Phonics first, because that's what's most exciting this week: Monkey's fluency is really picking up with the VCV words! He's able to read the 1st two Bob books, and is doing so with increasing fluency! We played the penny game a couple of times this week, and I've added the new words from Book 3, so that when we actually get there it should go a little easier. I notice that reading words in context seems to be much more difficult than reading a single word on a card in the game - even though the book offers pictures that give clues about what's happening. I talked it over a bit with my Mom, and we're thinking that the pictures are actually distracting him from the words. In any case, there is definite progress in phonics. I've added words from book 3 to the penny game, so hopefully next week he'll be able to do that.
The nice thing about the penny game is that it works Math at the same time, so math was easy this week. Practice counting, practice identifying coins - dimes, nickles, and pennies, though we haven't really talked about what they're worth much. We got a great flannel-board book from Nana this week that does some fun addition work, but we haven't had it out to read and play with yet.
That's because our furnace died. Well, it did still technically make heat. But it also made carbon monoxide. We couldn't have the one without the other anymore. This is a problem. One that is now remedied: we have a new furnace. The AC was about to go too, so we have a new one of those too. This process did a number on Nature Study this week, as we needed to be home for the Furnace Man. Plus, it was raining cold rain, and with no heat, though we weren't really suffering, I didn't want to risk getting chilled. So we stayed in on Tuesday. That turned out fine, because furnaces, heat exchangers, and AC units all come in boxes. We made a box castle instead. Monkey has a designated "bedroom" with a small pillow in it, and a cardboard "bed." He's got a kitchen that he uses to bake for me, conveniently located right inside the front door.
On Thursday, we actually got some Nature Study done. Monkey was especially pleased because we got snow. He's been so sad because all his snow melted, and it kept raining, rather than snowing. But Thursday, we got a couple inches! Of course we had to get out and play in it. Monkey's activity of choice was shoveling, and when that got old we attempted a snowman. It rolled into balls nicely, but when we started trying to stack them they broke, so there are no pictures of the snowman.
Our Scripture Study is going well. Family scripture reading in the evenings is pretty consistently every night. We've got room for improvement on my reading to Monkey at naptime. I'm going to have to come up with another routine for that and our read-alouds, because naptime is an endangered species. Our memorizing is also going well enough that we added a new one, Ephesians 4:32, late last week. Monkey also requests "stories about Jesus" for bedtime stories almost every night. This week, it's been the Easter story just about every night that he's wanted to hear.
7 comments:
Oh my gosh, how awesome that Monkey is reading the Bob books! You must be so geeked out. I love the cardboard box house - fabulous!
You still have lots of snow???!!!!??!?!?!?!! My heart goes out to you.
Congrats on the new furnace and air conditioner. =)
I am pretty excited about the Bob Books! Woot!! And the cardboard castle is being a lot of fun, though I think we're having company this weekend & it'll need to be disassembled, which will cause Much Sadness.
We got snow, but it's already mostly melted. We actually had been clear up to a record-breaking 70-something, and those are my irises peeking through the snow. The crocuses are finished, and the rest of my flowers were trying to come up. I should have tulips relatively soon. It's just still that early part of spring where the weather occasionally changes its mind & reminds us that we're not in charge! And I don't mind too much: Monkey was SUCH a happy camper. There's just a little left today that he's been out to play in.
Yay Monkey!!! WTG on the reading!
You can keep the snow though. LOL
I LOVE any home that is made from cardboard- just awesome!
Hey, we got a new fridge last week....but it didn't come in a box! Now I feel cheated ;)
Great box castle!
Ack! I'm so sorry about the furnace. We've been there-no fun. But everything else looks like so much fun!
I'll bet that somewhere there was a refrigerator box: we have friends whose dad is a contractor, and once built a castle in their basement, with refrigerator boxes and dryer boxes and I forget what other kind. Those things are HUGE! Makes our little castle look just puny. And they were able to keep it for months (those boxes, in addition to being large, are sturdy) - ours isn't going to last that long cuz we just don't have the space to dedicate to it.
For the most part, it was a very good week. And if it wasn't for the financial squeeze that putting in a new furnace & AC puts on, I'd be really pleased. The new one is more efficient, and quieter, and the house is warmer. It just used up all our money for the next while. But it's better than carbon monoxide!
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