Week 10: Crossing a Threshold

This week we crossed into some new territory.  So far, I have enjoyed TOG for the "heft" of the content. There is no shortage of reading material for the interested student. However, at the end of unit 1, it seemed Matty was not quite getting enough reading from the upper grammar (UG) track. He even said, "Mom, can I have more to read?" Happily I obliged him, and decided to try doing the dialectic (D) track literature with him. He was already reading one of the dialectic history sources in addition to all the UG history and literature reading, plus any Story of the World  assignments (which are given as alternate history core) given in a week. So this week he started reading Island of the Blue Dolphins, and is truly enjoying it. He found the student activity page (SAP) to be more interesting for this as well, and previously the SAP for upper grammar seemed kind of pointless to him. He also read all of the UG assignments and some of the D history, as before. I heard a few groans near the end of the week for the sheer volume of reading, but no complaints. I believe he felt gratified for putting in the hard work. I'm pleased that he found all of the selections to be engaging and interesting.

We all enjoyed reading aloud a book called In the Days of Queen Victoria. Only chapter one was assigned but they begged for more, so I read ahead. When I am finished with this book I will show the children the movies Young Victoria, and Mrs. Brown. The latter may be a bit over Molly's head, but I expect that Matty will thoroughly enjoy both.

Math and Language are moving ahead nicely. Molly is enjoying Writing With Ease 1 (WWE 1) and is doing very well. She has heard Matty and I go through the process of narration and dictation so much that she is ready! When I ask her, "Can you tell me one thing you remember from the story?" She replies, "Can't I tell you two?" Matty is doing great with WWE 3 which is where we will stop before moving into Writing With Skill. We are enjoying meeting weekly with some friends for French class, which I am teaching. I am using Le Francais Facile which is working well so far, but we are only a couple of weeks into it. It is indeed "facile" and is helping me to brush up my French from oh, about a hundred years ago.

All in all, it was a full and productive week, and I am well satisfied with our progress. Let's see what happens here (i.e. will it all unravel?) as the holidays overtake life. I am hoping for a low-stress, peaceful season.