Weekly Review -- April 9-13

Yes, I know it's been almost a month since I posted anything about our school work.  Honestly we've really just been doing math and some phonics/grammar so it's not really all that exciting.  This week we still kept it to math and la stuff we're wrapping up but we also did a few fun things too. 

Annika and Lucas doing lessons

Annika

... is now almost 30 weeks into vision therapy and is doing great.  Her reading ability has grown in leaps and bounds and she actually enjoys reading now. 

... has now completed Teaching Textbooks 4 through quiz 12 and is doing well with it.  

...we pulled the Explode the Code books back out and she's been doing great with them.  I think being able to read them easier, has helped her a lot.  They aren't as frustrating as they used to be.

Everett doing his math on the new iMac

Everett

... completed unit 6 in Junior Analytical Grammar on Adverbs.  Another bang up job on this unit with a "Mastery" score on the unit test. 

...has now completed through Quiz 12 in Teaching Textbooks 7.  He loves this program and is doing excellent work. 

Lucas

...has now completed All About Reading level 1 through lesson 13 and McRuffy math 1 through lesson 15.  He's doing really well with both.  He also started t-ball the end of March.  He loves it!

Kiya likes to hang out while we do lessons

The Fun Stuff

...we couldn't go bowling on Wednesday like usual because they were getting new carpet at the alley, so we went to a local park to fly kites.  It was super windy which made flying them a bit hard.  We ended up destroying two of the three kites, but had a blast while we were able to keep them up.
... Friday, Annika and I took our new fur-baby, Kiya, to a nearby state park to see if she liked long walks.  She did great, but we need to work on walking nicely on the leash and not trying to chase every single butterfly or dragonfly we encounter.  We must have worn her out because she snored like a moose on the way home. 


Flying Kites

Hello my name is Kel and I'm a paper snob. Oh and some AAS student pages I made up.

Yes, my kids can and will write on notebook or loose leaf paper, but only if they have no other option.  Why?  In all honesty, because their mother is a Paper Snob.  There I admitted it.  I'm a Paper Snob.  What's a Paper Snob?  It's someone that refuses to use anything less than 28lb, 98 brightness paper in her color laser printer.  I hate the way plain old 20lb paper is see through.  I like to print front and back when at all possible and don't want to see the backside of the paper showing through.  

Now that I got my confession out there, on to the important part of the post, the All About Spelling Student pages I created. 

I thought if I made some pages the kids would stop sniping at me about the unbearably thin 16lb loose leaf or notebook paper they've been forced to use so far this year. 

I made a page for level 1 or 2 work (in the beginning or level 1 you won't need the phrases or sentences part, but you can just print the front), one for levels 3 and up (I've only used up to 3, so I hope the set up for 4-7 will still work), as well as one for when we do mastered review.


I'll explain what's on them...




1. 5 random words or 10 random words (this is where we would write words from our review section of the word cards) we do 5 a day at levels 1 & 2 and 10 a day for level 3. I always shuffle our cards before taking out the first 5 or 10. We do this 3 days out of the week, which is usually how long it takes us to get through all but the sentences of the steps.


2. Spell on Paper, this is pretty self explanatory. It's where they would write the 10 words from that step from the spell on paper section.


3. More Words, for those that like to use them. I put a place with lines to write 10 of those words.


4. Phrases and Sentences,again pretty self explanatory. It's where they would write the phrases and/or sentences for that step. 


5. Writing Station, this section starts half way through level 3.


Mastered Review page is for when we have a mastered review come up in the levels. It has check boxes for the phonogram and key cards and then a place to write 15 phonograms from sound cards and 25 words from the word card sections.  When I do a mastered review we don't do all the cards or they'd take us forever.


I know not everyone will do AAS the way we do, but I thought I'd put them out there for anyone that may be interested.


Here is a link to them in Google Docs
Level 1 and 2 pages


Level 3 and up pages


Mastered Review page


I hope a little bit of my time this afternoon will help out a few others.

Weekly Review -- March 12-16, 2012

This was a hard week to get school done.  The weather outside was beyond perfect.  Temperatures were in the High 70s to Low 80s most days, so we spent lots of time outside, but still managed to get a bit of school work done.

Annika

... had another great week at vision therapy, then we stopped at the library for another batch of picture books.  She loves reading them because the stories are short and don't overwhelm her.  They also tend to have harder vocabulary than the typical leveled readers or chapter books that most at her reading level choose.

... completed lessons 74-77 and Quiz 11 of Teaching Textbooks 4, which wrapped up the chapter on angles, triangles, quadrilaterals, perpendicular and parallel lines, squares, rectangles, perimeter and area.  PHEW, that chapter covered a lot!

... wasn't sure about sticking with All About Spelling, but after talking it through with me decided that with a few changes to our approach that it would be the thing to stick with.
...told me she's finally ready to move on in her phonics study.  We had to take a break due to her getting overwhelmed, so we focused on just reading.  We now plan to use All About Spelling as a phonics program with her, but we'll move at a faster pace than with spelling.  We'll go back to the beginning and go through it quite quickly, but this way we'll review all she knows before jumping into the thick of it.
... had another great week bowling, every game of hers was over 100, and she set a new high score for herself with a 129. 

Everett

... completed unit 5 in Junior Analytical Grammar on Subjects and Verbs.  He did great and scored another "Mastery" level or and A on his test.

...completed lessons 69-72 and Quiz 10 in Teaching Textbooks .  This wrapped up the Decimals in the Real World Chapter.  He was excited about this chapter which included topics like balancing a checkbook, stock prices, and using a calculator.  The last two lessons started the Percents chapter, which he's loving and says it's really pretty easy.

...completed step 14 in All About Spelling 3

...had a lot of fun at bowling this week and had a few games in the 80s.

Lucas

...wouldn't let me take any pictures of him this week
...finished lesson11 in All About Reading level 1, which had him reading 2 new stories in his reader.   
...started McRuffy Math 1 and completed lessons 1-7. He loves that it has him doing simple timed tests and the problems are starting to be written out with just numbers instead of always having pictures.  He said, "Cool, no more baby math"


Science
We did some science this week and completed week 21 in Real Science Odyssey Chemistry.  It was an introduction to matter.  Instead of using Lego pieces to build molecule models I busted out an actual molecule model kit I'd bought.  The kids had a blast with it.  I'm going to be really sad when this program is over in a couple months.  The kids have thoroughly enjoyed it.  I hope the company is able to release something new before we start the new school year in the fall.


After my reflection time about the curriculum we're using, I've decided that everything we're finishing up is what we'll continue to use.  It works and our days run fairly smooth with the programs we're using.  I'm still figuring out what I'm going to do with history next year, but I have a pretty good idea.  I have nailed down geography which is one less thing to stress over.