Discover Intensive Phonics

I have found a reading program that I love as much as I love All About Spelling.  It is Discover Intensive Phonics and uses software to teach the phonics needed to make great readers.  Too often children plateau in 4th grade as readers and research points to the lack of concrete phonic skills.  Until 4th grade kids can get away with sight reading and reading from context.  After that there are skills needed to sound out foreign words.  I believe that Discover Intensive Phonics is the best program out there to accomplish that goal....for us anyway.  http://athome.readinghorizons.com/cmd.asp?af=1253995
I have already worked with Phonic Pathways, and Ordinary Parent's guide to teaching Reading, and both are solid programs.  But Allboy wasn't retaining the phonic rules.  He could read, but would encounter a word out of context that he should know and it was a crap shoot if he would remember how to sound it out.  English is a hard language because our words are such a mish mash of other languages, but it does follow certain rules.  Once those rules are learned the process of reading becomes easier.  I also like that this is one area of his learning where there is another voice giving a set of directions.  Allboy is a perfectionist but like most 7 year old boys, doesn't always listen.  If he doesn't listen to the instructions in each lesson, he can not follow it.  There is immediate feedback when he is off task, and it allows him to police himself.  I also love that I can see any areas that he is having problems with, yet enjoy the best part of reading instruction with him.  ACTUAL READING. 
The program is a bit pricey compared to other paperback reading instruction like those I used before, but this will follow him until he is done needing phonic instructions, comes with readers to practice the skills, and can be used for more than one child.  I am going to use it with Gbaby Supreme when he is ready, and the value increases since it is also a writing and typing program as well as reading instruction.  I think the cost will average out to be less than I would spend on everything if I bought it individually for each year.  I also appreciate the fact that it streamlines Language Arts and instead of needing 4 different spines this takes care of everything but writing and grammar.   But the most important thing is that it is working and Allboy is growing mentally.  I can't help if the fact that he is doing something else independently is just icing on the cake!

Space Weather and Astronauts

We went to the Air and Space museum and were able to experience some hands on weather experiments.  It is great when we can follow up book learning with interesting field trips.  Both Allboy and Gbay Supreme made clouds and labeled each one.  They were also able to create weather inside of the museum and understand how it effects radiation on Earth.   But the best part of the day were the space exploration exhibits.  We went on a simulated Mars exploration and the kids got an idea of just how far away it is and the difference between Earth and Mars, both in climate and landforms.  Allboy remotely controlled a model of the Mars Rover and allowed it to examine rock and look for signs of life.  Gbaby Supreme enjoyed the planets and recognized some of them that we had learned about the week before.  We increased the pressure inside of a container so that they could force a star to explode.   The most interesting things for me were the examinations of our galaxy.  I never realized that we know about hundreds of Planets beside the 8 we all learn.  I wonder why we haven't named them or collected more information.  I also wonder at the chances of life on one of them.  We have recovered pictures from our probes but I really don't know much besides that.  There was also an exhibit where they showed us all the effects of 400 degrees below zero by using Nitrogen to freeze common items and what happens when they are exposed the extreme temperatures.   I didn't know that Oxygen turns to liquid, and never thought about all the material choices that need to be decided before building anything that is sent into space.  We also met an Astronaut who signed pictures of herself and gave a talk about life on the space shuttle.  The kids giggled at the idea that they had to wear diapers and that their favorite foods were pizza.   They also learned about mass and how gravity effects the astronauts bodies long term.  It puts a lot of stress on their bodies.  We talked again about mass and density when looking at models of the planets.  Even though Saturn is much larger than Earth, Earth actually weighs more.  I don't know that either boy understands density yet, but hopefully it built a future peg so that when they are older and more ready to learn about it, they will have some kind of reference for it. 
After the Science exhibits, we watched the Imax movie Legend of the Guardians in 3D.  I am not a fan of 3D, but this movie and that theater were very cool.  We could actually see each individual feather on the owls.  I didn't know that Owls could look both cuddly and scary at the same time.  We also went to dinner at the Crab Shack and Allboy finally got his steamed crabs.  It was a long day but a good one.

Strong Carrying and Borrowing skills

We just had a huge math week.  Learning to carry a ten while adding can be a confusing concept and Allboy is comfortable after doing a couple of page this week.  I am really proud of him.  Grandbaby Supreme is working on number recognition to 20 and is practicing counting.  It is funny how when he counts something he tends to forget where he starts or ends so I have taught him to follow left to right and top to bottom like when reading.  He is also continuing review of his letters.  So far he learned F, B, M, K, T, R, P and S.  We love Get Ready for the Code, and The Letter People.  His writing is getting better, but still is shaky. 

We said goodbye to the Native Americans in our History studies, and started the Explorers and Discovers.  This week we are learning all about the Vikings and Leif Ericksson.  Today we read all about Eric the Red, Leif's father.  Tomorrow we build a Viking ship and recreate the map of the Vikings voyages between Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland (New Foundland). 

Science is all about the Earth's crust this week.  We learned about the Water Cycle, the Air and Atmosphere, and of course the weather.  We are reading Magic School bus inside the Earth and inside a volcano.   Our hands on activity for the week is making an Earth Pizza. 

Our read aloud was My Father's Dragon, a really cute book about a boy being very clever and rescuing a dragon.  There are 3 in the series so I see another trip to the library within the next day or so.  We also have an audio copy of Bunnicula, but the audio's aren't going as well as I thought they would.  We don't spend a ton of time in the car, and the one time we went anywhere long enough the CD player in the car decided to screw up. 

Co-op is going great.  I don't like being out of the house on Monday mornings but the kids are getting a lot out of the classes.  Today G-Baby Supreme learned about Space, the Earth, and the Planets.  They did a space craft, made a revolving earth around the sun, read a book about earth, and played a game of Alien and Astronaut somewhat like Duck Duck Goose.  Allboys class was about maps and they went over the compass rose and worked on map symbols and puzzles. 

Memorization is my largest surprise.  I am amazed at how much kids this age can remember.  Allboy has about 7 poems memorized and a bunch of facts.  G-baby Supreme is memorizing different rhymes. 

The Grinmaster is doing well in traditional school.  I am concerned because I figured out why they needed the 21 glue sticks.  They are not allowed to bring school books out of the class so they are recreating them in notebooks.  They get printouts and glue them into the notebooks for test reviews.   His grades are fine but I am getting a bit concerned that he isn't really doing much in Language Arts.  So far they seem to read 30 minutes a night, but I am not too sure what they are doing in class.  When I ask Grinmaster he says they read, and they finished the time capsule.  Science is his most productive subject and in Math he is working on decimals and fractions.  History is about Western expansion in US History 2. 

Overall everything is going okay.  Allboy is continuing to have whining problems and we are working on character connections.  This week is talking gently to each other.  They like to speak meanly and it is unacceptable.  There is a definite difference when you are home with a child all the time.  Their behavior problems get old fast.  I can see where I fail as a mother and the areas we have to work on.  But I am blessed that our boys are loving, smart human beings.