November 2-6

We had a full week!

There was writing stories

coloring pages & talking about our beloved dead for All Souls Day

Poetry tea time where we ate cake we baked and read poems about the autumn fairies

practicing sounding out words and trying to read them

math consisted of graphing last months weather and Halloween candy: sorting, making patterns with, trading and counting

Drawing class with the homeschool co-op

socialization at ballet, drawing class, two playground dates with homeschool friends & chatting with our neighbor

outside time observing leaves, raking & finding all kinds of nature goodies: pieces of bark from the trees, a whole bunch of moss growing on the front steps & different insects

and that is all on top of our usual creating, reading, chores & living that we do!

I have declared today a day off since we all are battling colds (oh there was a building of a town with legos for a few days and then an epic battle between two forces to see who could take it over)

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday

I couldn't remember the password to up load pictures hence no posting the end of last week!

We were busy. On Wednesday, the first day of Fall we headed off to Goddard Park for the morning. We climbed trees, hiked, looked at the water, ran in the big fields & took some time to observe flowers & trees and sit and sketch in our journals for a little bit. We decided that Wednesday's would be dedicated to nature!

We watched as much of the Pope's first visit to the United States as we could. This led to many questions (why does he wear those hats; why does he carry a stick; how come he's so important?). It made my heart happy to hear her ask "is Pope Francis on TV right now & can I watch him?"

She was thrilled that he went to Pennsylvania as that's the state we are learning about right now. We began a new notebook....I am printing out each states Flower & Bird with some facts on it and she is coloring them as close as she can to the real thing. At the end of the 50 (or so) weeks we'll have a state notebook! 

We finished up our dinosaur eggs by painting them; she spent countless hours clipping pictures from magazines making collages of restaurants, weddings, menu's, flowers. Except she's not gluing them down "just in case I need them for something else." So we have piles of little clippings all over the place!

A big passion of her's right now is baking. She loves to play restaurant or bakery with Veronica coming up with new recipes & dishes. On Friday this led to making oatmeal muffins and then spending the afternoon writing up her own recipes of new meals she invented. I have high hopes that this project will turn into her wanting to take over the cooking duties ;-)

And of course little sister is with us every step of the way! Whether it be getting outside exploring, sitting at the table coloring/doing school work, dancing, or playing at our feet while we do things (or elbows trying to "help" cook) she is on this journey with us!

All of this doesn't include the "usual" things we do each day: always math, read a-louds, prayers/talking about our faith, some type of writing and of course the daily chores she helps out with. We have full days of learning & life. Some days are fuller with activities & outside fun. Other days are slower paced with lots of free time for imagination, outside time & play. 

We are finding a very good balance as we move along. Things have already changed a bit from what I had envisioned but for the better. We have dedicated days of the week: nature, baking, handwork, art but I have stopped giving them a dedicated day (i.e. Tuesday was supposed to be baking....baking seems to be happening on Friday's, etc).

Second week re-cap

This week was busy & I didn't get a chance to update here each day. But I took pictures!

From Wednesday through Saturday there was:

**ballet

**work at Nana's: math, writing & more Delaware work (naming the state flower, bird, nickname & year it came into the union) we also colored in the state flag

**some engineering work: taking a pen apart then diagraming the pieces & how she thinks they may go together. She spent quite some time doing this. I might have to find some small electronic things that she can take apart to investigate

**Thursday was a lot of time at the new whiteboard

**she made up her own math problems
**practiced reading & writing the sight words: A, AND & AWAY
**a trip to the library and grocery store
**Friday was helping with laundry; lots of playing; lots of coloring; more practicing writing; math work
**Saturday was our first "Rhode Island Adventure Day." We took a trip down to the port of Galilee. We watched the Block Island Ferry come in and then go out. Built sandcastles in the sand; dipped our feet in the water; watched many fishing boats come in and out; tried to get up close to the Point Judith Lighthouse only to find that it was fenced off for repairs.

I just finished planning out our coming week, more constellation fun, some dinosaur fun, some fun science experiments to try, beginning our nature study, ballet, and some get togethers and play dates!

Second Day

She was up at 7 again this morning all excited & ready to do schoolwork & learn. She went back to bed for a bit while I finished waking up!

Over breakfast I read in the Bible the parable about letting our light shine rather then hide it. We talked about how we all are unique with our own talents.

**she did copy work....she copied the prayer The Glory Be

**worked some more on her Book About Me

**worked through the first Bob book....Which ended up in much tears from her because she didn't get it right away & she is afraid she'll never read. My little eager learner who keeps trying to skip steps & go too fast

**I had her take a break and play with Veronica for awhile....I'm not pushing the reading, she is insistent that she wants to learn to read. I don't want her to get too frustrated that she won't try anymore. So we agreed to take slower little steps & when frustration sets in we set it aside and try again another time

**she did some more math worksheets...adding & graphing

**we had some free art time this afternoon. I sat & painted & colored. She colored a mermaid and did a Frozen painting

**We watched a kids cooking show on Food Network

**went to the library where she "wrote" a story then performed it with the puppet theater

**she then made a machine out of blocks that moved things from one side to the other...she had a whole elaborate system going & explained it to me in great detail. Something about levers and pulleys

First Day

She came bouncing down the stairs at 7:15 this morning exclaiming "It's the first day of school! Let's get started! I'm ready to learn to read!" (Early for this one who usually isn't up until 8:30!)

**We made a special breakfast: cinnamon rolls

**Did "Table Time" (her words) where she practiced writing upper & lower case A's; she explained to me all about amename's; worked in her math workbook---patterns, sorting & counting. All things she already knows. I had to explain to her that we're practicing & will gradually add things in.

**She began working on her Book About Me

**She wrote the grocery list for me

**We went to the playground & walked the length of a local village

**She and I sat down and made our own princess paper dolls

**Before rest she read some books to Veronica then I read a few to them both

**after rest she wanted to learn about volcanoes & lava so we found a few videos on YouTube

We didn't get to the reading lessons....I promised that would be the first thing we would do tomorrow

It was a very fun, busy day. Right now they both are outside with Daddy running around & I can hear her yelling "it's my first day of kindergarten!" loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear!