Today's lessons... Today we have been minivan homeschooling for the most part as we run our errands. As many of you know we are in the middle of our E week, so today is errand day. We talk about our various responsibilities as we do them and do lessons in the car along the way.

Today in math we worked on counting by even numbers and learned to count by 2's and 10's. At the doctors office we practiced drawing our 8, 11, 18, and 81 on the chalkboard. We also practiced writing big E and little e.

For social studies we discussed emotions and talked about why we feel the way we do and labeled a variety of emotions, and discussed how emotions and the way we express them can affect our relationships with others. We took turns acting out different emotions and guessing what the other person was feeling. We also discussed what makes us feel the way we do and how to control some of those emotions. We also printed out maps of Europe and Egypt to color.

For science we talked about the different body parts that start with E (ears, eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, eyelids, elbow, exoskeleton, etc) and printed out a diagram of the face for them to practice labeling. We also talked a little about the senses of hearing and seeing. We also reviewed a variety of animals that start with the letter E and discussed evaporation and how it relates to sublimation.

For music we discussed the concepts of tone (since it related nicely to emotions) I talked in different tones and with different words and the kids had to guess my emotion. Then they had to practice varying their own tones to express themselves in different ways. These especially enjoyed being allowed to pretend to be mad or frustrated with mommy. Rhiannon was cute "Are you giving me permission to talk that way?" before she would do it. I was very proud of her.

We are about to cover the food pyramid and "eating". I will the book "The Edible Pyramid" and "Eating the Alphabet" and we will discuss why we need to eat and what the best things to eat are (for our health and for our enjoyment). For lunch they had: edamame, apple sauce, granola and soy milk (no I am not making it up - this was their choice). After their naps they are allowed to have some sorbet, lunch demonstrated good for them and snack with demonstrate an extra enjoyable food.

In addition we have read a few more "E" books and worked through the rest of the English Picture Dictionary - Letter E and followed up with a few of the lessons there. Some favorites from today were: estuary, equator and evergreen.

I think we will take the rest of the afternoon off and play outside and enjoy this 80 degree october day in Minnesota!

Peace,
Tenn