We were able to have school every day this week. Our babysitter came on Tuesday. We went with Ram to the last Released Time for the year on Wednesday. We went to a local "party" in a nearby town on Thursday. On Saturday we planted some herbs and flowers in pots that we can easily move outside or inside in case of frost. We were able to accomplish a lot of school this week.
Math: We finished MUS lesson 19 and began lesson 20. Lamb 1 was overheard "playing" with his math blocks after school time one day. "Mama, did you know 6+4 is the same as 4+6?" MUS has worked on this a lot! He was also heard saying, "If you have 6 blocks and you vacuum up 2 blocks, then you have 4 blocks!" We got a new vacuum for the Lambs to use recently so vacuum has been on his mind. MUS uses the vacuum vocabulary a little bit but I haven't used it a lot with Lamb 1. It just shows they pick up a lot even when you don't think they are. Lamb 1 began a dot to dot (to 100) book. Lamb 2 began a dot to dot (to 10) book.
Reading: We began reading Just So Stories. Lamb 1 enjoys it, Lamb 2 not so much. We have read quite a bit of A.A. Milne's When we were Very Young. We read Katy and the Big Snow but we didn't do any FIAR activities with it.
Phonics: Ram's mom gave us some easy readers from A Beka, I don't know the title of what they are. Lamb 1 has enjoyed reading them this week. Lamb 1 also started reading the Bob books but he doesn't like them as much as those little A Beka books. We are still taking a little break from The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.
Music: We finished studying the instruments in The Story of the Orchestra and we began reading some of the introduction to the orchestra, conductor, etc. Then we started the second part of the book studying composers. We studied Vivaldi and listened to a lot of Vivaldi this week.
Latin: After Spanish in April, we went back and reviewed well the vocabulary in the first 3 lessons of Prima Latina. I'm trying to make sure they know it well before going on.
Religion: We resumed our learning the Bible stories with the posters. We did a few lessons this week, Jesus Heals 10 Men with Leprosy, Jesus is Anointed, The Lord's Supper, and Jesus Appears to Thomas. We have been near the same point as the stories they do in Sunday School so I've either heard, "We just did that in Sunday School." or "I told our Sunday School teacher that we just did that in school". Sunday School takes a break in the summer so hopefully we can work ahead of Sunday School! We memorized Mark 5:19 for Sunday School. The Lambs sang I am Jesus Little Lamb in church so we practiced that a lot. The pastors asked the students (3rd and 4th grade) questions for a game at Released Time. Lamb 1 was able to get a few of the questions right by himself. Then Ram gave some hints to both Lambs for some other questions and they got those questions right too. The Lambs were thrilled to win Pringles at this game-I don't think they had ever had Pringles before! We reviewed the first 3 commandments to make sure they knew them well.
Science: We read a few books about plants and systems of the body.
History: We read a few books about American landmarks (Liberty Bell, White House).
Art: Lamb 1 began a Kumon basic drawing book. He has been really excited about drawing since we went to see an author in April that showed how she illustrates and draws animals in her books. He learned how to draw a few things like some fruits and a baseball and a balloon. He is looking forward to learning how to draw a mushroom this week because he doesn't have any mushrooms in his play kitchen. He often draws or spends time working on his crafty projects. He made a tablecloth out of paper for his table by his play kitchen but it ended up not being big enough so he plans to make another one. The babysitter also let them do play doh when she was here.
Handwriting: I got out some of the Kumon alphabet (Lamb 1) and number (Lamb 2) cards that are erasable with marker. Our Lambs have rarely used markers and when they do they use washable ones. The first time Lamb 1 had it all over his clothes and himself. The second time I made them take off their shirts and that meant he had it all over himself more. Lamb 1 has worked pretty independently on this which is not what I intended because I wanted to make sure he was making all his letters correctly. But I can only do so much when I have 2 with markers in their hands and one that wants to have a marker in his hand! Lamb 1 has been helping to teach Lamb 2 how to make numbers. Lamb 2 did very well on making his numbers on these cards. Lamb 2 also worked on a Kumon tracing book. He is doing well holding a pencil correctly and doing this-we've come a long way in a couple of months!
Ram's mom picked up the Kumon books and cards at Costco a few months ago and I procrastinated getting them out especially because I didn't want to mess with the markers. I have seen these books at Walmart and Barnes and Noble too. I'm going to have to check out what other books are offered. I don't want to workbook the Lambs to death, but they have enjoyed these. I think some of these skills are just what the Lambs need right now. Lamb 2 said, "My favorite things are planting plants and doing cards with markers." If they can learn something while they are having fun, it's even better!
This is a busy week so some of our school may need to be done in the car.
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