Sixth Month. 3rd Week. 3rd Day.

So apparently the Abraham Lincoln hat Babe made yesterday was a huge hit. When I got to Babe's house this morning, she was wearing it, and actually working on an attachment for the hat. What kind of attachment, you ask?

"Now I can REALLY be Abraham Lincoln!"

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A lot going on today, with learning about a new president and all! But first in Math, Babe continued with reviewing all coin and counting amounts. When she completed her worksheet, we jumped right into discussion about our third president, Thomas Jefferson.

I turned to his page in one of the best books ever, "I Grew Up to be President" and Babe learned all about the house he built, Monticello, the Declaration of Independence, and the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark. She also learned that when England came over (again!) and burned down the state capitol and the Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson sent all of his own books to Washington, D.C. so they could have a library again!

I really focused on the Louisiana Purchase today, and showed her on a map how big the country grew after Thomas Jefferson bought the land from France. I then told her that since Jefferson had to work in Washington, D.C. he couldn't go explore the land himself, so he hired two people named Lewis and Clark to walk the land and write about what they saw. When they wrote to Jefferson telling him all about grizzly bears, Jefferson said he'd never seen one before, so two grizzly bears were sent to the White House to live! Babe was fascinated.

"They lived IN the house?"

"No, they lived outside on the front yard until Jefferson sent them to a zoo!"

"I'm glad there's no bears in my front yard!"

haha.

When I had her tell me everything she learned about Thomas Jefferson, I then told her that we were going to pretend to be Lewis and Clark and go explore the yard, writing and drawing all the animals and plants we see. She got so excited and ran to her room to pack her backpack with "supplies" which included twine, a rubber glove, a pencil, and a magnifying glass.

She took this expedition very seriously. Enjoy the photos!

Her findings were as follows:

I think my favorite is "horssiz."

This took about an hour, so by the end of our trek everyone was ready for lunch.

After lunch, I asked Babe to remind me of what Thomas Jefferson did while he was president.

"He built his own house. Something called jello. Then he wrote a letter to England telling them that they can't tell America what to do anymore. It was called the Decoration of Independence. He told Lewis and Clark to go to the other side of the land that he bought from France so he could know what plants and animals were over there. He had two grizzly bears in his front yard in Washington, D.C! Then, after he was president, when England came over and burnt down the White House and the library, he sent alllllllll of his own books to Washington so that we could have a library again! He was very nice!"

WHOA! Impressive. I told her that she was exactly right! And that she was now going to build her own house like Jefferson did. Though her and Z and Bubs were building forts all day, I handed her some toothpicks, glue, and a sheet of construction paper and had her glue away.

"Is it OK if I get messy?"

haha

I reminded her that Jefferson named his home Monticello, and I asked her what she would name the home she just built. She thought for a few minutes.

"Abrajeff Barack."

"Why that name?"

"I don't know, I just like all the presidents!"

And with that, we ended the day. She is picking up this history information a little too quickly and really well, it kind of freaks me out. While I don't expect her to remember it all, I do hope to keep it fresh in her mind with reminders of random facts every now and then. We will see how that works out.

Sixth Month. 3rd Week. 2nd Day.

Today was another review day, this time on Abraham Lincoln. But first in Math, we went over telling/writing time, and counting money. Babe did well with both, though she needed a quick reminder of how to count by fives starting at a number other than 0. But once she had that figured out, she was good to go. By the end of Math, I was giving her random amounts and she was able to figure out all the ways to use coins to get to that amount. It was cool watching her mind work.

I then had her tell me everything she remembered about Abraham Lincoln, and she still has all the important details down pat - he freed the slaves, the North won the Civil War, and he was the 16th president. Perfect. By then, it was time to go outside for some much needed outside play. Bubs and Z were chomping at the bit to go outside. The weather has been perfect!

After lunch, it was time for an Abraham Lincoln craft, and I was excited about this one. I handed Babe two paper plates and an empty canister of dry oats and told her all of this stuff needed to be covered in black.

"You can color it, you can cover it in black paper, you can do whatever. But it has to be all black."

"OK, that's easy!"

haha

She did great covering the canister with black paper. When she rolled the paper around it, she marked with a pencil where the paper needed to be cut! I was impressed.

When she got to the paper plates, she started cutting out paper and gluing it on, but then she resorted to the black crayon.

While she was creating this part of the craft, I was warming up a glue gun. When she was done, I told her to put the oat canister on top of the paper plate. I then asked her what it looked like.

"It looks like a hat! Like the hat Abraham Lincoln is wearing in that book I read!"

She was exactly right!

As soon as she put it on, she started repeating, "NO MORE SLAVES!" and then told me she was going to go write some rules (laws). So I put on PBS Kids for her to digest the day, but she kept the hat on and grabbed a pen and a notepad.

ha!

She came to me about 20 minutes later with her list of rules.

"No hittin. No slavs. No smackin butt.

Too. Stinking. Cute.

I asked her where she was going to keep her list of laws and she had a great idea.

"Since I'm Abraham Lincoln I'll keep it in my hat!"

And she did. She opened the top of the canister (all planned as part of the craft), and put the sheet of paper in it (along with a calculator).

And with that, she ended the day and started getting ready for dance.

Thus concludes Tuesday!

Sixth Month. 2nd Week. Fifth Day.

Today was a great, great day. Babe amazed me with everything she did and she is really loving
being home schooled (more so today because she became aware that her cousin did not have a Valentine's Day party at her school).

In Math today, we worked with counting coins - nickels, quarters, and pennies - all of which she was able to do, though she used her fingers when I gave her a quarter and a nickel. So cute. She did amazing with this, so I elaborated a little bit more with the nickel. Since she knew how many quarters equal a dollar and how many pennies equal a dollar, I asked her to try to count to 100 using nickels, or counting by fives.

Again, she got stuck at number 20, counting by tens the rest of the way. So I told her to listen to how I do it first.

When I was done counting to 100 by fives, she realized how to do it within seconds.

"Oh, so you only say each set of ten twice?"

I looked at her with my jaw to the floor. I don't even understand how her mind can work like that. I told her that was exactly how to do it. And from that moment on, she was able to count to 100 by fives. Amazing.

We next did a 100 chart, and this being her third one, she started figuring out that each one turns into a themed picture. So as I was saying each number, she'd also start guessing if numbers were specific colors. I let her play along. She can easily recognize all number 1-100 now without reading them backwards, so whatever helps her and is fun works for me.

After Math, I had Babe tell me everything she remembered about Abraham Lincoln and she told me a ton of stuff.

"He said NO MORE SLAVES! And then he was shooted in the head by someone who did want slaves, and the North won the Silver War and the South wore grey clothes and the North wore blue clothes. And he was our 16th president and lived in a log cabin and when he died they brought him back to his home to be buried."

Um. Wow. I need to mention that we never discussed the uniforms of the Civil War. She caught on to the differing colors while reading the Abraham Lincoln book yesterday. It's just crazy to me! Another moment I was blown away.

After lunch, I got out the story she wrote from yesterday and we made it into an actual book, with one sentence per page. I then had her illustrate each page. Here is her book, "Night Weather".

"Night Weather" by ... Babe ...

Dani is a little kid.

She thinks about the weather at night.

Today's weather is rainy.

(PLEEEEASE note Dani looking through the window! Adorable.)

Dani sings a song at night about the rain.

(Again, please note the music notes in the window. Hysterical.)

She sings the song because she likes the weather.

(Dani ventured outside wearing a rain jacket and boots!)

She sings it at home.

the end.

So yes, it's a very basic story, but technically it does answer all of the 5 Ws. I will say I think she is a much better illustrator than writer. haha. Next week I am going to have her add an adjective to every sentence and show her how adjectives can add to and enhance a story.

We ended the day with writing a letter to her blind pen pal and adding a little something for him to guess what it is. They've been keeping up pretty well with each other so hopefully the last few months of his preschool year will be full of more letters.

After writing her letter, she added up all her pennies that she earned throughout the week and turned them into a toy from the Dollar Tree. More money/Math. And she's loving every minute of it. What a blast!

Sixth Month. 2nd Week. Fourth Day.

Babe was back to counting money in Math today, except this time I threw in a nickel. She had no idea how to count by fives at the beginning of the day, but by the end of her Math lesson, she could count to 20 by fives. That's huge to me! Calvert only wanted her to recognize the nickel today, but to make the worksheet more challenging, I had her count the change and write in the answer. She did amazing. On the other side of the sheet, she had to sort nickels and pennies, so I had her go get her sensory tub that had play coins from Oriental Trading in them.

After Math, there was some time before Bubs and Z's work time was done, so I let Babe work with the bins a bit. She liked lacing the heart! Z absolutely loves shoving BBQ skewers in a cheese shaker. haha

After the designated work time, we discussed more of Abraham Lincoln. I asked Babe to tell me everything she could remember about him and the first thing she did was impersonate him.

"NO MORE SLAVES!"

haha. So I asked her more questions about the Civil War, which she answered correctly, and about how and why Lincoln died. She also answered those correctly, though keeps forgetting John Wilkes Booth's name. Not an issue.

Just like last week with George Washington, they made Abraham Lincoln in toilet paper roll form. They all loved this.

They turned out so so cute.

After our toilet paper roll Abe, I told the kids to grab all the markers they could and head to the kitchen for a major coloring project. They got really excited while I secretly measured a huge roll of white paper and cut it at (what I thought) was 6 feet, 4 inches.

I then drew a very large stick man on it, but drew the face to be Abraham Lincoln. I told Babe that this was really how tall Abraham Lincoln was, though she didn't quite get the full effect as it was laying on the ground. So I had them all tackle the coloring.

While I cleaned up the dining room, I overheard Babe say something to her sister.

"NO! Don't color his head red! Actually, it's OK because he was shot in the head anyway."

I couldn't believe it! I didn't know whether to be grossed out or proud. So yes, our Abraham Lincoln has a huge red mark on his forehead.

When they were all done coloring, I hung it up on the dining room wall and drew a mark at each of our heights to compare.

Later on in the day, Babe's dad questioned the measurement and sure enough, I was off about seven inches. Apparently the way I measured and cut the paper was wacky, so I cut about seven inches from the bottom and retook the shot of Babe.

"He looks the same. He's still tall!"

haha. She was right. Seven inches doesn't matter much when you're only about three feet tall.

After lunch, I introduced Babe to the idea of the 5 Ws in story telling. I had her think of an idea for a story and had her write out something for each W. She did this well, but when she went to actually write the story, she had trouble relaying the information that she already wrote. She wanted to add so much more to the story instead of keeping it basic. So I'm not sure if she's already past this skill that she wants to elaborate or if she's not quite understanding the fact of how to write a story using the 5 Ws.

With some help, she ended up finishing her story. I told her tomorrow we were going to make it a book and that she would be able to illustrate it. She got excited about that, so we ended Writing on a good note.

After Writing, she added "My First Biography: Abraham Lincoln" by Marion Dane Bauer to her reading log. She had trouble with a few of the words but it was expected. With the illustrations in this book it was easier for her to understand the fight between the North and the South, so that was a plus.

After Reading, she had another cat nap for a hopefully completely healthy day tomorrow.