Smoother week, eager learning

Well I have decided that we are suppose to have wrinkles in our days but it was a great week for school.

I have stepped from the day to day lesson plans however as the girls want more in their day than the basic education.  A Beka does not have us using several books for some time but they pulled out science and said lets do something in the book today.

Great idea they had. It was a crisp morning with lots of dew on the grass, early fall scents and a calm exciting start to our day. At the end of the lesson both girls could tell you that they have 5 senses, tell each one and show me examples of each, tell me how they got those senses and tell me that scientist us all 5 senses in their investigations.  So why was it so fun, after all it was only senses.

I was not to thrilled to begin here as I thought they were going to be bored. After all they know that God have them eyes to see, nose to smell- etc.  But is became an awakening of sorts. In my own front yard we felt the cool wet grass under our bare feet, saw the shades of green in each blade and the sun sparkle on the dew drops. We even counted a few dew drops on one large leaf.  We felt and smelled the difference of the pine cones, pine needles and the leaves of the oak, maple, pear, apple  and red bud tree.  We viewed bright yellow wildflower still with a bloom and when we touched the stem to pull the flower to our noses we discovered the fuzzy feel of the plant.  I did not let them taste any items from the yard but we did gather items from the kitchen and F was eager to try each, G only wanted it if I promised it was a sweet thing.

I used the Bob Jones book for this, although ABeka covers the same thing in the first chapter.  It gave each girl a book to have open on the desks, which of course was INSIDE the house.  The BJ book has a "Taste Race" game and I was able to assemble it so quickly that they did not feel a delay.  Each girl gathered their game piece according to their desire but first they had to use their senses to verbally describe their game piece. I had them stand on "stage" to tell about it (the long front porch).

F is not so eager to try sight words but she gave it a whirl while G was more eager to progress with her cursive writing. 

We bowled on Monday for PE with the co-op.  On Friday was a very enriching day. We began our lyceum that is offered through the coop.  The girls were great. G moved from class to class like a student in the middle school.  It was rather calm considering the enormous number of students passing from room to room each hour.  G was thrilled with her Five In A Row choice and they touched on some geography, she enjoyed ballet, group play, picnic family lunch and a science class that goes along with THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS.  F was in a class called Learning Centers and her center she was listed as MASTERED the turkey trot game for upper case recognition.  She also enjoyed the group play but her group is of course younger and lots of variable levels of play there. She was so cute and looked like a regular school kid all day. In the afternoon F participated in tumbling and ballet as she needs motor skills right now more than academic. It is her motor skills that are the slow up for some academic achievements. 

Well as you can see we are well on our way.  Next week they will be at lyceum again. but during the week they are going to have some copy work and readiness skill items to complete with their parents for four days while I travel to Washington D.C.   (oh some day they will go there with me and it will be a tremendous time)

So until next week please have a blessed day

OH one more thing we did a unit on Johnny Appleseed as well, made apple pie and crust and a cute craft making a Johnny out of a toilet paper roll.  Totally fun and educational.  They painted watercolors of fruits that nurish out bodies and we created our first ever itsy-bitsy book of fruit. 

As I read through this it seems like I did not do any of the 3Rs.  WRONG- I got them all included, plus our Tuesday library day.  G read to us Is Your MaMa A Llama book and did very well with it.  She has really progressed with her long vowel sounds.

Till next time.....