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!