Week #6 Review

Matthew had another week where he just wanted to keep going. He finished one of his books by Tuesday! But I always try to just go with it because by Friday he really doesn't want to do much. This Friday was devoted to crafts. We had read "The Clever Mouse" this week so we made a mouse bag puppet. I cut everything out and placed the whiskers because they were a little harder, but he put on the glue and placed the other pieces. He broke into a huge grin when I showed him that it was a puppet. He just didn't see that coming at all


On Wednesday at skating they got to ride on saucers while the teachers shot them across the ice. Needless to say, Matthew had a blast.


He is doing SO MUCH BETTER with his reading to me now that we switched books. He's so much more expressive and today got through an entire page properly pausing at all the periods, continuing on through line breaks if he didn't see a period and really enjoyed looking up and making eye contact at the end of phrases.

He's also doing great with his memory verses. He learns one each week and tonight was able to quote all 6 of them and had only forgotten one reference. His memory never ceases to amaze me. His verses so far have been:

Week 1: Pay attention, my child, to what I say. Listen carefully. Proverbs 4:20
Week 2: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
Week 3: God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7
Week 4: Let the peace of God rule in your hearts... and be thankful. Colossians 3:15
Week 5: Tell your neighbor the truth because we belong to each other. Ephesians 4:25
Week 6: Obey your leaders [because] they keep watch over you. Hebrews 13:17

We also went to the store together and picked out a Kumon workbook. It's the Let's Cut Paper book for the younger kids. They had one for 3, 4 and 5, but he's had NO experience with scissors so I got the one for age 2 and up and added the other to our wishlist. He's done two pages so far and is really doing well. His hand shakes when he tries to line it up but he's able to open the scissors wider than he was a couple of days ago and has cut fairly accurately on the line. I'm restraining myself from getting a few of the other workbooks (a coloring, tracing or maze one to help with his pencil holding), but I'm impressed with Kumon so far! Everyone's recommendations were right on the money!

On a non-Matthew related note, Ashlyn has recently started to sit through longer and longer books. She'll find one and bring it to me and just plop in my lap. Today we got through an entire book of Matthew's (as in, not a short board book) and she never moved. Granted, it was a Blues Clues book and that's something that completely holds her attention, but still, it was motivation to start to save harder for Sonlight's Core P3/4. I was hoping it would be something all of us could do together (I currently have to wait until the girls are occupied or napping to work with Matthew to avoid distraction) and it seems like the girls are getting closer to attentiveness in that regard.

So all-in-all, another good week. It definitely has its difficult moments, but so far our schooling journey has been very positive.