Assessment 2018-19: Mister Man

My favorite academic memory of this year will probably be Mister Man reciting the Latin prayers that were part of his Prima Latina curriculum.

His little 7-year-old voice rattling off the beautiful words, charmingly mimicking the cadence of the narrator on the audio CD made me smile every. single. time.

He loved Latin.  He cannot wait to start Latina Christiana this fall.

He has a good memory.  Memoria Press Latin products are perfect for him.

In the beginning of the school year, Mister Man had terrible handwriting.  His reading, comprehension, and narration skills were years ahead, but he was a pretty typical 6 year-old boy as far as handwriting was concerned.

We worked on it.  And he narrated as much work as I could get away with to allow his mind to enjoy learning while his hands caught up.

Mostly I encouraged fine motor play (i.e. Legos and knitting), but in early 2019, I purchase The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Level 3 for him.

He improved.

He improved to the point that I do almost none of his writing for him now.

He read the entire Book of Mormon (having started it last school year), and he's at least half way through for the second time.  Truly, I don't know how much he's retaining, but it's enough that he recognizes stories in Morning Meeting that overlap with where he's recently read on his own, and he can converse with age/experience-appropriate intelligence about some of his favorite stories from The Book of Mormon.

He's good at making connections from one subject to another.

He's a voracious reader.   Thank goodness he's happy to re-read favorite books because I couldn't keep him in reading material otherwise!  Using an informal online reading test, he scored on a 6th-8th grade decoding and comprehension level, but his interests and emotional development are still 7 years old, and he has the tenderest heart I've ever met, so I like his reading to be as innocent as possible.

I'm always on the lookout for books that are high-boy-interest without crude language or emotionally mature content.  This means he's falling in love with some lovely old-fashioned books like the Eddie books by Carolyn Haywood.

He also loves the How to Train Your Dragon books series by Cressida Cowell.  They're chock-full of boy-humor, and there's a goodly amount of fighting, but the themes that Mister Man talks about are love, courage, loyalty, and acceptance.  He has read the 10 books he owns probably 6 times each this year (so far), and he's teaching his little brothers how to count in "dragonese."  The teens complain that I'm letting him become a "dragon-geek," but he's so happy, and there's such a joyful connection between the brothers as they talk and re-enact favorite scenes, that I can't be sorry.

He completed one of the higher level Explode the Code books this year (I can't remember the number), and I tried another phonics book as a spelling and vocabulary supplement, but it didn't work for him.  He wasn't writing enough on his own for the level that challenged his reading skills, so we put it away and let him just read and read and read.

 
Mister Man's gifts lie in the academic realm.  He's pretty gangly and awkward in using his body.  He often sneaks a book with him when I insist on outdoor time.  He does ride a bike just fine, and he did learn how to shoot a basketball into a regulation hoop.  He sings and dances with our little service troupe, but he often trips, falls, and/or flails about.  :)  He's good-natured about trying again, though.  I wrote some months ago about searching for a karate studio, but the one I liked best doesn't have lesson times that coordinate with our schedule at all, so I'm still looking for one that is neither too far away nor too aggressively competitive.

Science is a pretty powerful love.  He completed Alpha Omega's LifePac Science Grade 2 this year.  When he finished that I looked at what MasterBooks had to offer, and because I wanted him to be able to work completely independently, I ordered God's Design for Life: for Beginners.  It was waaaaay too easy for him, but he loved it--devouring what should have been a whole year's study in a matter of weeks--including the hands-on projects.

Mister Man loves Academy.  He listens attentively to all of the readings and makes comments that add to our discussion.  He remembers facts, and he draws/writes wry narrations that make me smile.

He is a happy, positive participant during Morning Meeting.

Shiller Math delighted Mister Man, and he completed the first 2 books in the series in rapid order.  I hated the series because of the many flaws in the scope and sequence and just plain typos.  We pushed through together as long as the material didn't get beyond his comprehension, but the third book jumped from single digit addition and subtraction to 4 digit carrying/borrowing, and I was unwilling to bridge the gap in order to continue on.  He'd already completed the first half of Rod and Staff Arithmetic Grade 1, so I pulled out the second half and encouraged him to solidify his math facts and do some intermediate 2-digit adding and subtracting.  He wasn't thrilled at first, but he did it, and it grew on him.  Now he says he's happy to continue with Rod and Staff next year.

He's enthusiastic about almost everything.  He reacts to almost all news with exclamation points in his voice!!!!  He does have opinions about how thing should be, and he doesn't like it when his expectations aren't met; the biggest tantrum I've ever seen him throw was when we had to leave the library without checking out books.

He's wiggly and squiggly and likes to poke siblings until they squawk.

(I remember my brother being the same way, and my husband and his brothers are still like this!)

Mister Man loves helping--even if he gets distracted by reading material lying around the house.  He feeds the cat, sets the breakfast table, clears the dinner table, and puts up the chairs so the dining room can be vacuumed each night.  He's happy to ferry groceries from the van to the house, and he loves to feed snacks to the chickens.  He does not love tidying his room, but he'll do it when pressed, and he thinks it is funny and sneaky to "go the extra mile" when I say, "Pick up 20 things in your room." 

He'll pick up 40. :)

Abdominal distress reared its ugly head again this school year--causing Mister Man to put his head on the table and cry instead of doing schoolwork for several weeks.  (When he felt better, he caught right up.)  We've seen a GI doc who "ruled out the really serious diseases" and ordered a panel of blood tests to rule out any other diseases he could think of.  Should Mister Man have none of them, the next step will be to take a scope into his digestive tract to look for inflammation, and if it's there, find out why.

He's fine if he follows a grain-free diet, but I'm not comfortable with that for the long haul--regardless of what other people have said.  I've read books and studies and testimonials, and I don't feel comfortable with it as a permanent solution for Mister Man.  I was reminded to use digestive enzyme supplements, and I see an improvement in Mister Man's well-being.  Perhaps that simple regimen will be the solution we've been looking for.

Overall he's a fun kid who loves life, loves reading, loves learning, and loves his family.