Homeschooling Progress

I haven't posted any updates about our homeschooling for a while. I mean, I post about books we read and field trips we go on, but what about the three Rs? So here is the update:



1. Reading

Big progress here for sure. M can read! Ok, so I said months ago that he could read. But back then it meant he could read short words. Now he can read entire phrases and even sentences. And on a good day, he can even read a short story, such as this one:

- Пустые банки и старые газеты... А еды нет! - грустно сказал Крош.
Под газетами Крош увидел мышку.
- Мышка, где еда? - спросил Крош.
Мышка не ответила. Ей тоже было грустно. Крош подумал и решил:
- Мы посеем семена! Когда они вырастут, будет урожай и будет еда. А где лежат семена?
Крош искал семена везде. В банках, под газетой. Он гремел и шуршал.

If this doesn't make any sense to you, don't worry, it's only a short part from a story in M's Смешарики reading book for beginners. And yes, it's in Russian because that's what I'm teaching M now. We'll start English later this year, probably when Chris gets back home.

While M's reading is still far from smooth, he's definitely showing a lot of improvement with blending sounds and making sense of the material.

2. Writing

Not much to show here. But we are working on it. Thankfully, we have lots of help from our occupational therapist. But M does spend more time drawing letters and numbers and they come out recognizable even though he tends to add extra lines to some of the letters, such as "E".

3. 'Rithmetic

With so much of our time and efforts spent on reading, we are taking it slow with math. As far as basic arithmetic goes, M can do simple addition and subtraction with numbers 0 to 7 without manipulatives. Anything greater than 7 he needs manipulatives support which is fine by me. Aside from simple arithmetic, we've played with grids and symmetry and functions. This is my 'field research' as I continue working on the Moebius Noodles book (it's going to be awesome).

It seems we haven't done all that much with school. But add to this all our field trips, all M's physical and occupational therapy work, and all our reading and I think we've been doing ok.