3rd Grade

We started the school year pretty early this year, the third week of August. We got a bit behind last year and I wanted to be on top of things this year. I can't believe you are in 3rd grade already. This year started with a great attitude despite some summer time considerations of going to public school in spite of the bullies and everything.

Your reading has improved in spite of not reading as much as Sofia did at this age. Your spelling, however, is atrocious.  That's were the dyslexia really shows up. But you have a good enthusiasm to learn most of the time and you're doing pretty well in all your subjects.

Language Arts:
  Writing -- Writing & Rhetoric Book 1: Fables
  Grammar -- First Language Lessons Level 3
  Spelling --  All About Spelling finishing Level 3
  Manuscript -- Getty Dubay book D
Math:
  Right Start Math Level D
  (Singapore Math Challenging Word Problems 1 finishing)
  (Life of Fred when the mood strikes you)
History:
  Story of the World Vol 1: Ancient History
Science:
  R.E.A.L. Earth & Space Level 1
Tech:
  LEGO WEDO
Fine Arts:
  Ballroom BYU Youth Dancesport Team
Other:
  Song School Latin 1
  Geography
  Logic

I wish we could do more like Spanish, Piano, and Art, but I needed to keep it realistic so we could enjoy the subjects you have instead of stressing about trying to get them all done.

You do History, Science, and SS Latin with Peter which is a bit of a help. It's kind of re-ignited my own enthusiasm to start some of these subjects with you the way I was excited to do them with Sofia.  I spend the most amount of time doing school with you right now, but I'm glad that you're not getting lost in the shuffle. I know, I only have three kids to teach but it's quite the juggling act.  I hope you continue to enjoy learning the way you are now and we have a great year.

Engineering Foundations

 

Marcelo has been really excited for 1st grade. His tech class for My Tech High is Engineering Foundations. He is working with the Engino: Simple Machines kit.  I told him this was a My Tech High class not a mommy class and that he needed to do it on his own and that he could ask the course mentor questions online using the video feature if he needed help.  I wanted to make sure building stuff didn't become another one of my hobbies.  He did wonderfully from the very first project. He opened the kit and put all the pieces in the plastic container I gave him. He found the correct set of instructions for Levers and got going on his first project, the See-Saw.  He completed it with virtually no help aside from taking apart or pushing together a few pieces. (They can be incredibly hard to do!)  The first project took him a few hours and he was so determined to finish it. I'm so proud of him.

 

 

He even pinched his fingers a few times and ripped the top layer of skin right off! He didn't even complain but merely showed me what had happened like a half an hour later.



Letter Scale

 





Weight Scale

 

Crane

First day of school: 1st grade

 

Almost six. You're a first grader and so excited for it. This is the bitter sweet time when any baby fat you may have had melts away in the wake of your young boyish looks.  Your face looks so much thinner than last year.

School work

Marcelo's first official homeschool assignment.  Drawing.  A selft portrait. A+

I knew he would love this assignment involving scizzors.  It's a creative logic exercise and aside from not being able to read the labels yet, he did awesome.

Kindergarten reject

Since Marcelo misses the Kindergarten birthday deadline of age five by Sept. 1st, we are naturally starting Kindergarten at home(school).  He is pretty excited and hasn't mentioned anything about his previous disappointment over not getting to play on the Kindergarten playground at Sofia's former charter school, Quail Run.

He should be well prepared for Kinder, which we plan to start next week. He graduated from the UPSTART preschool program last month with beginning reading skills in phonics and decoding.  My only concern for his teachability factor is that he seems to like writing in reverse, from bottom to top, right to left, and often with the mirror images of letters.  Hopefully this goes away during the year and doesn't point to a more serious issue.

I'm excited for a full year of homeschooling without the distractions and energy-sapping issues of public school we had last year.  I'm a little nervous about how it will go with two students.  Little steps.  But, teaching Marcelo can't be any harder than teaching Sofia, right?  Right???

PreK Writing

When the job of sounding out letters, blending letters, and reading seems a bit too daunting, Marcelo takes a break from Rusty & Rosie to come in the study for some hands-on PreK activities.  Today he decided, the previously daunting task of forming letters was pretty appealing.  He had me write his name and ALL of the letters.  He actually did quite well compared to the last time I saw him form his letters.  Apparently he thought so too because he went ahead and checked each one off after completing his work.

Preschool 3 Graduation

Marcelo started attending Little Scholars Preschool for 3 year olds in January.  Today was their little graduation party.  I'm not sure that he learned anything new during his time there as he had been studying the letters of the alphabet for over a year with Newman's Own Alphabet Cookies in all three flavor choices.  And, PBS's Super Why and Word World filled in the rest. But, he enjoyed the social life quiet a bit since the girl to boy ratio was highly in his favor.

There was a performance before the pot luck lunch during which the kids in his class sang songs and took turns taking the lead with the microphone. There were some interesting moments from Marcelo, some of which made me want to sink to the bottom of my seat but alas, that was impossible being on the first row.



Oh, my goodness, would I love a nap right now.

Finally.  "Ladies and gentlemen ... "  -"Why is this microphone so flipping high?"

Um .... something about the color RED.

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto . . . . . . . . . . . . . Domo

Shake it, Shake it
Shake Your Groove Thing, Shake Your Groove Thing
Yeah, Yeah

Ready for Preschool

Since starting to homeschool Sofia, people have been asking me if I'm schoolin Marcelo too or they might just assume I'm trying to turn him into a super genious.  But actually, I decided not to do any organized schoolin with him until he was four. I figured I would start preschool activities with him then and wait until he was five to start reading instruction.  Unfortunately, my plans have been foiled.  He has recently demonstrated quite a bit of interest in preschool activities (well mostly just wanting to use the scissors) and since I gave him a schultute with a big "P" for preschool when Sofia graduated Kindergarten and moved on to first grade, I guess I had to make good on it.

One of the ways Marcelo has proved his readiness for preschool is suddenly becoming interested and capable of completing puzzles.  Just a few months ago, it was hard to get him interested in the large cardboard puzzles with a few pieces, now he's doing these little 25-piece puzzles and some giant floor puzzles as well as the wooden puzzle sets I got him for Christmas.  Recently, he even helped Sofia with the 100-piece Noah's Ark puzzle.

He's been crazy about cutting with scissors, so naturally I had to give him his own pair of scissors as part of his schultute goodies. Better that than to find him trying to cut with the giant and very pointy kitchen scissors.  He's actually pretty good with them.  (I think his fine motor skills might be a bit more refined than Sofia's).

I had been letting him doodle in Sofia's old preschool activities book, then I told him he could get his own if he was able to follow instructions about what to do on the pages and not scribble. He wasn't too keen on the whole doing what someone tells you thing for the first three times.  After getting the scribbling out of his system, I got him his very own preschool activities book which has it's very own place in our Staples Office Apprentice (mammoth paper holder that Ray got me for my birthday).  He's very proud of this.

And just to reaffirm that I'm not the only one with rules on this planet, I enrolled him at Little Scholar's Preschool a couple of blocks away from our house, twice a week.  They're not as militant as Challenger but I think he'll do fine there and I'm not as focused on their academics since I plan to cover that at home later.  I do wish they'd make their book bags a little smaller though.  What's up with that.  I do have a small problem with a school that doesn't understand proportions. Oh well.

I want to do my school

Recently, we discovered the Starfall.com website which is a super great, totally free online resource for learning to read phonetically. I thought this would be a good place for Sofia to keep up her reading with the simple online books similar to the ones she would bring home from challenger that are right at her level.

Because Marcelo sees Sofia learning to read and also me spending individual time with her reviewing phonics and so forth, I told him he could do the alphabet section of the website and he often says, "I want to do my school". It is super cute. The only problem is that he doesn't have a good grasp of mouse mechanics and I'm still weary about him around the laptop seeing as what happened with those missing (broken) keys and all.

Here, Sofia demonstrates to him how to read a book and then helps him click on the letters he wants to do.

Library Story Time

I've decided to kick my mom butt in gear and do more educational, worth-while, non-TV -movie -toy, related activities with the kids. After Peter was born, I re-instituted the limited TV time I can really see a difference in how it affects the kids. For me it means more work up front. But it is what it is.

So, I decided, with Sofia's emergence into reading, that we should make regular trips to the library. Lehi recently opened a "satellite" branch, Point Meadow, that seemed custom made for the kids so we took a visit during story time.

So this is why I'm always telling the kids to "please smile for c#*!$% sake". In the other picture, I think Sofia is picking her nose.

It is the cutest thing on the outside, like a modern one-room school house. I don't really understand why they made a library whose parking lot is bigger than it's building but whatever. Also, I think the fountain outside might have cost more. Clearly, I'm not privy to how these plans are made.

Marcelo really enjoyed Story Time. I think he thinks it's like his "Preschool". So cute. It's also nice to have your big sister there sometimes.

First day of school

Today was my first day of school. I was pretty tired because I had to get up at the crack of dawn. I wore my best little boy outfit cuz I'm kind of the smallest kid in class right now and I wouldn't want anyone to think I was a baby or something.


Before starting school, I did my homework and practiced drinking from a bottle. Well, only a couple of times but I did it. Shortly upon arriving in class, I perfumed the room with my farties just to let everyone know who was the boss.

It was a pretty big day for me. After school, I got to participate in the Christmas program. Since I don't know how to sing or play any instruments yet, again, I just used my farties to perfume the stage for when the big kids came out so it would smell good.