Learning By The Way

Though some might wonder after my not posting for over a month, I am still alive and kicking. We have started this year off with vigor. Toby is a full math book ahead of his older brother and sister, and I am mostly settled on taking a break from Singapore Math after Moriah and Samuel finish their current book (4B). I think all three of them could use some concentrated time spent drilling times tables and division. Also, I think they are ready to be introduced to algebra, and I will be ordering Borenson’s Hands On Equations. This program looks very cool, teaching algebra with manipulatives.

We are also starting up a new unit study based on a game our family loves to play together, Heroscape. The children each have picked a character in the game to do a report on over the next month, as follows:
Moriah- Mimring (report on dragons, their history and the danish myth)
Samuel- Jotun (report on giants and Norse mythology)
Toby- Major X17 (report on robots, maybe with a focus on use in war)
Elsie- Valkyrie (report on the myth)
Peter- Kelda (study of the Kyrie)
We kick of the study today by watching the first part of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung

Lastly, let me offer a link that is a news story on the literacy gap between boys on girls. At the end of the article, the researcher comments “Here’s a fascinating fact,” she said. “There is no literacy gap in home-schooled boys and girls.”