Sorry for the picture quality, I took these with my cell phone. : )
I know that I have said it before but I LOVE our writing program. Writing is something Zach does NOT enjoy. I think mostly because his brain is SO full of SO many wonderful things that the task of picking ONE thing to write about it so overwhelming for him. The curriculum breaks the creative writing process down into manageable pieces with tons of fun and humor. Wednesday's lesson focused on including numerous pieces of information in one sentence. They gave a core sentence The boy found the dog. There were then 5 questions to answer to help add additional information to the core sentence.
The questions were:
1. How old was the boy?
2. What color was the dog?
3. What kind of dog did the boy find?
4. What did the boy use to tie the dog?
5. Where was the boy when he found the dog?
This was Zachary's final sentence:
The boy was 10 years old when he found the black Beagle in Papua New Guinea and used an old vine as a leash.
1. How old was the boy?
2. What color was the dog?
3. What kind of dog did the boy find?
4. What did the boy use to tie the dog?
5. Where was the boy when he found the dog?
This was Zachary's final sentence:
The boy was 10 years old when he found the black Beagle in Papua New Guinea and used an old vine as a leash.
He was so excited when he finished this sentence. It made it easy for him, not stressful! By answering the questions he was able to focus this thoughts!
Wednesday was our first YMCA Gym & Swim class. Although Zachary loves the water, he has never taken any formal lessons. The first hour of this two hour class is devoted completely to swimming instruction. At the top of this post is a picture of Zachary working on his skills. I promise there are more kids in the class but I am careful to not photograph them for my blog since I don't have permission from their parents. After swimming Zachary changed into his gym clothes and got to roller skate for an hour. This was great practice as Zachary is not fully confident on skates. He had a blast! After the Y we raced home and had a quick dinner. I headed to church to volunteer for an event and Zach headed with his Botany friends to a soccer clinic taught by one of the Botany Dad's. Needless to say I had one exhausted kid by the end of the day! Below is a picture of Zach skating!
Friday marked the start of our enrichment day. Every Friday morning from 9am-12:30pm we get together with 30 other families in one location. There are many different classes offered depending on age group. We are very excited as Zachary was able to move up to the 5th-7th grade group and join a Veterinary Science class. He is in this class for 2 hours and then has gym for 30 minutes. Zach's dream is to grow up and be a Veterinarian so he is completely focused! He received his animal first aid kit this morning and he is guarding it with his life. Next week, I hear, stethoscopes and lab coats are on the agenda. The lead teacher is a licensed and practicing Vet which is a tremendous blessing. The group also talked about what they would like to accomplish this semester. It was decided that they would like to dissect a sheep's lung, and a cow heart, among other things. Zachary can hardly wait! Thankfully I am not assigned to that class because I think I would pass out! They also have some field trips planned to Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine.
That's been our week in a nutshell. I'm just finishing up my lesson plans for next week and I am excited. We really start to dive into to our studies of the world! First up is the United States. We also have a fun field trip with our Botany group to a Bee farm to harvest honey. Stay tuned!
