Yesterday & Today

Multiplication, analogies, word meanings, Marco Polo, and Greek mythology were on the agenda for the latter half of this week.  I've pulled out the old Times Tales again.  After a long summer, W has forgotten some of the times tables, so we're doing a nice once-over.  He enjoyed it a lot 2 years ago and he's enjoying it again.  I did all of Part 1 with him yesterday and today.  While I took a phone call, he caught himself up on Part 2.  I quizzed him on all of it and he knew everything.  Next week we're going to continue with basic multiplication and division.  He's already able to do large-digit X large-digit multiplication and long division with large numbers (and decimals), but remembering what 8x6 is make it all take so much longer.  If there's one piece of wisdom I can share with anyone, it's to make sure your kids' basic math functions are down pat.

W is still working out of last year's 4th grade spelling book.  We didn't completely finish it by June and with his dyslexia, I don't want to push too far ahead while leaving gaps.  He took a 5 chapter test, 25 questions, and got 100%.  The test was full of analogies, definitions, what words belong in which group, and completing each sentence.  We do spelling every day and cover about 2 chapters a week.  We'll probably get to Spelling Skills 5 in a couple of months.

Marco Polo is a lot of fun so far.  MIL picked up this cool atlas from Hammond called The Explorer Atlas and it has the perfect map.  Every country, route, and passage that Marco Polo went across and visited, is on a nice, 2-page spread.  Plus, it's great to have pictures and descriptions of things.  AO says to study Polo for the whole year.  We may just do that.  There's so much to discuss and so many books, websites, and documentaries out there. His travels also seem like a good segue into the next 400 years.   Each country on this map is a unit study in itself.

We are covering some Greek mythology this year as well.  The book we're using is called The Heroes.  The first chapter, centered around Perseus, is pretty good so far.  W likes it and it's written in a way that grabs his attention.  He gave a great narration and he's looking forward to the rest of the story.  I may use this for his future written narrations.  It's funny - I've noticed W's handwriting has improved steadily from the beginning of the week to today.  I think it's because he just so happened to do a lot of writing this week.  I didn't hear him once complain of cramped up fingers either, lol.  So, after several years of narrating stories back to me and his seemingly renewed enjoyment of putting pencil to paper, I do believe I was correct that he is finally ready for some real creative writing work.  The written narrations are the first step.  Thank you Charlotte Mason.