We started off on Monday getting back into our page training outside before going into the school room. Once in the room, Grant continued reading and spelling more of the 100 most common words. I also picked out some words, read them to Grant, and had him spell them aloud to me. After that, we did a "word quest" to find 10 words that had a "b" sound in them.
After that I wanted to get Grant moving a little, so we played a game of jumping. First, he jumped across the room and back on both feet, then across the room and back on his right foot, then across the room and back on his left foot. It is very important for a knight to be able to do this kind of stuff!
Once he was done jumping, we practiced the penny whistle, reviewed the first two week's of King Arthur work in his lesson book, and I read him a story about Camelot and The Knights of the Round Table from here.
On Tuesday, we took our morning walk around the lake and then headed into the school room. Once inside, Grant finished up reading and spelling the 100 most common words, and I read him a few more to spell out loud. We also played a Camelot game where we used this verse set to a simple tune: "Riding to Camelot, Riding to Camelot, We are festive and ready to play, At tournament, hurray, hurray, We are riding to Camelot today!" We has silks draped over our shoulders and skipped in a circle while one one of us sat in the middle as King or Queen. When we reached TODAY in the verse, the King or Queen jumped up and chased one of us, trying to pluck off a silk. Whoever got caught was then the new King or Queen. The kids had a lot of fun playing this.
After the game, Grant and I practiced the penny whistle and then I had Grant re-tell me the story from yesterday. I told him he could just tell me the important parts, and this was his version: "Merlin built Camelot and Arthur made The Knights of the Round Table." I guess that pretty much sums it up!
While Grant was having a snack, I wrote a new word list on the chalk board using blue for nouns and red for verbs. When Grant was done eating we drew a picture from the story in our lesson books.
Mom's Picture
Grant's Picture
After we were done with that, I had Grant read me a short version of the story.
On Wednesday, I continued to pull out some of the 100 most common words and have Grant spell them to me. We also made a list of words with the "s" sound in them.
After that, we played an etiquette game, since knights also have to have good manners and know how to act in a courtly way. I sat on one side of the room with a crown and silk cape on, pretending to be King Arthur, asking Grant various questions about manners and etiquette. If he answered the question right, he got to ask me, "King Arthur may I", and then I would say yes and he could take a step. The object of the game was for him to get across the room before I ran out of questions to ask. He just couldn't get into calling me King Arthur, so he started asking, "Queen, May I". He did pretty good on answering the questions and only missed a few. Of course Johanna and Julia had to get in on it, too.
After that we practiced our penny whistle, and then I asked Grant to go through our word list from yesterday, and read each word then spell it, and then spell it with his eyes closed. Once he was done with that, he copied a list of ten of the knight's names and a brief description of each into his lesson book.
Our school day was pretty easy going on Thursday. Cory took Grant to hit golf balls for a belated birthday gift.
Before they left, I did read Grant and Johanna this book:
After I read the book, we started a little seed growing experiment. We placed a sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, and bean seed into a Ziploc baggy with a damp paper towel. Then I asked them which they thought would sprout first, which would grow faster, which would have the longest roots, etc. We will keep our eyes on these seeds, and see what happens!
While Cory and Grant were gone, the girls and I got ready for our English Tea Party. We took advantage of another nice day, and had our tea outside. We wiped down the furniture, swept the porch, cut some flowers, got out the good china, (Why not? It just sits collecting dust anyway. Might as well use it!)and put on some classical music. Once Cory and Grant got home, we made tea, and snacked on some cucumber and cream cheese tea sandwiches, ham and apricot preserves tea sandwiches, and almond toffee shortbread. The kids really enjoyed this taste of England, and it was perfect timing as we were able to talk about the upcoming wedding of the Prince of England.
I had planned on making up some lesson time on Friday from Thursday, but it was just to nice outside, and there was too much mowing to be done to go in the school room. So, we spent the morning outside.
Next week we will finish up with the fourth and final week of our King Arthur Language Arts block.
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