystrophy shortly after birth.  It is a progressive, fatal disease.  I was very interested in reading this story because when I was a physical therapist I worked with a little girl with a different form of leukodystrophy.  The Kelly's had gone public with their son's diagnosis at the time I was treating this little girl and her mom was so encouraged by the fact that someone important was working on a cure.

This book is a very real look at what living with a chronically ill child is like, but she doesn't focus on the negatives.  She focuses on all the gifts they received from having Hunter in their lives.  The biggest was the through Hunter Jill became a Christian and eventually so did Jim.  It is a story of hope and redemption as much as it is a story of loss of a child.  Much of it is Jill's journal entries which allow the reader to truly see into her heart. This makes it a very real book that deals with real issues.  This book truly allows you to see how God worked things for good out of horrible circumstances.