Friday 30 September 2016

September 30. AO year 1, week 18

We sang our folksong, "My Paddle." We listened to some Schubert over breakfast.

I read Joshua 1:1-9, when God tells Joshua to take the Israelites across to the Promised Land. She narrated it very well.

We read "Night in Armour" and "Come Out With Me" from Now We Are Six.  The second poem is about a child asking adults to look at this and that in nature and the adults don't pay attention. As we talked about it, Fina said that never happens to her because me and L (one of our homeschooling friends) always listen when she wants to show us something. Wow!

Fina sang the hymn, "The Canticle of the Sun" along with me. We just sang the chorus and first verse.

We skipped ahead to chapter 37 of The Burgess Bird Book. Fina wanted to read about chickadees. It is a cute story about Tommy the Chickadee. I remarked that I didn't remember that birds change their feathers before flying south (not chickadees, but the other birds in that chapter) and Fina said she remembered hearing that in "The Burgess Bird Book." So, there you go! Her retention is better than mine. (We knew that already!)  We looked up the chickadee and listened to it's "fee-bee" song. Even Peter Rabbit in the story we read said that Tommy says "fee-bee" better than Phoebe does.

This photo is from this site, allaboutbirds.org, and you can its song here as well. We love this site. 

Fina thought her favourite bird was a chickadee, but now, looking at these chickadees, we realize the bird she likes is NOT a chickadee.  She sketched it for me.
"This bird has a very light brown body, with a little bit of white on its face, and lighter brown on its tummy, and, on its tail, it is the same brown of the rest of the body, with little white spots all over the tail. The beak is like the beak of the chickadee, just beigey." Fina would like help identifying it!

I asked her to recite "What country friends is this" from Twelfth Night. And she surprised me by getting all but the last sentence ("I'll serve this duke.") of it on her own. Then she learned that last sentence and her passage is complete. She is happy because she wants to recite it at co-op in a week's time.

She did the math test for lesson 8 and did it excellently. She made one mistake, which was obviously just an oversight. She was quite proud of herself. As a "reward" I had her do the extra activity for lesson 8. You've got to love that more math is a reward!

She read three pages of Plenty of Fish aloud to me. I am loving this little reader. She read a few pages of "The Gingerbread Boy" from the Treadwell reader last night for dad. She says she likes to read but that it is hard work. "I am curious to find out what happens next in Plenty of Fish but I want to stop reading right now."

We went to volunteer some of our time at a local shop in town, bagging candy for their upcoming anniversary celebration.

We spent the afternoon outside, enjoying nature and enjoying the warm weather!


Fina made yet another broom, and she swept a path up this house

My nature study

Fina's nature study

My artsy pic. 
The girls were off playing, 
the only evidence was their boots (and Fina's hat!)



Thursday 29 September 2016

September 29, AO year 1, week 18

I read two chapters of Little House in the Big Woods, our current free read, to Fina over breakfast.

I sang "My Paddle" to her. Well, really, "at" her. She wasn't impressed! Ha!

Fina read two pages of Plenty of Fish aloud. 

I read 1 Kings 18:20-39, Elijah and the Prophets of Baal. Fina narrated the passage very well.

She recited "What country friends is this" to me. She learned the next little part, "For such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent." One more line to go. I'm sure she will have it ready for co-op next week.

We did some cursive work. Her "or" is better than mine!

We will start "q" next time.

I sang through Marty Haugen's "The Canticle of the Sun" for her, a favourite hymn of mine from church.

We finished the story of St Edward the Confessor from Our Island Saints. She narrated it very well today.

We read two more poems from Now We Are Six, "Forgiven" and "The Emperor's Rhyme."

Fina finished 8E and also did 8F from her math. Next time we will do the test for lesson 8, solving for the unknown. My (long-term) goal is to have Fina doing her math on her own, without me having to prod her on. We will need to use a timer for this I'm sure.  I want it to be a pleasant experience for her, but for some reason, she loves to dawdle over math.

I read "The Story of How the Giant's Dance was brought to Britain" from Marshall's Our Island Story. It tells of the fairy tale of where Merlin used magic to get the stones (now Stonehenge) from Ireland, onto the British boats and brought the to Britain.  It is very cute. Fina narrated it.

We looked at some pics of Stonehenge, which was great fun. "They actually exist still today?"  She was flabbergasted!


This afternoon, we did some nature study and met with some friends for a play time at our Museum.


The mosquito shirt wasn't necessary today. 
But we hadn't been in the forest since the spring, so we were unsure.


Fina painted this mushroom.

And she made a broom out of branches and twigs and vines to tie it all together.


And here are my nature study entries

I painted this milkweed

And the same mushroom

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday 28 September 2016

September 28, AO year 1, week 18

We started the day by reading this very sweet, rather sad, story by Astrid Lindgren, The Red Bird.



Fina finished reading "The Red Hen" from the Treadwell Primer. She did such a great job. I can already see that this reader from 1910 is going to be so sweet. I'm so thankful I saw it in a footnote in AO year 0.  I'm printing off the next story to read.

We worked on some cursive. The wrote "open" and learned the letter "u" and wrote "unicorn."  She wants to write on these little scraps, though I have been warning her that the vertical lines are not helping!



We did some math, doing lessons 8D and the second page of 8E.  Then I had her do some push ups.


Hillarious!

I read from Matthew 1:18-21 and Fina narrated, the birth of Jesus.
We read the first half of the story of St Edward the Confessor, from Our Island Saints. She narrated this well, better than she ever has from this book.

We started our new folksong, "My Paddle" melded with "Land of the Silver Birch."  Time for some Canadiana.

I read the next two poems from Now We Are Six. "Journey's End" and "Furry Bear."
Fina recited "What country friends is this." We still have to learn those last two lines.

We looked at our painting from last week, and we talked about it a bit more.

I read "Aladdin" from The Blue Fairy Book. Fina loves these stories, but doesn't do the best narrations from them. We will see if she can narrate the story to dad later.

Fina spent a few hours playing outside this afternoon. I'd like to do another nature study. We were doing really well with that the last few weeks, but it just hasn't happened this week, YET!

Tuesday 27 September 2016

September 27, AO year 1, week 17

Fina listened to some Schubert over breakfast.

She read aloud some of "The Little Hen" in the Reading Primer by Harriette Taylor Treadwell, which is available online for free here.  There are a few books of different levels. So far, it is very good.

I read chapter 8 of The Little House in the Big Woods. We YouTubed "Arkansas Traveller" that Pa plays on his fiddle in that chapter. (Some of you may know it as Raffi's "A Peanut Butter Sandwich Made with Jam.")

Fina did 8B and C of her math, solving for the unknown.

We sang our hymn.  We did session 1 of our new grade 2 catechism book.
Fina recited her two current Shakespeare pieces.
I read our next poem from Now We Are Six, "The Old Sailor."

Fina continued working on her letters p and o in cursive. We really want to get them done properly before moving on to the letter u.

We read the next story from Parables from Nature, titled "Training and Restraining." It is a cute story about the wind convincing the flowers that they don't need the garden to interfere so much with them. Fina gave great narrations throughout. She often has had trouble connecting with this book, but not today.

I do feel that, in general, her narrations are getting better. Trust the process, it does work!

This afternoon, we had our outdoor playgroup. We had a large group and the kids had fun. It was a grey, windy and very chilly afternoon. The sun is supposed to come out for the rest of the week and that should help to make it a bit better. We had to pile on extra sweaters, jackets, gloves etc. Not the best!



Sept 26, AO year 1, week 17

ETA: I worked on this in the evening, and then went upstairs to put Fina to bed. I had intended on coming back downstairs, after adding the labels to it, to post it, so you would get your email notification at midnight.  Well, I cuddled up with her and fell asleep! So here it is, early in the morning on Tuesday!

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Today we had a shortened day, for everyday life reasons (I had to work at our local library for the morning while Fina stayed home with dad. Fina also has a cold, so she took the opportunity for some rest and relaxation!)

After lunch, we started with some recitation. Fina recited "Now Fair Hippolyta" and "What country friends is this." She learned another line of this last one.  Would you like to see it so far? There are only another few lines remaining of this passage from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Act I, scene ii, lines 1-5 and 49-52
VIOLAWhat country, friends, is this?
CAPTAIN     This is Illyria, lady.
VIOLAAnd what should I do in Illyria?
My brother he is in Elysium.
Perchance he is not drown’d.—What think you, sailors?
CAPTAINIt is perchance that you yourself were saved.
... 
VIOLAI prithee—and I’ll pay thee bounteously—
Conceal me what I am, and be my aid
For such disguise as haply shall become
The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke.
Fina still needs to learn these last two lines. She learned the "conceal me what I am" line today.

We sang our hymn.

We read chapter 14 of Paddle to the Sea. She gave the best narration of this chapter. This was the first time she really connected with this book. She wanted to read the next chapter and, against my better judgement, we did. Well, the narration was ok on chapter 15, but nothing like that of chapter 14. It is as if chapter 14 is some wonderful space of connection. Who knows why!

We sang our folksong. We read the next two poems from Now We Are Six, "The Charcoal-Burner" and "Us Two."

We then finished reading Lamb's retelling of Shakespeare's As You Like It. I stopped throughout for Fina to narrate it. This was the best narration session we have ever had. She remembered so many vivid details and narrated in a wonderful prose of her own. I wish I had recorded it.

Then Fina got a chance to make some lemonade with apple juice and water (following a recipe in this book).  And she played outside with her friend K for a couple of hours.  We had a great day!

Tomorrow we have our outdoor playgroup. We will try to do some work in the morning before going.



Friday 23 September 2016

September 23, AO year 1, week 17

Continuing on with week 17.

Fina wanted to paint this morning, so she painted and drew and used her calligraphy set for an hour, while listening to Schubert.



I read Proverbs 1:1-7, which is rather tough to narrate.

Fina recited "Now fair Hippolyta" and "What country friends is this" as we; as she learned the next line of that passage.

We did chapter 24 of our catechism.  We have finally completed our level 1 catechism program. And a good thing, too, as we need to start level 2 soon.

We watched the video for lesson 8 in math and Fina did 8A.  Solving for the unknown.

We sang our folksong, "I've been working on the railroad."

We started our next Shakespeare story, "As You Like It." For the first time, we are using the Lamb version.  It is longer than the Nesbitt, but we enjoyed it. We read pages 62-68, stopping frequently for narrations. Fina begged for more and more. It was great!

We read our next poem from Now We Are Six, "Buttercup Days." We still haven't found a new poem that Fina wants to recite, but since we are working on the Shakespeare, I don't really mind.

We are going out this afternoon to our creek for some nature study.

Fina continues to read from whatever is in front of her. We will continue reading Plenty of Fish.

ETA: since many of you will be getting the email version after midnight, I thought I'd update on our afternoon. We'll see if this portion hits the email or what!

We spent the afternoon at our creek. As soon as we got there, we saw this little guy (and one of his friends) wandering around so Fina quickly pulled out her nature study supplies and we scooped him up into our bin. (Don't worry, we released him safely!)


A Banded Wooly Bear Caterpillar. Fina named him Fuzzy.



Curled up playing dead, whenever we touched him.


For the first time ever, I also painted in my nature notebook.


This caterpillar will be come an Isabella Tiger Moth (Pyrrharchtia isabella).  It was fun to do! (No wonder Fina has some trouble, though. Our brushes are not great. And it isn't easy to get the technique of dry-brush. It really is not an easy thing to wet your brush, blot it, mix your colours, get them on the paper etc.  I should probably be more understanding of Fina's frustration at times. Plus, she mainly just wants to keep painting. She has that creative streak. And I'm always redirecting her to giving a faithful representation of what she sees. I NEED to provide more art time for her, not only in nature study. She needs to nurture this gift she has.

I also had a chance to sit with my dear friend L (when she joined us with her kids) and paint this landscape by our creek. We had our chairs and all our supplies and we spent a solid hour painting (while the kids ran around and enjoyed their own crazy time, as they always do!)
Sheer bliss.  I have never really used my artistic skills in this way. I'm more of a musician, crafter, cross stitching, crocheting type.  It was great. I want to do it again.

This pic doesn't show the left side, which I painted as well. 
It was even more lovely the other day when the sun was shining!

Kind of abstract-ish, I guess. I enjoyed my first try. I'd like to do more washed out, muted colours next time.  My friend L's was more like that and it was lovely!

Look what they found, while we were painting.

They put it in the netting of their lunch kit, so it wouldn't slither away from them


Thanks for joining us!




Email subscriptions, teeth, art and USED BOOKS!!!

According to FeedBurner, I have 4 feed subscribers (including me, I guess, so 3 of you!). Yay! Thanks!  I signed up, just to make sure it worked ok, and my email came in just after midnight.  I thought it would just be a notification of the new post(s), but, as 3 of you know,  it includes the posts in their entirety!

The notification email itself does not look pretty, and if I were in your shoes, I would just use that email to click through to the blog itself (which looks slight prettier). Plus, you need to click through to leave a comment, so go ahead!

Technology is exciting, right?

In other news, Fina lost another tooth yesterday, toothie number 6. Very exciting!



We were in the city for some medical work for dad and we got to go to not one, but two used book sales.  Here is my haul!

The first sale was actually at the hospital.  When we walked in, we saw the sign, so while we were waiting for dad, we went down there to browse. This is what I got there:

(I have the Lamb, so I picked it up for a friend)




While waiting for dad, Fina got in some handicraft work.



In the hospital lobby, Fina recognized the style of this print of a painting that was being auctioned.



She immediately recognized it as being by Norval Morrisseau (Canada, 1931-2007), who is sometimes referred to as the "Picasso of the North."

When Fina was 2.5 years old, we saw this painting at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and it has been her favourite painting ever since.



In fact, what we saw today was painted by Christian Morrisseau (Canada, 1969-), Norval's son, and is very appropriately titled "Father and Son." (It took her a while to find the son in the top painting.)

But she can certainly recognize the style!

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Then, at the three times a year sale at our mall (which has over 200,000 books), I got this lovely stash.




These are nice copies 
(Good thing I had my excel list of all the AO books, all the way to grade 12. I just thought to grab A Little Brother to the Bear when I saw it, but I did not know it is on the AO list. Before making my purchases, I sat down for a few minutes to check and make sure I needed or didn't already own the things in my stash. And then I realized this was on there!)




The L.M. Montgomery and the L.I. Wilder books would not be hard to find, used or new for that matter. So those aren't *really* a wonderful find, but since I was there and I saw them, I picked them up. Our collections of those are *nearly* complete now.

I'm counting 16 books that are on my AO list and most of the rest are suggested (all the L.M. Montgomery, plus the piano books) of the 40 plus books I picked up.

The best find, hands down, was found by my dearest friend L. We were together, though were in different parts of the mall throughout the day. At the "Unusual Books" section she found these beauties! And since she had previously bought them for herself online, she hyperventilated for a moment and then picked them up for me! For under $20, books 2-6 of Charlotte Mason's volumes. Completely incredible!!! Have a got a great friend, or what???




Tuesday 20 September 2016

September 20, AO year 1, week 17

We were able to squeeze in a bit of school this morning before heading off to our locals moms' group and our outdoor playgroup in the afternoon.

Fina did some composer study during breakfast.  I finished our current chapter of Little House in the Big Woods.

I read Psalms 2 and Fina narrated it.

We read chapter 13 of Paddle to the Sea. I read it in chunks and Fina narrated it.  She still has trouble with it. Which is so funny to me!

We read "The Knight Whose Armour Didn't Squeak" from Now We Are Six.  Fun!

Fina did some cursive. She needs to still work on her letters P and O.

Hers is the green


We reviewed all the "plus 2" math facts.
Fina recited "Now Fair Hippolyta" and the first part of "What country friends is this" from Shakespeare.
We did our picture study. Jacques Louis David's Portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his wife. A lovely painting. Fina was extremely insightful. She even guessed that they were rich and that the man was a scientist, possibly a chemist (which he was!).


We finished the math test for lesson 7.
We also song our folksong and our hymn.

We were in time to get to the moms group in town and then out to our outdoor playgroup. It was a lovely sunny day, in the low 20s celsius (our last day above 20 according to the weather forecast). The children had a wonderful afternoon out at our park. Fina stayed out until 7pm with one of her friends.

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