Exam day 2! Friday February 12, AO year 1, term 1, day 2

Things I learned this time:

• Our Island Saints is also hard for Fina to connect with. I knew this as we went along. Although, when she heard the repeat of the Story of St Alban in week 12 from Our Island Story, she did remember hearing it way back in week 1 in Our Island Saints. So something did stick.  She chose to narrate St Molios, (I'm assuming because it was our most recent saint) and that was hard upon first listening. She gave a very rambly narration that had not that much to do with the story.
• she wasn't very keen on telling me about her favourite character from the free reads. No narration, no exam?
• she had a hard time remembering The Tempest. Of course, with A Midsummer Night's Dream, we've re-looked at it at co-op and she has memorized many passages from it and we have discussed it so much more.
• it was hard for her to remember any of the Aesop Fables. She narrated them well at the time, but she might not be getting the moral of the fable.
• I knew all along that she wasn't really connecting with the Burgess Bird Book. She have a narration of Dear Me, the last bird we looked at, and she did know something. But not to give detailed narrations like for other items.
• UPDATED TO ADD: Never, ever use Evernote again. This is not a glowing endorsement. I lost more than half of today's recorded narrations. Not good at all.

It is interesting to see where her strengths lie. Some of Fina's narrations are just wonderful! She can be so descriptive and so animated at times. At other times, she has a hard time.

During today's exam, she was far less focused, attentive, or co-operative than the first day. It took us two hours to cover less ground. I guess I need to spread the exam out in shorter chunks and on more consecutive days.

Fina didn't want to do the last two questions of the exam: handicraft and yoga. I can watch her do her yoga any time and I just watched her start a new length of finger knitting a few days ago, so I let it go.

Evernote disappointed me today as well. First, I hit a snag when my note itself was too large. So I had to create a second note to continue the work. Then, at the end of our exam, I got a notice saying I was hitting my limit and would have to wait another month for any more uploads. Seriously? I know Fina is verbose, but I did not expect this. I will have to rethink this for next time. Maybe little audio files that I later transcribe is the way to go. Now I have two files with audio clips and photos in each one. What is the point of that?

I guess for the final version, will just keep the transcriptions in a pages document. And the photos will stay on the blog and in our photo library. And I won't bother keeping the audio clips. So much for workflow.

Here are the questions and answers we did today. Again, not in their correct order.

Oh my. I just noticed that a bunch of our audio recordings got deleted (actually half of them) because I had exceeded my limit for the month. Thank you Evernote for not warning me, but for letting me continue to record audio clips and then just not have them appear in my note. This is unfortunate! I'm surprised I got as many as I did, actually. By some miracle some things stayed in my notes.

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We started with a prayer. Next time I will pray over the technology as well!

This is how she narrated part of her day.

Tell about Gideon and his three hundred.

I lost this recording to a lack of space in Evernote which was unreported to me. It wasn't the best narration, but there was something about God reducing the number of soldiers by those who drank water like dogs and those who drank water with their hands. Then Gideon told them to go around the city with candles in jars and trumpets and to do what he did.
I am not about to ask Fina to re-narrate, so my memory will have to do. Gah!

Tell a fairy tale you remember from this term from The Blue Fairy Book.

Fina gave me a lovely and lengthy narration (I believe it was over 6 minutes long) of "Toads and Diamonds." It has also been lost. Double gah!

Tell me about one of your favourite Aesop Fables (and the moral).

Unfortunately, this was one of her weaker narrations, but Evernote caught them both.
First, she narrated "The Wolf and the Kid"

Once there was a kid and he (and he) and the kid went to a rock and then a wolf came and the little goat danced. Are kids and goats the same thing? The wolf said, what did he say? I'm trying to see what happens now. The wolf said "now I'll eat you." "Don't eat me, please don't eat me, Mr Wolf." He starts to get him but then two dogs found the wolf and chased him away and rescued the poor little goat.

Then, she wanted to narrate "The Boy and the Filberts"

There was a person, was it a dad or a mom? There was a dad or a mom who had a boy and said that he was so well behaved that he could get some filberts. So, he reached into a jar and he got a big handful of filberts, but he couldn't get his hand out. Whoever it was, yeah it was the mom, said to him "drop some." But he kept trying but he never got it and then he [big yawn] and then he. You should never take too many because your hand will get stuck.

Who was your favourite character from your free reads and why? Tell me a little bit about the character.

Fina told me about the episode where Captain Hook gets thrown to the crocodile in Peter Pan. Yes, I lost that one as well.

Tell about Horatius at the Bridge or Androcles and the Lion.

First, Fina decided she would tell me a random bonus narration, let's call it a creative piece, sort of a retelling about the fable. Why couldn't Evernote lose this one?

There was a bear, no I mean there was a mom. And she had a little boy and he was being so good that she said, "I think you should have some Filberts." So he went and put his hand in the jar, and bla bla bla and he put his hand in the jar, and after he put his hand in the jar, he took too many. He could have asked for a second helping. But he just was greedy instead of asking "could I have some more?" So his hand was stuck and they couldn't get it out. There wasn't a way.  They kept pulling, but he never got it. Even the mom said "drop a few. You can take some more. But just drop a few." But the boy wouldn't listen. He never ever got it. You should never take bla bla bla anymore to be greedy bla bla bla. The end.
[Oh my.]

Then, Androcles and the Lion.

She gave me a great narration of this one too. I can not believe I don't have it. It was one of her best narrations and I was so surprised she remembered so much of it. She told it in a wonderful way. She really can turn a phrase and tell a story. Sad. You will have to trust me on it.


Hudson

There was a guy named Henry Hudson and he was going to China. But I don't remember what he was going to China for. And he saw that there was another way to get there, but it wasn't right. He thought that there was another way to get to China then going all the way around. He thought that would be faster by going over the top. Thinking that the sun could melt the ice? Why would he think that?  But when they got there, it was much too icy for them to cross [long pause]. So he thought that that would be ok. He thought that maybe he went the wrong way for the pass that people talked about. But they got to another place that had Indians and pirates who stole all their things and then this guy named, what was his name? Something? He was bad. A French name. He said "let's throw the captain and his son overboard." And then they put him in the boat and they let him go but the ship turned away. And there wasn't even a mast or anything. And the boat couldn't move. Because there were no rows. Why were there no rows? You know, paddles? Why? So that the sea could take them wherever. One of the guys brought his books, which he loved a lot. Am I getting mixed up with Shakespeare [the Tempest]. So then what's his name could be the captain. They needed to eat moss on the island and the guy, what's his name, said that eating moss was worse than eating dry wood. They gave them lemon juice so they wouldn't get scurvy. Is lemon juice fruit? Is lemon fruit? But it's sour!

The Tempest

This wasn't a great narration. She couldn't remember much. She said more about it in Hudson than she did here. [Lost by Evernote]

So I gave her the option to narrate her favourite, A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Which was also lost. She narrated a lively tale, keeping the four human lovers straight, and bringing in Oberon, Titania and Puck. She gave the whole description of Puck, which she has given at Co-op and other times. Tipping the ale over their chins etc. It was a fabulous narration! Lost in the ether.

The Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed

She was able to recite these without incident. Evernote caught them, which is useless for me. No need to transcribe those!

Which Saint did you most enjoy reading about? Tell me what you remember.

There was a guy named St Molios. And he had, and he was a guy, St Molios, and he and one night he was in the church yard but he saw a lot of angels carrying lanterns and, no, I mean carrying incense and they were singing. I don't remember what they were singing though. They were singing something. And they were in the church yard. What were they doing? They were in the church yard, putting incense on the people's graves who died. The people's graves who died were in the church yard, that's why. And St Molios was there to see them, because he thought that often dead people were sad. And he would go bless them? What was he doing, blessing them? And praying for them? So, he did that every day in the church yard. And every evening he went with the incense and every night he saw those same angels carrying incense and also lantern. And he might see them pass by with their lanterns. Who stole all his money and he said "quack, quack, quack, when shall I get my money back?" [Mom stopped the recording. Fina was just being silly. That is from a fairy tale.]

[I'm thinking she chose this one because it was the last one we read, though she didn't get much out of it the first time we read it either. A bunch of this is made up really.]

Find Italy and Switzerland on the globe. Or Find Lake Superior.
She was able to do all three things.

Tell about one of your favourite birds from The Burgess Bird Book.  

I had to prompt her with the names of all the birds, because she didn't remember. She gave an ok narration about "Dear me the Phoebe" which I also lost. She said he built his nest under the bridge, and Peter Rabbit had to lean over the bridge to see it. And he had a wife and babies. She said a lot more that I do not remember. Not the best narration, but fine.

Math
She did the Math pages I had reserved for the exam period and did them well. Though she is writing her 9s and her 3 backwards, all of a sudden.

Cursive - Write your name in your best hand.

Who was our painter this term? Describe as well as you can your favourite picture from this term's picture study.

My favourite picture study from Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot was "The Letter."
There is a lady and she is holding a letter in her hand. And she looks happy and sad. She looks very thoughtful. It is a girl sitting on a chair and she is reading a letter. And she's looking at a letter. And she has it in her hands. And she is wearing a green dress. She was in her house, but in a very dark spot.

We had a little discussion about his other paintings, go ahead and take a listen to the whole thing. She does remember (almost) all the paintings. [Sorry for the noise at the end.]



Well, technical difficulties and slightly bad attitudes aside, our exams went very well over all.
I learned a lot from them and I hope to be able to improve our situation this upcoming term!

She made this snowman with her MUS blocks.

In the afternoon, we watched the second in the series of the BBC Shakespeare Animated Tales, The Tempest, as a post-exam treat. She enjoyed it. And she got to go to another women's basketball game at dad's school, just the two of them.

Thank you for joining us for our first term. Next week, we will start term two. Mom has a bit of prep to do!