'12/13 Week 25 Day 4

Yes, we are feeling much better and this morning were thoroughly fit to take a trip to the library. But we did not stay long. The story time was overcrowded and somewhat chaotic in the back, so we slipped out to avoid the general stampede at the end of it. We did bring home a bag full of goodies: lots and lots of books on CDs, like "American Tall Tales" for Saara's school work and "Frog and Toad" tales and some other books, Andrew is reading for his Reading Practice. 
I picked up a book about teeth and dental care. In our studies of the human body we have reached the chapter about teeth. Andrew and Saara are veteran 'dentist-goers', but it never hurts to harp about the oral health, doesn't it?.

Andrew and his incisors

He keeps asking me all the time when his teeth will start falling out.

A gold mine of a resource! We Give Books is a wonderful on-line place for reading children's books. I concluded our class about teeth and oral health by reading a DK Readers online book "A Trip To the Dentist".

'12/13 Week 25 Day 3

It is no fun to be sort-of-sick. Much better to be completely healthy or then completely wiped out, but this in-between-land is tiresome. None of us were so sick that we had to cancel school, but none of us were healthy enough to get the best quality studying done. So, my decision for today (and I hope only for today) was to get as much school work done as humanly possible under these conditions. 

Andrew and Saara got their new Bible verses this morning and Andrew also copied his new spelling words. The -er, -ir, and -ur sound could be a challenge. I introduced the words to Andrew through little pictures that should help him remember which word is written with which 'r' letter combination. We will start practicing tomorrow. 

In Science, we read some about our teeth and oral health. We also did some math where Saara started a new "Math Readiness" book and Andrew reviewed odd and even numbers among other things.

In addition a bit of reading and rhyming, and that was as much as our fuzzy heads could handle today. 

Tomorrow is a brand new brave day. Hopefully, Kleenex-free.

The word tURn with an U-turn arrow, chURch with two steeples, bURn with a firepit, etc. should help Andrew spell these tricky words.

'12/13 Week 25 Day 2

By the end of the day we were all running for tissues and sneezing. I hope, it will be all over by tomorrow morning. But before the colds really hit us, we managed to pack in a nice day of work. 

First, we were visited by a pair of falcons. Most of the time they were hiding behind branches and we could not figure out whether the big birds were owls or falcons. They were cold and were basking in the warm sunshine.

Then, we saw our regular heron skimming the pond and actually witnessed him catching a pretty breakfast. Truly, our kitchen window can be better than the Animal Planet sometimes. 

Most action in school work happened in our science class. Two out of three experiments with water and air turned out well. One went down the drain. Literally. 

Now, it is time for medicine and the Vick's vaporizer.

Falcon # 1

Falcon # 2

Our 'French' heron who finds frogs a delicacy.

Andrew stuffing a tissue (a hot commodity by the end of the day) into a cup for an experiment with air and water.

Sitting safely in the trapped air, the tissue stayed dry even when the cup was entirely submerged.

Saara completed her last pages in the THICK SchoolZone workbook for Kindergarten level. 

'12/13 Week 25 Day 1

It is a blustery kind of day. Very windy outside, but warm and sunny. Our school day 'forecast' was rather slow and sloppy. :o) At first, Andrew had hard time getting his engines going, but once he got through our Math class, he went ahead full speed. Saara was as sloppy as one could get. Made me laugh but she had to redo and rewrite things until they looked acceptable.  What a morning! 

One of the challenges I am facing these days is how to make the familiar Bible stories interesting and catching. I have set up mini-plays and puppets shows, and done just plain reading. Today, however, we made a little craft to accompany the story about the three wise men visiting Jesus. We constructed a little star that is hanging in Saara's room now. There's still so much out there that one can do to make the Bible come alive to the kids. I will keep on exploring and experimenting and having fun in the process.

Andrew helping me glue the star pieces together.

Surprisingly easy to make and absolutely adorable to look at. Star pattern from Dolly's Dreamings blog

One of Saara's tasks in her Math class - to recognize and name the coins. I had her make crayon rubbings of the coins and then count how many coins she had in each group.

It takes some skill to keep the coin steady and also the pressure on the crayon has to be just right to yield a nice result.

The curriculum finished its studies of the Ancient China, but we are still stuck in there. I brought home a number of interesting books and the kids have been enjoying listening to them and looking at the pictures. Even Saara, has shown more interest than usual.

Andrew ran through the house today and picked up a few things he wanted to measure in centimeters.

'12/13 Week 24 Day 5

It was such a good day of studies. Nothing spectacular - just a good day. Andrew's ability to focus has been improving and he gets his tasks done faster these days. 

In History, we finished reading a book about growing up in Ancient China. We learned about how paper was made and what the people in China used to write on and how their written language developed. We brought out our brushes and painted some Chinese characters ourselves.

At the end of the day, we traveled to the the other end of the Eurasia. Tomorrow Estonia is celebrating its 95th birthday. We baked a batch of cupcakes and had a little sweet end to our school day and week.

We love our Bible story time in the mornings!

:o)

Time for some serious school work.

Saara writing and solving addition problems using dominoes.

Making our version of the Ancient Chinese bamboo book.

I am no expert on the Chinese symbols, but it was kind of fun to Google them and try to copy.

The symbols I printed out for the children to paint, I found on-line as well.

Happy Birthday, Estonia!

'12/13 Week 24 Day 4

We did a lot of reading today. All of us - me, Andrew, and even Saara. 
I must say that her reading is improving daily. Today we flipped our sight word cards from pink to blue (just turned the other side, in other words) and she already knew about 80 % of the words. 
Andrew's reading is fantastic. At first, I was intimidated by the length of his reading assignments, but the stories are engaging and he does not stop until the whole chapter is read. He does not even slow down or get tired. And - what I am very thankful for - he follows and understands what he is reading. Recently, as his fluency has improved, he has started to put even some expression into his reading manner, paying attention to the question and exclamation marks.

And another amazing thing: currently, I am reading to them a book about a missionary George Muller. A book that has longish chapters and no pictures. And they love the story. They sit next to me or play on the floor in front of me and listen, make sound effects that are supposed to accompany the story or make faces or exclaim their surprise or disagreement or whatnot. The main thing: they are picturing the events, the situations, the people, the places in their minds and the story becomes alive in their heads. Imagination is a wonderful thing. :)

Saara's Bible stories book continues the account of Jesus' birth.

I had not utilized the good old letter blocks in so long. Today, I had Saara build some sight words with them.

I thought, Andrew had grown out of these blocks, but I was wrong. He wants to spell his words using the blocks too. I will save this activity for his next set of spelling words.

'12/13 Week 24 Day 3

Despite of the grim forecast, we braved out and drove all the way to the library. As we arrived a bit early, I found a copy of Andrew's new Reading Practice book and he started reading it at the library. Truth be told, he did not like the idea much. There are so many other books to browse through and he wanted to dig into a bunch of them. By all means. Both of them had their noses in the books even on our way home. 

Our school day was short, but good. Andrew got a new set of spelling words which he found a good fun. 

We continued reading a book about the Great Wall of China. I also brought home a number of books about the Ancient China and started reading one of them about the life of  the ancient Chinese children. Andrew was surprised to hear that children played marbles even back then. Cute.

On her way to fill up her backpack.

Three little pigs. Out of all the puppets Saara chose the pigs.

Ms. Bobbie is one of Andrew's favorite people.

The story time was all about the Moon today.

Back at home - Language Arts.

'12/13 Week 24 Day 2

I am surprised how fast things moved today. We did a lot but children seemed to fly through everything with ease. Did they get everything done correctly? No. Mistakes were made, facts forgotten, mix-ups happened, but everything got straightened out and fixed and we moved on. Did the kids enjoy every moment of their school day? Absolutely! I could tell from the enthusiasm in their voices and the extra things they want to do or ideas they have to 'improve' their classes or new books they want to read. Oh, yes, Andrew wants to go to China to see the Great Wall with his own eyes.

The short 'o' sound in the '-op' family. I downloaded the worksheet from Rockin' Teacher Materials and added letter tabs for forming words.

Andrew found out that multiple choice is not that easy. The Estonian swallow again reminding us that the Independence Day is close.

In Math, Andrew got better acquainted with the One Dollar bill. Here he is literally 'making a buck'. :o)

Saara's art book focused on faces today and the kids went ahead and drew their self portraits. Among other things.

Andrew is recognizable. Saara ... well... It is art after all. :o)

Andrew was so proud of his picture, he asked Saara to help him to pose for a photo.

The construction work on our Great Wall of China has begun. It will be finished as soon as I remember to buy some more card stock.

Baseball Try-Outs

A few months ago we signed Andrew up for basketball, but we realized very fast, it was not his 'thing'. The boy has a very good arm, though, and baseball should be right up his alley. He did well at the try-outs tonight. We will see, what will happen next and what team he will be playing for. Andrew liked it a lot. He met up with his old friends from soccer days and surely will make a few new ones as well.Saara is signed up for T-ball. She did not have any try-outs.

 

Andrew checking out his friend's number. He himself was '16'.

 

What a big boy! I love you to bits!