Three. Three. Two.

Today started off really amazing. Usually, every day (before Math), Babe and I go over her homework from the night before, then I have her fill in her calendar and write the date, then jump into Math. Well, before we did Math and after she wrote the date, I read a letter to Babe from her grandma.

Her grandma mentioned that she reads my blog and noticed that one day, Babe was learning about pollution and how, when oil gets into the ocean, it ruins the water and animals (see: experiment with fluffy pom poms and vegetable oil and water). Included in the letter were pictures her grandma printed out from the Internet of the devastating oil leak off the coast of New Zealand. The ship "Rena" is stuck in the coral reefs and oil is spilling out of it. The pictures show the oil along the shore, in the water, and a poor bird covered in it.

I had Babe go get her world map and asked her to point out Florida. Then I pointed to New Zealand to show her the distance between the two. We started talking about the pictures, and I asked her if she remembered what happened to the pom pom that we dipped in oil.

"It was so heavy. This poor bird can't even fly!"

Then I actually saw something click in her head and she ran to her room. I asked where she was going and before she could answer, she ran back and handed me a business card.

"Remember the lady we met at the library?! Who teached us how she saves birds that get sick!?"

(During the summer, our local library had weekly events for kids that taught them about local wildlife.)

"Yes, I do remember, but do you think these people who live in Florida are a little too far from New Zealand to help?"

"Yeah so maybe New Zealand has these kinds of people, too."

I asked her how she thinks they should clean up the oil.

"I remember in Diego he had a big oil vacuum! Maybe they can use one of those!"

It was a really neat learning experience for her to receive that letter with pictures. Thank you, Grandma!

Then it was time for Math. I brought out the connecting blocks again and built a tower. Then I asked her to build one the same size, one taller, and one shorter. Which she did. Then I had her put her pencils in order from longest to shortest.

Perfect. Worksheets complete. Math done.

For Reading Comprehension I read "The Amazing Little Porridge Pot". By the middle of the story Babe was saying the character's cooking command on cue, so I knew she was understanding the story. She easily recalled every detail I asked her about, and even remembered that porridge was the same food in Goldilocks and the Three Bears (without being asked about it).

With that, Reading Comprehension was done, and it was time for a simple, fun, neat activity.

Night drawings! I handed the each of the kids one sheet of black paper and spread out the sidewalk chalk on the table. I gave them each some sequins and glue, too, but they loved the chalk on black so much that gluing was hardly as interesting.

Z's. He loves scribbling.

Bubs's. She especially liked how all the colors seemed brighter on black.

Babe's. So cool. The moon and stars are my favorite.

After chalk dust landed everywhere, it was time to clean up for lunch.

After lunch and during naps, I pulled out "Tortillas and Lullabies" again and picked out a sentence. I asked Babe to point to a noun, which she did. Then I asked her to point to an adjective, which she didn't do, because there are no adjectives in that book! So instead, I asked her to explain to me what an adjective was. She did. Perfectly.

I then introduced her to another type of word - verbs. She picked up on this very quickly. I was actually surprised and impressed. We went through "Tortillas and Lullabies" again and this time, I had her point out the verb in each section of the story. She did. Easily.

After a brief discussion on strangers, which she knows all too well about due to a real-life scare that she still remembers from when she was about two or three, I handed her a brand new book to read for her reading log. Today we received our shipment of Scholastic books!!! WOOHOO I'm so excited. Probably more so than the kids. But I went through them all and picked a readable Fall one, and it was the cutest one yet!

"Dragon's Leaf Collection" by Becky Matheson.

And with that, it was time for dance!