S s Sun

Van Gogh's "Enclosed Field with Rising Sun"

It's been a good, full week.  We started our "S" unit on Monday.  I think our exciting start last week was sort of a bait and switch for Nora who keeps asking when the "fun" activities are going to come.  Hmmmm.... 

My Father's World does have  a lot of worksheets.  I'm pretty skeptical of worksheets and I would prefer to use them much more infrequently than this program ends up doing.  BUT that's the great thing about homeschooling!  If something isn't working, we can change it.  So for the future I'm sure we won't use the majority of them, but right now, Nora is getting good practice with cutting and pasting and drawing and writing. Those things are all difficult for her because she has some fine motor issues.  

This program begins with "S" which is a terribly difficult letter to write.  We used the Handwriting Without Tears wooden pieces to make the letter and a tray of salt to draw with our fingers and we formed it out of playdough.    We did some math activities with identifying shapes and corners and sides and looking for the shapes of objects in the world around us.  We did a couple worksheets with cutting and pasting things that start with "S".   We sang the a-a-apple song (which I really like and which is exclusive to MFW) with flashcards.  We learned our words to remember for the unit: "Jesus is the Light of the world" and we talked briefly about that concept in relation to the sun.  

I crammed a lot into the first day which was good since we didn't do any school for the next two days.  We had all day appointments at Shriner's Hospital on Tuesday and on Wednesday we spent the day at Katie's house.  I haven't seen her since May so it was wonderful to catch up.  The girls played nicely by themselves and napped while we got to talk for 5 hours.  That's my kind of a day!  She sent me home with two new books to read, a recipe to try and a mind abuzz with all of the wonderful things in the world.  Who would have thought that a cultural history of rabies and the story behind HeLa cancer cells would prove to be so interesting?  Katie.  She just finds this stuff.  Her unpretentious love of reading and learning and exploring is simply contagious.  And beer bread....I can't believe I never tried it before - SO good!  Anyway, so that was a Mommy day. Furthering my own education, if you will.  

We celebrated Mark's birthday on Wednesday night along with his parents at "On the Border".  Eleanor made her famous ice cream cake.  I mean, what more could you really want on your birthday?

On Thursday, more worksheets.  Nora is disappointed.  Ok, weekend activities....

We did our first picture study - Charlotte Mason Style.  We used Van Gogh's "Enclosed Field with Rising Sun" (shown at the very top of this post).  I asked the girls to look at the picture for a little while and then to describe it from memory.  Nora did pretty well for the very first time.  She said she remembered seeing blue and green and yellow.  Then I asked Claire what she saw.  She said "I am two year old."  Ha!  Then we looked at the picture together and we all pointed out different things.  We hung it up at their eye level in the kitchen so they can see it whenever they like.  I love how Charlotte Mason does picture study - it really opens the eyes up to truly seeing - observing and later recalling all that there is to see.  We'll study Van Gogh's work for 6 weeks and then move on to Cassatt.  As we go, we'll save the prints of these great works of art in a photo album for her to keep always as familiar friends.  At least that's the plan...

We played with shadows - traced them with sidewalk chalk and watched a Mister Rogers video about them. 

 We also watched a great music video about the sun a few times and we tried to make suns and S's with cooked noodles. (Unfortunately I used left over angel hair pasta which is really too flimsy for noodle art.  Oh well.) 

Daddy came with us to a park for a picnic to enjoy the beautiful sunny day and meet up with my good friend, Rachel, and her 5 pack.  We love this family.  

Claire hitches a ride with her buddy

Nora riding her new birthday bike all by herself!  (Thanks, Grammy)

On Saturday we went to a church BBQ.  They had a fantastic swing set...

This kid has no fear

We've been working on establishing the habit of personal grooming.   With Nora's motor issues, this table top tray seems to be the only way we can manage independent hygiene.  Both Nora and Claire are doing a good job with it.   After breakfast they pour the water into the basin, wash hands & face, clean fingernails and brush their teeth and hair.  It's an idea I got from Montessori so it also incorporates learning the proper way to do each step in order and how to put everything back just so when they're done, not playing in between.  That alone is great practice for my wild Claire-Bear.  She does a pretty good job of doing each step carefully.  She still spits on the mirror almost every morning at the end, just to leave her mark.  Baby steps.

At Bounce-U for cousin Melanie's birthday party