Day 2 comes to a close

Unlike those seriously dedicated homeschoolers, we take of the whole summer. Yep, we just sit around like bumps on a log. As A say "We are the pirates that do nuffin'." (Chuckle...he even sings it that way.)

Yesterday, marked our official First Day of School!
Everything went fine but we never got around to art or history.

Today...we did it all. Yes siree. We just jump right in and hit the ground running. We won't stop until Christmas with a small slow down for Thanksgiving. Then we'll be done by the end of April and can veg out for another solid 3 months.

Here's what everyone did today:

J (age 9 and in 4th grade )

• one lesson in MCP math D including mental math and a multiplication review.
• lesson 2 from Rod and Staff English. I was reluctant to use this program but the boy is loving it. He is such a "do this, do this, do this, then do this" kind of kid that this text just fits him to a tee. I humbly admit that I should have switched to it last year.
• Spelling Workout D, lesson 14. Yesterday we did a pretest and did the worksheets. Today he alphabetized the words and wrote them in cursive. He has decent handwriting. I am impressed.
• One science lesson in Singapore Science. Today's was on reproduction in animals. We had a big discussion about animals that laid one egg at a time versus those that laid many eggs at one time. (For those not in the know...birds: one at a time. Fish, amphibians, reptiles...lots at one time.)
• Story of the world. We are starting over with M. He wasn't that involved when we began this and now he is interested. So here we are at the beginning of the Ancients. We're doing history every darn day. I plan to skip a lot of activities and focus on the extra reading instead. J loves the books and M is thrilled to color a coloring sheet. That way I cover both boys learning styles. I have the CD's from "Hold That Thought" to add to our coloring options.
• Read the first chapter of Where the Red Fern Grows , discussed it and the vocabulary and wrote a summary of the chapter. I got these guides from Garlic Press. They are wonderful beyond my humble means of description.
• Handwriting Without Tears Cursive: letter e in the 4th grade book.
• Latin: Reviewing chapter 1 in Latina Christiana I before moving on. We both need to relearn stuff.
• Geography from the Evan-Moore book Daily Geography this covers all that silly Social studies stuff on the ITBS test but without the silliness.
• Read for about 45 minutes from his Fun Reading book. He's currently reading The Capture from the Guardians from Ga'Hoole series.

M (age 6, in grade 1 but doing mostly 2nd grade )

• one lesson from MCP math B and four exra word problems.
• a lesson from Houghlin Mifflin English 2. We'll switch to Rod and Staff next year. M does well with a lot of planned activities.
• He did the two activity pages from Spelling Workout B. This is his first year for spelling. He's not sure if he likes it.
• one lesson from Singapore science. Today was grouping objects by characteristics.
• SOTW with older brother J
• Reading: the first Tommy book from Learning Page. I don't know if I like this series or not. I appreciate the worksheets but some are much harder than the reading level.
• HWT letter w and some fine motor practice skills: mazes, tracing scribbles, and pushing a magnet on a dry erase board to build up his hand strength. M has fine motor issues and a weak upper body.
• 2 lessons in MCP Plaid Phonics B. M is loving this one for sure. I'm glad I got it instead of Explode the Code.
• A lesson from Evan Moore Weekly Geography.
• 30 wall push-ups with Baby S shadowing him.
• Speech practice. r-controlled vowels
• 30 minutes reading and A to Z mystery

A ( age 4, Pre-K with developmental delays and apraxia of speech)

• half a lesson from MCP math K. We take this very slowly.
• one activity from Easy Does It-Apraxia
• speeh practice from therapy
• 2 brushing therapies
• 2 cut and paste activities
• a couple of games of sound Go Fish (Do you have any mmmmmmmmm's?)
• Read Katy No Pocket for Before Five in a Row.

Baby S (age 2 and no where near school ready)

• listened to Katy no Pocket
• drew lots of pictures
• cut paper in little bits
• drove his train all over his brother's books
• gave lots of hugs
• enjoyed a quiet morning TV show with no brothers to complain about the "baby" show
• played with unifex cubes
• broke two crayons

2 days down. 178 more to go.