Year 1, Weeks 29, 30 & 31

I haven't written lately due to the beautiful summer-like weather, and the demands of many children and not a lot of help.  Plus, my inspiration ebbs and flows for blogging, just like other things.  When I blog less, I read a lot more!  I've read 4 books in the past 3 weeks, in fact. :)

 So, I'm back-tracking a bit to earlier this month.

Weeks 29-31 from Ambleside Online

The Good:

• We are enjoying Viking Tales, and Buffalo Bill was a big hit as well.  
•  We are continuing with Life of Fred (for math), and he seems to be enjoying it much more lately, as we near the end of Apples, the first elementary book.  
• We finished Birds in the Handbook of Nature Study...but haven't started wildflowers, beyond looking to see what we have outside our door.  
• We are almost finished with the last 1st grade reader, and he is doing very well.
• We have also gotten some more of the free reads in - St. George and the Dragon is completed and Pinocchio has begun.  I've checked out the Red Fairy Book, but honestly these foster kids don't want to sit long and its going to take a while to get through free reads unless my own son starts reading on his own.
• He built a wooden model tractor from a kit this week.
  
  We found a great Norman Rockwell study guide, and started using it this week.  I've missed having the term's art prints posted on the wall, but Rockwell is too modern for his painting to be public the way the others have been.  Here is another site that may be useful to Rockwell enthusiasts: http://collection.nrm.org/highlights.page.do
  
  
  
  

The Bad/Ugly:
We haven't really done much spelling in week 30 and 31, due to some reluctance on his part.  The newness wore off, and he has had struggles to get copy work done as well.  Trouble in one area typically means an extra hour of schoolwork due to time-outs and just plain wasted time, so spelling has been put off.  The few times we have worked on it, I've been using my foster son's 1st grade spelling list from public school :)

The Other :)
I've continued to work on Ambleside Online Pinterest boards most afternoons or evenings for a few minutes, and have gotten the Librivox recording of AO books pinned through year 7.  Once I'm done with Year 8, I plan on completing the booklists in the same way for years 6-11.  Its quite a lot of pinning, but I am sure it will be useful to myself and other in the coming years.  If anyone wants me to add them as a collaborator on any of the AO boards I've started, let me know!