Solorio Academy: March 11, week in review

When someone tells me "I have good news and I have bad news", I always want to hear the bad news first. If I hear the good news first, I can't enjoy it, because I'm too nervous about the bad news. So I will start with this week's "bad news"

Beckham is making progress with his phonics lessons. It's happening very slowly, but he is actually learning how to read! Did I mention it was happening very slowly? This week I had to teach him the "th" blend. The problem is, he couldn't tell when he was supposed to use the voiced or unvoiced version on the "th" blend. 

Example:

Voiced "th"... there, them, those, that.

Unvoiced "th"... thin, thick, three

Beckham always wants to use the voiced "th" blend. And I think I'm going to lose my mind.

I was reading a chapter book to the older kids last week. Kitty was wandering through the house as usual. I heard her messing with the computer, which is actually my husband's iMac computer that he doesn't really want the kids using. But she was being so quiet, and I just wanted to finish the chapter before I got up. When I checked on her a few minutes later I discovered that she had crammed all 4 of Abby's math software cd's into the computer's disc slot. I had to break the news to Adam when he got home from work. He wrestled with it for a while and got 3 of the 4 cd's out of the computer, but the 4th cd was stuck. He watched youtube video tutorials showing how to disassemble the computer to retrieve the cd. It was a lengthy process, and considering Abby had already completed the cd that was stuck, he decided to purchase an external cd drive and save worrying about the captive cd for another day.

We loaded up all 5 kids and drove 35 miles to the nearest Best Buy. They were all sold out of external drives and wouldn't get a shipment until next week. Adam left Best Buy and drove to Staples, only to find out Staples didn't carry them at all. We drove back home and ordered one from Amazon. 

When the anticipated package was delivered 2 days later (thanks, prime!) Adam got it hooked up, and inserted the next math cd. And it didn't work. Apparently in the process of being crammed in and yanked out of the computer, the cd's became so scratched that they are now unusable. Since Abby was only 1/2 way through the school year, I am forced to buy another set of 4th grade math cd's to finish out the year. 

Let me break this down for those of you in Rio Linda: Leaving Evah-Kate unattended for 5 minutes cost us an unproductive 70 mile round trip to Best Buy, $25 dollars to purchase the external cd drive, $100 to replace the math curriculum, an obligation to disassemble the computer, and 10 school days without math for Abby.

Moving on to the good news...

I was checking the work in Abby's grammar book (I don't grade work. If the kids answer something incorrect, I review it with them and we correct it together), I came upon this beautiful sight...

We are currently meeting with some specialists to figure out some ongoing health problems Kitty has been facing (more details in a future post). She started speech therapy a couple of weeks ago. She still isn't saying words (aside from baby, night-night, and bye-bye) but she has a big interest in the alphabet. She watches the Wheel of Fortune each night and will repeat the letters that are called out by the contestants. I was in a teacher supply store and thought I would pick up some alphabet flash cards and just see if she would like them. I was absolutely amazed on Monday when I showed her the cards for the first time and she was naming some of the letters without any prompting at all. It has been so exciting to hear her sweet little voice!

Do you have any tips on teaching the "th" blend? Can you suggest activities to help teach Kitty the alphabet? Leave your suggestions in the comments below!