Reading list, and more schooling…

Mr. Brilliant needs to read.  It is just part of 4th grade.

The Powers of Three – Warriors – Outcast – by Erin Hunter.   Also from same series, The Sight and Dark River

Pendragon – Book Four: The Reality Bug by D.J. MacHale

Sgt. Frog by Mine Yoshizaki

Pendragon – Book Five: Black Water by D.J. MacHale

Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander

Also and unending amount of comic books.

We’re about 3/4 finish with ‘Shades of Gray’.  We’re reading aloud ‘The Civil War for Kids – a History with 21 Activities’ by Janis Herbert.

Spelling: Completed up to unit 12 in Spectrum Spelling 5th grade.

Cursive Writing Practice: Jokes & Riddles.  5 lessons finished.  Mr. Brilliant is enjoying this and doing excellent work.

Math: Division continues.  I believe Mr. B is actually grasping the concept and we are finally approaching being able to drill.

Grammar: Adverbs.  Mr. Brilliant finished his short Adverb project.  Good heaven – it took a long time to get this completed.  He knows the material he just dislikes doing basic work.

Writing Skills: Continue and nearly finished with Thank You cards.  Writing Special Instructions.  Writing a Poem.  OMG – I wish I never had to do writing a poem with Mr. Brilliant again.  He has a very narrow view of what is a poem and he won’t listen to alternatives.   He did actually get this project done.

Reading Comprehension: Details: Tornadoes.  Venn Diagrams.  I think Mr. Brilliant grasps this completely.

Science: The Nuclear Option – How safe are nuclear power plants.  Atomic.  Reactors.  Radioactive.  Alternative.  Chernobyl.  Renewable power.

I have an obnoxious amount of filing to do.

At least we’re not going from one crisis to another.

Mr. A+ is not recovering well.  This last round of surgery and ICU treatment set us back nearly one year.  His spirits are crushed, but he never stays down long.  Right now it’s my turn to remind him that he’s got to give himself some slack.  Biggest trouble of being a type A person?  You’ve got very little ability to just be, you’ve always got to be doing.  Right now he needs to just slack.

Short list of school work:

Science: A Fishy Story –  Why have the numbers of cod in Canadian waters dropped so sharply?  Breeding.  Trawlers.  Moratorium.  Overfished.  Sonar.  Satellite images.  Food chain.

Copywork: Continuing with Narration and Dictation from ‘The Borrowers’ by Mary Norton.

Grammar: More Writing with Adverbs.

‘The Seventeenth Swap’ is now finished.  ‘Heidi’ is nearly done.  ‘A Horse and His Boy’ is on deck.

‘Shades of Gray’ is about 3/4 finished.  We did a review and test on that today.

We are now reading from ‘The Landmark History of the American People’ by Daniel J. Boorstin.  This is to supplement all the historical fiction Mr. Brilliant is reading.

Writing Skills: Fact or Opinion?  Writing directions.  Writing a sequence of events.

Reading Comprehension: Recognizing Details: Hurricanes.

Spanish: Computer lessons.

Math: Singpore Math Lesson 3 with workbook pages.

But that ain’t all…

Naturally once I get a post finished I find I’ve not been complete.  I blame the drugs.

Art:  Foreshortened Circles and Shading.  Gosh all-mighty but Mr. Brilliant is now digging his heels in about doing art.  Says he hates it.  *shrugs*  I don’t get it.

Science:  ‘Suiting Up’  How do spacesuits keep astronauts safe in space?  Exhale.  Regulate.  Micrometeoroids.  ‘You Won’t Feel a Thing.’  What keeps people from feeling pain during surgery?  General anesthesia, unconscious, anesthesiologist, monitor, local anesthesia. Dr. Crawford Long.  Dr. William Morton.  Ether.  Nervous system.

Geography:  The Great Flood of 1993.  Basin.  Flooding.  Precipitation.  Dams.  Levees.  The Upper Plains Region.  Tributaries of the Upper Mississippi River.  Reading a precipitation chart.  Headwaters.  elevation.

Reading Comprehension.  Alligators/Bears/Crocodiles

Writing skills: Personal narratives.  The writing process: Personal Narrative.  Prewrite.  Draft.  Revise.  Proofread.   Publish.

Copywork:  Taken from ‘The 101 Dalmatians’ by Dodie Smith

Thank you notes to family

Work Completed.

I am exhausted.

I have to remind myself over and over again that it takes time to heal from major surgery.

Mr. Brilliant has been very easy to work with, much more so than I thought.  Still, pulling together his lessons, sticking with him while he works, correcting and entering the lessons, that is all I’m good for.  I’m managing to cook meals, too.  Beyond that, I’m useless.

I’ve decided to step back from the math books I’ve been using and start over again with Singapore Math.  The instructor books have arrived.  I’ve still waiting on the text books and workbooks.

We need to do a unit on tall tales.

So far this week:

‘Across Five Aprils’:  I am reading this book out lout to Mr. B.  It isn’t beyond his ability however the dialog is too challenging for him, so we started over with me reading it to him.  This week we’ve read to chapter 6 and taken quizzes on chapters 1-5.

‘Old Yeller’: Short essay on ‘What’s in a Name?”  Making Soap.  Mr. B made soap from a kit with Ms. A.  We will make soap in a jar later.  Research and short essay about canine diseases and parasites.  From Sonlight Language Arts and also from the ‘Old Yeller’ unit study Mr. B. made a political cartoon.

Cheaper By the Dozen:  Finished to chapter 15

Vocabulary: Review of scurry, prance, prowl, hobble, saunter, gallop

Math: Review of division fats through 81/9, word problems through 81/9, problem solving using division.  Word and pictures problems using grouping, multiplication and division.  Review numbers 1-10,000, patterns, writing in words, words to numbers, numbers to words.

Reading Comprehension: Sea Lions, Pupping time.

Geography:  Great Lakes.  Water forms.  Peninsulas, islands, rivers, lakes, channels, straits, bays, covers, Illinois&Michigan Canal.  Chippewa, Apostle Island, Madeline Island, Red Cliff Indian Reservation.  Ecology, ecosystem, endangered.

Writing Skills: Short essay on the American Flag.  Writing a friendly letter to a friend.  Writing a friendly letter to a teacher.  (very sloppy work and incomplete  😦  )

Reading Skills:  Recalling Details.  Sequencing.  ‘Class Field Trip’

Science:  ‘Under Control’  Why are dams built and how do they work?  Dams, reservoir, irrigate, hydroelectric power, renewable, cofferdam, embankment dams, arch dams, buttress dams.

Copywork: Narration and dictation taken from ‘Nurse Matilda’ by Christianna Brand

Spelling:  Vowel combinations /al/, /au/, /aw/, /ou/, /oy/, final /shwa-l/

Spanish: Mr. Brilliant is being a pill to his teacher again.  He will have to nose-to-the-grindstone these next two weeks.

Struggling

Mr. Brilliant will have standardized testing in the spring, so I have added test preparation to his curriculum.

I’m able to keep with Mr. Brilliant’s lessons but keeping up with the documentation?  That’s another thing.  And the filing?  Oy.  Not good.

So, forgive me if I’ve covered some of these items already…

Math:  Division, checking the answer.  Addition and subtraction review.  Play math games (blackjack).  Problems solving using multiplication.   Review division facts.   Multiplying 6, 7, 8 and 9

Geography: Watershed, reading a watershed map.  Tributary.  Erosion.  New England.  Reading a special purpose map.  Diversity.  Service business.  Climate.  Economic.   Tourist Attractions.  Economic Regions of the United States.  The Great Lakes region.  Draw regions on a physical Map.  Political boundaries.  What are regions?  Landforms.  What makes each region of our country unique?  Read a historical map.  Cultural history.  Mid-Atlantic region.

Science: The Ever-Changing Moon.  Orbit.  Visible.  Waxing.  Gibbous moon.  Waning.  Blue moon.  “Bottled Raindrops’  Currents.  Condenses.  Compresses.  Expands.  Planetary Weather.  Extreme.  Atmosphere.  Mercury.  Venus.  Mars.  Jupiter.  Saturn.  Uranus.  Neptune.

Spelling.  Silent letters, kn, mb, wr. Knapsack, Rewrite, Knead, Climber, wreath, Knee, Wren, Knack, Numb, Wrestle, Knot, Wrist, Know, Plumber, Wrong.  Consonant Blends, bl, fl, br, cr, gr, sk, sp, st.  Blend, Conflict, Branch, Cream, Grant, Risk, Respect, Frost, Bloom, Flash, Breakfast, Secret, Grade, Skunk, Spinach.  Consonants Digraphs, ch, ph, sh, th, wh, tch.  Chestnut, Thorn, Chipmunk, Month, Speech, Trophy, Pitch, Phone, Patch, Width, Shutter, Whale, Toothbrush, Whistle, Watch.

Reading Skills: Main idea in paragraphs.  Sequencing.  Main idea in sentences.

Grammar: Use of ‘can’ and ‘may.  Use of ‘its’ and ‘it’s’.  Use of ‘good’ and ‘well’.  Use of ‘your’ and ‘you’re’.  Use of ‘This’ and ‘These’. Use of ‘Sit’ and ‘Set’.  Use of ‘They’re’, ‘There’, and ‘Their’

Reading Comprehension: Oceans.  Whales.  While Horses.  Giraffes.  Review of Venn Diagrams.  Sharks.  Dolphins and Porpoises.

Writing Skills:  Writing for yourself.  How to compare.

Vocabulary:  Onomatopoeia.  Shh!  Blare.  Yawn.  Lap.  Click.  Whistle.  Sneeze.  Press.  Flip.  Snore.  Yelp.  Bark.  Meow.

“Old Yeller”  test on chapters 7, 8 and 9.

Copywork:  Taken from ‘The Jungle Book’ by Rudyard Kipling.

We finished reading ‘The Perilous Road’ by William O. Stelle.  Mr. Brilliant took an oral test as well as a written project on homographs.

Mr. Brilliant continues to struggle with impulse control. The Rx he’s on makes him some what grumpy.

Home from the hospital.

Y’know, nurses make all the difference.  A good one, like the lovely lady I had upon admission, or the one I had in the evening, makes recovery time pleasant.  My over night nurse woke me up not less than 8 times between mid-night a 8am.

I was given an epidural for this procedure, first time I’ve had an epidural for an abdominal surgery.  Gotta say, it did cut down on the pain however the itching was intense.  Surgery went great, only three small cuts and the doctor does great sewing, so the scars will be tiny.  I got to keep my ovaries and my cervix.  YAY!

So, on to Mr. Brilliant’s works.

He read from ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ and ‘Heidi’.

Math:  I’m going to invest in a package from Singapore Math.  I’ve tried a few other systems, mainly working with Spectrum and Oak Meadow.  None of them are working that well for Mr. Brilliant.  As with many of his subjects, I keep finding holes in his knowledge.  I’m also seeing that for math he’s a visual learner and Singapore breaks it down well for the visual learner.  Tonight he’ll take a placement test and then I’ll order the package.  Completed yesterday, one page of Singapore Math from the division segment.  Kumon division – this program just isn’t working for Mr. B.  I’m going to keep it for practice once he’s mastered the basics.  It isn’t useful for teaching.

Spelling: Vowel Combinations: /ai/, /au/, /aw/, /ou/, /oy/, final /schwa/  Chalk.  August.  Crawl.  Foundation.  Annoy.  Cancel.  False.  Author.  Lawn.  Our.  Loyal.  Label.  Salt.  Autograph.  Outside.

Vocabulary: Roam.  Discover.  Traipse.  Wander.  Traverse.  Encounter.  Trek.  Explore.

Writing Skills: Parts of a friendly letter.  Write a friendly letter.  Mr. B. completed this assignment but with very sloppy work.

Reading Comprehension:  Sea Lions.

Science:  Review of last few weeks of study.  Not a great showing.  I know he is getting the concepts but he’s not retaining the facts.  Once we finish this workbook Mr. B. will need to move on to a few weeks of hands on science.  Trouble is, the next unit is returning us to Nutrition, a subject he needs a great deal of instruction on, but which either bores him or upsets him.

So, Mr. B. only completed about half his work for yesterday, therefore he will have to have school tomorrow.  He spent today at the dojo, hopefully having a nice time with some kids his age.  Mr. A+ said he saw them at the playground around 2pm today and there was lots of running around going on.

Aim for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars

Or, what I hope we’ll accomplish next week…

 

Reading Comprehension:

Animal Legends, use an organizer to write your own.

Discussion; what is a myth?

Short passage on the Arctic

Vocabulary:

Antonyms

Worsen, knowledge, inferior, synonyms, bashful, encourage, cautious, complain

Writing:

Write a police report, making use of a story map

Describe your room, using details.  One paragraph.

You hear a sound at the window of your room.  Describe in detail.  One paragraph.

Using the picture of the house provided, describe what is going on at the house.  Three short paragraphs.

Review use of main idea, topic sentence

Create a brochure about your town.  Include artwork.

Review, in detail, writing paragraphs, using clusters of ideas

Geography:

Imports and Exports of South America

Plants of South America

Animals of South America

Continued discussion of deforestation of South America

Responsible Tourism

Write a post-card about your vacation to South America

Art:

Paint an experience Stuart Little had in the story.  Use pencil to outline, then color in with watercolors

Math:

Division with Remainders, an introduction

Place value, expanded notation and standard form

Adding and Subtracting 3 through 5 digits

Return to three digit multiplication

Copywork:

Taken from Aesop, ‘The Patchwork Girl’ by L. Frank Baum

Literature:

Final review of Stuart Little

Life Skills:

How to Brainstorm

Predict what will happen

Use of proper equipment for sports

Social Studies & History:

Field trips planned, depending on Mr. A+’s situation

Continue reading ‘All Sail Set’ & ‘Look Homeward, Hannalee’

Continue work on Native American paper with Ms. B.

D.E.A.R:

‘The Search for Delicious’ & ‘Pendragon’

 

Coming up at A+

On tap for next week:

A field trip.  Most likely to Charles Towne Landing, Mr. Brilliant keeps saying he just doesn’t care and I’m not inclined to take him on a field trip if he doesn’t care.

Objectives on this field trip are to learn about the flora and fauna of the Charleston area, also, to learn about the Native Americans of our area.

Grammar:

Pronouns

Verbs, linking verbs, helping verbs

Verb tense, past, present, future

Using ‘ing’ verbs

Review present tense verbs

Math:

Numeration through 1,000,000

Carrying and Borrowing with long division

1 digit numbers x 2 digit numbers

2 digit numbers x 3 digit numbers

Inverse of multiplication is division

Vocabulary:

hostile, petrify, quiver, scamper, shriek, wrath

Palindromes

more prefixes & suffixes

Copywork: Taken from ‘Socks’ by Beverly Cleary, ‘The Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame, works of Robert Louis Steveson, & works of Aesop

Geography: Create a Country Fact Sheet, Imports & Exports, Deforestation of South America

Reading Comprehension:

More fables, use of sequencing, more animal legends

Writing:

Story Map

Mr. Brilliant met with Ms. B, his writing tutor.  They are working together on the written presentation of Mr. B’s Landscape Project.

Review writing skills

Life Skills:  Making choices from Stuart Little unit

Science: Evaporation, solid vs. liquid, Whaling in America from Stuart Little unit

Cooking Science, describe the properties of sugar, peanut butter and sugar and peanut butter, mixed together

Spanish: We missed our lesson with Miss Naomi this week, she had a family emergency and had to leave town.  Mr. Brilliant will continue studying food words.

Coming up this Week

Vocabulary: frigate, necessity, patience, dilemma, obliged, exasperated, amble(d), lunatic, jostling, hospitality, undertaker, imposter, courteous, awesome, extractor, elated, petrified, peer(ing), elegant, exaggerated(d), emerge(d), notoriety, idly, bedrock, fisticuff

Words that sound alike/Homophones

Prefixes and suffixes

Read-a-loud: Finish ‘Turn Homeward, Hannalee’

Reading Comprehension: Main idea, recognizing details

Writing: The Hook, organizing a new article, write a news article, art for news article.  Topic sentences and supporting detail.  In-depth review of business letter.

Grammar: Similes, synonyms and antonyms, palindromes

Reading and Social Studies: Continue reading ‘All Sail Set’, ‘Helen Keller’, start a new book.

History, Art, Science: Continue work on Landscape with focus on Native Americans of LowCountry, dwellings, food, clothing.  Mammals of LowCountry.  Fish, birds, trees of LowCounty

Create a diorama from Stuart Little unit

Math: Place value to millions, rounding, review multiplication using ‘fact factory’, multiplication tens, hundreds, thousands.  Greater than, less than, equal to.  Introduction to carrying and borrowing in division.  Numeration through 1,000,000.  Adding and subtracting 3 through 5 digits.

Copywork: 5 days this week.

Science: Use of flags to communicate from Stuart Little unit.  Parts of sailboats.  Use of natural power.

Social Science: Making choices from Stuart Little unit

Today at A+

I had to go into work today, that blew my morning apart.  Still, the job got done.

Mr. Brilliant meets with his Spanish teacher on Thursdays.  Today they reviewed transportation words and moved on to food and cooking words.

Social Studies and Reading:

‘Liberty for All’ by Joy Hakim – completed chapter 8

‘Indian Legends’ an Oak Meadow Collection – completed

‘Who Was Helen Keller?’ by Gare Thompson – completed chapter 4

‘All Sail Set’ by Armstrong Sperry – start chapter 3

Literature:  Different rules for different places, there should be a reason for each rule.  From the Stuart Little unit.

Spelling:  Review of plurals

Copywork:  Today taken from the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Reading Comprehension:  A passage on Native Americans.  Mr. Brilliant had been laboring under the impression that there were no Native Americans in existence anymore.

No Science, Art, D.E.A.R., Geography, Math or Read-a-loud today.