We also talked about all the different ways people "tell time" from clocks to watches to moon and solar phases (Hence the new moon phase box in the left hand column of the blog. I thought everyone might like to follow along :) I found this cool poster which I hung up in the school room to go along with this block.
We will also be adding in some books, crafts, and activities from the Wee Folk Art winter curriculum. These are mostly for Johanna, but Grant enjoys all of it, too.
We started out our days the same with a walk, some verses, math review, penny whistle lesson, and other activities. The kids will be memorizing this verse for January:
"Snow makes whiteness where it falls
The bushes look like popcorn balls
The places where I always play
Look like somewhere else today."
-Marie Louise Allen
-Marie Louise Allen
Mondays will still be clay day for a little while longer. This week Grant modeled a cube with the finger tips of both hands, next week he will model it with the finger tips of his right hand, and the week after that with his left hand. Then he will do those same weekly exercises, but all behind his back.
We talked about January, February and March on Monday. We drew a picture of each one in our MLB and Grant copied a short verse for each page.
Mom's January, February and March Drawings
Grant's January, February and March Drawings
I also read this book:
On Tuesday, we added in jump roping before the penny whistle lesson.
Afterward, I read this fun book:
When I was finished with the book, we had snack time (the most important part of the morning according to the kiddos) and Grant and I talked a little more about the lunar and solar cycles, and talked about April, May and June. Grant's birthday is in April, so that's pretty much all that month meant to him.
Mom's April, May, and June Drawing
Grant's April, May, and June Drawings
Wednesdays will continue to be "string game" day, and we started learning a new pattern today as well as doing math review and penny whistle lesson before starting on the main lesson covering July, August and September. When we talked about the months, we talked about what is going on during that month, such as birthdays, holidays, seasons. We also talked about the origins of the names of all the months.
Mom's July, August, and September Drawings
Grant's July, August and September Drawings
I also read this book:
I wanted to do some experiments/nature studies with snow this week, but that all melted when it got up to 70 degrees on New Year's Eve Day (not to mention a tornado ripped through a part of St. Louis). So, while we were outside on Thursday before going into the school room, we did a different "study" on evergreen trees. We looked at some evergreen needles, and then scraped them with our fingernails, observing the "wax" covering them to protect them from frost. We also broke them open to see the watery fluid on the inside, which "feeds" them through the winter, but we couldn't really see anything. Oh, well. Good idea.
The kids are also fascinated with the ice on the pond. Right now it's in the semi-frozen stage where Grant can easily crack it. (Don't worry, they are closely supervised whenever they are around it.)
We finished up talking about the months of October, November and December, and drew pictures of them in our lesson books.
Mom's October, November and December Drawings
Grant's October, November and December Drawings
Whenever I sit down in this chair to start our school days with bean bag toss and penny whistle lesson, Boji always comes and sits in my lap. Lucia thought she needed to join him on this day. I had Grant take this photo of me and my two friends:
Here is my view of Grant:
We kept it pretty simple and fun on Friday with some review, "sleigh rides" around the room, and the making of paper snowflakes.
Julia pretty much just tore apart the paper. She didn't end up with any snowflakes, but she had fun doing it.
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