Reagan's Schooling

Here's an update on how school is going:

Spelling - still acing Spelling tests, but having trouble with practical use. I'm encouraging him to write something almost daily. Then I find a few words that are misspelled and we look them up and he re-writes them.

Grammar - He totally gets it in his reading. He has trouble applying it. Recently I realized that he was just putting periods at the end of each line. He does understand the Grammar, but he goes too fast and doesn't think about his sentence construction.

Reading - He's SUCH a good reader!!! Now I have to work harder to instill the love of reading in him. He's to interested in TV and video games. I had allready made these things privileges instead of rights. He earns time doing each. But I finally had to make us TV free. At least for the children. We have to change priorities. And I'm making reading part of our school day. Lo and behold he's reading more. Imagine!

Religion - We're learning about the Kingdom of God, and he's coming along in his catechism questions. I'm very proud.

Science - Okay, we did watch a little TV today. We watched a program all about how meteors have hit the earth, and what that does etc. It was fascinating. Scientists found a crater over 15 miles in diameter. The proof that it was caused by a meteor was in the church. It was built from the rock! Very cool! Also, we've started a new Sea Monkey tank. I think he's really ready to learn about them now. Habitat, care, etc. It should be fun.

Math - He's doing REALLY well. This book offers a lot of practice, and he's really picking it up. When he's careful he almost never makes his numbers backwards.

He's reading his bible, he's writing more, he's not complaining about school anymore. I do have to really watch his time though. I've changed it so that he has homework if he doesn't finish his assignment on time. Really I don't give him too much to do, but providing a time limit helps keep him on task. With set time limits he's completing his work more often and we're moving along nicely. We need to take the field guide to birds outside. We identified a redwing the other day, and I think he seems to enjoy looking for birds.

We enjoyed The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe very much. It was such a joy to read as a grown-up. Now we're reading The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. One of my favorite books as a kid. When we finish it I promised him that we could read A Horse and His Boy, the next in the Narnia series. On his own he's reading The House at Awful End, which he seems to be enjoying.

I decided that he has just too wonderful an imagination to let it rot somewhere in TV land. He just has to read. He can have adventures TV never dreamed of, in books!