Sunday, December 4, 2011

Under a sky that's clear...

I apparently had no time over the course of our math lesson block to make any posts at all. So it goes, I guess.

November was an enlightening, challenging month of upheaval and new routine, but I think that we seem to be settling into December just fine.

The biggest and probably most important change is that HRH is back in public school. I figured that was an inevitability given her love for all things formal-classroom-related, and the school is at the head of our street so the convenience is lovely, but it happened so quickly that she literally went from being homeschooled to sitting in a classroom at a desk 24 hours later. It took all of us the last few weeks to adjust. She loves it for the most part, is excelling in almost every subject (after getting past the confusion of learning the same math she's known for years through a method that was counter-intuitive to her).

Being locked to the school schedule again? As little fun as I remember.

Evil Genius finished his first fractions block at breakneck speed even as I tried to go slowly. He's now working through The Life of Fred: Fractions because he needed more challenge. A lot of his math work is done backwards. He can do the very complex things in his head and is annoyed when I insist we back up and discover how he got there.

Hufflepuff is struggling with math a bit. It's mostly a focus issue, so we're trying new things out to fix that. I'm reading The Extra Lesson and hoping to pick up some tips on where to look for the root of her issues.

December is Saints for HRH. Since I only had a few picked out for her this month - Saint Nicholas and Saint Lucy, we're going to be doing their stories even though she's in school now. Evil Genius is starting my very favorite block of grade 4, Norse Myths. Can. Not. Wait. And Hufflepuff is doing Physics. We only do a two week block in December, so I'm feeling very at peace with where we're headed.