In our last grammar class, we ran into a challenge. It was hard for the kids to name adjectives and abstract nouns apart. Like, 'pride, and 'proud', or 'awe' and 'awesome'. Which one is the noun, which one the adjective? So, I put together a little matching game, where they had to find the partners. Once they matched up 'kind' and 'kindness', for instance, they had to explain which was which, and come up with simple sentence to illustrate it. It was a bit long, but it was fun, and it became more enjoyable once the kids started to really understand the difference. It was worth taking the time.
Today, the kids took their first math tests. Andrew got a B and Saara an A+. Not too bad.
In Science, Andrew continued his experiments with electricity. For a while, he was scratching his head for the tasks in front of him grew a bit complicated. It was easy to figure out how to get the light bulb light up when you had only one wire and one battery. But when a second wire and a second battery were introduced, it was quite a challenge.
Working through the problems and drawing diagrams helped a lot. By the time he was supposed to guess if a hook-up would light up or not, he was able to give accurate predictions.
Our art class at the end of the day was also rather challenging, although, I think, the kids did not even notice how many different art questions they answered just by having fun with colors.
This time, they had to paint another still life. This one, however, had more lines and also a shadow to consider. All the different warm colors made them compare the tones to each other and mix them accordingly. They had to make the basic colors lighter and darker, they had to follow the grading and line of the shadow. Also, the painting had large areas and small areas to cover with paint. They had to choose the right brushes to get the job done well.
To award their hard work, both kids ate their models. That put a sweet end to our second school week.
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| LA. A matching game to learn the difference between adjectives and abstract nouns. |
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| History. Andrew finished his first history book this year. Among other things, we learned a lot about the British Parliament. |
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| Science. Andrew continued his experiments with electricity. He had to find out many different ways to light a bulb. |
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| Things got more complicated when another 'wire' was introduced. Or two batteries. |
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| Art. Another still life for the kids to try to paint. This time, I added a shadow. We found more lines to draw, and there were more colors to mix. |
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| All the warm red, yellow, and orange hues were different. The children had to pay good attention to what they saw in front of them. |
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| One unexpected and not-so-pleasant surprise was that the paints we bought in spring had somewhat aged over summer. But they still worked for this art project. |
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| Of course, the cupcakes were there not just for looking at. |
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| Andrew's effort. |
