Year 1: Week 5

Week 5 was spread out over two weeks because of Vacation Bible School and traveling.

We rocked handicrafts this week. Gemma made an origami lion and an origami fish, and a coil pot.

At church, we helped paint decorations for Vacation Bible School.

Our Robert Louis Stevenson poetry this week included System, A Good Boy, Escape at Bedtime, The Wind, and Marching Song. Gemma finished learning Good and Bad Children. Our fairy tale this week was Hansel & Gretel. 

Gemma's handwriting has improved a lot over the last month and a half. Here is a comparison of her handwriting 6 weeks ago to her handwriting now:

At big sister Krystyna's graduation from UC Irvine, Gemma cheered as loud as she could!!!

In math, Gemma did Life of Fred: Kidneys chapter 6.

We met up with friends to do science experiments at the park...

Gemma signed up for the summer reading program at the library, checked out 8 chapter books (all mysteries), read them all, and collected her first prize - a little Lego vehicle and driver.

VBS was superhero-themed...

One day of VBS, there was a Mad Science show involving dry ice...

Another day, during the lesson (which the big kids got to act out), Gemma read the part of worried Mary looking for Jesus in the temple.

For natural history, we read James Herriot's "Blossom Comes Home," and The Burgess Seashore Book's chapter about hermit crabs.

One afternoon, I found her observing a dead bee. She helped herself to my tweezers.

Note how all six legs are attached to the bee's thorax.

We went to swim lessons.

Gemma made a rug for her dollhouse. She didn't ask for any help, and I had no idea what she was quietly working on. I should know by now that when my child is too quiet, it means she's got a pair of scissors. I was so impressed by her industriousness.

We're continuing to work on Psalm 150, and The Parable of the Good Samaritan. In piano, Gemma has been working on "The Planets," and in foreign languages, she had a 7 day Duolingo streak!

Our Beethoven selection this week was "Ode an die Freude" (Ode to Joy) from

Symphony No. 9.

In history, we read two chapters about the Phoenicians. Gemma's narration for On the Shores of the Great Sea chapter 11 was, "There were no gods in the Atlantic Ocean." The Charlotte Mason police will be after me, but oh well: I asked her to explain. She responded, "The Phoenicians thought that if they sailed beyond the little space [the Strait of Gibraltar] they would be where Heaven and Earth meet, where the gods lived, but it was really the Atlantic Ocean."

We went to visit family in Central California, VBS #2, ...

...a trampoline park called Quantum Leap!...

...and a community theatre production of Bye Bye Birdie with family. Gemma was excited to spend time with cousin Aris.

Yes, there were things we didn't do this "week," but there were sooo many things we did do.