little house

I thought I'd write in short summaries of our homeschooling day.  Sometimes.


Today we started late for 2 reasons - Tyler came home last night from a work trip, so the kids were up a little late spending some time getting dad cuddles, and we had some housework to get done before I could think of moving on with the day.


For science we read a non-fiction book about wild horses and talked about them.   We sat outside in the sun, and the kids played in the dirt making little castles while I read and we talked.  It was so nice to feel the sun on my skin!


We also read 2 chapters of a little fiction book called "Daisy Dawson: On Her Way".  It's a kind of cute little book about a girl who receives the gift of talking to and understanding animals.  The kids are enjoying it.


For art, we made "The Biggest Picture in the World" like Ramona and her dad do in the books (and movie).  The boys had a lot of fun picking things to draw on it.  M. disapproved of their artistic expression and didn't participate.  The girl has standards, you know.


M. started some copywork, which we do for handwriting practice and literary exposure.  She got partway into it and got a little frustrated with her cursive, and decided to get out her Handwriting Without Tears workbook and do some basic letter-forming practice.  She did 2 pages very well.   It's been a long time since she used that book, and we looked through at some of the pages she did then, and talked about the great improvement - the days, weeks, and months of writing HAS paid off.


M. and I also worked on her three times tables.  She's worked on them for only 2 days so far, and today we reviewed them with flashcards.  She loves getting them down fast and then timing herself, but she's not at that point yet.  She still in the figure out and memorize phase.


M. made a new French word of the week poster and decorated it.  This week we are integrating "le bras" into our days.  ("Le bras" means "the arm".)


S.  started on some copywork, too, but then asked to get a cursive handwriting sheet printed out for him.  He's a lefty, and not yet dexterous enough to do cursive regularly, but we printed out a custom sheet of his name, and he spent a lot of time doing his very best job.  It was pretty good, and he was quite pleased.


S. also reviewed time-telling.  We haven't worked on this for awhile, but like just about anything numerical, it didn't matter - it was right there ready in his brain.


B. likes to get in on the school work here and there, and today he wanted to learn some more letters.  He worked on E for Eagle and L for Lion.  He picked them because he likes eagles and lions!  He also practiced writing his name.  I STILL don't know if he's right- or left-handed.  He does everything just as well with both hands, and will trade his writing utensil back and forth at any time.