August 22

We finished Chapter 19 in SOTW and Sam drafted a copy of his "Magna Carta" for his room.  He answered all of the questions, learned about Robin Hood and King John.  Then we had Devin over for the rest of the day - I call it gym.  And computer.

August 14

Not a hugely productive homeschooling day, because I was lazy and tired, but it's still summer.

We did Chapter 18 in Life of Fred, stalled out on the last question at the end of the chapter.  Sam still panics when he doesn't know the answer immediately.  So we backed off and will review it again tomorrow.

We also finished Chapter 18 in Story of the World.

August 11

Sam and I finished Chapter 17 in LOF: Honey.  He's still doing most of the math in his head, and adamant that he cannot and will not ever understand division.

We read the first half of Chapter 2 in the Inside of a Dog.

August 10

We finished Chapter 16 in Life of Fred Honey.  I'm making a multiplication chart for his room to make it easier for him to memorize it.  But we blew thru the chapter and he did the questions at the end.  We still have to work on the memorization - but I told him that since we're almost done with this book, and because we were really haphazard and messed up this summer, I'm going to re-read the book, without making him do the questions, so that he's caught up on the story before we move onto Ice Cream (the next book in the series).  But while we're reading it - I'm going to be working with him to memorize his multiplication facts as well.

August 7

This summer didn't go the way I had planned.

We lost Lucky, first of all.  And that led to weeks of Sam literally not sleeping at night, and sleeping all day instead.   Then we finally got Elizabeth Mocha Latte Tallulah Boo Cohen, and life is good again.  I gave him an extra week off - to adjust to sleeping like a normal person, and to bond with our little dog.  But we're back to summer homeschooling once again.

We just finished up Sassafras Zoology this morning.  I'm really happy because I think he retained a lot of it.  I asked him questions based on the book that I had forgotten the answers to, and he knew them.  So I'm going to count Sassafras as a win for curriculum, because he loves it, retains it, and is happy to keep going. We're going to order the next book in the series.

In the meantime, I'm reading Inside of a Dog - What Dogs See, Smell and Know by Alexandra Horowitz to him.  This is a great bridge, not only because it's about dogs, which is a topic he adores, he transcends zoology and anatomy (the next book in the Sassafras series), but he is considering a career in psychology, using therapy dogs, so it's pushing him towards the future as well.

We read the first half of Chapter 18 in Story of the World - covering the Crusades, the People's Crusade, the First and Second Crusade.  And then I literally FELL ASLEEP reading to him - so we stopped for the day.

I'm super impressed at his ability to retain information, though.  He really does remember a lot of the little details from what we were learning before we lost Lucky.  He's a great auditory learner....