On Monday, we added in a fun naming game to French lesson. One of us put a blindfold on and then had to "find" someone else in the room and ask, "Comment tu t'appelles?" which means "What is your name?" The person then answered in French, "Je m'appelle...et toi?" which means "My name is...and you?" We took turns being the "finder".
I also introduced the form drawing to Grant.
After that, I told Grant the story of Moses' birth and childhood.
Once I was done with the story, Grant and I drew a picture in our lesson books.
Mom's Drawing
Grant's Drawing
I also read the first few pages of a new story to Johanna called, Snowdrop and Ulba Bulba.
The kids were introduced to a snowflake who floated around happily, and loved her lacy white dress. To go along with the story, we made some snowflakes out of q-tips, glue and glitter. The idea came from the December issue of Family Fun magazine.
On Tuesday, Grant and I went through our usual routine followed by form drawing practice, and then Grant re-telling me the story of Mose's birth and childhood. We came up with a summary together and then he copied the summary into his lesson book. I asked Grant to do a really good job retelling me the story, and then I had him help me come up with a longer summary (making sure to use well-formed sentences, lots of adjectives, and proper use of punctuation and grammar). After I felt he put some real effort into that, I shortened up the summary he had to copy. Copy work is one of Grant's least favorite things to do, so instead of pushing him to copy a lot and having him dreading the act of writing, I am going to shorten up his copy work a little. Even if he isn't copying a lot right now, he is still collaborating with me and will have the inner experience of discerning the essence of a story. He will know how to take a story and use it. He will understand the process involved: how to choose words, write sentences which flow and make sense, what to include and what to leave out. Thus, even if he does very little actual writing, he has participated in a really important exercise. As he gets more comfortable with spelling and gets faster at writing, I will begin to make the summaries longer.
Afterward, I read Johanna the next couple pages in her book. Now the pretty snowflake hears the whispering from brother wind that spring will be coming soon, and she can longer keep her white dress. To go along with the story, the kids were more than happy to help me make a frosty treat of frozen banana pops.
On Wednesday, I read Grant the story of Moses and the burning bush.
After I read the story, Grant and I drew a picture in our lesson books.
Mom's Drawing
Grant's Drawing
I also read Johanna some more from her story and how the snowflake was trying to hide from the sun as all her other snowflake sisters were changing into their blue dresses and falling down to earth as rain. To go along with the story, we began making these rain drop mobiles: Rainy Day Mobiles.
On Thursday, we played another new French game which began teaching the kids colors in French. We used a game board with squares of different colors. Everybody took turns rolling a dice (we counted in French when we moved the counters). When they landed on a square, all the other players said, "What color is it?" The player on the square then said, "My favorite color is....", naming the color on the square.
Grant re-told me the story of Moses and the burning bush, and together we came up with the summary for Grant to copy in his lesson book.
Afterward, Grant drew the form drawing into his form drawing book.
We also finished up our rain drop mobiles (thanks to Uncle Jeff for his help with cutting and folding all those raindrops).
One for Grant:
One for the girls:
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