Weekly Wrap Up Week 4

Another full week!  This was our first week this school year without Daddy, as he returned to work on Monday.  That day started chaotically, but turned out ok, and the week just improved from there!

Monday:

Dale went out to practice for an event coming up on Tuesday, and the two littles were sleeping.  Alan and I took advantage of the calm to mix up some fingerpaint together:

When Dale was back and everyone awake, we all enjoyed a little painting.  Well... we all painted.  Some enjoyed it more than others.

Alan: loved. Tyler: happy (despite look of initial doubt above). Me: enjoyed experience. Dale: Participated only because I told him we'd be using the painted paper to make something later in the week.

Tuesday: Weekly storytime at the library, and Dale was asked to help with this week's puppet show.  He had a blast and really did a great job.  The whole thing reinforced my desire to put him in our local community theater's summer classes for kids!

Wednesday: Alan decided it is time for Tyler to do 'real' school.  He remembered a garage sale workbook I had tucked back just for that purpose and took upon himself the role of teacher.

Thursday: We watched a good bit of Olympics all week, but Thursday was definitely the highlight as my Taekwondo boys and I got to see some Olympic matches.  Alan may or may not have thrown his last few bites of a banana he was eating when the Brazilian he had chosen to root for lost the match in over time.

Friday: Unexpected day off for Daddy.  Dale and Alan finished their school in record time to be able to go with him for some errands.  More school for Tyler, a sort-by-color activity:

"Teacher" Alan sticking close by.

Brooklyn even got in on the school action this week.  Inspired by the ideas from a post on sensory activity ideas my sister sent, I gave Brooklyn a couple of ice cubes to play with this afternoon.

She had as much fun eating them as she did playing with them. :)

In addition to all the fun and games we managed to cover our full schedule of academics, which included the following:

Alan's Bible topic this week was attentiveness.  He continued with short a and moved on to short i sounds in phonics (Explode the Code 1).  

For cursive we reviewed 't' and 'i', and added 'j' and 'e'.  Alan's first cursive word: 'jet'!  We'll start next week practicing with 'tie' and 'tee' in addition to 'it' and 'jet' and another new letter or two.

Alan also did a lot of hands on and workbook work with the concept of beginning addition.

I've noticed as he's read to me lately that he reads so much better when there are no pictures to look at.  With pictures he tries to guess the text.  Same thing with familiar stories.  With no pictures he actually reads the sounds and puts them together fairly smoothly to make words.  

Dale continued learning the 20 key people of the Old Testament.  I had a test scheduled for today (Friday) but it seemed silly since I knew he knew the material.  So, I had him do his 'test' orally, telling Daddy all he has learned so far.  He passed with flying colors. ;)

He finished reading Genesis and began Exodus.

I am pleased with his improved effort in all his language arts subjects - writing, handwriting, spelling, and grammar.  I think he is proud of the better work he is producing.  We will still be working toward more improvement over the weeks ahead.

Tyler is one week into a two-week unit of Beach and Ocean stuff.  We've had a lot of fun reading and making this week.  His projects are great for putting a little extra crafting and fun into the big boys' days as well.