W went to his film class yesterday in the Lower East Side. This time they learned all about editing. The kids (6 boys, ages 10-12) broke up into 2 groups and filmed some scenes a few weeks ago based on their own ideas for a story. They took that footage and learned how to add music, fade in and out, add lighting effects, cut pieces out, and more. We moms came back just in time to see the 2 films. I was impressed with their acting! I also loved how the instructors asked the kids questions on their feelings about the movies, what they liked, and what they didn't like. It was fun hearing them be film critics.
After the class a bunch of us went to the playground for a while. We got home around 6pm and ordered Japanese food in honor of W's 10th birthday. It's his favorite. Everyone was home around 9pm and we did cake and presents. Due to all our busy schedules, we decided to do our usual birthday outing on Friday evening. W decided he really wants to go bowling with all 5 of us. I can't believe my youngest baby has hit the double-digits.
Today we hit the books again. Like I said before, I'm no longer in a rush to finish AO Yr2. It's a lot more comfortable taking our time with it and allowing for all the time we need for field trips, classes and other outings. We have about 9 weeks left in the schedule. We're up to Lesson 63 in TT5 - starting division. I know most math programs start with basic division, but I know W. He is more of a "big picture first" kind of kid. So, I gave him a brief overview of what basic division is (recapping from our Times Tales days a couple of years ago) and how to do fact families. Then we did some with the division box and some with fractions. After that, I went right into long division. To me, it's easier to bring that in early, show him how it's done, let him do a few problems (with and without remainders), and then go back to basic division, working our way quickly back up to long division. It worked. He understands it and actually thinks it's fun (for now, lol).
We also read some of Joan of Arc & Seabird (with oral narrations), learned about subject and predicate in Spelling Skills, he wrote out a few lines from a Christina Rossetti poem for copywork, and he read 2 pages from A Cricket in Times Square. He's doing well with that book so far. I purposely made "Read to Me" part of our homeschool schedule since W does have mild dyslexia and I'd like to keep tabs on his progress. His reading aloud is ok, not great, but he gets through it. He's been asking to just read the 2 pages to himself instead, but I was reluctant since his "Read to Me" is full of skipped words, backtracking, and confused looks. But I figured we could give it a shot. He read silently on Monday and today. Both times I would then read those pages myself and ask him to tell me back what he just read. Would you believe that not only did he have full comprehension, but he was narrating back almost verbatim? It blew my mind. He even stopped to ask me what "scornfully" meant (he knew that word??). I guess I should listen to him more often, huh?
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