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. 

Year 1: Week 29

We:

• Read The Velveteen Rabbit. (This illustrated hardcover version is the one we own.) Since we saw the play last week, I thought we should read it as our fairy tale this week. (The Velveteen Rabbit is included in Vigen Guroian's book Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination as a must-read.) It's such a powerful story, perhaps even more powerful for an adult reader than a child.
  
• Read some poems in Nature in Verse, Bible, practiced cursive, practiced piano, sang songs, read a fable
• Read 3 pages of A Comedy of Errors in Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare
  
• Completed 4 (!) chapters in Life of Fred: Mineshaft. I ordered the next two Fred books (Fractions and Decimals), as well as a book that looked fun - Making Friends With Multiplication - from Educents.
• Read a poem in Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography
• Read a chapter in The World by the Fireside about Walking Leaves (South America)
  
• Read On the Shores of the Great Sea about the end of Carthage and the triumph of Rome
• played outside. My husband built this...(Gemma was upset because he'd just told her it was time to leave.)
  
• More outside play
  
  
• drew a picture of a guinea pig
  
• Went to the California Heritage Museum's Art Quilt exhibit
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• went to CC. Their art project this week was about Roy Lichtenstein. Gemma was super excited to show me how she had learned to make block letters.
  
• Went to jiujitsu
  
• Went to dance