Monday, August 15, 2011

Week 2 of School

I'm a bit late but better late than never right?
Last week we finished off a session at the local YMCA of swimming for P.E. They are both in the Pike class which is the very first one they offer. Daniel finished the last class with being able to float on his back. He doesn't do it for very long as he can't hold still. But he can do it. He can also dog paddle however it is underwater and he stops as he come up for air. Luckily he can touch the bottom of the pool. He is close to being able to float on his stomach as well. Probably one more session of Pike and he will be able to move up. Reagan finished out the session putting her eyes in the water. She's not so keen as Daniel about her head going in the water. She will be a bit longer in the Pike class.
Daniel finished one of his reading books and is now in the last 2 books of the beginning set of 10 in the Abeka reader series. His books review the sounds of the constants, work on blends and words and the last page of each book there is a sentence in short vowel words. He does really well. Reagan is still working on learning her letters.... One day maybe it will click. We have been reading more of the book Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling. Daniel begs for more each day. I really want to get the other books by this author as they really are great. We are also reading A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. It's funny how you go from screaming because they don't want to read your book to, "Mom can we hear some more tomorrow?"
In math Daniel worked on a couple of new things this week. In his addition he learned about grouping things into 10 when adding and then adding the remaining numbers. Then he also got introduced to counting by 2's. This is going to take awhile to sink in.
Daniel is working very hard on his violin. His teacher is having him do a lot of pre playing exercises, some of which he isn't very keen on but they are really good for him both for learning to play the violin and for his fine motor development. His teacher had him start practicing bowing some rhythm's holding onto a marker this week. He is getting impatient to actually start playing.
We also went to the park and identified the plant plantain, did a rubbing of the leaf and drew it. We are starting a nature notebook to record our findings. We also finally made it to the local bookstore and picked up a field guide for birds and one for flowers. Daniel really enjoyed looking through the bird field guide and finding out what all the names of the birds are.

1 comment:

  1. The other books like Paddle to the Sea are for the other years of Ambleside so you both will have to wait.

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