Week 4

Another lovely week of homeschooling!  Sometimes it is baffling why anyone would want to send their children off for the whole day rather than spend such quality time learning with them.  That being said, I really love sending Henry to his preschool....so that Truman and I can have one-on-one time.  Henry is a high-maintenance little person who will not take no for an answer, and will not be distracted with "special toys that are only for schooltime."  So he has to participate. 
Lessons that Henry participates in during the week-
Artist Study-loves to be quizzed on paintings that we are studying.
Piano-he has to sit quietly and listen while Truman practices with mom, then Truman has to listen while Henry practices with Mom.  Henry is all about reciprocity and his interpretation of the Golden Rule (if they did something to you-you have to do it to them...)
Spanish- This is easily done with Henry, and he seems to have an ear for it.  Truman has lessons, Henry listens while crawling all over me, then they both get to watch a Spanish cartoon.  However, Henry and Truman have taken "No comprendo" too far lately, saying it after every request I make.
Poetry-Henry will patiently listen to the poem, listen to Truman read the poems, and even ask questions.
Nature Study-He will happily draw whatever we are drawing, although Henry gets frustrated pretty easily.  He has his own nature journal, although his dandelions look suspicously like race cars, as do his trees, flowers, birds.
Composer-It is also easy to integrate a small person into composer studies, because the music (Beethoven this term) is always on.  Henry can identify instruments, and Truman enjoys quizzing him using the same questions mommy asks Truman.
Handicrafts-Henry hovers over Truman while he works on his leather projects, and Truman tolerates it like a champ.
Folk Songs- Still working on The Golden Vanity. Just another song for Henry to sing, more appropriate than the songs he has learned from Dr. Horrible's-Sing-Along-Blog, anyway.

I know that Henry will be an awesome child to school when the time comes, as he enjoys his minimal lessons immensly.  Right now, however, he is a roadblock to smooth, peaceful mornings curled up on the couch with books.

Early Morning Pipe Cleaner Forest animals

The things that Henry cannot participate in, (Chemistry, Math, Spelling and Grammar, many of the readings and associated work) we do when Henry is in his Preschool on M,W, F afternoons.  It is almost shocking how much we can do in such a short amount of time without Henry around.

This week, besides the activites mentioned above, Truman and I studied the following:
Chemistry-Oxygen and Sulfur, the labs involved eggs and H2O2, lots of stinky and bubbly fun.
History/Geography-The Gupta Dynasty and the Medieval Indian Empire ( I truly love Story of the World and their maps)
Pilgrims' Progress-This book is driving me nuts, but to Truman, it is just another story.
Understood Betsy-LOVE IT!  Chapter 3
Tree in the Trail-I decided that the maps we were using were not adequate, and finally broke down and ordered the 5 dollar map from Beautiful Feet. From what I have read, this Beautiful feet map will change our lives.

The Little Duke-second half of Chapter 2, and our character list. Also developing into a great story.
Burgess Animals, Chapters 7 and 8, plus our diagram.  It was funny to see that others in the year 2 group think that we are flying through this book....I think so, too.  At least it is enjoyable.  Truman reads this to himself, with prereading done by me so that I can follow his narration.  This week was more than I ever wanted to know about Squirrels...which I think are too rodent-like to be considered cute.
Sequential Spelling- I cannot say enough about this program.  In two short months I have watched Truman grow into a competent speller.  Not ready for the National Spelling Bee, but I could almost imagine that in his future!
We work on Wordly Wise daily (which I am not crazy about- I think he gets enough Vocabulary through our literature, but is gives the district a box to check off).
Math-Right Start lesson 24, Groundworks, Mad Minutes. I am having a bit of trouble understanding Truman's abilities right now, and have been scouring the internet for answers.  He exerts little effort and really enjoys the prealgebra Groundworks, and cannot get enough logic puzzles...yet he still reverses his numbers, and REALLY struggles with Mental Math, even though he knows these answers.  The alarm went off when he added something in his head, and instead of saying 164 as the answer, he gave me 461.  Truman did reverse a lot of his letters, and would write in mirror images for a few years, but after reading about dyslexia I chalked it up to immaturity, and it has gone away for the most part.   The number reversal is not going away, however, and it turn out that there is such a thing as discalculia! I spent several cups of coffee reading about this new topic, and implemented some strategies immediately.  We wrote the numbers that he has trouble with 5, 2, 6, 4 with dry erase marker on the glass doors, very large, and very deliberate.  Apparently there is a difference between writing on a paper on the desk in front of you, and writing with your head up on a transparent surface.  I would quote that source, but now I can't find it.  We will see how this works.  Truman thought is was a hoot, anyway. 
The other issues, such as struggling with answering simple math problems orally, I cannot attribute to any real difficulty with math concepts right now.  I think that Truman more has trouble filtering out the noise in his head to focus on what was asked of him.  I found a strangely appropriate book called The Gift of Learning, Proven New Methods for correcting ADD, Math and Handwriting Problems by R. Davis.  I am still reading it, though.  Truman's Dad would love to medicate him and even brought home the Conner's rating scales for ADD from the hospital, which Truman flunked (but then so did Will AND I.) Will has been rapidly Westernized by hanging out in the Medical field, mommy still wants to try alternative methods.  This is kind of a new issue for me, still processing information and really-have no clear plan right now other than to read more and try to find some people who are knowledgeable about this.

A note about a lovely, high tech rabbit trail we took Friday afternoon.  Truman and I were reading a description of Nuremburg, Germany in a biography of our artist, Albrecht Durer, and decided we needed to see this place for ourselves.  We flew there through Google Earth, where we were amazed to find pictures of almost every street corner, every statue we read about...it was like a mini-vacation to Nuremburg.  Then we flew to Rome to visit Aunt Amy and the Coleseum, then NYC because Truman doesn't remember visiting, then our house in Silverdale, then we went to Orange Beach and stood on Gran's pier.  Two hours of siteseeing, and we didn't leave the couch.  It is pretty amazing that this technology exisits, and now my 7 year old is on a mission to document Silverdale and posts pictures on Google Earth, because our poor little town was sadly under-represented with photos.

Yep, these boys can read.