8 Thoughts on Thursday

1. Last week, I let my daughter watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (with Gene Wilder - perfection). My daughter was completely engaged, asking why certain characters were doing what they were doing. She was especially interested in Veruca Salt being a bad egg, and since then has been talking about bad eggs and "the girl in the movie" in connection with real-life scenarios and PBS Kids TV shows. So, I ordered a hard-cover copy of the book, and we started reading it two days ago.
2. Yesterday morning, I read the beginning of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory about Charlie Bucket. (We'd read the first two pages the night before, and these just introduce the characters). Roald Dahl was such an amazing writer. I almost started crying reading this part because it describes how hungry Charlie is, and how his parents give up their lunches so that Charlie can have more food.
3. Yesterday in my 4th grade class, I read the part in Robinson Crusoe about the earthquake and hurricane. "All this while I had not the least serious religious thought; nothing but the common, 'Lord have mercy upon me!' and when it was over that went away too." This is one of my - many - favorite passages in the book. Robinson admits to not being thankful for having been kept safe after the storm. It's a reflex to cry out for help in dangerous situations, but giving thanks requires effort. After reading Robinson Crusoe the first time over a year ago, I remember thinking, I need to pray thank you that my child was kept safe all day today, and not just please keep her safe. And I've made that part of our bedtime prayers ever since.
4. We finished A Bear Called Paddington last week, and are looking forward to this weekend's release of the movie!
5. My daughter is in the middle of Lesson 93 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We split the lessons in half. I don't know if I've ever posted that. We do the first reading on Day 1, and the second reading on Day 2 along with the comprehension questions and the Picture Comprehension.
6. She only has 19 pages to go in her kindergarten math book! Then we'll be moving on to Mathematical Reasoning Level B. I'm continually amazed by the concepts she picks up. She loved learning about symmetry, and one day over my winter vacation, she opened a book and ran her finger down the middle and said, "Look Mom, the line of symmetry, because this side is the same size as this side." 
7. She is also really into a few of the presidents because of a Rock 'n' Learn DVD we have about money. (She also learned to skip count by 5s and 10s from the video, so I give it a thumbs up.) While she was playing the other day, I heard her say "John F. Kennedy." No clue why. But, her favorite president right now is, of course, George Washington. Another movie we have watched together was Mr. Peabody and Sherman. (The educational value of this movie is questionable.) In the movie, Sherman tells his class at school that George Washington did not cut down a cherry tree (he knows this from first-hand experience). But when GW comes up in conversation, my daughter reminds me that he did not cut down a cherry tree. She's also told me - in song and dance - that he crossed the Delaware River, because evidently there is a Peg + Cat episode guest-starring GW. Did you know GW did not have any biological children with Martha? Fun fact.
8. I decided I wanted to have some structure to our foreign language learning. So we started this month with a focus on numbers in Spanish. Next month we will learn the ABCs. (This video is slow and clear. Once she learns how to pronounce the letters, we can learn a song.)