She impressed me with her knowledge of Spanish (she was able to tell me the whole Hungry Caterpillar story in Spanish). She really enjoyed Vermeer. She loves the literature we are doing. She did not connect well with the Canadian History book we were using and we are switching to Brown's The Story of Canada for term 2. Her recitations were great. She can sing our folksongs, our hymns, our Spanish songs. And she is doing really well with solfège. She didn't do that well with Minn of the Mississippi, which seems normal for her with Holling C. Holling's books. For some reason, she narrates well enough during the lessons, but she just has trouble connecting with them at the larger scale. I am glad we took them!
Here is a small selection of some of Fina's answers.
Tell about the Contest of Miracles (Exodus):
So God said “tell pharaoh to let my people go and worship me. And if he says no, throw your staff down here and it will turn it into a snake and then pick it up and it will turn back into a staff. So he did. He asked “let my people go” and he said “no.” So he ended up doing the staff thing. So he went and threw his staff down and it turned into a snake. Aaron did that because Moses didn’t want to. So then Aaron did what God said to Moses. Moses told Aaron to do that. So Aaron threw down the staff and it turned into a snake. The magicians did that too, but Aaron’s ate them all up. All of them.
Tell about one story from The Wonder Clock:
“The Step Mother Story” So, there was this girl and her step mother was evil and she wanted the girl to die or go away. Because her daughter was ugly, but she wanted her daughter to be the best. She didn’t want her step daughter to be the best. So she made this ball and it had writing that only she could understand on it. But it was enchanted that she needed to follow it. So the stepmother gave her this gold ball and said “this is your new plaything.” And she threw it and let the ball roll into a big, deep pit that she couldn’t get out of. So she followed it right into the pit and then she couldn’t get out. And then these gnomes or dwarves or whatever gave her all these jewels in the pit. [Do you remember how it ends?] Oh, they made her the queen of all of them.
Tell all you can about Odysseus, his crew and the Cyclops:
So, Odysseus landed on this island and he wanted his men to go on the shore to investigate and they didn’t come back. So Odysseus went and there was a big cave with cheeses and big jars of milk and there were sheep and goats, I think, and they were going in and the Cyclops came. So they hid in a corner but he saw them. And then he said “what’s your name?” And Odysseus said “Nobody.” Then they decided “we can escape if he can’t see.” So they made one of his big branches really hot and stabbed his eye when he was asleep and then he couldn’t see. And he started yelling, and all the rest of the cyclops said “who’s hurting you?” when they came. “Nobody’s hurting me!” “Who’s murdering you?” “Nobody’s murdering me!” [laughing] Well, they didn’t come, because, like, “if nobody’s murdering you, then why are you yelling?” [laughing] When the sheep are out, he always feels them because he’s blind now because of the poke he got in the eye. So he would feel them when they came out, his sheep. So Odysseus got an idea. They would hold on, tied up, on the bottom of them, and then he wouldn’t feel them, so they got out. Odysseus got the big, big ram and the cyclops asked the big ram “Why are you going so slowly? Is it because you’re sad about your master because of his eye?”
Tell all you can about Vermeer's "Girl with Pearl Earring" -from memory
There is this girl, she has a pearl earring. It’s all black at the back. I think she has a bit of a yellow and blue thing on a ponytail, or her hair is up in a bun. And the thing is wrapped around her head and is draping down. It has a blue line on it and yellow. I can’t really describe her face. She’s not sad and not happy. You can see her teeth. She is very pretty. There’s nothing except her face and her neck. It’s all black. The pearl earring was very shiny and big, not quite like a pearl, sort of stretched. It is dark, but there is light pouring on her face. The earring had a little thing at the top of it that was pretty.
Describe in detail the birds we have been observing this term:
These are some of the birds that I have seen. Nuthatches, Chickadees, Blue Jays and this big thing that is red and brown. It’s very mean to little chickadees. So that’s what he does. He’s not nice at all. Blue Jays, when you see them, it looks like they are going to break the feeder, because they are so big. When they stand on the top of it, they can’t even fit. The cute little chickadees are so cute. They sort of swoop down, they jump right off the branch and swoop down, as if they jump right off the branch and swoop right down. They are so cute! I love them. They are probably my favourite bird. And nuthatch. They sort of cock their heads, so do chickadees. But I think nuthatches cock their heads a bit more. Chickadees are much smaller and have different colours and different facts than nuthatches. And they have these little teensie beaks and these cute little round faces. The nuthatch is all grey, different shades of grey, with a long beak. Can birds hear? With their ears? Blue Jays are not as bad as the “what’s it called” (the big red ones). People say that blue jays are bullies, but they aren’t as bad as that other guy. Remember when we saw the red guy and he was not being nice at all to the little chickadees. [vamps the bird’s discussion with each other.] When the blue jay is there, the chickadees all go away because they know he won’t let them have any food. In the winter, sometimes we get robins, but not at our feeder. They eat crab apples from the tree. They sit at the bottom of the tree, eating the crab apples. They sit at the bottom, eating. There are lots of robins when we see them. More than 10. You try to count them, but then you can’t, because they move. More than 10, more than 20.
*****
We finished up Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux. We really enjoyed this book and are looking forward to reading her other books.
We read Alice Dalgleish's The Bears on Hemlock Mountain and it is a really cute story.
We are looking forward to a nice Christmas break with family.
See you next year!
Here are some parting pics of the last few days.
