Book-Reading, Journal-Writing, and Art...What Fun!

I think I mentioned the last time that William got some new books, what are called "graphic novels," which are set up like comic strips.  I have never liked such, but he is loving them.  The ones I got are about historical persons and events.  So far he has read Anne Frank, Race to the South Pole, and Alexander the Great.  I think he has started Pizarro and the Incas.  They're very educational, and they start out by introducing the cast, giving facts about each person, and ending in the back of the book with a glossary of terms.  He has read another of his Cul-de-Sac Kids books.  It was about a tree house mystery. 

 For those interested in the historical graphic novels pictured above, they can be found at Timberdoodle.com.  Some can also be found on Amazon.

William also writes in his journal and draws a picture almost every day.  Some days his writing is neat, but his spelling is poor.  Some days it's not so neat, but the spelling is better.  Some days his drawings are good, and other days they are poor.  One thing is for sure; the journal writing is helping his spelling skills.  I think I mentioned it before, but in case I did not, he free writes and draws a picture to go with it.  He is currently dating by the Roman calendar at the top of the page, and then he writes his name at the bottom.  I then write everything correctly, which shows him where he made punctuation, spelling, capitalization, or other errors.  Well, he likes to write about things that he loves on most days.  I enjoy reading the short entries.  I also am pleased with his writing structure.  He always starts out saying what he likes (or doesn't like or whatever), and then he says why he does and describes the topic. 

Here are some of the latest samples:

For the sabbath, we have now restarted the Bible Stories book from the start again.  If there's anything else that needs to be addressed, I do that, too.

Most days during the week, we read a chapter of Proverbs, then William works in Complete Curriculum Grade 2 on reading, math, language arts, and spelling.   He's nearly finished with reading and math.  We sometimes read something on the human body.  We look into certain things he learns more in-depth.  For example, after he read Race to the South Pole, we talked about frostbite, and I showed him real pictures on Google Images.  He also plays outside, and he's looking forward to "busting ice" in the winter and also playing in the snow, if it does so.  He shoots a bb gun some days; he needs new arrows for his bow.  He loves to collecting rocks and collecting bird nests that he find.  He also pretends sticks are swords.  He's definitely a boy.  A few days ago he found a salamander, much to my surprise:

I've been letting Trusten free paint or play with chalk.  Pictured below is him working with water paints and also William painting a picture:

These are my plans in the near future:

Next week William will be done with the reading lessons in the CCG2 book and probably finished with math.  He'll continue to work on language arts and spelling, until it's finished.  He will read his books as he pleases.  We'll continue to look at and read our magazines:  Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard, and Birds & Bloom.  I ordered William a typing program with lessons and games, so he'll be learning how to type.  I also have a book for him to start practicing cursive writing.  He'll be able to continue writing in print in his journal.   I also ordered Trusten a six-book set so that he can learn to draw, color, cut, paste, etc.  He is still watching his two videos on numbers and letters.  I alternate them each morning, except Sabbath. 

I look forward to the arrival of these things.  Well, this is a fair summary of what we've been doing lately.  Until next time....