Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Welcome!


Hopefully we are back in the swing of things, now that I've switched hosting sites! I will be trying to update as much as I can over the next few days. Be sure to sign in as a follower on the panel to your right!






















We have really been enjoying school the last few weeks. We spent a great week on Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey, and learned about the city of Boston. Last week we focused mainly on our math and reading/handwriting. Sawyer and Campbell are both doing great with their reading. We are flying through the BOB Books! We also just started learning about place value in math. Here are a few pictures of Sawyer playing with the Decimal Street Lapbook game we're using to reinforce the concept (a link to the blog I found it on) I made one for each of them, since we'll have two more kids using them again in another couple years. (And it cuts down on the screaming and fighting if they each have their own!)



































We had a few beautiful days last week-very warm for March! We spent a couple of afternoons at the park around the corner from our house. It was fun to watch the kids enjoy the outdoors, and see how much they've grown since the last time we were there. Last year we had to lift Gracie up the steps because they were too big for her. This year, she was all over the place!





















Campbell was thrilled that she was able to swing across the rings all by herself now!





















I keep forgetting just what a big kid our Sawyer is! He's growing so fast, and has now entered a phase where he doesn't want his picture taken. The few I got were after much coercion!













This week we're doing a unit from Homeschool Share on the book Thundercake by Patricia Polacco. She's one of our favorite authors. (okay, one of mine!) She is a local writer, and has a Meteor Festival every July at her home near Battle Creek. She opens her home and studio, and you can see how she creates her stories and illustrations. I'm hoping to take the kids. When I mentioned it to Sawyer, he said "oh, yeah, then we can see old kick cow!" (One of the characters from the story.) We'll have to see if it fits into the schedule this summer (hint, hint daddy!) I love her stories because they are always based on fact. They are usually stories about her family, or herself as a child.












The story is about a little girl who is spending time on her granmother's farm and is afraid of the summer thunderstorms we get in Michigan. Her "Babushka" helps her conquer her fear by distracting her with the promise of making a thundercake! We've been learning about Russia (where Grandmother is from), the weather, Michigan's State Bird/Flower, and patterns. We will be doing half the unit this week, and half of it next.

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