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.

Week 18: Luck O' The Irish

Irish Soda Bread

On Monday we met with our Classical Conversations group where my son made a presentation on the parable of the prodigal son, did a Morisot-inspired painting of a lion, and observed a spinning fountain demonstrating Newton's third law of motion.  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:  Ireland

Brigid's Cloak by Bryce Milligan

Saint Patrick and the Peddler by Margaret Hodges

Saint Patrick by Ann Tompert

Irish soda bread for Sunday morning breakfast (recipe here)

History:  Post World War II era

A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert (highly recommended as a gentle look at the hardships endured in a war-ravaged country)

Math:  Measurements

See this post.

Language Arts:

The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading lessons 56-59

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

Handwriting Without Tears

Various Hooked on Phonics level 1 readers

Family Read-Aloud:

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

Fine Arts:

Daily violin practice and weekly lesson

Violin recital concert

Physical Education:

Last basketball game of the season

Gymnastics

Miscellaneous:

Friday afternoon at the circus!

Feet, Fleas, And A Jumping Contest

We are spending too much time at the desk.  So, at least through April, we're going to do math using a different format.  I'm going to use books and activities to illustrate, discuss and demonstrate math concepts.

A lot of my book and activity ideas will come from here.

This week, for example, our CC math memory work dealt with measurements (specifically, one foot).  So we read the book How Big is a Foot? by Rolf Myller.

 

It's an amusing look at standard measurements.  I also got an idea incorporating a ruler, a discussion about fleas (as in Ctenocephalides felis) and a jumping contest from a book called Right In Your Own Backyard:  Nature Math from Time-Life Books.

I think a literature-based approach to math will be a fun change of pace.

42 before 42

Today I turn 41.  It's a good age, it really is.  I've seen people putting their goals out there in the blogosphere for all to see.  I thought I'd do the same in the hopes it'll give me a little bit of accountability.  I'm approaching my personal list as a series of 42 things I want to accomplish before I turn 42.

Here's the list in no particular order:

1. Log 42 miles on my bicycle
2. Walk/job 420 miles
3. Do a plank for 4 consecutive minutes
4. Do 40 push-ups in 2 minutes
5. Do 42 half sit-ups in one and a half minutes
6. Master meringue
7. Make sour dough bread
8. Knit this hat
9. Hand make 4 other items
10. Drink 4,200 ounces of water...twice
11. Learn to write in Spencerian
12. Learn to play chess
13. Read 42 books
14. Read at least four of the Great Books
15. Change the banner and background on this blog
16. Blog at least once a week
17. Go on 42 one-on-one dates with the people in my family
18. Make 42 calls to my parents, sisters or brother
19. Mail 42 pieces of personal correspondence
20. Work through this math book
21. Attend 42 family meetings
22. Do 42 nature studies with the kids
23. Find just the right thing to put over the fireplace
24. Teach the kids the habit of putting away their own laundry
25. Make this cake
26. Participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count
27. Participate in the Great Sunflower Project
28. Assemble 4 good outfits
29. Entertain 42 guests in our home
30. Complete an album or scrapbook
31. Complete a will
32. Get a family portrait taken
33. Join a food co-op
34. Finish memorizing Ephesians 6
35. Memorize Paul Revere's Ride
36. Take a class 
37. Host a ladies' Bible Study
38. Memorize a history timeline
39. Learn to play Scott Joplin's "Bethena" on the piano
40. Learn to draw
41. Give 42 items to charity
42. Bring 4 different kinds of fruits or vegetables to harvest from the space in our yard

How Swede It Is

In conjunction with our Classical Conversations geography memory work, we've been reading lots of books set in northern Europe (see side bar for our list of books).  Their favorites are those by Maj Lindman.  Maj Lindman books feature two sets of triplets who live in Sweden (Snipp, Snapp and Snurr and Flicka, Ricka and Dicka)

This book, part of our own library, bears a notation "Royal School 1955."  This refers to the one-room schoolhouse where my mom spent her elementary years.

These simple stories written in the 1930s and 40s contain wholesome messages (such as, working to earn money, setting aside wants to benefit someone in need, and returning what doesn't belong to you even if you don't want to).  It really makes my heart swell that they enjoy these books.  I take it as a sign of their innocence and purity that these stories appeal to them.  There is not a hint of mockery toward these boys in their beanie caps and 'stockings' or towards the goody, goody girls with the ridiculous sounding names.

Inspired by the Swedish Flicka, Ricka and Dicka and their cake-baking efforts in Flicka, Ricka, Dicka Bake a Cake, I decided to make a Swedish Visiting Cake from my favorite baking book with the kids.  (Find the recipe and a description written by Dorie Greenspan herself here.)  I don't bake with the kids nearly enough, which makes no sense because one goal I have for them is to be competent bakers and cooks at an early age.  This was a perfect baking project because this cake is made of simple ingredients and with simple methods.  My four-year-old daughter said, "I always wondered how to make a cake.  I thought it would be hard."  Here's the result:

Despite its ragged appearance, it is delicious with its lemony flavor and gooey-butter-cake texture. We'll polish it off tonight topped with whipped cream and paired with peaches frozen from summer.