Week 20: Big Strides for A Little Girl!

We had another great week. The war on our "Worst Homeschool Enemies" has continued, and now is becoming more standard protocol. Messages are taken by the trusty voice mail, I've been trying to get to bed earlier, and sticking to my guns and making sure the check-list gets "checked" is going well.

The kids enjoyed week 20's geography, this week, as they traced maps of Asia and learned about China, Japan, and Russia's boundaries and features. They also reviewed things they had learned in last year's CC cycle and remembered where all the "stans" are.

We finished Tom Sawyer and began listening to Little Women which, to my utter astonishment, my son is enjoying! We read about and discussed Hudson Taylor, missionary to China, and Florence Nightengale, the mother of modern nursing. We have also enjoyed discussions about Commodore Perry and the opening of Japan. This has led to some interesting discussions in our family about whether or not the US oversteps its boundaries in foreign policy. It's interesting to see our son begin to form opinions about this.

Molly, sporting her new glasses!

I have lately been a bit concerned about my sweet girl's reading. She seemed to be struggling still with sounding things out, still faltering sometimes over words, then began reversing all of her numbers consistently. I was thinking "uh-oh, is this dyslexia?" My first thing was to get her eyes checked. I put it off for a couple of weeks, then decided I must. If it wasn't her eyes, I'd make and appointment with a specialist. The day I called to make the appointment was the day I think her reading "lightbulb" got switched on! She suddenly seemed to be soaring--blowing through her reading lessons, writing her numbers correctly, enjoying school even more, and excelling in general. For the last two weeks, she has been so thrilled with the ease with which she is reading, and looks forward to her reading text as one of her favorite parts of lessons, not the hardest thing anymore. ((sigh)) We went ahead and got her glasses, but at least I am pretty sure that the problem she was having is not dyslexia or a learning disability.

Overall it was a great week. We wrapped it up with ice skating on Thursday and play dates with friends on Friday, while mom and dad got some errands done (and a little date in the process.)