Week In Review: El Niño

1.My four year old cried when I threw away her 2015 calendar, so I told her she could choose a new one. She chose a "Where's Waldo" calendar (and she wore her Christmas dress again - it was, after all, The Tenth Day of Christmas).

2. I was off work, so I got to go to Classical Conversations this week. They started a visual art unit, and made tempera paint with chalk and egg yolk.

3.At home, we made this pop-up book to answer the CC science question for this week. It's going to be her presentation for next week.

4.She worked some more on adding two 2-digit numbers without regrouping. When she solves problems, she thinks out loud (which I love), saying things like, "I know that 7 plus 1 is 8, so 7 plus 2 must be 9," and "I know that 4 plus 4 is 8, so 4 plus 5 must be 9."

One night while we were going over skip counting 11s, she realized there was a pattern. So I taught her how to multiply by 11s, which she thought was neat-o.

Another night, we were reading My Bookhouse. We read "The Elves and the Shoemaker." (He lived a good, pure life; so his heart was light amidst all his troubles, and he went peacefully to bed, trusting that he could finish the shoes the next day and sell them. Leaving all his cares to heaven, he fell asleep.) The first night, it's one pair of shoes. The second night, it's two pairs. The third night, it's four. I asked my daughter how many shoes were in one pair, how many were in two pairs, etc. She was very excited to have figured that out too. After the story, I got out my multiplication Wrap-Up and she was able to do the 2s.

5.A Formidable List of Attainments includes #15: to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.

Once upon a time, Annabelle Bunny stretched out on the floor beside her busy child...

6.This month's home(pre)school co-op is pro-social skills (sharing, helping, cooperation, etc.) (CMers might recognize this as Habit Training.) Our lesson on Tuesday was about recognizing people's emotions. They made food faces for snack, listened to a story in which a character experienced different emotions, drew faces to illustrate various emotions, and each made a paper flower to give to a friend who was feeling sad.

7.After, she went puddle jumping with friend S (puddle jumping just out of frame).

8.We bought next year's Christmas dress on clearance for $21. (Despite her facial expression, she does like the dress.)

9.It rained all day, so we made snow globes. Prior to Christmas, the store Marbles was giving away Mindware snow globe kits to customers who spent a certain dollar amount, and a man who spent the requisite amount asked me if he could give my daughter the kit. It was so generous. On this rainy day, we pulled out the kit, and made a cupcake and a goldfish from clay. This was definitely a mother-daughter activity; my daughter kneaded and formed basic shapes, and pressed pieces to other pieces. Then we baked them - covered with foil - at 260 degrees for an hour, and let them cool in the oven. They turned out very cute, if I do say so.

10.We looked at some of Giotto's paintings. Her favorite was one of his Annunciation paintings. I drew a coloring page with Sharpie on watercolor paper, and Daughter painted. She asked such good questions, like "Why does Mary have a halo?" and "Why does she have a Bible on her lap?" We talked about the painting in terms of what Giotto was trying to show (example: Mary was pure and obeyed God).

11.She wore her Christmas dress to Manhattan Beach, where Mommy met friends from graduate school for lunch. (We all met 10 years ago!)

12.She asked her teacher if she could wear her Christmas dress in ballet. The answer was yes. 

13.One morning, she assembled our Wonderfoam Giant USA photo puzzle map by herself. If you're looking for a USA puzzle, this one is very cool. It has photos of what each state is known for. For example, California has the Golden Gate Bridge and a gold nugget.

14.We went to a fan book making class at the public library. (Our public library system is amazing.) I was so impressed with how she paid attention to the instructor and took care folding and gluing. 

She made her book for Friend G.

I made mine for her.

Then we celebrated the library's 125th birthday with cupcakes!