week #2, block #1 summary

The boys during "Reading Practice", J's book for the week was "Frog and Toad All Year". Zoo Boy's reading book was "Five Little Ducks", per his own request. We also started hand-writing practice, which I will discuss at some point in the coming week, I promise!

Their math practice for the week was tangrams -- on Monday, The Map Man read the book Grandfather Tang's Story, by Ann Tompert, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker, then gave the boys the book and a set of wooden tangrams. The kids of course went nuts making all the characters from the story out of them. The next night J made a set of cardboard tangrams to match the wooden set so that each of them had a set. Ingenuity! Glad I didn't buy 2 sets!

Zoo Boy shows his Language Arts Good Book to The Map Man. He's very proud of his work and is always eager to show it off, which is a bit of a relief (and surprise!) to me. I was worried about him being too critical of himself with the 1st Grade work, but he seems genuinely happy with his attempt at the same activities J is doing.

This week we worked with two story sets -- "The Bear Boy" and "Bearskin" -- and introduced the consonants "B" and "M". (And no, there was no reason to introduce those two consonants during the same week!!! Pure coincidence, I assure you!) And we continued to use our Harvest Adventure Circle, which the kids had just as much enthusiasm for this week as last.

You gotta love J -- in classic J form, the day after I posted a comment on how he is not painting representationally, he painted the top painting in this picture. Of course, it's actually from our story work (the Golden Oak Gates from the Little Falcon story we did our first week), but I guess I'll have to reconsider using the 1st Grade Painting curriculum after all. (We'll see, I'll give it another couple of weeks before deciding.) The bottom painting is Zoo Boy's, obviously he's still doing just fine with the Kindergarten approach to painting.

An interesting twist to our week, The Map Man's car died (for good) and we suddenly find ourselves basically a one-car family. (We do own a very ancient mini van that we only use to haul farm supplies and take animals to the butcher, but it doesn't really count as a real vehicle as we are hesitant to drive it out of town -- we certainly wouldn't let the kids ride in it!) So our weekly rhythms are bound to take a few hits from that. For instance, we were unable to get to our Thursday nature walk playdate. And we may have to discontinue the kids' speech therapy sessions. The Map Man is working on a carpool arrangement for as much of the week as possible, but given as it seems there is nobody living in our town and commuting to the town where he works, it will not be 100% reliable. In fact, when the ancient farm van dies (which could be almost any minute), it will mean that either the kids and I need to bring him to meet his ride, or we'll just be out a vehicle for that day.

We had a fun playdate on Friday afternoon -- my friend Kyra and her son Fluffy came down (since we weren't able to go anywhere as The Man had the vehicle) and the kids had a great time playing with each other indoors and out.

Friday night we read our new nature story, Mariposa, and as support for that story, we visited Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory on Saturday afternoon.



Topping off the week, J began rehearsing with the youth chorus he's singing with this fall. That's him 2nd from the right, following the movement instructions of the director. Ambitious fellow, that director -- he's got quite a holiday show planned for this group of kiddos! J was extremely enthusiastic after the rehearsal, and claims that he'd like to sing a solo. The theater the practices are held in (and where the show will be held in mid-December) is really cute, and I enjoyed sitting in the back with the other parents and listening in on all the plans.


Family Story Time stories for this week were Possum's Harvest Moon, by Anne Hunter; Hello, Harvest Moon, by Ralph Fletcher, illustrated by Kate Kiesler; and Harvest Home, by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Greg Shed. We also closed in on the end of our chapter book, The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White (in fact, we finished it today!) -- next on the docket is Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater.