Five. Four. Three.

Before we start, look at Bubs being all pro in spelling her name out with her letter cards! Without her name card, too!

Today was a very weird day time-wise, so Math was a little rushed, but we still got everything in. Babe already knows how to count by 10s all the way up to 100, so a lot of it was review. Tomorrow we will work on the spelling of each ten.

In Reading Comp., we reviewed yesterday's book and Babe did her worksheet.

After lunch, I got out Babe's season posters and had her put them in order. She did.

I then had her write two adjectives for each season. She did.

Next, we continued our discussion on Martin Luther King, Jr. I had her remind me who he was, what he did in 1963, and what his famous saying was. She answered everything correctly. I asked her what some of his dreams were.

"He had a dream that we would all be friends, no matter what color our skin was."

Perfect.

Then we had craft time where I had Babe and Bubs trace their hands on two different colored paper. I cut out Bubs' hands, then had her glue them together as if they were holding hands. Babe did the same. Now they had a model of one of MLK's dreams!

Babe then did her Checkpoints, and we were done with Calvert for the day. There were still two more activities I had planned though, so I will go into those.

Today, Babe received her letter from the blind boy she is now a pen pal with. Last week, through the wonders of YouTube, Babe was able to watch the boy figure out what she sent him (a fork, remember?). It was a really cool experience. So my sister had her blind student write a letter back to Babe. It was obviously written in Braille. At the end of the letter, the boy typed the Braille alphabet, along with a sentence that my sister left un-translated. It was up to Babe to translated the sentence. And she did! Tomorrow we will write him back if time allows!

When she was all done translating, I got out a homemade game I wanted to play during our dentist discussion last week but lost the time. Both girls loved this game. It is a counting game, and Bubs did very well at it! The point of the game was to fill their "mouth" with "teeth" first.

Then of course after a few rounds, we enjoyed the treat of the "teeth."

And with that, the day was really done! First half of the week behind us!

Five. Four. Two.

***There are no photos in this post. Weird! I know! I didn't even take the camera out today.***

In Math today, Babe worked on estimation and did a pretty good job. She did her worksheets great and I did a little exercise with her using the connecting cubes and she did alright! I then had her spell numbers 21-25 and she did those perfectly too! This week we finally finish going over numbers and hopefully she will be able to correctly spell every number from 0-100.

In Reading Comprehension, Babe added "What Will the Weather Be Like Today?" by Paul Rogers to her reading log. It was fun pointing out the different community helpers throughout the pages (totally coincidental) and having Babe look for all the different animals in the different environments. Very cute.

Morning work went quickly, though we spent about an hour on Math! But Math and Reading Comp. were all she had, so we spent the rest of the morning outside where the kids made dirt pies, climbed trees, and rode scooters. It was a beautiful day today!

After lunch, I sat Babe on the couch and asked her if she remembered who Martin Luther King, Jr. was. It was the beginning of today's discussion on him. She remembered exactly what I told her. I then grabbed the iPad, brought YouTube up, and showed her his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. It was kind of an eerie moment. I mean, clearly we are in the age of technology, but really, sitting on the couch with my five-year-old niece as we watch a speech from 1963 on a hand-held screen. It weirded me out. Anyway, Babe recognized him at once.

The speech is 17 minutes long, so I skipped to the last five minutes, where King repeats "I have a dream." I asked Babe to listen carefully and tell me what he keeps repeating.

She did a very good impression. When she said "I have a dream" I told her it was very important for her to remember that. That Martin Luther King is very well-known because of those words.

I asked her again to listen carefully and to tell me what one of his dreams is.

"He dreams that all the peach boys and all the peach girls will hold hands and play and be friends with the brown boys and the brown girls."

Perfect! So cute!

It was imperative for her to know this for the remaining discussions (and crafts!) of the week.

And with that, it was time to do a little more prep-work for Babe's birthday party, then head to dance. And Tuesday is complete!

Five. Four. One.

January is winding down. No more community helpers, though we are reviewing what we can. This week will focus on more in-depth discussions on Martin Luther King, Jr. The rest of the week is pretty light to get Babe's mind ready for new material in February.

But today in Math, Babe spelled "twenty" correctly on her first try.

In Reading Comprehension, Babe and I took turns reading "Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months". I started with January, then Babe read February, I read March, and so on. She answered the questions with ease. Today's lesson focused on the difference between real and fantasy. Babe knows that fish can't really cook and bird's don't use their nests as soup bowls...haha. So yes, today's Reading Comp. lesson was a breeze.

Next, I showed Babe a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. and asked her if she remembered who he was. She said George Washington, but when I asked her what this man did, she replied as if she answered MLK.

"In 1963 he told people that we should all love each other and it doesn't matter what color we are."

I told her she was exactly right! But that his name was not George Washington, but Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Oh I knew that!"

haha

So with that, Babe was re-introduced to Martin Luther King, Jr. and she was primed for more discussion starting tomorrow.

All three kids participated in the MLK color-by-number sheet I printed.

After all of our MLK's were colored in, we went outside for playtime, but I had Babe do her quick writing lesson while out. I had her write three sentences. The first one was going to be about the sky, using one adjective. The second sentence was about the grass using two adjectives, and the last sentence was about the weather using three adjectives.

"The sky is blue. The grass is brown and green. The weather is windy, bright, and hot."

Typical Florida.

But with that, school was done for the day. After lunch, she did her Checkpoint and played a Math game, then we prepared some things for her 6th birthday party. And then it was off to dance!

Monday - CHECK!

Five. Three. One.

Well here we are! Into the second half of Kindergarten. Everyone in the country had the day off from school but Babe did her lessons just fine. We started with Math, as usual, and it was something other than addition and subtraction, so I think she welcomed the change. I first had her sound out the words "eleven" and "twelve" and write them down. She wrote "eleving" and "twelve". So cute. I corrected her, then had her write them correctly. Then I asked her to make a set of 11 connecting cubes and a set of 12 connecting cubes. She did so, very easily. I then introduced to her the idea of creating a set of ten in each existing set, then seeing how many ones were left. With basic addition, she figured out that the ten plus one is 11, and the ten plus two is twelve. Brilliant. She did her worksheets and Math was done.

While Babe was doing Math, Bubs and Z were doing their new-for-the-week name recognition activity. They both caught on super quick and did great!

After Math, Babe did her Reading Comprehension where I read to her a Russian folktale called "Peace and Quiet." I thought it would be a little confusing for her to understand the concept, but she actually understood quite well what was happening. I was impressed. After reading the story, she did her worksheet. Then I asked her to draw, in order, the animals that came into the house, which she did...flawlessly.

With that, Reading Comp. was done and it was time to discuss news reporters, our next community helper. I turned the TV on to the 24-hour news station and asked her if she could point out the news reporter. She was a little confused about the difference between news reporter and newscaster, but what five-year-old wouldn't be? I read her a book about a day in the life of a news reporter and she really enjoyed it. She really liked how it had "real pictures" in it, as opposed to illustrations. After reading that book, she understood the difference and that news reporters go to the news!

Our craft for the day was microphones and these were so cheesy but all three kids LOOOOOOVED them. It was so cute watching them role play with them! Simple craft made from paper towel rolls and a ball of aluminum foil!

After lunch, I had Babe do some more Math worksheets so she didn't have to do so many for homework when I left (I had her do two lessons today in Math). Then I sat her on the couch and we briefly discussed why today was called Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I was debating with myself how I would go about introducing the idea of prejudice and MLK to Babe, and at first I wasn't going to do this lesson at all with her. But I decided to just do it and see how she handled it.

The reason I was fighting with myself is because, while I know that Babe sees different color skin, she doesn't see it as a "difference", if that makes sense. So I felt like if I told her that extreme prejudice has existed and still exists today, she'd maybe take it the wrong way or go to one of her friends in her dance class who has "brown skin" as she calls it, and say something that could be taken out of context.

In my head I just kept rewinding that scene in the movie "Corrina, Corrina" where the little girl's dad (I think) was using the N-word in everyday conversation, and the little girl went to her black friend and called her that word, not thinking anything of it. Then of course the black girl gets angry and says she's not her friend anymore.

I could totally see something like that happening here, but I just pressed forward and briefly told her the idea of segregation and how Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man who told a lot of people that it wasn't right. Then I had her read "Martin's Dream" by Jane Kurtz. She read this very well.

Calvert covers more of him and his ideology so next week we will do a couple days about the subject.

After she added it to her reading log, it was time to get ready for dance.

First day of the second half of Kindergarten...DONE!