November 20, 2020

There are days, although few, when we don’t start the day by studying together. Today was such a day. I shopped for groceries  and than rushed to make lunch. Meantime, Amanda took Robert for a walk.  When they came back I was busy completing hundreds small tasks. Robert watched Netflix. After dinner, I sat in front of TV to watch the last half of old movie Charade when Robert approached me, smiled, and said, “Work, work”. This way he reminded me that we hadn’t studied yet. I wasn’t surprised as Robert always makes sure that we complete our daily learning activities.

There was a time when he insisted on completing worksheets close to midnight. He had already took a bath, he was in his pajama and in bed when he realized that something was amiss. So, he came to my bedroom, turned the light on and said, “Work, work”.  I was too tired to refuse.I followed Robert to the dining table. Cleverly, I hid a few worksheets,  He completed three easy, almost mechanical, worksheets and returned to bed.

Robert words, “work, work” have a magical effect on me. I leave everything, follow Robert to our overused dining table, and help him learn.

1. Today Robert practiced dividing fractions with a page of problems from Spectrum Math. Robert had problems with division when divider was a mixed number. He wanted immediately flip over just fraction part. Thus we practiced changing mixed number into improper fraction BERFORE replacing division with the multiplication and replacing improper fraction with its reciprocal.
2. I have two workbooks Skill Sharpener Geography. One for grade 4 and one for grade 5. I wanted to start with the higher grade as the first lesson in it was about using GPS. From time to time, while we are traveling, one of us attempts to demonstrate to Robert how the GPS locates our destination and tells us  how to get there.  I should start with that, but, for reason I don’t completely understand we began with reviewing parallels and meridians. Oh well.
3. We are almost finishing No Glamour Grammar – the last worksheets in the book are devoted to additional reviews of previous concept. However, no grammatical concept or rule in this book was new to Robert. He loved that it was easy.  I loved that it was easy. today, he was finding adverbs in sentences.
4. Still pronunciation. Still page from old Weber book. Today, Robert practiced “cl” and “gl” in words or phrases.  However, I found pages of short but frequently used phrases among the materials Robert must had gotten from his school speech pathologist. So useful! So easy! Most importantly, Robert liked practicing them much more than words, phrases or sentences from Weber. I don’t understand why I didn’t use them before.
5. I stopped using exercises from No Glamour Following Directions.  Robert still has difficulties with one step directions given in this book, so there was no point of going further toward two and three step directions. Instead every day, I give him from 2 to 10 directions. I start with two but if he is not answering correctly, I quickly make additional exercises emphasizing just one concept but mixing it with other. If Robert has problem with “draw a circle AROUND” I ask him to draw a circle around or square around  something different. I add a few other directions, but the one Robert already knows well.
6. In the past Robert drew people following instruction from Usborne I can draw people.  We returned to the same book, but this time Robert is drawing scenes with two or more people.
7. Web Sudoku! It is getting better and better. robert very quickly (before I notice) find first 10 -15 numbers, He is also very quick in finding last 10-15 numbers. He als quickly notices when something is wrong on the grid. We are working on noticing that the number must be in a given row or column and writing it besides the edges of the frame. Most importantly – Robert loves it.