We started off our days last week with math review, spelling, French lessons, and penny whistle lessons. For French lessons last week, I was teaching Grant and Johanna a song about the parts of the face, and what they do (look for this to be an upcoming video). I know the excitement will be mounting until then... I also added in a new activity for Grant using this fun, jumping, swinging, skipping, ball "toy". Once he gets better at it, I will have him skip count while he is jumping, swinging and....skipping. :)
We had a A LOT of fun getting the hang of it. On Monday, neither of us could really figure out how to get it going. I went online to get the instructions, and then we were off and
On Monday, I told Johanna a Martinmas story. Once we were done with that, Grant and I continued to talk about cubits, and I had him figure out how much room he would need in a barn stall for a horse (or a cow). We measured it out on the floor using our "cubit stick".
Grant decided that each stall should be 5 cubits wide by 7 cubits long by 7 cubits tall. Afterward, he drew the barn out in his lesson book.
He also copied a bible verse related to measurement in his lesson book:
We started making our leaves for our "thankful for tree". I found this idea in the November 2010 edition of Family Fun Magazine. We started with a brown paper bag that I cut into sections and crumpled to give it some texture. Then the girls used watered down red, yellow and green paint. Grant was super tired that morning, and opted out of the painting for a nap.
On Tuesday, I read another Martinmas story about a little boy and his lantern. Afterward, Grant and I talked more about linear measurement. He copied more biblical measurements in his lesson book under the bible verse he copied on Monday.
We continued to work more on our leaves by sponging some gold paint on them, and then the kids used a toothbrush to splatter some brown paint over everything. The kids really liked that part!
On Tuesday, the kids started coming down with chicken pox, so we didn't do as much as usual in school since It took a little while to paint all the kids with calamine lotion. Not to mention, they were all a little distracted by the itching.
On Wednesday, our school load was again lighter than usual, as it took me longer to tend to the kids and "paint" them in the morning. Grant and I talked about the Imperial unit, the "uncia" and how it was 1/12 (or a thumb width) of someone's foot. At first, everyone used their own foot. Grant was quick to figure out that everyone's feet would be different sizes, therefore, everyone's measurements would be different. People figured out they needed to standardize the measurements, so at first they used the King's foot. Then they had to recalculate everything when they got a new King. Finally, they came up with the common standard of the one foot ruler. Grant and I each made our own uncia ruler from the length of our feet on a flat piece of wood, and then measured a few items in the school room.
In his lesson book, he wrote down what we measured, and what the measurements were in Grant uncia's, Mom uncia's, and inches.
We also started making our lanterns for the Martinmas walk which was on Friday evening.
On Thursday, I cut out our paper leaves, and got the "thankful tree" up on our window. On these leaves we will write down what we are thankful for. We will continue to do this everyday up until Thanksgiving.
The itching was really a distraction for Grant on Thursday, and it was even harder for him to sit still and concentrate, but we did manage to get through his main lesson material.
I helped Grant draw out his "uncia ruler" made from the length of his foot in his lesson book.
We also went back to his previous pages where he drew out the coop and barn in cubits, and converted those into inches, and he wrote down the conversions in his book.
We also put the handles on the kid's Martinmas lanterns.
Once we were done with that, Johanna and I drew a picture of Saint Martin.
Grant wanted to draw one, too.
On Friday, we celebrated the festival of Martinmas. I love this description of Martinmas from Miss Faith on her blog, Joyful Toddlers:
"What Is Martinmas?
Well, there are two parts of Martinmas. The first is that it's the Saint Day of Saint Martin, and the other part is that Martinmas "adopted" the very old tradition of the the Lantern Walk. Most of us, depending on where we live, are starting to really notice that the days are getting shorter, and the nights are getting longer. As nature starts falling asleep, and the world is getting darker, it is up to us to light the world, with our own inner lights. We must look inside ourselves, and to one another, to light up our world. This light can be seen through warmth, and through kindness, and through doing what we know to be right. Saint Martin was one such man, who shared his red cloak with a beggar, then had a dream where Christ said to him, "What you do to others, you do to me." Martin stepped down from his post in the Roman Legion to become a holy man. We, like St. Martin, can do things that are warm and friendly for one another, and this will help to keep the world alight in these cold times."
Johanna was feeling pretty bad on Friday, but I was able to coax her out of bed to come help me make this Martinmas spice cake . She went back to lay down in her bed until we were ready for the lantern walk. It was a bright, clear night with a beautiful full moon.
After our lantern walk, we warmed up with buffalo chicken chowder and ate our yummy Martinmas Spice Cake while enjoying the light from the kid's lanterns, a symbol of our inner light, which will light the world around us.
