6

Narration: The Boy Who Cried Wolf from What Your First Grader Needs to Know by E. D. Hirsch.
Read The First Dog by Jan Brett and First Painter by Kathryn Lasky. We took the virtual tours of the cave at Lascaux and the Cosquer cave. Then I stripped them down to their underwear and sent them out to the cave with a lantern and some paints. When they came back, it took two tubfuls of water to wash them clean! I think they had a blast. Then a math lesson, lunch, and the library. Emma told a mother she was homeschooled and the mother still talked to me! Then at home again, we read The Everyday Life of an Ice Age Hunter by Giovanni Caselli. And we are done with the Ice Age! On to Egypt, starting Monday.

I came across a short little play in the Hirsch book, based on The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and I told Jen we should do it together with the kids. She thought it was a great idea, and I got all excited about it and planned out costumes and blocking and everything, but then she backed out. She says they're too busy and I guess they are, but I think maybe she also had an attack of stage fright. Maybe she'll come round later--I think it would be great fun and a great experience for the kids.

Also heard about a site on one of my email lists that gives away free ebooks: www.wowio.com

5

Narration (her choice): The Fox and the Grapes. At T's request, I read Wild and Woolly Mammoths_. Then I reread parts of _Europe_, and wrote down what she remembered from it in her notebook. She labeled about 13 places in Europe on the free sample map I got here. This took about forever, but she finally got it done, and then she ran over to Georgia's house for recess. After that she went downstairs to cut out and label the European animal cards and put them in her notebook. Lunch. After lunch a very short math lesson, then I read You Wouldn't Want to Be a Mammoth Hunter by John Malam. Then we watched the Animal Classification video, which was a bust. After that I gave her Draw Write Now and told her to pick a page and do it, which she happily did once she discovered she could copy the words from the book instead of coming up with her own. I don't know what went on in her kindergarten class to make her so leery of creative writing, but I'm just going to stay away from it for a while.

4

Another pretty good day! Narration: "The Ant and the Grasshopper"--she did great, even quoting some lines from the book! Then Geography: we read about Europe (by David Petersen). I decided based on our conversation last night, to ease back on the math work, so we did about half of what I would have done, following the lesson plans that came with the books. She was very happy and did very well. Then I read Wild and Woolly Mammoths by Aliki and If You Lived in the Days of the Wild Mammoth Hunters by Mary Elting and Franklin Folsom, interrupted by a half hour "recess" with Georgia (they showed off their cave that Daddy made this weekend). Then I read Benny's Animals and How He Put Them in Order a really excellent introduction to Animal Classification by Millicent Selsam. Tomorrow we'll play with the cards I printed out from this site, and maybe view this video--it's geared toward 5th graders but is simple enough I think she'll get some use out of it.

T was happy as long as I stopped to listen to his comments, and in between Aesop's Fables and _Europe_ I read _Treats from a Tree_ to him. Then while E was doing math, I got out the play-doh which was a big hit (I think E did her math more quickly so she could have a little break to play with it too!)

3

Today went pretty well, I thought. First she did a narration on "The Vain Jackdaw", then I read The Atlantic Ocean by Anne Ylvisaker and wrote down in her notebook what she could remember after. Then I read the first half of the Asia book again, and gave her an outline map and a list of 13 things to label on it. She did all of them and even found the Gobi Desert on her own. She also drew in and labeled the Equator. As she worked, we talked about the importance of some of them, like that the Dead Sea was the lowest point and Mt. Everest the highest and so forth. I found I did need to be there with her to make her do it--she liked looking things up on the map and globe and would have done that for hours on her own, but she didn't like labeling things. But I think it helps make stuff stick when you have to write it down. She is very concerned with spelling, even though I tell her not to sweat it. I don't know if that is self-imposed or something she picked up in kindergarten.

After that I offered her a break and she played with T for about 20 minutes, then we did the next bit in the math book. Again with trying to get out of doing the last exercise. I told her she could do it after lunch, but the longer she puts things off, the less time she has for playing.

After lunch and math, we were all getting a bit worn. It really is like pushing water uphill sometimes to make her do work. She is interested (very!) in learning about things but hates any kind of paperwork. She doesn't (usually) outright rebel, but she has definitely mastered the "slow down strike". But we forged on, this time moving on to grammar. I reread some pertinent passages from _Merry-Go-Round_ by Ruth Heller and had her write matching Proper Nouns for common nouns I gave her and vice versa. Then she listed 3 concrete nouns, and 3 abstract nouns. At first she wanted to list air as an abstract since you can't see it, but I pointed out that you can feel it in the wind. (Later this year we'll do an experiment to prove it has weight).

Then she was really running out of steam, and she was sick these past few days, so I just read to her: In My Own Backyard by Judi Kurjian, and The Ice Age by Darlene R. Stille. Then I let her hang out for an hour until it was time for dance/tumbling classes.

T was great today--I had some things Jen gave me and some play-doh ready to deploy but didn't need them--he played very nicely all by himself. Both kids really enjoyed their dance/tumbling classes today, and Weird Homeschool Mom wasn't as weird as she seemed last week. All in all a good day.