Jugs and Bears

Julia's confinement has been great! Don't worry, she enjoys it too because she gets snacks. It is making main lesson time go SO much smoother.

This week has been grey, cloudy and rainy. We were still able to take our morning walks all week and enjoy our Halloween songs and verses. We added jump roping this week to Grant's circle time. He REALLY likes that. The tongue twister I introduced on Monday was, "Jolly juggling jesters jauntily juggled jingling jacks." It took him awhile to get it, and then we let it rest for the day.

In our story, Katie had to go collect water for the family in jugs and her father taught her about the letter J, and told her The Water of Life. I told the Grant the same story and we talked about the letter J, practiced writing it and practiced the new form drawing for the week. Next, we started our drawing from the story.

"J is for Jug" Chalkboard Drawing

Grant's jump rope the he finger-knitted

I made a run to a local "paint your own pottery" place and picked up a "pottery to go kit". I got a jug for Grant to paint and a pumpkin plate for Johanna to paint. Knowing that Grant would also want a pumpkin plate, I got one for him, too. They really had fun painting these on Tuesday. It is hard for them to imagine the change the colors will make after they are fired. When we painted them, the colors were very dull, pastel, and rough. But the magic happens when they bake and glass that is in the paint melts, and voila, bright shiny colors! Grant also told me the story of The Water of Life. We wrote the letter J and the summary in his book, and finished our drawings. By today he had mastered the new tongue twister.

Mom's The Water of Life Drawing

Grant's The Water of Life Drawing

On Wednesday, we learned about the letter B and I told Grant the story of The Willow-Wren and the Bear. Grant practiced drawing the letter B on his chalkboard. For this, I draw three line on the board. A blue line for air, a green line for grass, and an orange line for dirt. Then I draw the different letters and explain to him how some stand tall way up into the air, some stay and play in the grass, and some dip down into the dirt. For some reason, he is always excited when one of them dips down into the dirt! After he practiced it, he wrote it in his lesson book. I also introduced a new tongue twister today, "A big black bug bit a big black bear, but where is the big black bear that the big black bug bit?"

In the afternoon I made some bread dough, and Johanna helped me make bread for dinner. We had some men at the house doing some work, and Grant was much more interested in "helping them" then making bread with the girls!

"B is for Bear" chalkboard drawing

On Thursday, we wrote the summary of The Willow-Wren and the Bear in his book and he drew the form drawing in his book. Earlier in the week he struggled a little with this one, but after a little practice, walking it on the driveway, drawing it in the air with his hand and arm, etc, he was drawing it with ease.

For handwork this week, Grant finger-knitted a strap for a felt treasure bag I made for a Birthday gift. Next week we will start on a Halloween sewing project. Grant picked out this project and is very excited to get started!

W and C

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.

M and V

This week we learned the letters M and V. We started each day with our walk, circle time and penny whistle lessons. I introduce each letter with a chalkboard drawing, a Grimm's fairytale, and then different activities using the letter. My brain will be full of fairytales! I suppose when I learn a new one, an old one will be pushed out. Then I will have to re-learn them all again for Johanna, and maybe I will still know some of them by the time it's Julia's turn!


On Monday, we continued the story of Katie's quest for knowledge as she learned about the letter M through the Grimm's fairy tale, Simeli Mountain. We also learned the form drawing for this week. After Grant found the letter M in my drawing, he practiced drawing the form and the letter M on his chalkboard. Then we drew a picture of mountains and he wrote the letter M in his lesson book. When we were outside enjoying some play time before lunch, I drew the form on the driveway in chalk and Grant and Johanna enjoyed walking it forward and back. Grandpa Russ even helped Julia get in on the action.

On Tuesday, we reviewed the story of Simeli Mountain, came up with a short summary and I wrote it in his lesson book. Then we looked at some geographical maps of the different continents and found that all of them have mountains. We talked about the fact that we don't have mountains around us, but we have hills (which are a lot like mountains, according to Grant). Then Grant reviewed the letter M by tracing with his finger in flour. We also made bread today, and as the kids were kneading and shaping the dough, Grant made this week's form using the dough. When we went outside I collected a handful of sticks and then asked Grant to make the letter M and this week's form out of them.


On Wednesday, we checked back in with Katie and her family as they set up camp near a valley so she could continue with her lessons. Today we learned the letter V as I told the Grimm's tale The Vagabonds. Grant easily found the V in my drawing, and then he practiced writing it on his chalkboard before writing it in his lesson book. Julia is certainly making school interesting as she is always trying to get up on the benches at the table and be part of what is going on. She is not very happy when she doesn't get her way!



Once we were outside, the kids collected buckets of broken hickory nuts as we talked about how the squirrels cracked them all open. (Wouldn't you know that we were able to relate it back to our story for the day as the first line of the story was, "The cock said to the hen, "It is nutting time; let us go together into the mountains and have a good feast for once, before the squirrels come and carry all away.") We also admired the myriad of mushrooms all around our house including one that was as shiny and smooth as bronze when the sun was shining on it. In the afternoon we did some wet-on-wet watercolor painting. Grant and I used red, blue and yellow paint to make a blue sky, with purple mountains, and a green valley down at the bottom. Johanna used red and just had fun exploring the color.

On Thursday, we reviewed the sounds that M and V make while tossing bean bags as part of our circle time. I tossed him a bean bag while saying either M or V, and then Grant tossed it back to me while saying a word that started with the letter. He tried to make up some words, but I told him they had to be real words! Grant re-told me the story of The Vagabonds and we wrote a summary of it in his lesson book. After that, he copied some "V" words I had written on the chalkboard into his book. Then we continued our geography lesson by looking a Map of Missouri. No Mountains, but plenty of rivers, forests and roads. We found where we lived, where his Grandmas and Grandpas live, and where his friend in Illinois lives. After we looked at the map, Grant drew his own "Indiana Jones" map and we all went outside to follow the map to the treasure.



On Friday, we had our first day of homeschool co-op. Julia is in the nursery, Johanna is in the preschool class, and Grant is in a class that teaches about the rainforest and another one called community helpers. I asked Grant what the special guest talked about in that class, and he said, "Ah, she was talking about health. All the stuff that you guys know about. I was thinking my Mom and Dad already know all this stuff." They do pay attention sometime!