I-IIII

On the week of January 21, Johanna and I changed it up and began a math block studying the quality of numbers.  Johanna, Julia and I started every day during the week with circle time, penny whistle lesson or French lesson, a little yoga, and some kind of letter review.

The container story we are using is about a little girl named Katie who has been learning the letters in preparation to meet the Wise Old Sophia who will give her the gift of learning. She has learned all the consonants(along with Johanna)and has now met the Wise Sophia.  She must answer ten riddles given to her by the gnome, King Equals, before she can receive the gift.  The answers to all the riddles were none other than the numbers 1-10.  

Each day Johanna got a new riddle, and a story to go with the number she was learning on that day.  I also introduced her to the Roman Numerals at the same time. Every day after she answered the riddle, she got to dig/brush through some sand to uncover the answer which I had written on a piece of paper (with sparkly glitter, of course).  She was most excited at the surprise of seeing what color each number would be.

Here are all the sparkly numbers:

On Monday, I told her the riddle for the number I:

 I live in the sky

up far away

I brighten the earth

 I bring light to our days

 and each night when the day is done

 I am the only one. 

What am I?

 The answer was the sun, and the number I.  

After I told her the riddle, I read her the story, "Why the Setting Sun Turns Red" from  the book, Why the Setting Sun Turns Red, by Eugene Schwartz. Once I was finished reading the story, we drew a picture in our lesson books.

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

On Tuesday, I told her the following riddle for the number II: 

For me and you
We each have two
It’s not our feet
Or hands to eat
Our legs are strong
But that too is wrong
Our arms are bold
But this we can not hold
With these you see with so much glee

What am I?

I also read her The Summer and Winter Garden (this is the story of Beauty and the Beast) by the Grimm Brothers.  Afterward, we drew pictures in our lesson books.

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

On Wednesday, Grant was a little under the weather, so I kept him home from school.  He joined us in the school room, and while I was working with Johanna, Julia and him drew some pictures.  Grant drew another eagle picture(How awesome is that one!!) and Julia drew a bird picture of her own (Hers is awesome, too!).

(Notice the baby bird on the mommy's back.)

I told Johanna the following riddle for the number III:

With these three you can depend
With them all your time you spend
What am I? 

After the riddle, I read her "The Three Proverbs, A Story from Poland" from the Earthschooling Math Book, and then we drew a picture in our lesson books.

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

After Johanna's lesson, the kids enjoyed some time drawing together.

On Thursday, I told her the riddle for the number IIII:

Fire and water, wind and air
Are all things we have to share
What are we?

I read her  "The Duration of Life" by the Grimm Brothers, and then we drew a picture in our books.

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

She also took some time to practice writing the numbers on her little chalkboard.
 

Next week we will continue the fun with more of the quality of numbers math block.

 

Eagles

Grant took a field trip with his class on Friday, January 25, to see bald eagles.  During the week prior, their art teacher showed them how to draw eagles.  Grant drew these eagle pictures free hand one night at home. Awesome!

 I especially liked this one!

Wax Hands

Grant's hands have been a bit dry this winter season, and it made Cory think of a gift we received long...ago as a wedding present.  Our at-home paraffin wax kit.  Who doesn't have one of these at home?  

We dug it out of the hall closest, plugged it in, waited the whole day for the wax to melt (Grant could hardly stand it, and kept coming into the kitchen to check on the progress and dip random finger tips into the wax as it was melting), and then treated Grant and Johanna (and ourselves) to a fancy spa paraffin wax treatment.  Grant was very eager to give it a try, and enjoyed dipping his hands into the hot wax.
 

Johanna was not quite as sure about it, but was willing to give it a try.
 

The hardest part for both of them was to sit for 10 minutes with those gloves on.  Chill out and not play for 10 minutes!!  Who ever heard of such a thing??

As you can see there are no photos of Julia sporting the paraffin mits.  She had absolutely no interest in dipping her hands in hot wax, and Cory and I figured the chance of her chilling out with those mits on for 10 minutes would have been practically impossible.

X, Y and Z

On the week of January 14, Johanna and I finished up with the consonants.  We went off the rhythm a little this week, and I taught three letters instead of the usual two letters.  We continued to start of the mornings with our walk, followed by a circle time once we got into the school room.  We have also been doing some easy yoga poses as part of our circle time, just to change things up a bit, and add a little stretching and breathing into the morning.  I have been alternating the days we do French lesson and penny whistle lesson.  We also continue to review the letters we have already learned in various ways.  I also continued with the next installment of the ongoing adventures of Super Sam for Julia.  We usually try to make a recipe on Tuesday that goes along with the Sam story, but we just didn't get to it this week.  

On Monday, I introduced Johanna to the letter X.   

I told her the story of The Woodcutter's Three Axes from the "Working with LNMOP Manual" by Howard Schrager, and showed her how to write the letter X.  After I was done reading the story, we drew pictures in our main lesson books.

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

Johanna also wrote out the letter X.

 

On Tuesday, Johanna re-told me the story, and I copied a summary into her lesson book.
 

The girls also made xylophones out of X's.

  Johanna's Xylophone

Julia's Xylophone

I also introduced Johanna to the letter Y and told her the fairy tale, The Young Giant.
 

Once I finished telling her the story, she wrote out the letter Y in her lesson book.
 

On Wednesday, Johanna re-told me the story, I copied a summary into her lesson book, and then the girls made yaks out of the letter Y.

 

Johanna's Yak

Julia's Yak

I also introduced Johanna to the letter Z, and told her the African tale of how the zebra got it stripes.
 

After I told the story, she wrote out the letter z in her lesson book.
 

On Thursday, Johanna re-told the story, then her and Julia made zebras out the letter Z.

Johanna's Zebra

Julia's Zebra

We also used these letter cards to go back and review all the letters she has learned so far.

All of the fun alphabet crafts we did this week came from No Time for Flash Cards and Totally Tots.  Starting next week, we will switch over to a math block for a few weeks.

God Made Kids to Run

It is the girl's and I usual routine to stop by Dad's home office on Thursday mornings to get adjusted after our walk, and before we start school.  Last Thursday, I told the girls we needed to be a little faster on the walk so we could see Dad, and get adjusted before he had to leave the house for an appointment.  Julia began to run, and I said, "We don't have to go THAT fast."  Apparently, she believes the ability to run goes away as you grow up. She turned around and said to me, "God made KIDS to run!", and then she left me in the dust.

I wonder what her cut-off age is for running??

P and Q

We were back to our old routine on the week of January 7th.  We picked up where we left off before Christmas with our homeschooling.  We started each morning with a walk around the lake.  Once we got into the school room we had circle time, which included new winter-themed songs and verses, penny whistle lesson, and French lesson.  On Monday, we also reviewed all Johanna had learned so far.  After the review, I introduced her to the letter P by telling her the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale,  The Princess and the Pea.

After I read the story, we drew a picture in our lesson books.  Johanna also drew the letter P with her block crayons.

 Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing 

On Tuesday, we played a color game to help review the colors and numbers in French.  They each had a Lego person, um, alien, they created which they used for their markers.

We also reviewed the letter P using the wall card and poem from the LNMOP Manual, and then Johanna re-told me The Princess and the Pea. Afterward, I wrote a summary in her lesson book.

We also made some P penguins.  Grant may be jealous when he sees these, as penguins are his favorite animal.(I found these fun letter activities on No Time for Flashcards and Totally Tots.  We didn't do them with the letters before now, so we may go back and do the  letters we have already covered as a review later in the year).

Johanna's Penguin

Julia's Penguin

On Wednesday, I introduced Johanna to the letter Q by telling her the Grimm's Fairytale, The Queen Bee.

 

After I was done telling her the story, she wrote out the letter Q with block crayons, and we drew a picture from the story in our lesson books.  
 

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

Julia also wanted to draw a bee along with us, so here is hers.

On Thursday, Johanna re-told me the story, and then I wrote a summary in her lesson book. 

Once we were done with that, the girls did a fun Q activity.  While I am not "officially" teaching Julia the letters, there is no way she would let Johanna do these fun letter crafts without her!  Plus, it is a good way for her to get familiar with the letters.
 

They had some friends watching them.

Johanna's Q

Julia's Q

Next week we will finish the consonants with X,Y and Z.