The Day... erm... Week? of the Daleks

Ohhhh... the strange things you'll find in our school...  

This week saw a huge improvement in Robbie's attitude.  I don't really have a lot to say to set this up, so let's just dive in...

READING

He is still choosing to read a few times per week as entertainment.  I'm usually off to the side like a wildlife film maker... keeping very still and quiet, so I don't spook him into putting the book down.  (If that statement totally confused you, it will make more sense if you read my post.  "Have I Failed My Young Reader?"

WRITING

He completes a page per day from his D'Nealian 2 book.  All writing from First Language Lessons is required.  I also create vocabulary and copywork sheets for science, history and our "Notable Names" studies.

(L) Enjoying a book  |   (R) Working on his script

Books we enjoyed (either as read-alouds or shared/independent reading): 

 

After school one day, he decided that he really wanted to make a movie.  I told him that I'd film it and edit it if he wrote the script..... so he did.  RockerDad added the sound effects.  (No Oscars coming his way, but I thought it was cute for a six-year-old's first actor/writer/director credit.)

GRAMMAR and SPELLING

We're still plugging along daily with these.  They aren't the most exciting parts of our day, but neither of us really mind them, either.  

This may be a first... I don't have any math pictures from this particular week.  Huh.  Well, we have stuck to doing multiple condensed lessons each day and rounding out our week with games and mental math activities.  It's working, so far.

Manipulating numbers into the thousands was the focus of our actual lessons and our "play" math was adding and subtracting mentally within 1,000.  Skip counting review sheets were by fours.

We finished up our study of Ancient Sumer this week.  Robbie really seemed to enjoy it!

History Notebooking:  Ancient Sumer

Hands-On History:  Cuneiform Tablets and a Cylinder Seal

Books used this week:
   

Science this week was all about gastropods and bivalves mollusks... until Robbie took a sudden and unexpected left turn on me...

We only had two actual shells for him, but that was enough.  He used the conch to make a home for a hermit crab (actually a squishy, light-up spider), handled some pearls (my mom's bracelet), and looked back at pictures of him with a giant clam shell (Field Museum, July 2013).

Gastropods and Bivalves

 Books used this week:

While doing a "magic trick" for a cub scout elective, Robbie became intrigued by static electricity.

Two balloons, a pin and some cellophane tape.  

His shirt was wet because another scout shoved Robbie into the water fountain while he was getting a drink.

Fun with static electricity

Eta, Theta, Iota... these were the letters of the week.  Robbie is really surprising me.  He rarely uses his Cypher Wheel for most letters (even the ones we haven't covered, yet).  He still thinks the Cypher Wheel is cool (and uses it to check his own work), but he is challenging himself to see what he remembers on his own.

Slow and steady with the Greek alphabet

Robbie is loving the free drawing time with his Boys' Doodle Book.  We will be doing an actual art project next week, I believe.  Guitar lessons are where I'm slacking a bit.  I really need to sit down this weekend and figure out a workable way to teach him.

Practicing his guitar

Robbie is playing basketball for the first time this winter.  He's loving it, even if he is one of the smallest/youngest/least-skilled on the team.  (The league here starts at 4 years old and most of his team started years ago.)  Our neighbor just gave us a basketball goal, since his son got a new one, and Robbie LOVES to go out and practice daily.

First Basketball Game

Well, that was a tiny peek at our week.  What have you been up to?


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