The Time of Jacob and More Silver Stork Stories

Last week we dove back into our lessons beginning with all the familiar activities.  Grant continued to practice his cursive letters throughout the week, and by Friday he had learned all the the middle-zone letters with baseline connectors.  These included: a,e,c,i,m,n,r,s,u and x. 

I also began teaching the kids a new French song which included new words such as open, close, box, bird and spider.  One of these days I will record them singing so you can all hear their lovely French singing voices.  We also continue to practice the other songs, verses, and phrases they have already learned, en francais, of course.

Grant is still having penny whistle lessons and getting lots of practice reading music.  Right now he is learning how to play Yankee Doodle.  Grant is eager to move onto a new instrument, and we will soon start piano lessons. 

Since Grant's main lesson is a language arts block, we take time to review math everyday.  Sometimes he rolls his number and operation dice to give him problems to work out, sometimes we play a math game, sometimes we toss beanbags back and forth while I say a number and ask Grant to give me an equation where the answer will be that number, and many days I have him jump on the mini-trampoline in the school room while skip counting.  This gives him practice with skip counting as well as getting him off his bottom and moving around a little.

Grant is still working his way through the 100 most common words in the English language during our spelling practice.  I will tell him a word, he has to spell it out loud back to me, and then write it down three times.  As soon as he can spell out a word without even thinking about it, I take it out of the "pool" of words.  He probably has about 25 words left to go.

He is currently reading from a Ninjago Lego book, and his reading continues to get a little faster everyday.  This book definitely has some challenging words for him, and he needs a little help every once in while sounding them out.

My school week actually starts on Sunday when I do the planning for the week, and draw the pictures on the chalkboards (one for Grant and one for Johanna).  The drawings come from the stories I am telling them, and they also serve as the inspiration for the drawings we do in our lesson books.

On Monday, in addition to the daily activities listed above, I  read Grant a story about Jacob and Esau, and how Jacob took Esau's blessing.  After I was done reading the story, Grant and I drew a picture in our lesson books (I have my own lesson book so I can sit down with Grant and draw, and also so I have a record of the drawings I did when it comes time to do these same lessons with the girls).

Mom's Drawing

 Grant's Drawing

I also introduced the form drawing for the week to Grant, and he practiced it on the chalkboard.

For Johanna, we read the next verse in the Silver Stork Book.  The new character for the day was a koala. 

I sat down with Johanna to draw a koala, and Grant didn't want to miss out on the fun, so he drew with us.

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

Grant's Drawing

On Tuesday, Grant re-told me the story about Jacob, and then he copied the summary into his lesson book.

Johanna had a duck join the fun in the Silver Stork book.

Once I had finished reading her the new verse from the story, we made some glittery play dough.  We scented it with eucalyptus oil (a day late from the koala theme, but we still went with it), and added in some green glitter.  Johanna helped knead in the oil and glitter, and then Grant, Johanna and I made some ducks, while Julia just made, well....whatever she wanted.

On Wednesday, we took one of our woodland trails for our morning walk, and for part of the way Grant and Johanna decided to follow a dry creek bed instead of staying on the trail.  They encountered a vine overhanging a "pit" of water and ice, so they swung on the vine to get over the ice.  They were very excited to report that Johanna did it, too!  They got back into the school room and wanted to draw a picture from their adventure.

Grant's Drawing

 Johanna's Drawing

I also told Grant a story about Jacob's dream of the ladder up to heaven, his journey to his Uncle's homeland, his wives, his sons, and his return home.

After I was done telling him the story, we drew our pictures.

Mom's Drawing

Grant's Drawing

I read the next verse from the Silver Stork story to Johanna, and this verse was about a turtle.

Johanna and I painted pictures of turtles, and, once again, Grant wanted to join us.

Johanna's Painting

Grant's Painting

Johanna and Julia also had a stuffed monkey and a stuffed cat toy with them in the school room, and decided they needed to have school.  I'm not quite sure what this particular lesson was about, but Johanna asked me if she could draw on the chalkboard. I think she felt very important being the "teacher" and getting to draw on the big chalkboard.

We had some other things going on Thursday morning, so we were back in the school room on Friday to finish out the week.  Grant re-told me the story about Jacob, we came up with a summary together, and then he copied it into his book.

He also drew the form drawing for this week, and the one from last week (we forgot to do it then) into his form drawing book.

(Grant thought it was very important to make a silly face for this photo.)

This week will finish up our current language arts block with stories from the life of Joseph. I can't believe after that we will be in February already!