This school year has been a lot busier with outside-the-home activities than every before. For the most part, I think that's working well, but it often means we're squeezing in our "regular" school work into every nook and cranny of available, in-between time. The boys are all excelling academically, so I don't think this approach has hindered them.
It does mean we've gone on fewer field trips, because Fridays are now often necessary work finishing days. We have gone on some great ones though, and I have another post coming up specifically dedicated to our fun outings.
I have been very happy with The Good and The Beautiful (TGTB) language arts curriculum we switched to at the beginning of the year. Bryce worked double time to finish Level 3 in December and is enjoying the fact that Level 4 is designed to be more independent. One of the level 4 lessons had him make gnocchi.
That was a long, but fun and worthwhile project. We enjoyed eating the fruits of his labors.
Thane is still working through level 2 and often asks to do more than one lesson a day. I've had to slow him down a lot because I really want the course book to last him at least through May!
I tried to start the Kindergarten level with Graham back in October but when I gave him the beginning assessment, it was way too hard for him. "Okay," I thought, "I just need to do Level 1 of All About Reading with him first."
Fast forward to the middle of January and I hadn't done a thing with him specific to reading (I rationalized that it wasn't a big deal because he's not even officially in kindergarten yet). I'm not sure why, but I thought maybe we'd try TGTB level K again. Imagine my surprise when he breezed his way through the assessment! I'm thinking I should neglect his education more often! Seriously, he basically taught himself to be a phenomenal reader. We are now on lesson 20 of TGTB K and Graham is loving it.
One afternoon Aubree was cooking with some friends and Graham decided to create his own recipe for cake. He said this "came from [his] own head." Later he gave me more details: "5 cups of sugar, 5 cups of milk, 5 bananas, 5 scoops of peanut butter, 5 cups of honey, 5 apples, and 5 eggs. Cook for 5 minutes at (you guessed it) 5 degrees." I love first writings!
Sometimes even the big kids want to participate when their history and math co-op work gets done early.
We've gone on a couple FIAR related field trips. One Saturday, after reading "A Pair of Red Clogs," which is set in Japan, we visited a Japanese festival held at a nearby college. Graham really wanted to dress up as a Samurai soldier, but the line was too long, so he settled with a basic kimono.
Bryce and Thane are loving all their outside classes. Their PE class is super fun.
They are doing great things in their art class.
Bryce was asked to switch into a different session of the class, one designed for kids ages 10+. The teachers felt he was spending too much time waiting in the class he was in, and felt he was ready to move faster and go deeper. He's gone to one week so far in the new class and really enjoyed the quicker pace. All this design/engineering based science is RIGHT up his alley.
Thane stayed in the original class and I think it will be great for him to be there without Bryce.
We are averaging about one nature journal entry a week, and that's been a lot of fun too. We've learned about a wide variety of plants and animals, and it's been a good break from our regular routine.
One change we've made is that I started Bryce and Thane back in piano lessons. A friend of mine decided to open up a studio and accept new students. She's a super teacher, so we took advantage of the opportunity. It's Thane's first time taking lessons and the structure and feedback is good for him. Bryce is ecstatic to be taking lessons again. He's begging to be able to move up to a 45 minute lesson. He needs to get his practices more focused before we can do that.
Nellie and Graham are patient waiters during the hour long (Bryce + Thane) lesson.
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