Today we began a new school year. Summer flew by and here we are the end of August. The past few days we were in Gettysburg, but too quickly, vacation is over and it's time for school.
On our trip we began reading Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi and the girls wanted to start the day (after devotions) with that. I read too little of it to suit Arielle and she has spent the rest of the afternoon finishing the book. So much for read-alouds as a family.
First thing this morning we also started Andrew Pudewa's book All Things Fun and Fascinating: Writing Lessons in Structure and Style. He has a clever technique for teaching children how to summarize non-fiction passages by first reading it through once, then reading it sentence by sentence as the child writes down three key words from each sentence. Then using just their key word outline, they re-tell, or rewrite, the story. My daughter who does not like to write--Arielle--said, "This is fun! Can we do it again tomorrow?" Arielle also told me she thinks she will like her literature book this year, after reading the first story. I like this good attitude! In the picture both girls were trying to act angry because it was the first day of school. It didn't work. They were laughing too much.
Liana has come a long way in her reading and I will not press her to read aloud her assignments to me anymore. She hates it, I hate it, and it seems pointless. She comprehends what she reads silently. That's the main concern. Unless we are reading to a child, how often do we really read aloud? So our morning was more calm for that reason alone.
The girls are finishing up a Singapore math review book before we move back into their Teaching Textbooks. I think the Singapore math is more difficult, but it is a change of pace and useful for bringing in a new perspective.
We ended our first day making maps of South America. The girls got the game "10 Days in the Americas" over the summer, so they have a jump start on the geography. They could easily rattle off all the countries. Now we need to learn about those individual countries.
We ended our school day with popsicles!
