Present and Future Plans and All About Spelling

This week has been a focus on what we are working on now, what we will be doing next year and what we will be doing during the summer. We have reached the final section in The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and I was trying to think of what would be the next logical step since her reading isn't totally fluent yet and her spelling is all phonetically (which obviously doesn't work all of the time). I bit the bullet and ordered All About Spelling. We aren't currently using a spelling program and I figured it would slide in and take OPTGR's place once we finish it. It's expensive but according to all the raves about it, it is supposed to be completely worth it. I am selling a bunch of stuff on Ebay right now anyway so that should cover the costs anyway. I bought the first three levels because I figured level one we would go through fairly quickly and I didn't want to pay shipping to Canada again anytime soon, so I got the first chunk of them all at once. I am excited to start so I hope shipping is fairly quick. I figure by summer we will be done our history, science, writing and geography programs so we can focus on All About Spelling, math, handwriting (probably cursive) and latin/french review. A lighter load for the summer but we definitely won't stop because she will forget at this young age. So that's my plan and this is what we did this week (which is now alternating between ballet/princess school and Hogwarts).

Memory Work - I added the signs of the zodiac this week because she was interested in them and who we knew under each sign. 

Phonics - We have reached the final section, today's lesson included homonyms.

First Language Lessons - Lesson 64-66, we are doing seasons and abbreviations.

Writing with Ease - Completed week 21 of copy work and narration exercises from Tom Sawyer excerpts.

Latin (Song School Latin) - We learned how to say I eat, I drink, food, supper and water, how the word for water (aqua) ties to aquarium and the phrase et cetera.

French (Nallenart) - The focus this week was feelings and sizes and how to pronounce them when referring to masculine and feminine objects.

We will stop in the middle for a shameless plug of cute baby wearing her aviators.

Math - Math Mammoth 1A number bar counting and sums up to 7. I am going to jump back and forth between 1A and 1B because I want to introduce new subjects such as clock and money while we are working through the addition and subtraction units. It will lessen the monotony of some of the lessons I think. 

History (Story of the World) - We finished chapter 20 and learned about the Greek alphabet in which we wrote our names and the Olympics. We are going to start Black Ships Before Troy once we finish our current history read aloud.

Science (Elemental) - We studied shrimp, crabs and spiders this week. All of the above make my skin crawl so it wasn't the most fun chapter for me to teach. We are almost done with the animals unit and will move on to the body within the next two weeks.

Art - Was a painting based on an experience. It is supposed to be of when she went boating on the lake. It appears to be more of an abstract interpretation of that;)

Our final two postcards of the first batch we sent through postcrossing arrived at their destination in the Germany and China. It's neat because once they are received the receiver enters them into the website and you get a nice little message from the receiver via email thanking you and commenting on what you wrote. 

Another positive week for my husbands band BeforeTheCurtain. They got the opening slot for Apocalyptica this Wednesday and are opening for Three Days Grace on Friday. I am very proud and very excited for him.