A weekly report of sorts...

We actually managed to hit the books several days this week, and I managed to have someone hook a scanner to my computer, so I can actually share some work samples!


First up, a couple of samples from the Fairy's
Oak Meadow letter work. She loves the Oak Meadow approach (though maybe not all the stories) - it seems to be the absolute right fit for my girl, so no matter what I choose in the future, I will work in similar types of work. Whenever I bring it out, she becomes very eager to get right down to work! We read a story about a lazy princess with a pet quail ("Q") and the story of the Roly Poly Pudding by Beatrix Potter ("R"). I have her doing kind of a blend of K-1 work here, since K doesn't include lowercase letters generally.



So far, we are actually right on track with our
letter work, and we'll have just enough time for a
review at the end of our "school" year. the Fairy also worked on letter printouts from Starfall to complement her OM work.

Here is a math sample. Again, a curriculum choicethat is working well! We're about 10 lessons behind where I would like her to be at this point, but I think we'll make our goal for her K year with a little catch-up work here and there.

the Fairy was allowed to explore her brother's acrylic paints this week, and she made me this painting. I love the colors in it!



the Elf is working with 2 language arts programs this year, Oak Meadow and this more "schooly" one. Here, he had to rewrite phrases as commands, which he understood right off the bat.



Here is this week's work from Oak Meadow. I read "How the Whale Got His Throat" from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, and then the Elf drew a picture and wrote a paragraph (it's a little hard to read, so here's what he wrote):
The whale ate all the fish in the sea. Then he ate a man. The man danced and gave the whale hiccups.The man made a grate out of his raft to block the whale's throast before going home. After that, the whale could only eat tiny fish. The end.

And a sample from MathSteps, adding two digit numbers with carrying. I introduced this concept to the Elf a few weeks ago, using a laminated places chart and beans. He seems to really understand it quite well, at least so far!



And here is the Elf's acrylic painting this week. This is a "strange monster robber".








Other than that, we have finished up Italy this week, and gotten a load of books from the library for India. Tomorrow we're hoping to make a big Italian feast as a finale! We also read chapter 6 in RS4K Chemistry and did a project on mixtures, which was pretty cool (mixing oil, butter, water, juice, and milk). It brought it home to me that I need to do more hands-on stuff with my kids. So my plans for today include planning a craft project or two for our India unit, and seeing what we have in chapter 7 of RS4K.

Reading this week: I have started to read Ramona the Pest to the Fairy (which the Elf thinks is pretty funny too). the Elf picked Nate the Great and a Calvin & Hobbes comic book to peruse.