Year 1: Week 32

This week, we read:

• The Burgess Seashore Book (ch. 32 - about shrimp)
• The World By The Fireside ("A Narrow Escape" was about a group of men in the Amazon who roast a wild hog on a spit, and one man is almost attacked by a jaguar. Gemma's narration started out like this: "Well, what happened was that a jaguar smelled the roast beef, which is what I'm calling it..." We also read about diamond washing. This passage prompted a discussion about people in the past using the word "negroes," how we don't use that word today, and how negro means the color black in Spanish, and a question about what we are ("So, what are we? White?"). Um 😐 well... My answer began, "Sort of."
• Seed Babies ("Apple Seeds")
• Our Island Story (ch 3 - about the return of the Romans to Britain)
• The White Snake (fairytale)
• Poetry from Nature in Verse
• An Aesop's fable
• On the Shore of the Great Sea (spoiler: Pompey gets beheaded)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society #3 (bedtime reading)
• The Widow's Mite 
• About how Monet used complementary colors in his paintings

Because I was on Spring Break, I got to take Gemma to CC on Monday. At review time, Gemma's class played Jenga and Twister.

At lunch, Gemma and her friend played No Stress Chess.

In jiujitsu, Gemma earned another life skills stripe by writing about patience.

On Tuesday morning, when Gemma woke up and asked, "What are we doing today?" I answered, "Going to Kansas."

(My friend Amy had invited us to come visit.)

I also surprised Gemma with a backpack full of fun things to do on the plane. ✈️ 

...Logic Lift-Off, the next book in The Mysterious Benedict Society series, a Mindware Color By Number, a Mindware Extreme Dot to Dot, and a fairytale-themed Mad Libs book.

Here is Gemma boarding the plane for her first flight!!!

On Tuesday for brunch Gemma ate a baggie of goldfish crackers, and for dinner she ordered this...

Here she is eating a chocolate mousse sandwich.

On Wednesday morning, Gemma went out to explore Amy's big backyard, and found a deer antler. (Granted Amy's dog had found it first, but Gemma didn't know that.)

We also saw deer hoof prints in the mud. Nature Study ✔️

At the Emporia Arts Council, Gemma found a piano to play.

Here she is posing with Emporia State University's mascot, Corky the Hornet.

She played at Peter Pan Park.

Before our flight home, we squeezed in a couple of hours at Kansas City's Crown Center. Gemma enjoyed playing in Funville, a free exhibit where children can pretend to be doctors, firefighters, chefs, etc.

We had dinner at Pork & Pickle. Gemma had a plate of french fries and two bites of a cheeseburger slider. The fries were mediocre, but the barbecue pulled pork sliders topped with bread and butter pickles and slaw were delicious.

When we got home from Kansas, we stayed packed and drove up to spend Easter with family.

There were Canadian geese visiting Grandma and Poppa's house.

On Easter, Gemma drew this during church...

My exceptionally talented cousin Aris played Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate on violin during the service. Composer Study ✔️

We spent the afternoon at my dad's house.

Happy Easter!

Guess What We Saw On The Big Screen?

Palm Sunday

Year 1: Week 31

We have 9 "real" weeks to complete 6 school weeks (Weeks 31-36).

This week, we read:

• The Good Samaritan
• 3 pages of A Comedy of Errors from Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare
• "Harvest Thanksgiving" from Mason's Elementary Geography
• Poetry from Nature in Verse
• "More About Nuts" (hazelnuts & Brazil nuts) from Seed Babies
• "Reddy Learns About Some Seaweeds" from The Burgess Seashore Book
• "The Eel That Gives a Shock" from The World by the Fireside
• "Rome Was Not Built in a Day" from A Child's History of Art
• "Julius Caesar" from On the Shores of the Great Sea 
• "The Coming of the Romans" from Our Island Story
• "Jorinda and Joringel" (fairy tale) - Gemma read this herself and narrated to me when I got home from work
• "The Three Little Men in the Woods" (fairy tale) - again, Gemma read this independently, and narrated to me when I got home 
• "The Lark and her Young Ones" (fable) - I chose this fable because I wanted Gemma to hear a story about how Person A shouldn't ask Person B to do something Person A can do themselves. That's not the moral that is written at the end of this fable, but it's one of the story's lessons. The moral of "The Lark" that is written is that when a person decides to do something for himself, he's going to get the job done.

We've also been enjoying reading this month's Nature Friend magazine, rereading stories in Brambly Hedge, playing lots of No Stress. Gemma is also loving her Snap Rover.

Year 1: Creative Writing

No Stress Chess

Last week, I ordered No Stress Chess from Educents. It arrived yesterday evening. Today, we played NINE games!!! Gemma won 4, I won 5, and we're both looking forward to more. 🤓

Nature Journal

Year 1: Week 30

We spent the first four days of this week sick. The first two days, Gemma was in bed. The second two days, it was my turn.

Gemma's big sister is the musical director for a children's theater company, so, one evening this week, our family went to see a musical version of James and the Giant Peach. 🍑
Yes, Gemma did wear pajamas to the show.

Our reading this week included poetry from Nature in Verse, three pages of Lamb's A Comedy of Errors, The Valiant Little Tailor (fairy tale), The Cat and the Fox (fable), Jesus at the Sea of Tiberias, history readings set in ancient Rome, natural history readings from Seed Babies and the Burgess Seashore Book, and geography readings set in South America.

Gemma completed more Life of Fred: Mineshaft, as well as some division riddles.

She played piano, sang, listened to Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A, re-viewed Monet's The Luncheon, played in the forest, went to CC and jiujitsu, practiced some Spanish and French, and went dance.

She also did lots of painting.