Piano, Film, & Phonics

W's music class this past week was all about the piano.  The kids got a basic introduction to it.  They talked about different types of pianos.  They learned about chords and melody and Beethoven and Mozart.  W was lukewarm about the piano, just like he was about the violin.  I'm waiting to see what will capture his interest.  He's looking forward to the next class.  Not sure what instrument is next, but he's excited.

Today at film class, W learned more about editing.  The kids went to the playground across the street and filmed some more of their movie.

The updated version

I found a new workbook that I absolutely love.  It's called "Word Study & Phonics" by Spectrum.  I had it in my closet from when J was in 3rd grade. She didn't like it then because it was too plain looking and too easy for her - even though it is a 4th grade book.  But it's exactly what W prefers.  It's on his grade level and the fact that it's plain makes it all the better for him.  The exercises seem to exactly focus on what he struggles with regarding his dyslexia.  To him, the words "these" & "those" look the same, "for" is still "of", and "want", "went", and "what" are so confusing.  The workbook had him read a sentence like:  "We all (chase, chose) a topic for our report."  It makes him look inside the word and distinguish between vowels.  There are all different types of exercises where you have to stop and really think about and look at words.  This is already so helpful for him.   Oh and he enjoys it so much, he does 2-3 exercises in one sitting.