Literary unit

The last two weeks we've been doing a literary unit with the Nuehrings. It culminates with an awards ceremony (complete with a red carpet) on Saturday. The kids spent their time learning so many literary techniques. At times it was a little overwhelming, but they all did a great job! I am amazed at all the things they produced and the quality of their work.

As I anticipated, Aiden struggled throughout the week to get his thoughts onto the page. Thanks to an excellent suggestion from one of our favorite teachers, I started taking dictation from him toward the end of the week. I'm thinking that he needs to focus on speeding up his typing, because I could not keep up!

In the beginning, Zoë struggled through the editing phase. After a while she became accustomed to the idea that first drafts are not perfect, and did a great job.

What I was happiest with didn't occur during class though. Every technique they have learned about they have pointed out in their reading. We listen to books on cd all the time in the car and they are constantly saying "oh, listen, that's irony," or "ohhh...that was personification." It's great to see that they can take the things they're learning and see them in the books they enjoy reading. Now my hope is that they will incorporate that into their own writing.

So far both of them are doing really well with the goals they have set. At this point they're both about a month ahead of their math goals, and Zoë is right on target with her piano goals. Everyone's looking forward to actually being at home this week to work on things. The last two weeks have just been crazy! There were several days that we were gone from 9:30-7:30!