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Welcome back to our “week in review” series! The first half of this week, we were more-or-less confined to the house due to the thick smoke that had started to blow across Colorado from the fires to the west and north. But we made up for it in the second half by spending as much time as possible in our “creekside classroom” after the smoke cleared up.
Monday
Brice kicked off week 2 of Blossom and Root Early Years Vol. 2 with Owl Moon. We read the book, made a little beeswax owl, painted owl pictures, and learned about Great Horned Owls. We watched videos of them and looked them up in our Rocky Mountain Birds book. In STEM, we experimented with things that sink vs. float, which Brice absolutely loved. She continued working on letter A by tracing As with her finger in paint.
Blake had another great day at her Monday enrichment program. She learned how to make pancakes and made some pretty awesome mixed media art. We wrapped up the day with a gymnastics class and some more House at Pooh Corner (our current Brave Writer Quiver of Arrows book) before bed.
Tuesday
Tuesday started out with science–our favorite subject! We learned about the layers of the Earth with Blossom and Root First Grade Science: Wonders of the Earth and Sky. The girls loved making play-dough models of the layers!
After science came art, again from Blossom and Root First Grade. We did a picture study of Kandinsky’s Squares with Concentric Circles and talked about how shapes fit into other shapes. Blake discovered through the corresponding art project that the concentric circles reminder her of the layers of the Earth. I was pretty delighted with this, and it wasn’t planned. We’re only on week one of the art curriculum, and week two of the science–a happy accident. 🙂
Blake and I moved on to language arts while Brice ran off to play. This week, we read “The Cheerful Harvestman” and “The Tree-Frog’s Story” from Among the Meadow People (Blossom and Root First Grade Language Arts: The Stories We Tell.) We finished our morning with a quick lesson from Singapore Math.
In the afternoon, we gathered ingredients to make a blueberry cake for poetry tea time, and to celebrate the letter B. Despite a wonky oven, the cake turned out well. However, Blake hit a sudden wall halfway through making it and asked to go to bed (very unusual for her.) I’m not sure if it was the smoke getting to her, or a little virus, but she was down for the count for the rest of the day.
Wednesday
Blake was feeling better on Wednesday morning, but the day had started out smoky again. We did a quick language arts lesson and then I took them to a place called Kids Dig that I had found online. This place is awesome! It’s essentially a giant indoor sandbox filled with construction toys. I initially purchased a half-hour of play, but ended up extended their time to a full hour because they were having so much fun!
We took it easy in the afternoon with lots of free play, read some more Pooh, and called it a day.
Thursday
Thursday was the first day with clear skies, so we packed up our things and headed to the woods behind our house. Often referred to as our “creekside classroom,” this is one of our very favorite places to do homeschool. We did our first lesson from Wild Math First Grade by making a ten-frame out of sticks and collecting ten groups of ten things to make 100. This was so much fun! I really, really love Wild Math. It’s great to throw into our hiking backpack and pull out on hikes and during outdoor play. The activities are quick and fun, and usually only require things you find outside (like stones, sticks, shells, etc.) I’m so glad we found it last spring to use this year! We spent the rest of the day playing outside, since we’d been stuck indoors for three days straight.
Friday
Blake and Brice spent Friday with my parents. 🙂
Saturday
Saturday brought more clear skies, so we went back to the creek. Blake had chosen to do the “den-building” activity from Blossom and Root First Grade Nature Study this week, so she gathered up sticks to make a teepee frame. While she worked, Brice played in the creek. It was a beautiful afternoon, and so nice to be outside.
Sunday
Today we went back to the creek so Blake could finish her den. She brought along a bag of sheets and string and other building materials. We were having a wonderful time, enjoying the sounds of the creek and watching a squirrel building his nest overhead, when a thunderstorm rolled in and we had to head home.
It was another gentle week for us–we only did about half of what we eventually plan to do in a week beginning in mid-September. Even though we homeschool year-round, we still like to take it easy in the summer. What was your week like? What was the best part? Please share in the comments–I love reading about your homeschool days!
Heads-up: Our Annual Autumn Sale runs August 27 – September 30! 30% off everything in our store with code fall30!
Coming soon: Summer and Autumn Book Seed Bundles (September 2018); Book Seeds Elementary Years: Profiles in Science Bundle 1 (September 2018)
The Curriculum We Used This Week:
Blossom and Root Early Years Vol. 2
Singapore Math, Standards Edition, Level 1A
Brave Writer: Quiver of Arrows – The House at Pooh Corner
The Games We Played This Week:
Last Letter
Too Many Monkeys
The Books We Read This Week:
Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pierson
Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Earthshake: Poems From the Ground Up by Lisa Westberg Peters
The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (on Audible, during car rides)
A Gracious Space, Fall Edition by Julie Bogart (for me)
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (for me)
Movies We Watched This Week:
None this week
Our Favorite Classroom This Week:
Bear Creek Wilderness
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