Beczak

We had a great class at the Beczaz Center on the Hudson River again. This one was called "The Great Water Mix-Up". There were discussions on the river's salinity levels and pollution. The kids each were given a salinity meter (plastic, looks like a scale), filled it with water and observed the reading. There were samples of salt water, fresh water, and brackish water and they had to guess which was which based on the reading. The reading determined how many grams of salt were in every 1000mL of water (0 to 7 is fresh, 8-26 is brackish, and 27-35 is salt). Then the kids formed 4 groups. Each group was a company created to clean up polluted water. They were each given play money, a list of supplies to choose from, and a large cylinder of polluted water. This water (Beczak created) was polluted with oil, dirt, and chemicals - just like real bodies of water. The kids had to figure out which supplies to buy that would work best in cleaning up their sample. J's team bought a pipet, some cottonballs, and a screen. W's team bought a bottle of fresh water, a screen, and a funnel. It was hysterical watching them all come up with their own methods.

Starting Off Busy

W started his academics this morning by reading a few pages of Sam the Sea Cow to me. Then I read the first chapter of Tree in the Trail to him and he did a great narration. He loves that book already. Poetry was next - and it was an autumn poem in a big book of poems compiled by Walter de la Mare. The schedule says to read poems BY him, not compiled by him, so I'll have to print out a bunch I find online. That segued into copywork, which was a nice Mother Goose rhyme. These are full of big words not often used, so it helps him with spelling and vocabulary. I also wrote out the poem, hung it up, and will use that one for a dictation exercise on Friday. After that, I read half a chapter of The Little Duke to W and again he narrated what he remembered. I love listening to him. Then he did 2 pages in his grammar workbook. The first page was a review of compound words. A lot of times I'll just have him tell me the answers instead of him having to write them down. He prefers some pages that way. It definitely eliminates any tedium. The next page was like a game where he had to follow clues to find the right words. Artist study was all about Raphael Sanzio. We looked at all the paintings we'll study this term and read a quick bio. It's interesting how he is starting to come up with his own take on certain paintings. He seems to undestand what characters are portrayed and thinks about why it's significant. I'm looking forward more of this with him. Finally he did a few math problems in his workbook. This was a review of 3-digit plus 3-digit addition. We haven't purchased TT5 yet, so he's just using books for now.

J started her academics today by reading Little Women snuggled up in my bed. It's still a chore getting her to read anything at all, but she's drawn to classic literature and picked this one herself. She then read a poem out loud and wrote it out for copywork. After that, we picked up the American History book (that I really really enjoy) and read a chapter together. Soon she'll start doing written narrations on the history, lit, and science we read together. Painless Grammar was next and we discussed more parts of speech. This is just review for her, but these are good things to remember - like prepositional phrases, uses of the conjunction, and how so many words qualify as adverbs. Then we did some Life of Fred. She loves math now, btw. I'm so glad I bought a bunch of those books. J spent the afternoon with friends at the park. The new season of dance classes starts tomorrow. This should be a fun year.

K's first day was good. Her schedule is great. They're doing a Spirit Week soon, since their plans of it last spring were cut short by the swine flu closing. She already joined a fundraising committee and plans to rake in as much money as possible so they can do all these things as seniors. It's funny to me that they have to start this in junior year. She's happy there and I feel it's a nice fit for her.

I think we're starting off well. All the kids liked their first day. Lets just hope it stays that way!

Year Begun

It was a fantastic week. J did go to her friend's summer bungalow for a few days. It's a tight-knit Long Island community on the beach where everybody knows everybody, kids are everywhere, and fun activities are going on all the time. There was a masquerade, talent show, basketball games, swimming in the on-site pool, going to the beach, and running around barefoot with about a dozen new friends. I spent every summer about 1/4 mile down the road from J's friend, in a similar development. Such a small world! W has been at the park every day still. He loves it so much. We vary between 2 different playgrounds, each with a different atmosphere. I prefer the one down the block. He has been practicing his skateboard and ripstick and is getting really good at both. Lots of skateboarders are around and W learns from them. They bring some wooden ramps to do tricks on and W cautiously takes a turn, too. K starts school tomorrow. She's excited for a new year.

I'm excited, too. My homeschoolers will have a busier year than usual. AmbOn2 is jam-packed with great stuff. J's eclectic schedule is what she says will get her into "school mode". W has lots of classes and trips already scheduled for autumn and into winter - starting this Friday. J prefers doing her own thing rather than join any homeschool group events, but I'm sure she'll participate in a few. NYC is teeming with things for teens to do. I have dozens of things bookmarked for her already.

Here's to a new year!

Year Over

W and I will be reading "The White Cat" in The Blue Fairy Book today. This is our last reading for AmbOn1. We start Year 2 on September 9th. Year 1 was fantastic. We read so many beautiful stories and W's reading, vocabulary, writing, reasoning, critical thinking, and storytelling improved immensely over the past year. He was sad to see our large, red Aesop's Fables book be done with. And he really enjoyed reading about King Harald in Viking Tales. That will also be missed.

The rest of this week will just focus on W reading aloud and silently from books of his choice. I'll make a word wall of the words he misses. He'll then take those words and either write them a bunch of times or makes sentences out of them - all on his dry-erase shelf. He's mastered all of the sight-word flash cards but didn't want that to end. Actually, he would pretend to miss words just so he could continue to write them, lol. So when I told him there were tons of words in his books we could use, he was thrilled. We'll also start reading Mr. Popper's Penguins. It's on his AmbOn2 free reading list and it happens to be the book that will be discussed at this month's book club. W's calendar is already getting full with this year's homeschool group classes and trips.

Other than that, we're taking it easy this week. J may spend a few days out at her friend's summer house. K and I may go clothes shopping. K starts school on the 9th. She's going to be a junior and we have to look at more colleges this year. J's school auditions are coming up in a few months and I have to make sure I have all the correct paperwork that goes along with that. B has been freelancing since last week - hopefully this will turn into something full time. This has been the first nibble of a job since March. I'm feeling hopeful.

The weather has been almost chilly in NYC this week. I'm loving that autumn is just about here. My birthday is in 6 days. I'm turning 40. Sigh.

Arthur Ashe Kids Day Concert

K and J went with their friends to the Arthur Ashe Kids Day concert yesterday. They saw Jordin Sparks, Honor Society, and Justin Bieber. J and her bff Sam saw Honor Society at The Knitting Factory in Tribeca a year ago. They love them still, but this year they both have serious crushes on Justin Bieber. When he finished his set, the girls were right there off the stage to get a picture and be near him. He even touched K's hand, lol. Here are some pictures:


BIEBER ON THE SCREEN


BIEBER ON THE STAGE


BIEBER CAME OUT RIGHT BY THE GIRLS


HONOR SOCIETY


JORDIN SPARKS

Experientially Educated

I think I'm going to start telling people W is "experientially educated" or "experientially schooled". It just sounds a lot more interesting than "homeschooled". It's also a more accurate decription, imo. So much of what we do is hands-on and out in the real world. For example:

He has group science classes at science museums, environmental centers, farms, zoos, parks, and botanical gardens - along with nature study, experiments, field trips, and projects. He has group history classes at museums, parks, and historical societies - along with projects, timeline work, field trips, and neighborhood walkabouts. He has group art classes at art museums and art galleries - along with projects, artist study, field trips, and crafts.

He'll be in cub scouts and basketball (or maybe baseball - or both!) this year.

We spend about 9-10 hours a week at home on scheduled reading, writing, websites, and workbooks. We're going to try something called "notebooking" soon, too. I'm still doing research on that, but it looks like something W would love. The rest of the time we just love being out and about - whether it's a homeschool group class or the playground down the block or just in the backyard. Many times we'll take a trip by ourselves to someplace we've never been or someplace we've been to a lot. On rainy days he gets creative at home (building, crafting, making up games, making concoctions, drawing, cooking, etc). I'm so grateful my active boy isn't stuck behind a desk for hours and hours every day. He's able to learn by experiencing the world in a way that fits him perfectly.

Hall of Science again

We took a ride over to the Hall of Science today. You know we have to get that in as often as we can! Today W watched and participated in 2 demonstrations. One was called "Air Play", which was about the properties of air and how air pressure can be really strong, the other was "The Science of Sports", which went into detail about kinetic and potential energy, aerodynamics, and various reasons why protective gear works so well. W made a craft - a comet made out of a styrofoam ball and streamers (way too young for him and he wished he spent his $2 elsewhere, lol). We also tried out the new mini-golf area. This was just built and has 9 science-related holes. It was cute. I totally sucked at it btw.

Academics was done this morning before we left. We read some Aesops and some Viking Tales, did some math, and played with those flash cards again. Out of the 172 words, he missed 6. He wrote sentences for each of them and then we did a spelling test. I gotta hand it to him - he's starting to remember words from one day to the next AND he's remembering to get into the middle of the words by actually sounding them out. This is a biggie. He is not looking at only the first and last letters and making something up as much anymore.

J and K spent the day with friends and now they're in K's room chatting and laughing together. B started freelancing and is hopeful this week's job will turn into a permanent position. God I hope so too.

It's All Fun

The dry-erase bookshelf is so cool. W is now writing sentences with the words he misses from the flash cards. I remember hating doing this at his age. He came up with this idea himself and thinks it's the most fun thing ever. He's like, "Ooooh wait, I got one, I got one!". Then he writes out a sentence and holds it up to show me. This morning he asked if we could do some math, english, and science workbook and read a story or 2 together - oh and of course write out out more words on the bookshelf. I reminded him that it's Sunday and he said, "Yeah, I know". Man, I wish I would've had that love of learning growing up. The sentence he wrote in the photo says it all.

We Have Begun

Started back on a light schedule with W. We are finishing up a bunch of readings we didn't get to from AmbOn1 and started with the new 3rd grade English, Math, and Science workbooks. His narrations are even better than they were last month - he's using "puppets" now to act out the stories (ok, well 2 dry-erase markers as the main characters, lol). He's so into it. Maybe it was the 2-weeks of acting classes. We're reading Viking Tales, Our Island Story, Aesop's, The Blue Fairy Book, and D'Aulaire's Buffalo Bill. I read the stories to him and he follows my finger and reads it with me. Sometimes he jumps in and takes over the last few sentences. We'll start AmbOn2 in about 3 weeks.

In keeping with the dyslexia help, I've succumbed to buying phonics and sight-word flash cards and we go through one whole stack every day. I keep the words he has trouble with to the side and he writes them on his dry-erase board. This is funny - he found an old bookcase shelf with a smooth surface and decided that is now his own dry-erase board. I was hesitant, but it wipes clean and it's the perfect size for his lap. He decided on his own to write out the words he misses. The other night he kept asking me to give him sentences to write. I was surprised to see that he knew how to spell words like "would" (and could and should), "football", and "before" without any help. He also wrote the word "what" correctly. It has always been hard for him to distinguish between "what", "that", "when", and "want". They all look the same to him. "Than" and "then" look the same and so do "these" and "those". So, it seems he has an easier time writing out words than reading them. Interesting.

We cracked open the new Science book (Science Essentials Grades 3-6) and started on dinosaurs. He loved this and grabbed his dinosaur encyclopedia to check facts and look up pictures on certain types. He lives and breathes science and wants to do experiments and projects at least 2x a week. Yay that this book has so many.

J and I are zipping through Life Of Fred Fractions and then we'll do Decimals & Percents. I figure we'll spend about a month or so on each of these books just to solidify her understanding and fill in any gaps. Then we'll spend the rest of the school year on Beginning Algebra and Advanced Algebra. She really likes these books and I plan on saving them for W since they're hardcover and non-consumable. And like I said, I bought 4 LoF books for a total of like $96 - that's less than just 1 level of TT.

B and W just brought home a luna moth caterpillar from the park. It's bright green and juicy and about as big and wide as my index finger. Ick. It looks like it's about to start a cocoon, so now we have another cool pet. He kinda reminds me of THIS GUY and we've named him Heimlich. Altogether we have 3 goldfish, a bullfrog, a snail, an anole lizard, that weird caterpillar, and a really awesome black-capped conure parrot. We're just not dog and cat people.

The kids' play was yesterday and WOW did they do a fantastic job! W's show was the first act and he hammed it up big time. He got so many laughs and people were coming up to B and me afterward raving about him. Just like the rest of us, he's very comfortable on stage. J's show was the second act. These were the more seasoned older kids. It was really funny - popular kids (rich girl, space cadet, beauty queen, triplets) fighting with the outcasts (nerd, emo, new-ager, clean freak) and then all coming together as friends at the end. Cheesy, but real cute. W can't wait to do this again next summer. J will have aged out, but she'll be so busy with tons of other things. The picture above is the whole troupe, the production team, and a $5000 check granted to them from the Aviation Development Council in Queens (they sponsor community-based programs). Now we have 3 whole weeks of NOTHING SCHEDULED. Woooooohoooooo. But we all know that after one week of free-time, we'll all be itching to get back into the swing of things. I think I'll take the kids on a few museum trips. :)

Yeah, so I have 2 teenage daughters now. J's birthday was a few days ago and we went out to my mom's for the day. Her wish was for a laptop computer and to go to a seafood restaurant with the whole family. Well, she got the restaurant with the whole family, but not the laptop. I figure, she mainly uses the computer to chat with friends, do quickie research on what interests her, listen to music, watch videos, and play games. We got her an Ipod Touch - she can do all that on it. She loves it and hasn't put it down in 4 days. I can't believe the coolness of that thing. I want one. Eventually, she'll get a laptop, since I'm sure she'll need it for school, but there's no immediate hurry.

This is the last week of the summer dance classes, then there's a 3 week break. She's done really well and is looking forward to the fall when the new season starts. It's also the last week for her and W's musical theater intensive. Lines are all memorized, songs and dances are all in order, and now we wait til Saturday to see the show. J is playing a popular airheaded teen (think Anna Faris) in her show, and W is playing an alien who won't let the earth kids leave the moon without a dance-off. Should be interesting, lol.

The musical theater program is going well so far. They got their scripts the other day and are supposed to memorize them by Monday. One more week to go.

W has been reading aloud to me every day. I set the timer for 10 minutes - the timer is a WONDERFUL thing - and he reads one chapter in the book. We're starting with an easy book for him caled Owl At Home. He is learning to read with inflection and pay attention to the punctuation. He said "wasn't" for "wants", "wild" for "wide", and "cattle" for "kettle". He adds and leaves out the small function words (articles) like a, the, an. He can read words like yesterday and everything, but gets stuck on "is". The word "those" is completely foreign - even after seeing it 100 times. He's such a trooper, though. He's proud of himself for reading 95% of the book with no stumbling.

The summer is still going along as usual though. The kids are always out, playing, working, dancing, totally enjoying life. K went to another sweet 16 party last week. You know, fully-loaded limo to Planet Hollywood with 15 friends. Poor thing never has any excitement in her life, lol.

I'm all ready for fall to start. I'm waiting for our new metrocards to come, new schedules to start, and the new hurdles that are coming (one of which is J's high school preparations). I'm excited, the kids are excited. I love a new beginning.

A New Adventure

W has dyslexia.

It's something I has suspected over a year ago, but dismissed since his reading would take off in spurts every now and then. Also, I had no idea all that dyslexia entailed. I have no doubts in my mind, but he will get formally tested soon. I also hear that AO is wonderful with this, which I'm thankful for. I just need to do a bit more research on the best ways to help him. He's cool with it. He feels better knowing that now I know he's not just being lazy or uncooperative. It's said that dyslexia is a sign of a highly intelligent and creative person. W was very glad to know that, although I always knew that W is intelligent and creative. Now a new adventure begins. Bring it on. I'm ready for it.

In other news, both J and W got into the 2-week performing arts intensive! They go every day (Mon-Fri). W is in the 8-10 y/o group in the mornings and J is in the 11-13 y/o group in the afternoons. It works out pretty well since the place is so close to home. Each age group has their own show - to be performed twice on Aug. 15th. Today was their first day and they loved it. Fun and free. Can't beat that.

Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary & Audubon Center

Great trip today with the homeschooling group to the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary & Audubon Center in Long Island. The class was on the American Indian way of life. There were trails there that were kept intact from 300 years ago. The instructor had a nice fire going the whole time and the kids got to make corn meal cakes that the Indians used to bring with them on long journeys. We discussed and were shown deerskin, arrows, spears, corn husk and turtle shell toys, and some tools found on that land. Each child also got pieces of red clay that when wet and rubbed together make paint. Those are found all over Long Island and I used to play with them as a child. We called them "Indian rocks". Then the kids got to use a bow, a dowel, and pieces of wood to simulate making fire. Without kindling a fire couldn't actually happen, but smoke does! We then went on a hike and were told about certain plants and trees that American Indians made good use of.





W and I also visited the cemetery next door. It's very very old and so happens to be where Theodore Roosevelt was buried. W was creeped out at first, but enjoyed it after a few minutes. The groundskeeper was a nice old man who used to be a history teacher. He told us lots about the area, the cemetery, and his grandkids, lol.

Just Thinking Out Loud

I've been reflecting on a few things today as I sit with the kids and discuss with them what the new school year will look like. Sometimes I like to take a step back and analyze my thoughts. :

I believe that "child-led" works. It allows the kids to "own" their learning and makes them want to do the best they can in all they do, since it's their idea.

I'm enjoying that my children asked for a structured, scheduled educational path, as it does make things a bit easier to keep track of what they're learning. And in NY, we do need to stay on top of that.

The 3 years with no curriculum worked very well, though, but none of my children like their days to be all spontaneous and carefree (I know they inherited that trait from me, lol). J would create her own schedules for her days (and help W with his) which would include lots of academic stuff (workbooks and websites), crafts, piano, outdoor time, and museum visits. It was fun, but she eventually needed (and requested my help in finding) more than that. Now with high school right around the corner, J wants to be very prepared, so she helped put together a nice schedule for this coming school year.

W likes to do what J does and likes the idea of structured academics, too.

W feels better about himself when he can see his own learning progress. He sometimes didn't feel he was as smart as other kids his age until we started using a curriculum. (I don't know why he felt that way - could have been the taunting from his cousin and hearing what his friends were learning in school)

I'm very glad we found AmblesideOnline. Charlotte Mason was a genius, imo. The fun activities (nature study, history timeline, creative narrations, etc) and classic readings mesh so well with the kids' interests. They retain just about everything and often want to pursue topics/people further. It also goes incredibly well with my relaxed, unschooly self. It's the most gentle, enjoyable, stress-free way of learning I've ever come across.

Other than that, the kids are keeping so busy this summer. Lots of outdoor time, friends, movies, shopping, swimming, dancing, new theater group, water guns, K's fantastic job, making videos, biking, etc. Life is oh so good.

Theater!

So yesterday B and I took the younger kids to audition for a show at a nearby performing arts center. It's a 2-week intensive culminating in 2 Saturday shows. They needed to sing and talk a bit about themselves. I decided against providing our own music since both kids can stay on key with acapella (I usually stay up all night burning & editing CDs). J had no nervousness at all. She went in alone, did her thing, and came out very nonchalant, as if she does this every day. W, on the other hand, was very nervous. He was so excited over the last 2 weeks and couldn't wait for this audition. The night before we went over several songs including "Where Is Love", and "Ben". He was worried about learning all the words to these, so he decided on "Amazing Grace" with its 5 lines of verse. He has a really great singing voice (who knew?) and I was confident for him.

At the last minute (i.e. we're at the place and 3 minutes away from his turn to audition) he decides Ben would be the best choice. We did a quick review and off he went. Thankfully, we got to go in the room with him. It was a large room with 2 people at a table with clipboards and stern faces. B and I found our way to the back. W was asked what he was going to sing and he said, "Ben, by Michael Jackson". They liked that. He sang the whole first verse with power and new-found belief in himself. Then he was asked about his singing and dance experience, but kept referring back to J ("no, but my sister did!") LOL. He did finally tell them about his musical theater and hip hop classes from the last 4 years. They said "thank you" and we left. We are supposed to hear from them this week.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

After the week away, we have our week of relaxing, lol. Well, the kids never seem to relax. W is still going to the playground every day. He hangs with friends, rides his bike, and plays basketball. We got a little bit of academics done this week. Both of us want to finish the Year 1 schedule before September so we can start Year 2. The rest of the summer will be just the readings/narrations, some foreign language, artist and composer study, and timeline stuff - just because W thinks it's fun. Oh and probably math, too. He can't keep away from math. It all still remains child-led and relaxed - he wouldn't have it any other way. His newest thing is grabbing a book, finding a comfy spot, and reading! He's enjoying The Magic Treehouse series and Diary of a Wimpy Kid now. Cool beans!

K is back at work. She still loves it and takes it very seriously. She's never late and always stays late to help clean. She's saving most of her money - for a car. I'm incredibly proud of her diligence - and generosity! She's so happy to buy things for her siblings. It's nice that she has the means now to indulge her own high standards of taste, lol. Mani-pedis, designer bags, clothes, shoes, etc. All of a sudden she's being more cautious, more selective, and has more self-control. It's amazing what your own money does for you, lol.

J has had nonstop hang-out requests since she's been home. She was at one friend's house all day Monday swimming in her pool. Wednesday she was with another friend at the park and her house. Friday she and another friend slept over another girl's house and went to Splish Splash (water park) the next day. Today she's at my mom's house in Long Island, meeting up with another friend who will be coming over there to spend the day. Tuesday and Thursday J had summer dance intensive classes and I strongly suggested staying home and relaxing during the day so she could be well-rested. Next week Wednesday will be included too - this is another dance intensive, plus the new studio performance tap team she's on. She and W will be doing something new during the day starting the first week of August. I'm not going to say what it is yet since I'm not sure about the details - but it's an incredibly opportunity...

Work is going very well for me. I'm now 100% sales - no more collections or retention, which I've been doing for the last 3 years. It was scary to make such a big change, but now that I've got the hang of it, it's really FUN. Let's hope it stays that way, lol.

I received a call the other morning from a "summer-help" person at the Office of Homeschooling. She asked if I would please send in a copy of J's CAT results. This is new. I usually just write a line on the annual stating she took the test and scored above the 33rd %ile. So, I'm sending in a copy. Thankfully, the Seton folks emailed me a PDF and I can make as many copies as I like. Well, all things considered, the state is pretty good at leaving us alone - this isn't a big deal. Soon I'll mail in the IHIPs and Metrocard forms.

Great Week at Nationals!

We got to Pennsylvania on Tuesday afternoon. The rooms were nice - the girls had their own room and my parents had one as well. They all had balconies that overlooked the pool and playground (that's the picture on the left). Again, the best part about Nationals is getting to spend a week with your best friends in the world. The kids swam, had a sleepover, went to Hershey Park, went to a dance workshop convention, ate at restaurants, and performed amazingly together. They danced every day starting Wednesday evening with prequalifications. These are the numbers they're doing at nationals that weren't done at this comp's regional. So those need to be judged separately, then performed again on its slotted day. In this competition, the awards you can get are: Bronze, High Bronze, Silver, High Silver, Gold, and High Gold - based on the judges composite scores. Thursday was junior solo day. J scored Gold on all 3 of her solo's. After her vocal solo the director of the entire competition was all teary and sniffly. He told J that he remembered her when she was 7 and he couldn't believe how grown up she was now. Friday was Junior group day. J's 3 junior groups were Contemporary, Lyrical, and Tap. They received 2 High Golds and a Gold. Saturday was the Junior convention/workshop. The kids got there at around 7am and had 4 hours of master classes in Contemporary, Jazz, and Musical Theater. The master teachers are professional dancers - one was in the top 4 of season 2 of So You Think You Can Dance. In Musical Theater they broke the kids up into 5 groups. There were over 100 kids in each group. After they learned the big routine, J was chosen to represent her group and dance alone. That was exciting.

Sunday was Senior group numbers. Even though J is a Junior competitor, she dances with Seniors (over 13 y/o) from her studio, so the number is considered "Senior". They did "open" (mix of various dance styles), Hip-Hop production ("production" means it includes most or all of your comp team with various age levels. J has 6 on her junior team, but more than 30 from the studio in these production numbers), and Tap production. These numbers scored 2 High Golds and a Gold. The Open Senior number won best costume (out of over 1000 numbers!) and was one of 11 numbers chosen for a choreography showcase (they cam in 3rd place). The Tap production won a special entertainment award. The judges were incredibly tough scorers this whole week. I'm so proud of J, her studio, and her dance teachers. What a week!

Off to Nationals!!!!

Today's the day. We're heading out in a few hours for J's dance nationals. The competition starts tomorrow and goes through to Sunday. So excited! The family can't wait to leave! This is going to be a big one - she's 12 and it's her last year as a "junior" competitor. Next season she will be considered "teen". `snif

See you in a week!

Reading

W has picked up the reading bug again.

At 4 he could read all the BOB books, Hop on Pop, and the Starfall stories. Then he hit a plateau for 3 years. Then he flew forward once we started with AO. He never really enjoyed reading, but would do it for me - which I knew wasn't helping matters. He decided that today instead of doing his grammar page, he would just read a book. After 2 pages, he declared, "Wow, I love this book!". It's hard for me to know exactly how well he reads. He prefers to read silently, with only an occasional, "what does this word say?". I do know he is on "grade level" (whatever, if any, meaning that has). I'm not worried in the least, but I wish he understood how cool the world becomes once you can pick up any book and read it. It looks like he's starting to realize that.