This week it was back to the letters. Grant learned about W and C. We started with W on Monday. First we learned that Katie and her family started making a canoe to use on the nearby stream. In the story, Katie learned about the letter W and her father told her the story of The Fisherman and his Wife. I told Grant the same story and then we drew a picture from the story. Grant is starting to get better drawing with the block crayons, but they are a little challenging for him to use. We will have to add in some extra practice with those in the afternoons. I also introduced Grant to our form drawing and he practiced tracing that, and the letter W, in flour with his finger before moving onto practice on his chalkboard. This week's form is a hard one for him!
Chalkboard drawing for The Fisherman and His Wife including the letter W and this week's form
Grant's form drawing in his lesson book
Grant's "W is for Wave" drawing
Mom's "W is for wave" drawing
On Tuesday, we started our morning with a canoe ride around our lake since we were talking about Katie's family making a canoe. It was a beautiful fall morning and a perfect day for a canoe ride. We all enjoyed it. I did manage to drop Julia's hat and one of her shoes into the water, but both were recovered quickly. 
During our music lesson on Tuesday, Julia came over for a visit and made it very difficult for Grant to play his penny whistle! Of course Grant did not mind the interruption and found it to be very funny. This week, his music lesson includes a ball-bouncing game to the verse of "1-2 buckle my shoe, 3-4 shut the door, etc... He is really enjoying that! It's like having P.E. right in the school room. I'm a little nervous about having a ball in the room, but so far there have not been any major disasters.
Johanna getting in on the ball bouncing game
We also wrote a summary of The Fisherman and his Wife in Grant's lesson book, talked more about W and words that start with W and he finished his picture from Monday. Grant has a little birch bark canoe he got in Minnesota, so during bath time he took it into the tub to see if it would float. It didn't float, so we talked about why and how it was different from our big canoe.
On Wednesday, Grant learned the letter C as I told him the story of The Poor Miller's Boy and his Cat. He had an interesting time trying to figure out my chalkboard drawing before he heard the story. He thought the man was trying to hit the cat (it took him awhile to figure out it was a cat) with the axe. I intended for the cat to be laying on a red rug, or Carpet, but Grant thought it was a pool of blood he was laying in from being hit by the ax. This has to be a boy's way of thinking, because surely Johanna would not have come up with such a gruesome story to go along with my drawing! Okay, so maybe this wasn't my best drawing! It all made sense to him after I read him the story. Below, I have included our summary from this story, so my picture will make sense to you, too. We also enjoyed another canoe ride that evening before dinner.
Chalkboard drawing for The Poor Miller's Boy and His Cat and the letter C
Our summary from The Poor Miller's Boy and His Cat:
There once was a miller who had three men working for him. He said whoever could bring back the most beautiful horse would earn the mill. The three set out and camped in a cave. The first two left the third behind as he was the drudge and they thought he was stupid. He woke and said, "Where am I?" He started walking in the forest and met an enchanted cat. She said she would give him the most beautiful horse if he worked as her servant for seven years. He worked for her faithfully. At the end of the seven years, she had him mow the grass and dry the hay in a meadow with a silver scythe. Then she had him build a house out of silver timber using a silver axe. She showed him the way back to the mill and said the horse would follow him in three days. When he returned, he found the other two men had brought one horse that was blind and one that was lame. In three days a beautiful princess brought the horse to the mill and left it there for the miller. The third miller's boy, who was her servant, left with the princess. They were married and he was rich for the rest of his life.
Thursday started out cloudy and rainy, so instead of our morning walk Grant and Johanna did a kid's yoga video, or as Johanna likes to call it, yoda video. Once in the school room we reviewed the letter C and this week's form. Grant had gotten much better at drawing it by today. He was very excited because now he knows "how to draw waves and put boats on them." He also finished finger knitting his jump rope so we will be moving on to a new handwork project.
Then - Julia on October 13, 2008
