week#12 (4th week of 3rd block)

This was another half week for us, due to J's chorus show on Friday and Saturday evenings (and a late dress rehearsal on Thursday) which messed up our rhythms fairly soundly at the end of the week. Fortunately, I now understand how my kids operate enough that I anticipated that and kept their schedules extra light this week. (Here J is practicing his songs while playing his keyboard as accompaniment -- he is definitely ready for some formal piano lessons if we can manage to find the time, money and a good teacher.)


Our curriculum story this week was "The Search for the Magic Lake." I used some simple props while telling the story, which resulted in much better comprehension on the part of both boys, so I will probably continue to do that sort of thing with future stories. We also started a new Adventure Circle this week to meet the kids' current needs better. Both kids had classes about animals preparing for the winter, and each had an opportunity to spend time with museum staff meeting some of the animals up close and personal. Here Zoo Boy checks out Priscilla the Chinchilla's tail. And the boys wrote their letters to Santa on Thursday morning in lieu of a formal morning lesson.

Here's the chorus's formal portrait from their dress rehearsal on Thursday evening. The show went off without a hitch on Friday and Saturday evenings, with J singing his chosen solo, Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

After Saturday's show, the chorus kids each received a gift for participating in the show. Here J checks out his haul (a Santa snow globe and a handful of Christmas type candies) with the help of Zoo Boy, while Mimi and I look on.

Needless to say, the boys were BOTH exhausted by Sunday, and hung around the house all day doing not much of anything. Which was a good choice, given that outside it looked like this: our first snowfall of the season (several weeks late, may I add, but I was pretty happy it held off until AFTER the show was complete, given that we drive a bit of a distance to get to rehearsals, etc). After I finshed up my work, we all snuggled in the bed to watch football for the last part of the afternoon and the evening. The kids had a blast cheering on our beloved Patriots to an exciting victory, and we all did our best to blow out Uncle Big J's ear when we called to celebrate with him!

I stepped things up for reading practice this week, giving Zoo Boy a level one chapter book (Busy Beavers, part of the Smithsonian Series), and J the first in the Magic Tree House series, Dinosaurs Before Dark, by Mary Pope Osborn. Both kids were thrilled to have more of a reading challenge, and both rose to the occasion.

Story Time books for this week were Winter Lullaby, by Barbara Seuling, illustrated by Greg Newbold; Long Night Moon, by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Mark Siegel; and Room for a Little One, A Christmas Tale, by Martin Waddell and Jason Cockcroft. And we continued to read about the adventures of Chester Cricket in The Cricket in Times Square, a chapter book that all four of us are enjoying immensely.

Our consonant block is done. This coming week introduces the vowels, and then we have one more week before our winter holiday break to do a little winter science work in preparation for our holiday celebrations.