Like A Bird

Feb 8, 2012

A new drum...

Cyrus and I finally put together his new drum this weekend. It was so simple, and a lot of fun to do. Cyrus says "This is my favorite best drum ever, because I made it with my muzzer!" Yup, he pronounces 'mother' as 'muzzer'. He reminds me of a little cartoon character.
Such a great kit.
Such a fantastic day.
Such an adorably fabulous boy.
Such an over the top grateful muzzer.

Best Possible Outcome...

My baby had a cold last week.
He was feeling pretty grouchy.
Matt took over for me so I could take a break.
This is what I came back to find.
Perfect in every way.

Feb 7, 2012

Our Arizona Winter...

If I haven't said it before, I love apple trees.

Feb 5, 2012

Gratitude Mondays...

What I'm loving today...

~exciting big changes in our future that should be all worked out maybe this week?

~Packages coming in the mail...

~Superbowl parties!
(my family doesn't watch any football, but we do make some great food every year)

~Ice cream...

~A little girl who rolls her eyes...
(the more she shows me she's annoyed, the more annoying I want to be)

~A partner who is worth all this crazy year of not knowing where we are going...
(I'm excited to find out!)

~A little boy who is also a big brother who plays with his baby brother...

~A baby who mirrors his big brother...

A new week. New possibilities. New opportunities.

weekly wrap up #17

This week in first grade...

In Poetry..

Poem of the week~ Animal Crackers, illustrated by Jayne Dyer. I love her soft watercolors.
Poem of the month~ We started our poem for February, Candles. I like the imagery of warm candles glowing on a cold winter day, even if our days are not that cold or wintery.
Silly Poem~ It's Alright, in the Dark! A poem about being afraid at night in the dark. One of Ava's options was to draw the scariest thing she could imagine. She really surprised me with her art. They both did. All of her work before this has been beautiful, or silly. I had no idea she could make such a scary picture. Either of them.

In Ava's picture we see a green witch coming inside a dark house with her magic wand. "Yes!" she says, as she realizes everyone is asleep. A large monster with red eyes, horns, wings and a spiked tail is holding a shining sword, a can of glitter magic ("like a sleeping spell") and an evil pet poodle on a leash. He's saying "Let's get to work!" The work of scaring, and eating people. His little pet in blue is saying "BOO!"

Cyrus's winged red mouthed monster is holding a flaming sword over his head. It's dificult to see, but he added BOB in the dark area. It was supposed to say BOO!, I just think it's adorable that his monster is saying "BOB".

In Social Studies and Art combined....

For the next few weeks we will integrate Social Studies with our Art and crafting. We are starting our United States Binder. (a work in progress that I'll talk about later) Each week we will talk about 6 states. Using coloring pages from here (after editing the size some), information from this website and, once it arrives in the mail, we'll start using this book.

In the Kitchen..
We skipped the kitchen this week!

In Music...
We skipped music this week..

In Art Study...

We explored The Old Violin, by William Michael Harnett. This painting is remarkably lifelike. It looks very much like a picture, and less a painting. In Ava's words "ooooh, it look real. It's a very realistic painting. I like the violin it has so many colors. This painting must have taken says to get it perfect, and a lot of sketches of it too."

In Science We...
Started to talk about Gravity, and Air is a Substance. We were able to briefly play with the experiments, but were really unable to spend very much time with science this week. Household viruses caused many shifts in our program. I was able to pick up a lot of books for us to use next week when we go over the material again with fresh perspectives, and NO MORE COLDS. (please)

In Math We...
~ found the number of days in a year, and leap year

~ practiced trading quantities on side 2 of the abacus
~ worked with the math balance
~ used the terms balanced and level
~ started the Bead Trading game. (a solitary math game)

Our house was hit pretty hard with colds this week. We were able to get a fair amount of school taken care of. We haven't fallen behind anything that runs on a schedule, but we did have to cut out a lot of fun activities this week. Thankfully we were able to make up for a lot of it over the weekend.

It's all about balance!

Feb 3, 2012

Weekly Wrap Up #16

This week in first grade...

In Poetry..

Poem of the week~ If. I honestly can't remember this poem now as I write this, so it probably wasn't that great?
Poem of the month~ Our last week with It Fell in the City. Ava started taking the book from me and instead of showing me how she memorized this poem, she chose instead to read it. Works for me.
Silly Poem~ The Animal Fair. Ava wasn't thrilled with this poem. She liked it, but just didn't get into it much. She chose to draw a list of the animals, the funny things that they were doing and and asked me to label it for her.

In Social Studies....
We finished Wagon Wheels, a true story based on the tales of a young family in 1840s. Ava and I took turns reading a page aloud to each other. It was very hard for her to wrap her mind around 3 young boys living alone for months, then traveling on foot for the 150 mile 3 month journey to their father. We also read Sunset's of the West.

In the Kitchen..

We made playdough! (finally) Using this recipe, we made lemon grass scented playdough. I'm almost out of food coloring because of this, so we used turmeric for a nice yellow color. It's bright, sunny, and the kids Love it.

In Music...
This was our second week of listening, and singing patriotic songs while painting. Our song this week was America the Beautiful. And the results were, well, beautiful!

In Art..

We made berry ink! The perfect ink to use on our "old old paper". The recipe is super simple. I used one found here. It's just berries, salt and vinegar. That's my kind of recipe. We found tiny little sticks in the backyard to use as our brush/pen/stylus.

In Art Study..

We explored The Gleaners, by Jean Francois Millet. Ava said seemed to understand the hardship of these woman. For the over all painting she said "I like the blue. Blue is a color that you'd mostly see a lot. But in this picture it's mostly yellow green, and brown so the blue stands out more. That's pretty cool".

In Science We..
We had a big shift in science these last few weeks. (that's the reason we've been growing crystals during science lesson time) I've been trying to decide how to work Cyrus into our science curriculum next year. We use Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding k-3, and I love it. We all love it. The curriculum isn't necessarily written for multiple children at multiple levels, but it is very adaptable. After a few weeks of consideration I've decided to fold Cyrus into our science lessons starting this week. From this week, and for possibly the rest of the year we will start from the beginning and 'do science again'. All of this will be review for Ava. That's cool with me, it will make sure she's a solid in the foundation as she can be. It will largely be review for Cyrus as well. He spent the last year and a half participating in most of the activities, but not really paying attention to the lesson. (which is another thing I'm cool with) I have the basic idea of how our review will flow. I plan on using the library suggestions this time around, as I think they will help reinforce the ideas in a way that Cyrus will respond to.

Over the weekend we played organizational games and talked about categories. This week in our science lesson we talked about Solids Liquids and Gasses.

In Math We...
~spent part of our week reviewing
~found the number of tens in 1000
~found the sum of numbers 1 to 10
~advanced to using 'the other side' of the abacus

This was an exciting week for us in homeschool. Ava was able to skip six lessons in math, as they were subjects she was already confident in. (covered in level A) She thought that was pretty amazing. Cyrus joined us in our science lessons and was so very pleased with himself that he asked if he could join us in math also. Initially I rejected the idea of Cyrus doing any more school. It goes against my ideals that I would have my preschooler doing 'work'. After a while it dawned on me that if my almost five year old wants to be included in school more, than of course I will accommodate him. Thankfully we use Right Start Mathematics, the level A program is very gentle progression into numbers. A few lessons here and there at his own pace will only serve to strengthen his excitement about becoming a student next year.

Feb 1, 2012

Soon and very soon

I just wanted to say that I'm here, and I'll be back soon.
So many many things are soon.
So many answers to so many questions will be soon. (hopefully)
So many packages will arrive in the mail soon. (next year's curriculum will be here next week!)
So many days of children with colds will be over soon. (it must be soon. Must Be.)
So many chocolates will be eaten and my box will be empty soon! (whoopsie.)

See you soon!