4.1.4.

Yep, I am loving how things are going. Fourth month in and I finally found a comfortable pace for Babe and I. Love it.

Today in Math, we again practiced number stories with the cute little pictures that Calvert provides. We practiced with teddy bears at tea and apples on a tree. She is really starting to get the hang of it, but I have three-ish more days of review on it. I'm slowing up the pace so as not to frustrate her, which has been working really well lately. When we were done with the pictures, I brought out the dog manipulatives and started with small numbers, for for the last one I did a really big number (13+13=36). She had fun with that, and we ended Math on a high note.

After Math I gathered everyone on the couch and brought out the world map. I tried to get Bubs to point out the country that matched the country I was holding in my hand, but she wasn't really getting it. So I had Babe point out Africa. Then I read them "My First Kwanzaa Book" by Deborah Chocolate. When I got to the page with a picture of Africa on it, Bubs ran over to the map in front of me and pointed it out. Very cool.

At the end of the book, I asked Babe to recall what colors were on the African flag.

"Red, black and green."

"Do you remember the colors we dyed the noodles yesterday?"

"Red, black and green!"

Haha. She made the connection quick but still wasn't sure what we were doing with the noodles, so I had everyone sit at the table. I told them we were going to make Kwanzaa necklackes and they shrieked. With delight. So I set up a piece of yarn with some tape for a makeshift needle and I asked Babe to make her necklaces with an ABC pattern with the colors. Everyone with the exception of Z sat there for a full hour making jewelry. They weren't done when they finished their necklaces. They wanted to make bracelets, anklets, and Babe even asked if she could make another necklace and bracelet for her cousin! They made jewelry until all the noodles were gone!

What a fun morning!

After lunch, I brought out the book "Aaron and Gayla's Alphabet Book" again and had Babe explain to me how this book was organized. She didn't even think and told me in her own words that it was in alphabetical order. I read the book again and asked her to remember what Aaron and Gayla were doing on particular letter pages. Then I asked her what her favorite page was.

She did a corresponding worksheet and I left the room for a few minutes. When I came back, I found her coloring the letters of the alphabet.

"Look! I'm coloring the letters with a color of something I think about that starts with that letter!"

WHAT THE!?!?!?!?!

How does she do that!? How does she think like that!?

So she did. She finished the whole alphabet, coloring each letter a specific color.

Amazing.

We played the game the went along with the worksheet, where I hid a letter and had her guess which one was missing. She did a few but had to sing the alphabet each time. She wanted to try it with me. Obviously I said the answer a lot quicker than she did, so after a few more times (and a lot of convincing that I wasn't peeking), she wanted to try again. And guess what!? She was quicker with her responses! She didn't sing the alphabet at all during her second round. Pretty cool how that all works.

The last thing of the day was adding a book to her reading log. She breezed through it ("Winter is Here!" by Kimbery Weinberger), and after her Checkpoints were completed, the day was done.

Thursday. Complete!

4.1.3.

Today we jumped back into the Lesson Manual since we are all caught up and reviewed. We are currently on Lesson 66 and trucking along. We will not start Lesson 72 until January, since that is when the new discussions begin on community helpers. So the next couple weeks will be a time for crafts, cooking, etc. on the holidays of December. Woohoo!

In Math today I finally remembered to bring a weather thermometer, so Babe had fun with that. I dunked it in ice after asking her which way the red line was going to go down. Again, she has a really good handle on thermometers so this was more or less for her to see the actual thermometer in action.

After the ice dropped the temperature down to 40, I replaced the ice with some hot water. I asked Babe which way the line was going to go, and when she said up, I dunked it in the water. The line shot up to 100 and even Bubs saw how fast it raised! I was shocked!

So with the visual in mind, I got out her ongoing seasons project and asked her to put the seasons in order, then draw a thermometer for Summer. She knew that was going to be the tallest red line, so I asked her what season had the shortest red line. When she drew one on Winter, I asked her to do one for Spring and Fall. She even got out her ruler to make sure Spring was taller than Fall. How cool is that!?

After a brief introduction to Chapter 7 in Math, where we told some basic number stories, we moved on to Reading Comprehension with one of my favorite stories, "Stone Soup."

I prepared an interactive activity by getting some of their play food out and handing each kid a piece of food that was in the story. I read the story outloud and as I read each ingredient to the soup, Bubs, Z, or Babe came running to the pot to put their particular ingredient in. They had a lot of fun with that. I also had a craft prepared for after I read that they all had fun with too!

I led them outside and had them each pick a stone. When they glued that to their pot, I had Babe recall which ingredients were added to the soup, in order. As she did so, I handed out the ingredients.

When they were finished gluing the ingredients, I gave them each some flour, salt, pepper, and bay leaves to add to their soup. They loved shaking and sprinkling!

When the final pot was shaken of unglued ingredients, VOILA! Stone Soup!

After lunch (no, we did not eat Stone Soup), I brought out the story again and highlighted the sentences that featured each ingredient. I had Babe read those sentences, then point out the verbs, adjectives, and nouns of each one. I had her tell me the verbs, then write and circle the adjectives, and write and underline the nouns. She did amazingly well at this!

Our last item on the agenda was briefly introducing the three holidays in December. I told her about the miracle of Hanakkuh.

"You mean a miracle like when the Pilgrims came over to America to talk about God and it was a miracle because they got here after being on that boat for so long?"

Why yes, yes I do mean a miracle like that.

Wow.

So after discussing Hanakkuh a bit, I went into Kwanzaa, which I admitted to Babe was a little confusing for me to understand. But I ran over the ideals and celebrations they do, had her point out Africa on her map, and told her we would learn more about Kwanzaa tomorrow. She got excited because she saw the preparations being made all day today.

Ten points if you can guess of what we are making tomorrow!