Books We Are Using This Year
  • The Story of the World: Ancient Times (Vol. 1)
    The Story of the World: Ancient Times (Vol. 1)
    by Jeff West,S. Wise Bauer,Jeff (ILT) West, Susan Wise Bauer
  • Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2
    Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2
    by Bernard J Nebel PhD
  • Math-U-See Epsilon Student Kit (Complete Kit)
    Math-U-See Epsilon Student Kit (Complete Kit)
    by Steven P. Demme
  • First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 4 Instructor Guide (First Language Lessons) By Jessie Wise, Sara Buffington
    First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 4 Instructor Guide (First Language Lessons) By Jessie Wise, Sara Buffington
    by -Author-
  • SPELLING WORKOUT LEVEL E PUPIL EDITION
    SPELLING WORKOUT LEVEL E PUPIL EDITION
    by MODERN CURRICULUM PRESS
  • Drawing With Children: A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too
    Drawing With Children: A Creative Method for Adult Beginners, Too
    by Mona Brookes
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Friday
Feb042011

Happy Chinese New Year

Today we made fortune cookies

Yesterday it was paper lanterns

All week we counted down with Chinese characters

We've actually been talking about China for nearly two weeks now. Calvin is infatuated with the Great Wall. Earlier in the week we watched a handful of National Geographic short videos on this wonder of the world.

The Yangtze was another source of interest, especially the Three Gorges Dam. We tapped into an Eyewitness book on China to get a little more information on these, and watched the mountains section of BBC's Planet Earth for more on the Himalayas. Per Calvin, this picture is: "The Himalayas and foothills and the Yangtze River and buildings that are flooded by the Yangtze River because of the Dam. And Ping sitting in the reeds and a truck loading a shark to eat for Chinese dinners."

Pandas also took a good portion of our time. We got a National Geographic video about Pandas  from the library (which he watched 3 times) and we have a Nature Conservancy book about pandas. He doesn't draw pandas right now, though, as he says "they are too black and white."

Saturday
Jan292011

Winnie the Pooh

It's not so much the stories that I enjoy, and really the critters are quite annoying in their various caricatures, but there is something endearing about this enduring "classic" that has kept it in our lives. Or maybe it was the collection of stuffed Eeyores that survived my college days only to be heavily loved by a beautiful little boy. Yesterday I took him to a Wild Swan stage play of these perennial stories and characters. He was delighted. Rapt throughout the whole show (didn't even notice the little girl behind us, bawling and desperate to get away from the scary things on the stage, poor thing). At the end we met the characters outside. Calvin told Eeyore that he really liked the show, then asked him (her, really) what the tree (a large and enjoyable set piece) had been made of. To her answer of "wood" he then politely replied "yes, but what kind?" She had the grace to reply that he had stumped her, but she could tell him that it was supposed to be an Oak tree.

Thursday
Jan272011

The Two Cars, add on

I realized that in my Two Cars post failed to include pictures of our finished road and of Calvin's journal entry from the auto show. This concerned him so I'm playing a little catch-up here.

Behold, the magic of cardboard and poster paint with a little Playmobil and Lego fun mixed in.

And the auto show in Calvin's own words:

"We went to the auto show in Detroit. We saw a hybrid. We saw an engine, and we saw many pistons. We rode the people mover."

Monday
Jan242011

The Two Cars and a hunt for more

Calvin has an inquisitive mind and, like most kids, an innate and insatiable hunger for knowledge. That's why, when we took him to the North American International Auto Show last year, I was sure he'd be awed, intrigued, rapt. I failed to realize, though, that the completely unknown is not automatically interesting, that our interest has to be piqued, that being surrounded by so many saturating stimulants—the people, the lighting, the colors, the sounds—can make concentration near impossible and can push our senses to a point of exhaustion, and that can make one very crabby. Calvin wasn't really crabby last year, and the trip wasn't a colossal failure, but he certainly wasn't rapt. So this year I prepared ahead. Since we'd rowed our first FIAR book the week before I decided to use that method as a template and found a great book about cars.

The story in The Two Cars, by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire, is the tortoise and the hare, only with two cars, and the art is typical d'Aulaire wonderful. We spent a week reading and talking about the book, exploring the art and the writing, and also exploring cars. The personified cars in the story conversationally mention the crankshaft, the pistons, the springs, and their white walled tires. Calvin loved it. We drew cars, we made a road and drove mini cars, we counted by tens on a speedometer, we checked out an Eye Witness book about cars from our library and drew our own diagrams of their inner workings. I think the best part, though, the project that worked the most magic come auto show time in Detroit, was the scavenger hunt we spent a day together creating and putting into booklet form for use on the day of the show. Calvin was determined to look for oddities like pink or orange cars, motor specifics like an in-line, a V, and a flat crankshaft engine, and book specifics like those white walled tires. Amazingly the only thing we weren't able to find was a pink car.

Lapbooking our way (less busy work, more collection of projects)

Diagrams, art, vocabulary, learning tools, all in one folder:

Inside the Auto show booklet, which we assembled using a sheet of cardboard for a cover and braiding floss for the binding (and to which we attached a pencil for use at the show). We had a sheet of things to see, oddities to find, activities to do, and, at Calvin's insistence, blank space for drawing logos and other interesting things.

He made all his finds except for the pink car (bummer!) and he drew several logos. Recognize Toyota, Tesla, and Corvette on this page?

Ferrari, Maybach, Mercedes, Cadillac, Mazda, and Audi, and a picture of an electric car plugged in, too. He had no qualms about sitting down and sketching the logos when he liked them.

Inside and outside diagrams and a speedometer for counting by tens, plus a list of new words and the prized ticket from the Auto Show itself.

Calvin's own imaginative view of a motor (which he asked me to label the way I'd had him label my print outs, and I needed quite a bit of help with this one!)

Trying his hand at blending with colored pencils.

And we built a road for acting out the story, practicing with cardinal directions, and just plain having fun.

Thursday
Jan202011

Math anyone?

Why yes, we think we will. A bit of Hi Ho Cherry-O, a few other board games, some Go Fish on the side, a bit of Chess, playing with money (and Monopoly), trying our hand at a 100s chart, a rare game on the iPad, and, of course, learning piano. Is there anything better for math than rhythm?