Week 22: More Fun With Rainbows

Monday at Classical Conversations included presenting on Ronald Reagan, singing "The Orchestra Song" with the group, and making an egg protector.  The rest of the week we practiced our memory work and did work in our usual subjects.  Here's an outline of the rest of our school endeavors for the week:

History:  The fall of Communism

The Wall: Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis

Geography:  Central America

Mama and Papa Have a Store by Amelia Lau Carling

The Umbrella by Jan Brett

and a book I wish I'd gotten, but didn't:  Guatemala ABCs by Marcie Aboff

Science:  Characteristics of light

My daughter's preschool week was inspired by my son's science memory work regarding light.  We killed two birds with one stone, so see the previous post for books we read.

Language Arts:

The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading lessons 72-75

The Phonics Road to Reading and Spelling review weeks 1 through 7

Handwriting Without Tears

Various Hooked on Phonics level 1 plus Dr. Seuss books

Math:  Quadrilaterals, rectangles and squares

Various Right Start manipulatives like tiles and geoboards

Fine Arts:

Daily violin practice and weekly lesson

A violin concert at a nursing home

Physical Education:

Gymnastics

A Rainbow of Books

Well, more accurately, there were books about rainbows because last week it was "R" is for rainbow in our preschool.

Here's a list of rainbow books and other readings:

What Is a Rainbow? a Just Ask book

The Wondrous Day by Hans Christian-Schmidt (my son's very first book)

A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman

Noah's Ark by Peter Spier

Genesis 9:8-16

Our rainbow-inspired scrapbook page:

C Is For....

Well, to me, the answer will always be 'cookie', but I'm heavily influenced by this song of my childhood:

Despite my childhood bias, we went with 'carrot' in the second installment of my daughter's preschool.

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss was our inspiration, a book that illustrates how very good simplicity can be.

Here's our 'C is for carrot' scrapbook page:

Actual carrot seeds followed, which she planted with her dad.

The latest issue of "Better Homes and Gardens" arrived amidst all our carrot activity featuring this recipe, a carrot cake inspired carrot bread, which set me to baking.

O Si Yo, Cherokee National Museum

That means, "Hello, Cherokee National Museum" in the language of the natives.

That is where we spent last Friday.  What a great day!  It was overcast yet warm.  Our home-schooling buddies came with us.  The grounds were beautiful.  Our group practically had the place to ourselves.  We got a lot of good attention from the employees and learned a lot.

First up, was a tour of a Cherokee village as it would have looked 300 years ago when the tribe still lived in the Southeast.

Our tour guide described how they made many of the tools used everyday.

After our tour of the early village, we made crafts.  The boys made stick-ball sticks and the girls made baskets.  Here are ours:

Following lunch, we took a self-guided tour of another village representing the Cherokee way-of-life in the early 1900's, right before Oklahoma statehood.

Some members of our party even managed to fit in a game of hide-and-seek on the grounds before going home from a day well spent.

Week 21: Jelly Beans and the President Who Loved Them

Monday at Classical Conversations included presenting on the Apollo 11 space mission, singing "The Orchestra Song" with the group, and finishing the toothpick bridge.  The rest of the week we practiced our memory work and did work in our usual subjects.  Here's an outline of the rest of our school endeavors for the week:

History:  Ronald Reagan and the Cold War

Time for Kids:  Ronald Reagan: From Silver Screen to Oval Office by the Editors of TIME for Kids

Ronald Reagan (getting to Know the US Presidents) by Mike Venezia

Geography:  Haiti

Tap-Tap by Karen Lynn Williams

Language Arts:

The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading lessons 68-71

The Phonics Road to Reading and Spelling review weeks 1 through 7

Handwriting Without Tears

Various Hooked on Phonics level 1 readers

Fine Arts:

Two Scarlet Songbirds:  A Story of Anton Dvorak by Carole Lexa Schaefer

Viewed Dvorak American Quartet 3rd Movement performance here

"The Story of Dvorak in Words and Music" (sound recording)

Daily violin practice

Physical Education:

Gymnastics

Miscellaneous:

Field trip to Cherokee Heritage Center (post to follow)

How Can I Be Mad....

even if a four-year-old and her best friend picked dozens of jonquils off at the head when they look so pretty floating in a white bowl?

Shamrock Smoothie

A St. Patrick's Day snack (recipe here).

Week 20: Three R's and One B

Do you see the calf?

Monday at Classical Conversations included a presentation on his favorite song (which he played on the violin), sang "The Orchestra Song" with the group, and built a toothpick bridge.  The rest of the week we practiced our memory work and did work in our usual subjects.  Here's an outline of the rest of our school endeavors for the week:

Geography/History:  North and South Vietnam

The Lotus Seed by Sherri Garland

The Wall by Eve Bunting

Math:  Measurements

Inch by Inch by Leon Lionni

Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy

Language Arts:

The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading lessons 64-67

The Phonics Road to Reading and Spelling review weeks 1 through 7

Handwriting Without Tears

Various Hooked on Phonics level 1 readers

Fine Arts:

"Beethoven Lives Upstairs" (sound recording)

"The Story of Beethoven in Words and Music" (sound recording)

"Leonard Bernstein - Young People's Concerts" DVD no. 1

Daily violin practice and weekly lesson

Physical Education:

Gymnastics

Miscellaneous:

Viewed the Orion Nebula through a telescope

Preschool

My four year-old wants to 'do school.'  If only her brother shared her enthusiasm!  I don't really want to teach her to read until I'm sure she's developmentally ripe.  She's not quite ready.  If I ask what 'mom' starts with, for example, she may say "/m/, /m/, /m/....S!'  If you show her a letter, though, she can usually say what sound it makes.  For instance, if she sees 'mom' written down, she can identify the "m" and say that it says /m/.

Ready or not, I'm not going to rush things as I did for her brother.

To keep her happy, we're going to 'do school' in a simple way.  My inspiration is going to be the "Read to Me and ABC" program at Walking by the Way.  I'm going to use her idea and pull a letter related to a book we're reading and do an activity related to it.  The activity may be as simple as doing a scrapbook page related to the letter and the book.  It will all depend on how well inspiration strikes.  I'll use different books than she did, based on what we have on hand or what corresponds to my son's schooling.

We kicked off the plan today by reading Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni.  The letter is "I" for "inchworm".

Here's our scrapbook page using Lionni's illustrations as inspiration.

I think next week will be the letter "C" for "carrot"  using The Carrot Seed as our read-aloud.

Week 19: Objects in Motion

A 4-year old in motion

Monday at Classical Conversations included a presentation on a hero (he chose David), sang "The Orchestra Song" with the group, and built a paper airplane.  The rest of the week we practiced our memory work and did work in our usual subjects.  Here's an outline of the rest of our school endeavors for the week:

Science:  First Law of Thermodynamics

Energy Makes Things Happen by Kimberly Bradley

Geography:  North and South Korea

The Firekeeper's Son by Linda Sue Park

Math:  Measurements

How Tall, How Short, How Faraway by David A. Adler

Right Start Math swim to 10 game

Language Arts:

The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading lessons 60-63

The Phonics Road to Reading and Spelling review weeks 1 through 7

Handwriting Without Tears

Various Hooked on Phonics level 1 readers

Fine Arts:

Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss

Attended youth orchestra concert

Daily violin practice and weekly lesson

Physical Education:

Gymnastics, Wednesday and Thursday

Book Sale

I've mentioned before that I am a book hound.

I have friends who are stocking up on food and honing their survival skills in case of a financial meltdown.  Instead of wondering what I would eat in such a case, I wonder how my children would get an education without a stockpile of books.  You know, in case the libraries have to shut down.  That's normal, right?  Anyway, financial meltdown or not, I like having the best books at our fingertips.

But, with all good things there is a limit, and I had decided that we had enough books.  My bargain book hunting obsession had to be curbed.  We had reached the book saturation point.

Despite my intentions, on a cold Saturday morning I found myself in a half-mile long line at 7:00 waiting for the doors to open on our areas best annual used book sale.  I only had a half hour to shop after the doors opened at 8 because my son had his last basketball of the season at 9:00 wwwaaayyy across town.

So much for resolve.

Here's what I find in just half an hour for $20.

I noticed after I put my camera away that I forgot to include my favorite find of the day in the above stack, which was a copy of this book:

That's one broken resolution I can feel good about.