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Yesterday we all took a break and after Alan and I voted, we went out for lunch and then to the art museum. Last night I got E out of bed so she could watch our first black president elect deliver his victory speech.

Today we read The Apple Pie That Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson, and Autumn: an Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur. Then we wrote some of our own acrostics (Nemo and Sheila are the names of our dogs):

She is a dog;
Her friend is Nemo.
Every morning she jumps
Into E's bed for
Love
And a scratch.

Not as small as he thinks he is
Every time someone is on the floor he jumps on them.
Mushy, lovey dog
On my lap.

Doorknob rattles
And
Daddy is home!
Delight!
Young monkeys jump on his head!

I've asked E to write two more on her own before Friday. Then I read some more of If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon by Ellen Levine, and The Josefina Story Quilt by Eleanor Coerr. After a break we had spelling, lunch, and math, then read Look What Came from China by Miles Harvey (what came from China? A whole lot more than you think!) Also The Cloudmakers by James Rumsford and A Song of Stars by Tom Birdseye (this is an Asian legend about the stars Vega and Altair and the Milky Way between them--we looked the stars up on Stellarium, an amazing free planetarium for your computer). And finally, we started learning about electricity with Melvin Berger's Switch On, Switch Off! (My copy a little out of date, so I had to explain how CF bulbs work, but still a very good intro).

49

Read The Mouse and the Apple by Stephen Butler, I Know It's Autumn by Eileen Spinelli, and Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna. Since it's the birthday of Jonas Salk, read Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine by Katherine Krohn. Then The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars by Jean Merrill, How to Be a Samurai Warrior by Fiona Macdonald, The Way We Do It in Japan by Geneva Cobb Iijima, and The Funny Little Woman by Arlene Mosel. After lunch, spelling and math, we made geta (Japanese clogs) from Make It Work! Japan by Andrew Haslam,



and made koi noburi (fish-shaped wind socks) from Traditional Crafts from Japan by Florence Temko.



I assigned E to read Sword of the Samurai by Eric A. Kimmel, but she already had!

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Read to T while E practiced her scales: The Accidental Zucchini by Max Grover, The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons, Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell, and It's Fall! by Linda Glaser. Then, An Illustrated History of Japan by Shigeo Nishimura, The Paper Crane by Molly Bang, and The Greatest of All by Eric A. Kimmel. After a break we read more of If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon by Ellen Levine, and Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson, which was really fun. After Spelling and lunch, we read What Magnets Can Do by Allan Fowler, What Makes a Magnet? by Franklyn M. Branley, and did experiments from these books and Experiments With Magnets by Salvatore Tocci. Then E did her math.

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Read Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington and How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara, Leonardo and the Flying Boy by Laurence Anholt, Suki's Kimono by Chieri Uegaki, and A to Zen by Ruth Wells. Also read Vote! by Eileen Christelow, and E read If I Ran for President by Chatherine Stier while we were out and about. The art museum has an exhibit of some Da Vinci drawings from the museum in Turin, so we went to see those and looked around at some other art while we were there, especially the sculpture garden, and we went to the library, where the librarian told E they were going to have to order more books if she keeps reading so many. ;)

43

Read to T: The Apple Tree by Lynley Dodd, The Pumpkin Runner by Marsha Diane Arnold, and When Autumn Comes by Robert Maass. Hit Japan hard with Vicki Cobb's This Place is Crowded: Japan, A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno, The Bicycle Man by Allen Say, Momotaro the Peach Boy retold by Linda Shute, I am Shinto by Noriko S. Nomura, and In the Eyes of the Cat by Demi. E is to choose two favorite poems from this last and copy and illustrate them. We had spelling, watched a DVD: Countries Around the World: Japan, and E did math while listening to Joji Hirota's CD of Japanese Folk Songs. At lunch I cut everything up small and gave them chopsticks to eat with--E plans to use them for every meal!

22-23

Monday: 1st day of fall! We read: Fall by Ron Hirschi, and started looking at animal migration with Amazing Animal Journeys by Liam O'Donnell, and Wings of Light by Stephen R. Swinburne. I also gave them some fall-related mazes. We read Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley, and E read Welcome From India by David Cumming to T. I read Rum Pum Pum by Maggie Duff and E had spelling and math.

Today: Read The 512 Ants on Sullivan Street by Carol A. Losi, How Do Birds Find Their Way? by Roma Gans, Why Do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro, Weather Forecasting by Gail Gibbons, and Monsoon by Uma Krishnaswami and The Gifts of Wali Dad by Aaron Shepard. Math and Spelling.