week #3, block #2 (school year week #7)

It was the 3rd week of our first math block, and we continued our work on Number Qualities with the story "The Evil Giant" (which J summarized and illustrated here), which led us to a discussion on doubling, and we worked with the numbers "6", "8" and "10". We continued using our Pumpkin Patch Adventure Circle on most days, occasionally choosing to replace it with an organic circle on our morning walk, depending on the day and the weather. It was unseasonably warm this week, so we needed to take advantage of the mild weather as much as possible. Practice work for the week included handwriting practice, Zoo Boy's reading book, Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jean Titherington, and J's reading book Owl at Home, by Arnold Lobel .

Zoo Boy enjoys flipping through his Good Book to review the numbers we've already covered.

On Monday we had our Homeschool classes. We had our Community Circle with a small but enthusiastic group, and J and I learned a new Folk Dance. Then Zoo Boy attended my Paws-n-Claws class, where the topic was Canada Geese, while J played soccer.


Tuesday and Wednesday we stuck close to home, and got a lot less accomplished than I would have thought we would. Some days are just like that, and Zoo Boy and I were still getting over our colds. On Thursday, the boys had a really great museum class about owls. And on Friday, as pictured here, we met some friends at a playground/park, and the kids had a fun time hanging out with their friends R and little J, fellow homeschoolers. It was a gorgeous day, the last we might get for awhile, and we took good advantage of it.


Friday evening found us sitting fire-side, as usual, with a big bowl of popcorn (also as usual!) to read our Nature Story for the week. This week it was "Little People", from the Enki 1st Grade Nature Stories collection. The kids liked the story, but I didn't have any time to follow up with recall or artistic story work the next day, so it was mostly just something to read by the fire this week, a cute tale about fairy folk and how they use their mushroom friends as protection against being seen by "big feet" (people).

On Saturday night we went to a costume party, and the kids declared Sunday as "Pumpkin Day" and came up with some fun activities for that. Also on Sunday, we had a visit from an internet friend of mine -- here's a photo of my friend J and I during that visit. I just love getting to meet my cyber-friends in real life! Thanks for coming up, J!

Story Time books for this week were Pumpkin Day, by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace; Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert; and Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, by Julia Rawlinson, illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke. Our chapter book was Owls in the Family, by Farley Mowat, which the kids and I are absolutely loving.