Henry There really wasn't too much going on this week. Henry was not very interested in school, I'll say that. I think we're both about ready for a little break. I have our lessons planned through November, but our semi-vacation will begin at Advent and run until Epiphany. While we'll continue our math lessons and our religion lessons, everything else will be put on hold until the new year so we can focus on the coming Christmas season.
Looking at our remaining work, there's really not much left to preschool! There are only five more art lessons in the level one book. Henry's doing well, but I think he would benefit from going back and starting over at the same level. As the pictures get more complex, his frustration at not being able to get his drawing exactly right is starting to increase. He's doing a lot of erasing and the fun level is decreasing, so I'd like him to step back a bit and also do more freehand work where he's using his imagination and drawing things from memory.
Henry will finish up the second book in the Explode the Code primer series the day before Thanksgiving. He has one more book left, Go for the Code. He'll also finish up the first level of Hooked on Phonics the same week and begin the second (and last) pre-k level. The second level is pretty much a review of the first, but the games and stories are different. These final books will take about 13 weeks to complete.
Epiphany is on January 6th, although it's transferred to Sunday the 8th. From there, we'll have six weeks of instruction before hitting the week of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. We'll go on break again (in everything except religion and math) through the Octave of Easter on April 15th. Seven more weeks will take us to an end date of June 2nd, which will work out very well. The Saxon Math year ends in June; there are only four lessons that month, so we'll be done by June 8th.
During our breaks, we'll focus on the Image of God lessons that are specific to the holiday seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. We'll also do more Good Books reading and we'll be doing arts and crafts projects which reflect the seasons, too.
Oliver
Ollie was pretty quiet in his speech therapy sessions this week. He's also showing a lot more frustration with his inability to communicate, something his therapist said we should expect. She requested a list of his favorite snacks and printed out a sheet of pictures of them. However, I really wanted something more expansive and realistic than the small black and white clip art pictures.
Since I am a sucker for resources, I ordered a Picture Exchange Communication System today. It includes 120 full-color laminated photographs that cover foods, family members, feelings, toys, activities... you name it. It's used with ABA therapy, so if we ever get our referral for that, this will come in handy, I'm sure. I'm hoping that this picture system will help eliminate the frustration that Oliver is showing and allow him to communicate what he wants until he's able to do so verbally.
This week, and for the rest of the month, we're focusing on the color orange. We went through the playroom and put all of the orange toys into a bin that I've left out for Oliver to sort through. We're doing the orange section of Starfall.com each day.
Jane
Jane's walking a little more, but not consistently. Her main problem is that she starts clapping for herself as she's walking, which throws her off balance and makes her sit down. Complete goober!
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