Unit Study (Homeschool Share): Round is a Mooncake

Geography/Culture
Found China on the map and placed storydisk (reviewed storydisk throughout week)
Colored Chinese flag/outline map of China
We also made a flag for China using red construction paper and two different sizes of gold star stickers

Discussed the Chinese Moonfestival
Made our own "Moonfestival" --
Created a money tree out of construction paper and put envelopes on it for each family member
Made a string of laterns for Elijah's room complete with white lights Aunt Lisa brought us REAL mooncakes from a Chinese bakery!  We ate Mooncakes and drank Jasmine tree under the laterns one night (everyone sampled the four different kinds of mooncakes-- red bean, lotus seed, pineapple, and date; one kind made me gag and another smelled like soy sauce-- I love soy sauce, but not in a mooncake!  I couldn't believe that Jason and Elijah tried something I wouldn't!  Pineapple was the favorite among the adults, but Elijah liked the date one the best).

Made a Chinese Meal
Aunt Lisa and I made some egg drop soup (FIAR Cookbook recipe) and some Fried Rice.  We all ate our meal with chopsticks (Elijah had to have help from me), and Elijah really liked the Fried Rice!! YIPPEE!  This is something I am going to add to our regular menu (cheap, easy, and yummy!). 

Math
Looked for *more* shapes in the story (round things, rectangles, and squares)
Played with tangram puzzles (we used some that had outlines and some that we had to figure out on our own; some are really challenging!)  We learned that tangrams are great brain builders!
Reviewed shapes (and introduced pentagon and hexagon)
Made a shape book from Enchanted Learning -- read over the shape book each day to reinforce the names of the shapes

Language Arts
Read the unit study book each day
Discussed some of the words in the back of the book

Wrote a poem in the same style as Round is a Mooncake

Science
Read What's Alive (Let's Read and Find Out Science)
Discussed what's living/what's non-living
Went through the book (Round is a Mooncake) and made two lists (one for non-living and one for living) using the items/objects in the text and illustrations of the book

Looked at the harvest moon (the "Moon Festival Moon" as Elijah calls it) on Friday night (October 6)

Art
Discusse name chops; I gave Elijah a special E stamp that he can now use as his name chop to sign letters, cards, and thank-you notes that he sends. 

Phonics
ABeka K-5 Phonics Lessons 40, 43
Read BOB Books
Played Get on the Ark!
Sight Word of the Week:  the

Handwriting Without Tears
L- pg. 14 in Letters and Numbers for Me
Grey Block Paper Writing Practice

Other
Kumon My First Book of Mazes pgs. 24, 25, 26, 27, 29
Kumon My First Book of Cutting activities 10, 11, 12
Card for Aunt Lisa
Learned the basics of how to play checkers
Dinosaur Activty Fun Book-- Counting Dinosaurs and Follow the Dinosaur Activities
Played with Wikki Stix

FIAR Unit Study- Ferdinand

Geography/Culture:
Found Spain on the map and placed story disk (reviewed each day)
Colored Map of Spain/Outline Map of Spain
Learned to count in ten in Spanish, learned words for mother and father in Spanish, learned how to say hello in Spanish, too
Listened to Teach Me More...Spanish
Made Spanish/English Dictionary at co-op (learned color words and words for seasons)

Language Arts:
Short Story Writing Lesson at co-op (introduced to four short story elements-- setting, character, conflict, resolution); given a book to write his own story at home
Animal Fiction Lesson from FIAR Manual
Wrote short story in book given at co-op (template used from Ferdinand; Elijah wrote The Story of Jakes; I will post his story later)

Vocabulary Cards (acted them out/discussed them/found them in the story/filed them in his box)

Art
Drama lesson from FIAR Manual

Science
Cork Tree lesson from FIAR Manual
Read different books about trees
Tell Me Tree by Gail Gibbons
The Life of the Forest
Meeting Trees by Scott Russell Sanders
A Tree is a Plant (Let's Read and Find Out Science)
Our field trip was science related.  We learned all about trees-- the lifecycle of a tree, all about apple trees (even tasted some cider), learned how trees make food/get water, observed a large tree cookie (and a small one), learned new terms like xylem and phloem. Elijah also made a vest that turns him into a tree complete with leaves, xylem, and phloem.

Phonics
Completed ABeka K-5 Phonics Lessons 35, 36, 37, 38, 39
Read BOB Books
Played Spell Time

Handwriting Without Tears
K- slate work
pg. 13 in Letters and Numbers for Me
reviewed all letters learned so far using grey block paper

Other
My First Book of Mazes- completed six mazes
My First Book of Cutting- completed activities #7 and #8

Played Animal Lotto a few times
Went on a "leaf hunt" -- we brought the leaves home and made them into fun leaf people! 

9/18- Field Trip; I hope to post an entire blog on this tomorrow...check back for details (and pictures!).

Unit Study- I Will Never NOT EVER Eat a Tomato

Geography/Social Studies
Discussed Sibling Relationships
Found Greenland in our Great Big Children's Atlas; placed a story disk there
Colored an outline map of Greenland
Colored Greenland's Flag

Reviewed Greenland on the map each day

Language Arts
Read the story each day
Vocabulary Words-- fussy, rare, nibble, gobble
Elijah listened for the words as I was reading and help up the appropriate card
Filed cards in box according to alphabet tabs
Creative Thinking-- came up with new names/stories for foods Elijah doesn't like

Supplemental Reading
Green Eggs and Ham
Usborne Flip Flaps- What Happens to Your Food?
Growing Vegetable Soup
Eating the Alphabet

Math
Measurement: Cooking- Orange Twiglet Dippers and Dip

Art
We really spent some time discussing the details of the illustrations.  The illustrations are made of cut-out drawings, textures, and real photographs.  Elijah identified all three parts throughout the story.  We made a replica of the page with Lola on Mt. Fuji eating "cloud fluff"; I wrote "I love to eat cloud" on the picture, but that wasn't good enough for Elijah.  When I went back to look at the picture, he added "fuf" with a purple crayon.  He told me, it says "fluff! -- Lola loves to eat cloud FLUFF!"

Science
Read about Jupiter.  Colored an Enchanted Learning page about Jupiter.  Elijah knows that "it's the largest planet" and "it has a red spot"
He wants to field trip to Jupiter, but I told him that's just not going to happen!

Health
I printed a copy of the food pyramid for 2-6 year olds.  We discussed each group (grains, fruits, veggies, milk, and meat).  We classified the foods Lola and Charlie ate for dinner (tomatoes, potatoes, fish sticks, peas, and carrots); we decided they should add a glass of milk, some bread, and grapes to make the meal more balanced.   We started a chart (from the food pyramid website) to mark off what Elijah is eating so he can see if he is getting everything he needs.   It will also help him to remember the different food groups.


Phonics
We did a few pages in his workbook Letters and Sounds
I also found a folder with some fun phonics sheets in it that I had printed off a long time ago.  He put them in his clip board (has a clear top) and used a dry erase marker to complete MANY of them.  I think we did A-C, D-F, G-I, J-L, M-O.  He had to circle the correct initial sound.  He did all of them *perfect*
Read Bob Books 1,2,3,4.

Handwriting Without Tears
Completed Letters and Numbers for Me H page.
I wrote some random letters across the top of the grey block paper and he completed two rows of the same letters.
Practiced writing his name.

Other
Kumon- My First Book of Cutting Activities 1,2,3,4,5
Kumon- My First Book of Mazes -- pages 1-17!  I had to make him stop! 
Coloring Pages
Pattern Blocks
Wrote a thank-you letter to Ron Mazellan (field trip related)
Made a birthday booklet for Nana
Played a Memory Game along with our Unit Study using the foods from Lola's NO list

Final note:  I think this book has really gotten to Elijah!  :)  He tried (and LIKED) duck and crab.  In fact, he wants more crab legs!  We went to Red Lobster and spent more on his meal than on ours!   What are we going to do?   He really wanted to try lobster, but we just couldn't do it...maybe someday

FIAR Unit Study: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
Read MWFD everyday.  Elijah *loved* this book!  (And, I must admit, I became quite attached to it, too)

Science: 
Read the following books
Ducks Don't Get Wet (Let's Read and Find Out Science)

did three experiments (two found in the back of the book); through the experiments we learned that oil repels water ("oil and water don't mix!")
Usborne Eggs and Chicks
Chickens Aren't the Only Ones (love this book!)
A Nest Full of Eggs (Let's Read and Find Out Science)
Animal Dads

Learned about animal babies at co-op including their names and how their parents care for them.  Alligator babies are hatchlings...and the mom can listens for them to call from inside their eggs!  Once they hatch, she gently carries them to the water for a bath to clean the sand off.   We played bingo-- a board made of animals with the adult/baby names.  The Mallard Duck was the free space and when someone won the game (Elijah was the first winner!), they had to yell "QUACK!"

Learned about the colors of the Mallard Duck (male) at co-op.  We replicated these beauties with a duck outline and GLITTER (much to all the children's delight).  Green glitter heads, gold glitter beaks, red glitter feet, and silver glittered collars.  When we got home we added bunches of feathers to complete our duck's look.

Started our Animal Classification System
Read a library book What is a Reptile? (plan on reading more from this series too)
We made a notebook with dividers for vertebrates and invertebrates...then we added categories within each section as appropriate for mammals, fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, arthropods, arachinds, mollusks, annelids, etc., etc.  We hope to keep up with this project for the next few years!
Classified sheep (from A New Coat for Anna)
Classified Mallard Duck

Social Studies:
Learned where the ducks lived-- in Boston, MA.  Colored an outline map of Boston that included state symbols.   Elijah put the story disk on Boston and we reviewed where Boston, MA was each day. 

Language Arts:
Completed the rhyme lesson in the FIAR manual.

We read a duck poem by Odgen Nash ("Behold the duck..."); we read it almost every day!  Elijah loved the part about "bottoms up" because there are various illustrations in the duck books we read this week of ducks bottoming up while they hunt for food

Started our Vocabulary Box (I hope to do four words each week)...Elijah demonstrated his knowlege for Jason yesterday...he really "got" this week's words-- Boston, cozy, incubate, and molt

Read additional Robert McCloskey favorites such as
Blueberries for Sal and Lentil

Art:
Discussed the Caldecott Medal at co-op
Illustrated the duck poem mentioned in LA (Elijah made LOTS of peanuts for his duck to eat!)
Going on a field trip Monday to learn more about drawing!  I will post about it later.  I still need to post our *last* field trip


Phonics:
ABeka Phonics Lessons 31, 32, 33, 34 complete with Letters and Sounds pages and fun games (we used our Little People Noah's Ark to play the game mentioned in the manual and Elijah couldn't get enough of it!  He would read words all day long if I'd let him!

Read Bob Books 1, 2, and 4

HWOT:
I don't have the book in front of me.  Not sure what pages we completed, but we are finished with M, and played the Mystery Letter Game (completed that page, too)

Other:
Played about 100 rounds of Zingo!  (a Discovery Toys Game); it's great for memorizing some simple words and to develop fast thinking!
Weather Calendar
Made stick Puppets
Made a birthday card (more like a book) for Uncle B's birthday
Played a cheerios card/counting game (go-fish!)
Read various library books (I'm too tired to make a list!)

Co-op
We read A New Coat for Anna
Educational Activity
Learned about bartering (trading)- discussed the examples from the story 
We read “A Rooster and a Bean Seed” aloud
Divided the story into parts (hen, farmer’s wife, farmer, cow, blacksmith, rooster) and had a mini-drama (each child had a part in acting out the story) complete with props.  The lines were done in rebus fashion so even the non-readers could take part
Fun Activities
Each child made a woven placemat
Each child got to choose four pieces of fabric and sew them together on a real sewing machine!

FIAR Unit Study- A New Coat for Anna
Applied Math
We measured Elijah as if we were going to make a new coat for him (and then he measured me!)
Language Arts
We read the book each day
I had Elijah look for the word the (our sight word that we are working on)
A New Coat for Anna tells us the story of how a coat is made, so Elijah wrote his own how-to story—“How to Take a Bath” complete with illustrations.  We are going to have it bound with a comb-binder and laminated.
Art
Discussed war and how we can see the effects of war in the illustrations
We also sewed (hand-stiched) our very own Lauri Ladybug puppet
Social Studies
Geography—We chose Germany to place our story disk.  Elijah colored the flag and an outline map of Germany.  We also reviewed where Germany is each day by looking at the atlas again.
Supplemental Reading
A Visit to the Farm
Farmer Duck
Charlie Needs a Cloak

Handwriting Without Tears
Letter N
Worked on the slate
Completed workbook page 9
Completed 2 rows of N’s on the grey block paper

Phonics
ABeka K-5 Phonics Lesson 29
ABeka K-5 Phonics Lesson 30
Letters and Sounds pg. 35
Read BOB books--
Mat
Mac
Sam
Dot
Dot and Mit
Peg and Ted

Other
Scissor Practice
Weather Calendar

Unit Study- The Honeybee and the Robber
After we read the book, I pulled down the Usborne Big Book of Playtime Activities and we followed the step-by-step instructions to draw some bears of our own.   While we were coloring, Elijah asked questions about what bears eat, so we talked about that (thankfully I know the answer to that one!).

Phonics
pg. 33 in Letters and Sounds
read various ladders in My Blend and Word Book
Read Mat again; he also read Sam! (the second book)  He read both to Jason last night, too. 

HWOT
Completed the R page-- pg. 8

Other
Read chapter 3-4 in The Littles Take a Trip
Called the weather man! (Elijah listened) to find out what the weather was going to be like.
Made a puppet (this was spontaneous fun in the afternoon).  Elijah wrote on the back of it "Elijah made you"  and on the front his name "Dla" 
Nature Walk -- we didn't do a journal entry, but we did find a Robin's feather and a Japanese Beetle

Unit Study:  The Honeybee and the Robber
Elijah loves this interactive (pop-up picture) book by Eric Carle!  We also read Are You a Bee? (yet another winner!).  Elijah colored a Yellow Jacket in his Dover Coloring Book and we read the blurb in it.  I learned that Yellow Jackets aren't really bees, but they are wasps which makes total sense to me...they are so aggressive and pesky!  Once I had about 60 in the house that I swept up with my vaccum sweeper attachment.  I think they nest somewhere on our property. 

HWOT
Worked on the slate making R's.  He had a hard time with this and told me he didn't want to try the R's in the workbook, so we just spent longer with the slate.

Phonics:
Elijah read his first little reader today.  I plan on using the ones that came with the Abeka curriculum, but this was a BOB book.  My sister bought the first set for us, and he's been asking me to read them to him (they are so cute and irresistable for little hands), but I've held out telling him that they are for him to read to me (I didn't want to read them to him because he memorizes things so well that I didn't want him to simply memorize these...I want to know he has some basic phonics understanding).   So, today was the day!  I picked out the first one-- Mat -- and handed it to him and asked him if he wanted to read it to me.  He did perfect!  I know it was only a few different words (Mat, Sam, sat, on arranged in different sentences), but he didn't need any help and he was fluent (he didn't hesitate or take a long time sounding the words out-- and these were words we haven't worked on before).  It was a bright spot in my rather intense and hard day today.  Hooray for Elijah!  He's reading!

Other:
We have been keeping up with our weather calendar-- I just don't add that to the list everyday, but there is no way Elijah will let me forget about him getting to stamp the weather on the appropriate day!

Read chapters 1-2 in The Littles Take a Trip
Cut paper (and lots of it!)
Wrote two letters to friends (one to Josephine, one to Gabriel)
Made a card for my friend who had gallbladder surgery

Today I watched my friend's daughter because my friend had to have gall bladder surgery, so our day went a bit differently (but what day isn't different?).

HWOT
I asked Elijah to do a row of B's on a new sheet of grey block paper (each page has 6 rows, I think).  He told me he wanted to do ALL the blocks.  He worked really hard and completed an entire page of B's!  I knew I had to recognize this behavior, so I took him over to The Blessing Chart (www.doorposts.com) and showed him the spot for diligence.  We talked about how he had been diligent and what that means, and I gave him a big bear hug (he loves this kind of recognition from us).   I also told him that he did a great job being responsible this morning.  While I was putting Simon down for a nap, Elijah dropped our big (and I mean big-honking-huge) box of crayons.  When I came down stairs, he was almost finished picking them up.  Wow.  They really do grow up. 

Unit Study-- The Very Busy Spider
I taught Elijah the nursery rhyme, "Little Miss Muffett"
Then, we had a great time acting it out with Mrs. Potato head and a Kid K'nex spider that Elijah made.  Elijah was laughing so hard every time the spider scared Mrs. Potato head away...we kept adding dialogue and changing what she was eating (what are curds and whey, anyway?)

Elijah and his friend looked at The Big Book of Bugs and Creepy Crawlies.

Other
Cutting Card #3

Nature Walk with our friend.  She found a huge beetle (dead), and was not afraid to put it in her bag!   She also picked up a cicada (live) and it buzzed and screeched at her; she dropped it and picked it up again!  I told her she was bug-brave.   Elijah found some pinecones and sticks (sticks...boys...why must they always grab sticks on their nature walks?).  For Elijah's nature journal he chose a milkweed bug we'd brought inside.  Our friend Josephine chose the purple cone flower she picked for her mom to nature journal about. 

Well, I finally counted and we've mailed out eleven letters to family and friends.  I think six have responded!  This is a great way to demonstrate to a child how rewarding it is to be able to read and write (even if they can't yet...it makes them more word conscious).  Not to mention my family members are happy to hear from Elijah (I play the part of personal secretary and write down his dictation in letter form).

I would love to post some pictures later tonight.  I will see if Jason will upload the pictures for me.

Unit Study:  The Very Busy Spider

We made a spider web of masking tape on the floor...but we ran out of tape, so we pulled out the toilet paper and let Elijah finish the creation.  First, he took the toilet paper (his "silk") and wrapped up some paper flies (to "eat" later-- yummy).  I have lots of pictures of this, so I will try to post one later.
We discussed spider food, spider spinning, and how spiders get around on their webs.
We read Spiders by Gail Gibbons
Now, Elijah is playing in his web and wanting to paint some spiders, so (if Simon cooperates), we will try to get some spider paintings in.

Handwriting Without Tears
Another Row of B's

Other:

Cutting Card #9
We finished The Littles to the Rescue last night! 

We have been doing school even though I haven't posted so much lately...Today is Day 20 of our year...I can't believe how fast the days add up!

Simon Update
He rolled over last night for the first time (but, of course, I missed it...Jason just noticed that he was suddenly on his belly!)
He laughed today-- a cute little laugh at some crazy airplane noises I was making for him this morning.
Being a mom is too much fun sometimes!

Handwriting
Worked on the Slate with B

Completed pg. 7 in Letters and Numbers for Me

Unit Study
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

We completed the 8-legged things worksheet from HSS

Started making a Spider Shape Book (from www.enchantedlearning)
On Elijah's 8-legged things worksheet he wrote the word BUS all by himself while I was out of the room.  I asked him what is that word?  He replied, "Bus because all these bugs are getting on the bus!"  Learning to read and write is so exciting!  I am so glad I get to share this adventure with him.

Other
We started our August calendar today.  We looked at what was coming this month and stamped the weather on (a sun that is overheating!) with our weather stamps from Rainbow Resource.  At the end of the month, I will post a picture of our finished weather calendar!

Read Chapters 9-10 in The Littles to the Rescue

Unit Study:  The Very Busy Spider
We read the book, and we also read Are You A Spider?  (again, two thumbs up for these books!); we learned that spiders not only have 8 legs...they also have 8 eyes!
Elijah chose a page in his Dover Coloring book (Black Widow Spider) to work on.

Phonics
Reviewed L Ladder
Letters and Sounds pg. 29

Handwriting Without Tears
Letter P (one row) on the Grey Block Paper

Other
Cutting Card #7
Cutting paper into tiny pieces (ahh!  Just when you think you have the floor clean...Cutting King goes wild with scissors).
The Littles to the Rescue chapter 6

Our ladybugs are emerging from the pupa stage into adults!  At first their wings look white, but after a few hours, they turn to orange and the dots are very dark!  I think our ladybugs have 10 spots.  We gave them some fresh water droplets today and added a few raisins that have been soaked in water; we're excited to watch more of them transform!

I hope to get to make the cover replica (of The Grouch Ladybug today) as our final ladybug hurrah.   Simon's having a rough few days, so I'm not sure what else I will be able to get done with Elijah; I hope Simon's just growing and we will be back on track soon...he's still the sweetest baby ever!  :)

Handwriting-
Elijah made two rows of D's on the grey block paper.  These D's look much better than yesterdays!

Phonics-
Elijah tried doing some Blend Ladders all by himself today; he did really well!  :)  I wish I had purchased the set of all the letter ladders...I may have to make some.
Completed workbook page 25.

Other-
Letter Writing-- I think we've mailed off seven letters in the past week.  Elijah dictates them to me, and I write everything down.  He says some really funny things!  We still have a few more to get out so that all our family members have received one. 

Cutting Card #4 (we already did this once, but I have more than one of each #)

I'm sure we'll read some more of our new Littles book as time permits today.  :)

That's all!

Unit Study:
The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
We read poems today from Eric Carle's Animals Animals including poems about:
Sparrow pp. 70-71
Snake pp. 60-61
Rhinoceros pp. 86-87
Elephant pp. 30-31
Whale pp. 8-9, 10-11
Firefly pp. 47
These are all creatures mentioned in TGL...mostly creatures that the ladybug wants to fight. 

Our ladybugs are beginning the pupa stage!  We noted them crawling to the dome lid and the booklet says this is what they will do just before they start to change (how exciting!); we also gave them some fresh water with the dropper.

Phonics:
ABeka Phonics Chart 2 (review) in which we repeated in a very silly way (sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes high-pitched, sometimes low)
I let Elijah play a game here
http://www.softschools.com/language_arts/phonics/
in which he had to put the correct vowel sound in a simple C-V-C word.  He did excellent and played it for quite awhile.  He has a bit of a problem confusing /i/ and /e/ -- I'm guessing this is normal because we pronounce some words in a way that it's hard to tell which vowel it should be (words like hen and pen).  I have to really emphasize the right word.
Workbook (Letters and Sounds) page 21
He also played for about 45 mintues at www.starfall.com -- lots of learning there!  (Although I don't love all the stuff they offer, a lot of it is worthwhile)

HWOT:
Another row of E's

Other:
Elijah dictated a letter for me to his "four friends" in Texas.  He also stamped some paper for them with weather stamps and colored pictures to put in the envelope along with stickers.  We talked about addresses, too.  He put the stamp on and some stickers on the outside, and it's ready to go.  I think this is a great thing to include in our school, and I hope to get letters out to family members and friends 1-2 times/week.  Hopefully, they will all write back!  He will *love* it.

Well, I had the bright (not-so-bright) idea to walk to a rummage sale today.  It looked good by the advertisement in the paper, and I didn’t think it was THAT far.   We walked almost a mile to get there and ordinarily this wouldn’t be anything to write about, but it is so muggy here.  It’s downright disgustingly humid. 

I found nothing at the garage sale, but Elijah found a toy, and I just couldn’t say no because he had been such a good sport walking all that way in the heat.  He purchased a LOUD fire-truck simulator. 

But, something good did come out of our walk!  On our way, Elijah spotted a baby duck in the middle of the road.   We were able to get up close and personal with it (but we didn’t touch it).  It flew away after a few moments of our observation.  We also heard the chain-saw buzzing sound in the tree tops.  I told Elijah about cicadas.  He got very nervous wondering if any would plop on top of his head at any second.  We were entertained by their song throughout our journey.  On our way home, we saw a velvety black spider spinning a web.  It was hanging from a telephone wire and looked as if it was flying in the air; it was very close for us to see.  Elijah found some sticks he had to bring home as well as a feather (don’t worry mom, I made him wash his hands!).  What a walk! 

When we got home, I found a nature book that told all about cicadas (their life cycle, what they eat, etc.).  Elijah was interested, so we read the page and found a page about another bug he keeps finding in his room—the june bug, so we read that page as well.  I guess I have our bug unit covered for today!  J

For “regular” school we did:

Handwriting Without Tears
Practiced more F’s on the Gray Block Letter Page

Phonics
Reviewed Letter Sounds from Chart 2 with flashcards
Did worksheet pages 11, 13
I hope he isn’t getting bored with all this letter review; I just don’t want to start in the middle of the program.  We’ll see.  I may have to make review into games everyday; he loves games!

I am going to start a nature notebook with him.  I found this idea on the FIAR Three R’s board.  I make pages ahead of time that say:

This is a__________________

I found it ________________________

I like it because_________________________

Some descriptive words about it are____________________________________________

I will have to fill in his answers.  At the bottom half of the page, I am going to put an envelope for him to stick his treasure in or a cardstock mat for us to place a picture of the object if it is too bulky to keep.   Hopefully, I will be more consistent with our walks.  He will love making his own book!

There wasn’t any read aloud today; I can’t find a chapter book in the house suitable for a 4 year old boy, but I won an auction for LOTS of Littles books, so when they come, we will resume.

We've officially started our 2006-2007 school year.   Of course, it is still summer, so we are just having fun, but we have time for learning...so we should be learning!

We are doing a six week unit on BUGS!  using the Eric Carle units from Homeschool Share.  We will use these units:
The Grouchy Ladybug
The Very Lonely Firefly
The Very Clumsy Clickbeetle
The Very Quiet Cricket
The Very Busy Spider
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Honeybee and the Robber

I'm not devoting a week to each book, but I'm just going to use each book until we are done (even if that occurs mid-week), and then start the next book.   We sent away for ladybugs for our Ladybug Land last week, so Elijah's enthusiastic about getting some bugs in the mail!

Today we started the Very Lonely Firefly.  We read Where's That Insect? together.  It's a fun book-- you have to find different bugs on each page; we discussed camoflauge, and Elijah learned a little bit about each different bug.

I also let Elijah pick a book from my firefly stash; he chose Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe.   This book opened the gateway for us to talk a bit about keeping bugs as well as emotions (in the last illustration the boy is smiling with tears running down his cheek).   We also prepared a jar to keep some pet lightning bugs in (according to Sally Kneidel's Pet Bugs in a Jar book).   We plan to go out tonight and catch some for observation; we will let them go, though.    After our reading, we drew lots of bugs; we talked about how many legs true insects have (6), but Elijah wanted to draw creatures with more than six legs...with billions of legs!  

My sister sent a box today.  We were delighted to find the coolest candy/toy in there!   It was this package of gummy lightning bugs (glow worm looking) complete with electric tongs.  Elijah used the tongs to pick up the "bugs"-- when he did, a light in the tongs caused the bugs to light up like fireflies.  It was soooo cool!  Perfect timing, Aunt Lisa!  

One other bright note-- Elijah found a stash of books someone just gave me (mostly homeschool curricula)-- I saw him looking at the illustrations in The Littles.  I asked him if he wanted me to read it, and he did.  We read three chapters!  I can't believe my little guy is ready for chapter books.  This is so exciting! 

And, that was our first day back. 

HWOT
pg. 74 (number 7)

FIAR Unit Study—Papa Piccolo
We read the story, colored our nocturnal animal (cat) from yesterday’s co-op, and placed our story disk in Venice, Italy.  We also discussed a bit about Italy (especially Venice and the streets of water and the gondolas).  Elijah was excited that Papa Piccolo lived in Italy "like Giovanni" from Clown of God.
Upon Elijah’s request, we also made the flag of Italy; he did the cutting and gluing all by himself.

Other
Cutting Card (he did *perfect* on this today!)

Later in the day, Elijah played with his plastic cat figures...he had a Papa Piccolo AND a Mama Piccolo.  I helped him draw some canal ways on long fax paper and taped it to the table.  He put all the cats in a boat and acted out the story (he added a few new stories, too!). 

HWOT- Get Set For School

pg. 72 (number 5)
I can't believe how Elijah's fine motor skills have progressed!  He made great 5's today, and he is very conscious about his coloring.  HWOT has been wonderful.

Unit Study
Rechenka's Eggs
We read Usborne's Eggs and Chicks and enjoyed learning about different types of birds, nests, eggs, chicks, etc.  The pictures are just fabulous.

We got the eggs we painted out of the fridge and learned what a dozen was.  I would have Elijah hide his eyes and take some eggs out of the carton (or not) and shut it...he would open it and tell me whether or not there was a dozen in the carton.  Then, we opened his Little People tub of toys and hunted for one dozen animals....and two dozen animals. 

We spent the rest of our morning reading books together.

Just a simple but fun day...

Unit Study

Read Rechenka's Eggs, reviewed Russia on the map, and then we painted eggs ourselves.  Elijah was so excited he could hardly stand it :)  We painted a dozen, so we will use them tomorrow for our math lesson.

Unit Study
Rechenka's Eggs.  We kept it simple today as daddy got to come home early and as I am on a cleaning frenzy trying to get some extra things done before the baby comes (just 13 more days!). 

I made a color copy (shrunk the page) at Staples the other day for a story disk.  We talked a bit about Russia.  I showed Elijah where Moscow was.  On our map, there were onion domes just like the ones pictured in the book, so he thought that was pretty cool.  He put the disk of Babushka on the map and that was that. 

We read other books until Jason came home.  We will read quite a bit from the Beginner's Bible tonight to prepare Elijah for Easter Sunday.  :)

Last week we took our unofficial Spring Break (much to Elijah's dismay...he went to bed one night crying because we hadn't done any school).

The morning after the crying incident, we did lots of school :)
We also went to the library, played outside, and worked on various cleaning projects (like the fridge!).   

This morning, we had an extra long appointment (we were gone for almost 3 hours), then we went to a Scholastic Book Fair.  I let Elijah choose three books (of course he wanted tons!).  We came home, ate our gourmet lunch (pb&j), and read our new books.  Now he is listening to a book on tape.  So, I guess school today will simply be reading, reading, and more reading.  Hope to get started tomorrow with our Rechenka's Eggs unit study!  :)