Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Holy Cow... It's June Already!

Wow! Last time I checked the year didn't go by so fast! We're still trucking along with our lessons and attempting to finish settling into the new house. Even though we moved here last fall we're not 100% settled in since there are several home improvement projects we have in mind and I hate getting a room all situated only to move everything again to repaint or something else.

We have enough room for a separate school room and haven't gotten around to seeing if we like the idea in this house. Lessons at the kitchen table where I can do laundry while teaching or make lunch while keeping an eye on the campers seems to be working for now.

We're not going to stop our lessons at all this summer and we're not even lightening up the lesson load. Not because we're behind because I'd planned the year out this way. We took a lot of time off during the move, a few solid weeks at Christmas, and I knew we'd be home for most of the summer.

Everyone's lessons are going well and each of them have specific goals to hit before the end of summer. These are goals I've lain out with their needs in mind...

Peanut is working hard on her writing, blending sounds in spelling, and word recognition. She's not a fluent reader but she's beginning to pick up words she sees frequently. I'm not pushing reading to the point of pain but we work on it daily and we'll get there eventually. Reading and proficiency in basic mathematical facts are her main goals for the summer.

YCJ is also still working on her reading. Her dyslexia makes this a little complicated for her but she can, and does, read when not pushed until she stresses out. Her main goals for the summer are: more proficiency in reading, more of the multiplication table memorized, and the ability to write short book reports on her own.

ECJ just keeps trucking along. With most subjects not causing him issues. Although he's still struggling with note taking and more mature report and research writing. All of that is on his goals for the summer list along with completing a book called Algebra Without Tears so that he'll be able to jump into algebra one come fall and skip over pre-algebra.

I'm doubtful we'll do much inside home improvement over the summer as we have several outside projects on our list as well. During the summer I'd much rather be outside if possible, unless it's too hot and then I don't want to do much of anything.