games of long ago (POST # 500!)

Before I start, I thought I should make note of the fact that is is my 500th post on this blog. That's a pretty big number. Thanks so much to all of you folks who have taken an interest in our little lives, regardless of how many of those posts you've read. Have you read all 500 of them? If so, be sure to leave me a comment on this post, and you'll get bonus points!

Yesterday the boys each had a museum class on a similar theme -- toys and games that children who lived long ago played. This was Zoo Boy's favorite toy -- the "Tumbling Jack" -- the little grooved (and groovy!) wooden guy tumbles down the ladder tail over teakettle. Clever little design!


Here Zoo Boy plays with a.... Aw, heck, I knew I was going to forget the name! Jumping somebody or another (and no, it's not Jumping Jack Flash....). In any case, you squeeze the two rods, and the little acrobat it the middle does jumps and flips and tumbles.







Between the kids' classes, they participated in an animal program in the animal room. This particular program was about the museum's resident Bantam Rooster. My kids got asked about our chickens during the program, and they enjoyed sharing information about the types of chickens we have, the fact that we don't have a rooster which means our eggs are not fertilized, and explaining how to collect eggs so they don't break and so you don't get pecked by a hen. Very informative for all, no doubt.



J in his class, playing a bean-bag toss game. He also played a wooden pin and ball bowling game.








Both kids made a Mancala game during their classes. Here J is teaching me how to play at home.

Fun class! Both boys quite enjoyed it!

e -- vowels, part 3

I am a stream so swift and clear,

As down the rocky rapids steep,

I sing my song for all to hear,

"Watch the gleaming tears I weep."

-from The True Name of the King, Enki Education Grade 1 Academic Story

During yesterday's portion of the story, the poor girl discovered that the name of the king is not Jewel, nor is it Blue Heavens (which she only considered briefly during this segment before realizing that couldn't be it). A Water Sprite helped her listen to the flowing stream, and eventually the rain storm. She was confident that the true name of the King must be "Tears". (She, of course, was wrong, as we found out during today's portion....)


Our story painting today is of a blue sky and blue water (a lake or stream), with a rock in there just to make the water seem more water-like (I suppose.....).

J's paintings, and yet another instance of liking the kids' work better than my own. In fact, I strongly considered leaving my own paintings out of this post altogether and just using the boys'. But being a stickler for consistency, I included mine anyway.






Zoo Boy's paintings. These paintings went particularly smoothly for us -- the kids are really getting the hang of (and enjoying!) led paintings.

As yesterday, the boys were anxious to get to the story to find out what happens. At the end of today's segment, one of them blurted out, frustrated, "It's STILL not the end?!" I told them that the end would come when the poor girl finally tells the king what her guess of his name is. They asked when that would be, and I told them a couple more days. They seemed fine with that answer -- I think it was the uncertainty of not knowing when it was ending that bothered them, rather than not enjoying the story and work, as I know they are quite enjoying it. And so am I!

o -- vowels, part 2

We are busy little fellows,

Working way deep, down below,

Crystals, jewels, gold, and stone,

We tend with care our earthly home.

-from The True Name of the King, Enki Education Grade 1 Academic Story

Part two of our vowel story found our heroine befriending a helpful gnome, who brings her with him to work down in the caverns. After recalling that part of the story this morning, we painted our "O" paintings (which are supposed to be much more purple than these photos are making them seem). I was a little bit startled by how brilliant the blue I chose was and it made completing the paintings the way I wanted to a bit of a challenge, but I think we managed adequately.

Our story painting represents the cavern's entrance and the darkness and crystals and jewels within. I actually think the kids captured the color mood better than I did, I was too busy worrying about how bright that blue was! I also think the paper was a bit too dry, adding to the brilliance of the color, so I was fretting about that as well.

J's paintings.
















Zoo Boy's.

No sooner had we finished our paintings then Zoo Boy pleaded "Is it Story Time yet??" He was dying to find out if he was right in his guess that Jewel is NOT the true name of the King. And of course, he was right. It was awesome watching the boys hanging on the edges of their seats (well, their cushions on the floor, anyway) as I read the next installment.

I can't believe there are parents out there who let other teachers have this kind of fun with their kids!! I wouldn't miss it for the world.

look up

Another fine example of the sorts of things I'm apt to find on my camera when I leave it lying around....

(click on the photo if you need to see a larger version)

ah -- vowels, part 1

Watch, my child, the path of heart,

For darkest night will soon depart.

Then sparkling sun will touch his wand,

As red and gold fill path and pond.

-from "The True Name of the King", Enki Education Grade 1 Academic Story

This week we are introducing the vowels, through telling and working with the story "The True Name of the King". There are five true vowel sounds, Ah, O, E, U, and A, and then there's I, which is a diphthong. The story tells a bit about each vowel sound, so we tell a piece of the story each day for a week, painting the story (and vowel sounds) the following day. We started yesterday with the first part of the story, where a poor girl begins a quest to discover the true name of the King, and today we painted "Ah".


The paintings are mostly to create a color theme for each vowel sound, which is repeated throughout the Language Arts work with the vowels over the next couple of grades. "Ah" is also referred to as the "Golden A", and the color theme is gold. So we painted a sunrise to reinforce the color, the sound, the verse, and the story.


Here's J's paintings, and how we set them up -- we painted the backgrounds on each first, then added the sun to the upper painting, and a large golden "ah" to the lower. These are "led paintings", meaning that the kids watch me paint with one color, then they paint the same thing, then I do the next color, etc, the same way we do our "led drawings". This is the first time I've done anything more than let them free-form with their paints prior to this (although I did give simple instructions with the "color dancers" type painting we last did). I wasn't sure how the kids would take to the led painting, but they seemed to really enjoy it.

Zoo Boy's paintings. After painting his "ah", he asked me WHY we were painting "ah". I did not answer him directly, but rather read the verse again (we read it during our recall of the story before we started painting). "There's a lot of "ah"s in that verse, " J noted. "Ah!" I exclaimed, and smiled. The boys giggled and ran off to play.

After letting them play for awhile, I gathered them back with our story time song, and we read the next part of the story, where the girl discovers that she did NOT have the correct name, and comes up with another guess. When I finished, Zoo Boy said "I don't think she's got the true name of the king, tomorrow she's going to be told that's not right again." The kids wandered down the hall discussing what the true name of the king might be.

So far this has been my favorite story to work with! I just love this light approach to the complicated vowels, and I like how the entire week is going to just weave a complete story by the end. It's very nourishing for both the kids and me!

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.

J -- santa claus is coming to town

Ok, this is my first attempt to get a video posted to my blog, so we'll see how this goes -- me and the technology thing don't always get along. And besides that, this was taken on my stinky little camera, not a video camera of ANY sort, so the picture is over-exposed and the sound is pretty crappy. BUT, for those of you who were unable to make the show, here is J in his first public solo performance. I'll be happy I have this someday when he's famous!