Two Week Review: August 1 - 15

Okay, so technically the first two weeks have been over with for a couple of days now, but like I said earlier I'm in the middle of some crazy house stuff, so something had to slide and the blog was picked.  My kids have also gotten extra TV time, which makes me cringe, however by Friday MOST of the work will be done, our normal schedule will resume, and I should be back to blogging starting with that damned Dinosaur Week post.

So, onto a nice easy topic, our first two weeks of our new schedule.

First, Scooby-Doo, since he's the easiest.  He loved working on his Dora colors & shapes workbook - actually he finished it and is onto a new (different) colors & shapes workbook already - and he had fun arguing with me over how markers are held in your hand.  He loved his special coloring books that he didn't have to share with his big brothers and he especially loved putting stickers in them.  At first he was confused over what to do with the stickers - I have given them to him before but he's never actually sat down and used them, and the moment he walked away Optimus Prime & Bumblebee would pounce on them and use them up - but it took him about two seconds to figure it out then he was giggling like crazy.  He also loved our "us" time where we sat down and read stories together without his big brothers (who absolutely HATED being left out - especially Optimus Prime - even though they really don't care for baby books anymore).

But most of all he loved it when I called him over to the table to do his schoolwork.  He would always get very jealous and worked up when I would work with Optimus Prime & Bumblebee, and I would tell him that I couldn't play right then, or his brothers couldn't play right then, or he wasn't allowed to take markers to big brothers schoolwork and scribble all over it, etc.  First thing in the morning (okay, after breakfast, brushing teeth, and getting dressed - so not FIRST thing, but you get it) I always call out to Optimus Prime and Bumblebee that it is schoolwork time.  Some mornings I get greeted with "Yea!  Schoolwork time!"  and other day's it "Man, not AGAIN!" but I've never called out to Scooby-Doo.  So now when I do his face lights up and he runs right over to sit on my lap so we can learn some colors and shapes (actually, I don't think he learned anything, but that's okay) and scribble together.  He loves it, and now he's more patient when I tell him I'm busy doing schoolwork with his big brothers because he knows in just a few minutes it will be his turn instead.  So I'm glad I decided to do an extra year of Pre-K with him because the look of happiness on his face when it's his turn is so perfect and sweet.

...

Okay, I'm done turning my toddler - who is going through the terrible two's phase BIG TIME right now - into a total angel.

Now, onto Optimus Prime & Bumblebee.

Initially I had decided that we would do our Concept Week during week three for the first month because I wanted the first two weeks to be all about easing into the schedule, however with all of my crazy house stuff going on there is no way it is happening before week four.  However it should definitely happen then, so all's well that ends well I suppose.  Plus this gives me some extra time to finally finish my totally existent - honestly! - Dinosaur Week post.  I don't want to confuse myself.  For an FYI - there is nothing special about Dinosaur Week, so when I finally put up the post it's going to be a total let down.  You've been warned.

I also figured that I wouldn't worry about our one-on-one time for the first month because I wanted to best gauge how well they are taking in all of the new subjects.  This works out rather well, because, again, the house drama currently going on.

So other than that how are Optimus Prime & Bumblebee doing?  Very well.  I guess they were a bit bored with our old schedule and are loving the challenge.  Handwriting is coming along okay for Optimus Prime, could be better, could be worse.  It's coming along awesome for Bumblebee.

Spanish is coming along super well for Optimus Prime and pretty good for Bumblebee.

They are both doing great in Science and love reading about a new animal (almost) everyday.  They are also both doing good in Geography and like looking at maps, even if they don't have the firmest grip on the concept.

English is coming along a lot better than I thought it would (I was expecting total failure), however it is definitely their weakest subject.  I foresee a lot of English in our one-on-one time.  Some concepts they got down no problem what-so-ever - like the ending sound in words (book ends in k, hippo ends in o, etc), others I thought they were getting down only to walk away not so sure - like compound words (snow + man = snowman we can all agree upon, however when it comes down to man + snow = mansnow we disagree on), and some they definitely need more help with like putting words in ABC order (I have to be honest, I'm really scratching my head over this one.  It seems so basic to me.  How can you not understand this?  It's not like the words all begin with the same letter, the list begins with all different letters.  However, I'm not six so I'll accept and work on it).

Math is really good, however so far we have only done addition and subtraction.  They had never done subtraction before this, and they picked up the concept in two days.  Now they are doing awesome.  Optimus Prime needs some extra help which we will do soon, he has the concept down but he keeps miscounting on about half of his problems.  The answer will be six, he'll say seven, that sort of thing.  He keeps skipping over pictures because he's in a rush, however he's still doing awesome so that's good.

Then there is the dreaded Spelling "class."  It was their least favorite subject in Kindergarten, it's still their least favorite subject today.  However, they did stop complaining today when I told them that I remember some of my spelling lists from grade school and they were 20 words long - not 5 - and I had to write them 10 times each - not 5 - and use them in a sentence.  They were in such awe of the numbers 20 & 10 that they flat out said they were glad that they didn't have to do that much and that they were happy with their spelling schoolwork.  I didn't have to prompt that answer or anything!

Reading is going so-so.  They are memorizing the books after one reading so I decided to shorten the number of days we read them for (from six to three).  I have a new idea for Spelling and Reading, but we won't do it until next quarter.  However, I had another new idea which was to write up sentences using just previous spelling words to see how they do.  About 50/50, so we now do this every quiz day as well.  Kind of like a reading quiz, I guess?  We might start doing it every day next month.  I haven't decided yet.

Logic & Art are both going good.  They are grumbling a bit over the lack of Logic everyday and the number of pages we are doing.  They want to do Logic more often and they want more pages.  I'm torn over whether to rewrite our schedule for this quarter to oblige them or just wait until next quarter.  We'll see.

So, this was our first two weeks or First Grade & Pre-K.  On a final note I just dropped off the paperwork for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee to start football in a week, so I'm excited.  They are too, they've been looking forward to football ever since tee-ball ended, and now that the pool (in our park) is closed (as of Saturday) they've been itching for something to do.

Scooby-Doo! Mysteries

After doing a Spiderwick post it seemed only natural to do the same for the one Scooby-Doo series we have finished off, especially since we will be starting The Magic Tree House in a couple of days (which last I checked had 50 books) so I really want to shorten our list.

Synopsis - Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy are in high school (mentioned a few times) and travel around the country with their dog Scooby-Doo running into - and solving - mysteries where ever they are.  Each book is a stand alone book and they do not have to be read in order.

Ash Falcon - "I loved Scooby-Doo as a kid, I loved Scooby-Doo as a teenager, and I still love Scooby-Doo as an adult.  I bought these books back when I was in high school.  I read them (and loved them) back then and I loved reading them to my boys.  They are wacky, they are silly, they make you roll your eyes at their outrageous plots (a giant stuffed animal that terrorizes a store, a seaweed monster that wants to scare away a town's pelican, a giant cactus that wants to prevent a music video production, a basketball team's mascot come to life to destroy the team - come on, these plots are ridiculous!), but most of all they are fun and they made my kids imaginations run away to some awesome places.  Except for book one which was only so-so I would totally give this series a 100/5."

Optimus Prime - "I really, really, really (followed by about ten more "really's") liked these books!  My favorite was the one with the fangs - the vampire!"

Bumblebee - "Do you know who my favorite is?  The Hoopster Horror!  I liked the books."

Scooby-Doo! Mysteries by James Gelsey

1. Scooby-Doo! and the Haunted Castle
2. Scooby-Doo! and the Mummy's Curse
3. Scooby-Doo! and the Snow Monster
4. Scooby-Doo! and the Sunken Ship
5. Scooby-Doo! and the Howling Wolfman
6. Scooby-Doo! and the Vampire's Revenge
7. Scooby-Doo! and the Carnival Creeper
8. Scooby-Doo! and the  Groovy Ghost
9. Scooby-Doo! and the Zombie's Treasure
10. Scooby-Doo! and the Spooky Strikeout
11. Scooby-Doo! and the Fairground Phantom 
12. Scooby-Doo! and the Frankenstein Monster
13. Scooby-Doo! and the Runaway Robot
14. Scooby-Doo! and the Masked Magician
15. Scooby-Doo! and the Phony Fortune Teller
16. Scooby-Doo! and the Toy Store Terror
17. Scooby-Doo! and the Farmyard Fright
18. Scooby-Doo! and the Caveman Caper
19. Scooby-Doo! and the Rowdy Rodeo
20. Scooby-Doo's High-Flying Adventure
21. Scooby-Doo! and the Ghostly Gorilla
22. Scooby-Doo! and the Vicious Viking
23. Scooby-Doo! and the Karate Caper
24. Scooby Doo! and the Seashore Slimer
25. Scooby-Doo! and the Bowling Boogeyman
26. Scooby-Doo! and the Headless Horseman
27. Scooby-Doo! and the Deep Sea Diver
28. Scooby-Doo! and the Sinister Sorcerer
29. Scooby-Doo! and the Witch Doctor
30. Scooby-Doo! and the Gruesome Goblin
31. Scooby-Doo! and the Virtual Villain
32. Scooby-Doo! and the Hoopster Horror
33. Scooby-Doo! and the Cactus Creature
34. Scooby-Doo! and the Scary Skateboarder
35. Scooby-Doo! and the Monster Menace

Spiderwick

Okay, still really busy and won't be online until at least the day after tomorrow, however while updating our Reading List/Book Series We Have Read pages (which I do 2-3 times a week) I realized that the second one was getting rather long...  So, since we finished Spiderwick first, here is a post about the series, along with our opinion on the books and a list of the books so I can delete them from the page (however, the page will carry a link to this post - at least for now).

Synopsis - Spiderwick by Holly Black follows the "true" story of the Grace children (oldest Mallory, followed by twins Jared and Simon) after they move to an old house owned by their mother's family.  Their mother and father are recently divorced and they lack the money to remain in the city where they used to live.  While exploring the house Jared finds a book written by his great-great-uncle Arthur Spiderwick, which gives details about the different types of fairies that live in the region.  Chaos ensues as different fairies try to steal the book for different reasons, the kids try to find Arthur Spiderwick, and they try to stop Mulgarath's plot.  Some of the book is slightly graphic (cats get eaten, etc.)

Ash Falcon - "It was a cool story line but I've already read Fablehaven (by Brandon Mull) which was an awesome story line (admittedly, geared towards older children) and this felt a bit like a watered-down version of that.  However, two things that this series does have going for it is the kids come from a divorced family - which is something that I have not come across in all of the books I have read to my kids (and we read A LOT!) and the main character - Jared - has some anger issues because of the divorce.  So it was neat that the story line explored this aspect of family life.  Actually, embarrassingly, my kids had no idea what divorce was before this book.  I would give it a 4/5."

Optimus Prime - "I really, really liked the books and I liked the end of the bad guy."

Bumblebee - "I really, really, REALLY liked the books!  I really liked Thimbletack the brownie!"

Spiderwick by Holly Black

1. The Field Guide
2. The Seeing Stone
3. Lucinda's Secret
4. The Ironwood Tree
5. The Wrath of Mulgarath
6. The Lost Chapters

Settling Into First Grade

I realized that it's been over a week since I've posted - and I'm sorry.  I should be back online in a day or two.  We've been pretty busy settling into our new schedule and we've been working on our house.  I am working on a post about our first two weeks of first grade & pre-k - however that won't be up until Friday!  See you in a couple of days.