Week in Review: Ballet Recital

Gemma had her hands-on math play date with friend D. They made pentagrams. Because they're in Pythagoras' secret society.

The Venus flytrap is eating the octopus plant. (Carnivorous plant humor.)

Gemma and I had the privilege of being invited to a student's first communion party. She's an absolute pleasure to have in class, so I had to accept. Her mother made all of the decorations. Having planned a few parties, and knowing how much effort one has to put in, I had a great appreciation for all the work she did.

Gemma expressed an interest in learning to write in cursive. Because it has always been my intention to teach her cursive first, I had a Kumon cursive workbook on hand. The lessons are short, and the book emphasizes quality over quantity, both of which make it CM-friendly. (As far as workbooks go, I really like the Kumon ones; we've used a variety of Kumon books, and I've been happy with all of them.)

I started reading aloud The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to Gemma. She loves it. We're on chapter 8. Gemma is very interested in trying Turkish Delight, which is - I think - an acquired taste. We went to the British shop to see if they had some, but they were all out. The shopkeeper said to try back Thursday.

Narnia Note: The boxed set has the books numbered like this:

1. The Magician’s Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

That order follows the internal chronology, but we are going to read them in the order C.S. Lewis wrote them. This is the "correct" order ;) in which to read the Narnia books:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician’s Nephew
7. The Last Battle

You must discover Narnia with Lucy. You can't know about it beforehand. You just can't.

From thewardrobedoor.com: "But I do believe there is a sense of awe that is missing if your journey does not start with Lucy stepping in the wardrobe, past the fur coats, through the rough tree branches and out into the magical world that is always winter and never Christmas, waiting for the Lion, who is good, but not safe, to come and sacrificially redeem a life and restore things as they should be." I can't explain it better than that.

In Life of Fred, Gemma just learned to "carry," also known as adding with regrouping. Because of that, I would say that Fred books Apples through Cats are kinder to first grade, and Dogs is beginning of 2nd grade. We just started Edgewood.

We have way to many books going all at once, but I think this answers the question of Doesn't a child get confused reading so many books at one time? No. Different writers have different styles. The stories are set in different times, and different places. The characters have different personalities.

Gemma had her ballet recital. I snapped a few pictures during the dress rehearsal...

And here is a sweet moment I managed to capture of my husband and daughter after the show...