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I am going to do something a little different this week. Since I did not do weekly updates of our last two weeks before our Christmas vacation, I have decided to give a sneak preview of the week to come. Tomorrow is our first day back after our break, and I’m excited to get back into it. What is it about a couple weeks away that makes you long to have it back?

H is going to be moving on to reading the letter m this week, with a book called Map & Ham. Her spelling words will be ham, map, him, miss, and man. We will also begin learning about question marks.

In math, H will continue practicing place value with units and tens. We will finish the Decimal Street lapbook by making a cover for it and deciding how we want to make the Hundreds’ castle. Then will we will be able to move on to learning about the hundreds. Although it will be covered in length with the next book, I would like to take time on the place value section since it is such an important concept.

K will be continuing her tests that she started before the break. She is taking a practice standardized test. It is broken down into sections just as an official standardized test would be, and is meant to be used by me as an assessment tool. The test I’m giving her is for finishing up 2nd-grade reading or starting 3rd-grade reading. I’m hoping this will help me see where there are any gaps in her language arts instruction, so I can fill them before we continue on in this area.

We will also begin McGuffey’s Eclectic First Reader this week. I will be using this series as a way to assess K’s reading aloud. She is such a voracious reader on her own, but I want to make sure that she is reading things correctly, so she will read a passage to me each day. This way, I will be able to correct anything that she might be pronouncing wrong.

K will be switching to her new spelling program this week as well. We will be using Sequential Spelling 1. Our first “test” with the program will be tomorrow. The program eases the student into the system of having a test each day by starting out with only four words, then eight, then 12, and finally 16 on Friday. Week 2 has 20 words each day, and then starting on week 3, there are 25 words each day. I think this approach is perfect for K.

K’s math is on hold this week until we finish up the reading tests.

History this week will be about the Jewish people. We are on chapter 6, and will be reading about Abraham and Joseph. In science, we will continue learning about cells.

I will return later this week with some photos as well as an update. Until then, I hope we can all start out 2010 in a productive way.