Friday, August 31, 2012

August 26 - September 1, 2012

Yes, that is what you think it is.  Last year, Henry received this little kit as a birthday gift.  Sunday, I noticed that our fountain was full of tadpoles.  I'd been holding off on renting it out until we started science, but I couldn't resist live, free tadpoles ripe for the picking.

We scooped one lucky guy out, put it in the tank, then headed to the pet store to pick up some tadpole food.  And then I totally wanted to just go ahead and start science, but I made myself abandon that idea right away.  Sticking to phonics, handwriting and math is what we need to do for now.  I think anything more would be overkill.

Each morning, Henry races downstairs to see if his tadpole has started growing legs.  Each morning, I walk slowly towards the tank, dreading to see the little guy floating at the top.  So far, so good.  Tadpoles don't seem to do much.  I've been looking at the ones left in the fountain for comparison and their activity level is about the same.

This week, Henry did :
  • Saxon Math 1: Lessons 28-31 (writing the number 26, addition facts - doubles to 18; writing the number 27, addition facts - doubles; Written Assessment 5 and Oral Assessment 3; writing the number 28, covering designs with pattern blocks)
  • The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading: Lessons 82-84 (review of long-vowel words; the vowel pair AI as /ā/
  • Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Kindergarten: Pages 83-88 (Rr, Nn, Mm)
Oliver

Ollie had another great week.  Today, when I picked him up from therapy, his therapist was almost giddy over Oliver independently signing "pretzel."  His ratio of full to partial mands (signing requests) is getting better and better  and he's averaging about two independent mands per session.  When we got home, he signed both "pretzel" and "banana" for me and was giggling and jumping up and down when I understood what he wanted.  We should get his first monthly report next week and I'm anxious to see how they grade his progress.

In addition to the signs he used today, he had some more neat accomplishments this week.  The biggie has been that he's used the potty quite a few times, even staying dry overnight.  We'll keep working on that at home and maybe we'll get it knocked out before the new year.  He also signed "drink" for Matt and carefully sorted through an entire bag of stuffed animals to pick out three specific ones: a killer whale, a shark, and a bass.  Those were the only aquatic animals in the container and he went through the whole thing to pick out just those three to play with.  Sorting!

Jane

Wee Miss is working on the color orange this week.  Carschooling is going well and I'm glad we have some educational DVDs to fill in what would otherwise be a half an hour dead zone each day.  This week, she watched the Classical Baby set and Leapfrog Letter Factory.

Peter

Nothing too crazy going on with Chunk-a-Monk.  He's stretching his nighttime feedings out a little bit more lately.  I think he's on the cusp of really sleeping through the night.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Last is this shot of some of the outer rain bands from Isaac.  Even here in Florida, we got some wind and rain from the storm.  If the lakes aren't refilling after this summer, I don't know what it's going to take.


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