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

Week 9, A Bevy of Books

For week nine, our geography memory work included China and India.  We read a lot of picture books set in these two countries.  They all had merit, but as always, the kids enjoyed some more then others.  I'll count 'em down, least to most favorite, below:

8.  Monsoon by Uma Krishanaswami:

This one had very good illustration that captured the vibe of present-day India, but the story of an approaching storm at the end of a dry season is a little flat:

7.  Once a Mouse by Marcia Brown

This Caldecott Medal winner is a book from our home library that we've read many times although it's not among our favorites.  Based on the illustrations, I assume this takes place in India although there are no references to the country or the culture.

6.  Yeh-Shen:  A Cinderella Story from China by Ai-Ling Louie

I thought this would go over better than it did since Cinderella is popular figure with my three-year-old, but I think possibly they didn't connect to the misty, dreamy quality of the illustrations.  I'm going to read this to them more because I think that Yeh-Shen is a beautiful character with admirable qualities and familiarity always helps their enjoyment of stories.   

5.  Lon Po Po:  A Red Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young

I thought it interesting that many of the books we read this week had to do with either greed or contentment.  This story illustrated the dangers of greed but also featured three resourceful girls.  This book was illustrated by the author, who also drew the pictures for Yeh Shen.  As a result, the illustrations had a similar quality to those of Yeh-Shen.  However, we've read Lon Po Po many times, so the kids connected with it more. 

4.  The Boy and the Tigers by Helen Bannerman

I know this story from my own childhood as Little Black Sambo.  Whatever the name, the story is a classic...and again features the dangers of greed.

3.  Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel

Something about the plight of those children in the well and the way the name of the 'most honored son' rolls off the tongue appeals to my kids.

2.  The Gifts of Wali Dad, A Tale of India and Pakistan by Aaron Shepard

I fortuitously recovered this treasure from the depths of the bin at Goodwill just a week ago.  It is an entertaining story of generosity and contentment that we all learned from and enjoyed.

1.  The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahay

We all loved this book.  I read it to my kids last year, and they were not interested in hearing it again.  This year, it was a hit.  It is a wonderful story of seven brothers with special powers who work together to save each others' lives.

Week 8, Adventure on the High Seas

One of the best parts of Classical Conversations is the weekly presentation.  Each week the children get in front of their class and give a presentation that can range from a simple 'show and tell' to a persuasive speech.  The class tutor picks the topics.  This year, my kindergartner has given 'speeches' on raccoons, tropical rain forests, and Leonardo Da Vinci....fairly heady topics for a six year old.  

For week 8, he was to give a few facts about a famous explorer from our Classical Conversations week 8 history sentence.  Our history sentence for week 8 was about five different explorers during the golden age of exploration.  My son picked Ferdinand Magellan.

We got information from Magellan from this book, which was the best I could find at our library for the kindergarten level:

The story of Magellan includes mutiny, shipwreck, slimy water, sawdust consumption and poisonous spears--titillating topics for a six year old.

I copied a few illustrations from the book, which he colored to use as visual aids:

The only ship to complete the journey

Magellan's Route

My husband, an exceptional public speaker himself, is in charge of getting him prepared for Monday's presentation.  Unfortunately, neither of us gets to see the end result because my husband works, and I tutor another class.  However, I'm sure he does fine if he doesn't go into silly mode (a big "if").  He's not at the self-conscious stage.  

I'm confident this weekly public speaking practice will serve him well in the years to come.

Week 6, Renaissance Man

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Classical Conversation's history memory work was on key figures of the Renaissance, including Shakespeare.

Now, my own Shakespearean education included a reading of Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew in high school English class.  We also sang a couple of his sonnets in choir (I still can remember some of the words).  Suffice it to say, I don't know much 'bout Shakespeare.  It's one of the many holes in my education that I hope to fill while providing an education to my children.  I don't believe six and three is too early to start to get them familiar with his works.

We began our little Shakespearean adventure with some general information about the man himself.  We read two picture books, Aliki's William Shakespeare and The Globe:

And Lois Burdett's A Child's Portrait of Shakespeare:

Of the two, the three of us unanimously picked the second as our favorite as we're fond of those rhyming couplets and the kids really enjoyed the children's illustrations, but both were good.

Now, here's where I prove that I'm Shakespeare illiterate.  I decided to delve into one of his plays, and for my two young children I chose, A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Mistake.  I found that kids cannot  relate to lovers' triangles.  Plus, the back and forth of affections between the four, almost indistinguishable, main characters is reminiscent of a 'who's on first' skit.  Their little heads were spinning.  But, I chose it based on my one bit of knowledge--that it was a comedy.  

It was not a total loss, as they did find Puck and a man named Bottom amusing.  We persevered and now they've been exposed.  I hope they caught some of it.  We ended up considering four different versions:

Edith Nesbitt's from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare:

Lois Burdett's, which, despite the rhyming couplets and illustrations, we found too long and detailed:

The BBC video version from here.

And finally, Bruce Coville's version:

This Coville version was our favorite.  It was the last one we read and we had watched the video version, so they were catching on to the story by them.  Plus the illustrations in this one are great.

Trash Day

Our Classical Conversations science sentence this week dealt with pollution.  So, we got up close and personal to land pollution in the form of litter in our neighborhood.  We live in a new neighborhood still under construction.  Construction workers don't tend to tidy up after themselves, so there are a lot of opportunities for trash collecting.  Here's the litter we accumulated in just a short while.

There's plenty left where that came from.

Our history sentence dealt with Renaissance men, we focused on one....Shakespeare.  There was a scheduled break this week from Classical Conversations, so we had two weeks to cover Week 6.  It's a good thing, because our introduction to Shakespeare took a while.  More on that to come.

Week 5, Joan of Arc and Animal Adaption

In Classical Conversations, we learn a timeline of history based on the beautiful cards published by Veritas press.  Last year my children's attention was always arrested by the Joan of Arc card, which featured a painting similar to this:

They were full of questions about that girl in armor astride a horse.  It really captured their fancy.  So, I was glad when a history sentence this year featured the young heroine.

In preparation, I ordered Diane Stanley's Joan of Arc.  Unfortunately, my children's attention spans were not ready for  Ms. Stanley.  Instead, I obtained a library copy of Joan of Arc:  The Lily Maid by Margaret Hodges.  They REALLY liked this one.  

I was familiar with another Margaret Hodges book, Saint George and the Dragon, but was unaware she had written so many books set in the middle ages.  Since my children like Joan of Arc and Saint George the the Dragon, I decided to just make it Margaret Hodges week, and we also went on to read Dick Whittington and His Cat.

and The Kitchen Knight:  A Tale of King Arthur.

Our geography memory work featured the Alps.  I was eager to read a book from Sonlight's kindergarten list, The Apple and the Arrow by Mary and Conrad Bluff, which is set in the Alps during the 13th century.  This is a terrific historical 'novel' that we read over several days.  I really feel repetition is good, so we'll no doubt read this one again when we learn about Switzerland.

While reading this book, the kids colored a couple of castles from this coloring book, part of this new collection.

For science, our memory work related to the ways animals adapt to environmental change.  We revisited The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader, which is a perfect fit for the topic.  Because it related well to ecology in general, we also read The Salamander Room, a Five In a Row selection.  

Along with the book we watched the Reading Rainbow video.  However my son declared it, the 'worst show he's ever seen.'  Well, not a good attitude, but I'm not really a LeVar fan either.

Week 4, European Cities and the Water Cycle

So many books, so little time.  Especially when mom is preparing for a certain boy's sixth birthday party and a visit from the grandparents.

For Classical Conversations geography, we memorized the location of five European countries.  I had a whole stack of books set in these cities to read.  However, because of time restraints, we read most but especially focused on Paris.  For us, Paris is synonymous with Madeline,

which we read for the two thousand one hundred and ninety-sixth time.  This time, we took a closer look at the illustrations and compared them to the illustrations in another fun book set in Paris, Babar Loses His Crown,

and another fun book, Adele and Simon.

This last one was the crowd favorite, and a book we had never read before.  It would be a good book for the home library.  The illustration are beautiful.  Finding Simon's lost items added an 'I Spy' dimension to the book and made it even more interesting.

We ended our tour of Paris with the classic, This is Paris.

For Classical Conversations science, the topic was the natural cycles.  We read one book on the water cycle.  As with last week, Ms. Frizzle was our guide as we read The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks.

We ended our study of the water cycle by watching a Magic School Bus video also about the water cycle called "The Magic School Bus Wet All Over" here.

Birthday party = no enrichment activities.  We stuck to the basics this week.

Week 3, Food Chains

Our Classical Conversations science sentence this week dealt with food chains.

The only book I could scrounge up for this topic was The Magic Schoolbus Gets Eaten.  Ms. Frizzle is very popular around here.  We also watched this version on-line.

I had a left-over owl pellet from last year.  He cracked it open and observed the remains of an owl's dinner.

Yes, his glove is on the wrong hand

Our field trip this week was to the local nature center where we sought produces, decomposers and consumers.  This is what we found.

Producer

Decomposer

Consumer

Week 3, Legends

It is fun when their interests converge with their education.  I want to pursue more delight driven subjects.  One such subject for him is knights.  Although they're not technically knights, his interest in knight-like behavior (bravery, sword-fighting, etc.) was fueled by reading about by Peter, Edmund and Prince Caspian in the Narnia series.  I know he is young, but we also let him watch the movies, which he loved.

To capitalize on these interests, for much of our extra reading this week, we focused on two legends featuring bravery and sword fighting:  Robin Hood and King Arthur.  I chose this week to focus on these legends because the Classical Conversations history sentence for the week dealt with Richard the Lion-Hearted and the Crusades.

We first watched Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood.  

This movie is a little silly with the sequins-adorned costumes and the constant throwing back of the head to laugh but fairly appropriate for his age.  I think he understood the historical context as he has been listening to the Robin Hood portion of The Story of the World:  Volume 2 for the past two weeks. 

I thought this also would be a good week to introduce him to the legend of King Arthur.  To get warmed up, we read a simple Hello Reader called The Sword in the Stone by Grace Maccarone.

We followed that up with a more difficult version of the same legend, Arthur and the Sword, a picture book by Robert Sabuda with interesting stained glass illustrations.  I thought it was good, but it was the children's least favorite book of the week.

We also read a chapter book I purchased at a recent Usborne party called The Adventures of King Arthur.  This expanded into other aspects of the legend besides the sword in the stone.  This one piqued my five-year-old's interest, but I thought the writing was poor.

Our favorite version of  the legend was the sound recording, King Arthur and His Knights as told by Jim Weiss. 

As the finale to our week of legends, we are going start a book today that is set in the days of King Arthur, Clyde Robert Bulla's The Sword in the Tree.

We also had a good week with science, which will be the topic of my next post.

Phonics Review

Because of Labor Day, we had a week off from Classical Conversations.  We took advantage of that time and focused our energy on the 3 R's.

For language arts, he is using the Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading ("Phonics Road").  We are going through level one S L O W L Y working toward mastery.   Level one is designed for either kindergarten or first grade.  There is no rush, so we'll probably take both years to go through level one.  I think the program found us at the right time.  We went through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons earlier in the year, and I thought he was doing great with reading.  But when it came to reading 'real books', it became clear that his primary reading strategies were word memorization and picture cues.  He needs some basic phonics re-training and Phonics Road fits the bill.

To start with, he first practiced writing the letters for the first two Phonics Road lessons using this:

Next we drilled the letter sounds the old-fashioned way, with flash cards.

To further review, we played phonics bingo (a very popular activity):

He also identified letters written on card stock with glitter glue by touch while blindfolded and then practiced the sounds:

And, for good measure, the kids and I made a batch of play dough and made letters:

He called this his "creepy d"...a very accurate description!

It was a good week.

Week 2

This week we began a tour of Europe by visiting Spain by way of the classic children's book The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf.  We even enjoyed this Walt Disney version which stayed very true to the book:

Mostly our extra readings corresponded with our Classical Conversations science memory work about consumers.  I searched our home library to find books that featured an animal eating, and we simply discussed what type of consumer that animal represented.  Science lite, I know, but very kindergarten and preschool appropriate.

Here's a list of books we read featuring some of our favorite herbivores, carnivores and omnivores:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Once a Mouse by Marcia Brown

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

The Big Snow* by Berta and Elmer Hader

We followed these with a trio of books by Beatrix Potter.   Considering her animals speak and wear clothes, it is amazing how realistically these books capture their natural characteristics.  I have purchased many of her books mostly because their petite white covers look good on my daughter's bookshelf.  I never dreamed that my children would love to hear these stories so much.  They frequently request them.  Here are the three we read (and reread) this week:

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny

The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher

Today, the weather coordinated with the calendar, and we got out to enjoy the cooler September temperatures with a trip to the zoo.  Every time we go to the zoo, my children focus exclusively on two things:  the playground and the train.  Today, I insisted that before we could enjoy either, we had to find two animals each of an herbivore, carnivore and omnivore.  From a mom's point of view, this approach was a success.  Here are a few highlights:

We got to see prairie dogs, which had eluded us on our trip to the actual prairie 

Okay, there was a little bit of playground time

* We will read this gem many times over the following weeks because it perfectly conveys a lot of the concepts we're covering in our Classical Conversations memory work.