Day 25, 26

Faith and Abby LoF. Gilbert MCP. Just doing what we do.

Day 24

LoF started and enjoyed by Faith and Abby. Gilbert did his math too, some place value review today. He's still struggling but finishing his reading workbook. It's hard for him to read between the lines and glean information. This is good practice for him.

Post-school Wii.

Day 23

Co-op. All enjoying their language classes and doing well. Life of Fred: Fractions came today too, so Abby and Faith will start that.

Day 20, 21, 22

Math for all and and also purchased Writing Strands for composition. Certainly for Faith and Abby, possibly for Gilbert.

Day 19

Co-op day. All did well. Little girls and Bede did workbooks while the others cooperated. Here's Dorothy.

Day 17, 18

Math was done by Gilbert, as well as reading workbook. We all went to the State Fair too. Faith and Abby fizzled out on their math for a few days because the text is too sparse. We have obtained two other books and have a third on the way so we will undoubtedly find one that sticks.

Day 16

Gil did math but the bigs ran into a snag. Gil finished Third Grade Detectives, too.

Day 15

Math for Faith Abby Gil. Trixie has been drawing a lot in the past months and her hand strength and ability to hold a pencil correctly has come very far. Yesterday she tried a few penmanship exercises and said her hand was tired after a few lines. A definite step forward from last year, when she couldn't make two letters and could barely draw a happy face. The Draw Write Now! books have helped so much. She is still clenching on the pencil but that will improve with time. All of that is my long way of saying she didn't do any formal work today but is making great strides overall.

Gilbert also did his reading workbook with aplomb today, no complaints, anxiety or tears, and got all the answers correct.

Bede has been reading a lot today, comics and picture books. Gloria is drawing and writing and really getting the connection between the way words sound and the way they are spelled.

Abby and Faith are working with integers in their math and  I think we may take some time to explore beyond the algorithm and see why it works. Abby is particularly interested. Khan Academy probably has a good video or two.

Day 14

Co-op today. Faith got a 97 on her first Latin quiz, woo! Before co-op G A F did math. At co-op Bede did page after page in his new math workbook. Turns out he knows how to do at least basic addition, which is cool. Six pages, all correct.

This weekend we visited a family farm. We petted goats and drank their milk, played with cats and chickens, and were sent home with a lovely sampling of garden produce to boot. The family has nine? children and they homeschool. It strengthened my resolve to get chickens and possibly goats. Dorothy concurs.

Day 13

Math for A, F, G. Bede also did a bunch of addition and subtraction. Gilbert did his reading workbook to no tears and all correct answers. Having him do the comprehension questions first, rather than second or last (how they are presented in the book) helped tremendously. Gloria, who deeply wants to learn to read, tried reading a BOB book today and went one page before anxious and tearful cries of "I don't know!" So we will wait until after Christmas for our next reading lesson. Clearly she is unable to handle it at this time. I have had readers at age 2 (Bede) and readers at age 7 (Faith) so it's no sweat for me. She is about where a typical K student is, if not a bit ahead.

Below see Dorothy vrooming a car and Faith and Abby doing... something? complicated and amusing in a game of their creation involving many many fictional characters.

Day 12

Faith, Abby and Gil did math. Bede is still making comic books. I ordered him a math puzzlers workbook on his request, and a handwriting workbook for Trixie. Also BOB books for Gloria. And Gil read Third Grade Detectives.

Day 11

Faith and Abby did algebra, Gilbert math as well. Today was Gilbert's reading workbook as well. Bede has been making comic books. Today we had a tornado shelter installed. Kids loved watching the excavation.

Day 10

Math for F, A, Gil. Bede has been reading our book on pregnancy and fetal development. Gilbert also read more Third Grade Detectives. Below is our current science interest, the giant Argiope aurantia who lives outside our window. Later it's Walmart.

Day 9

No co-op today for Labor Day. But our school goes on. Gilbert started MCP Math level C today, and Abby and Faith did Algebra. The Spectrum Algebra they are using would be more properly called Pre-Algebra, but there you have it. They like it fine. Below, Bede figuring out arithmetic with the calculator while Gilbert looks on.