Rhainnon's day... Well we just finished our schooltime today and we had a real productive and fun time. Ciaran was laying down for his nap and Sirah was jumping her johnny jumper nearby and then nursed herself to sleep towards the end. Rhia got to pick the order in which we did things - I gave her options and she could choose within them. We began with her reading a few pages from "Put Me In the Zoo" by Dr Suess. This is definitely a challenging book for her as it frustrates her that there are both short and long vowel sounds so she can't easily sound out every word. Then she read 10 cut-ups which is the 9th book in the Bob Books First.

Then we played with our dolsch sight word flashcards. She is working on the first set of 10 and today was the first day she did them all right. I showed her each word and she said which they were then I laid them all out and made her find the word I said - then we took turns saying words as they came up in the deck. It was fun and she did very well - she actually only missed "that" once and got all the others right on the first try. I was excited for her.

Then she asked to make pictures out of her colored pencils. This is when we make designs by laying the pencils in all sorts of ways. She asked me to build a house with them and I did. Then she asked to do the story of creation with them and she told me what God made on each day (a review from last month) and I had to figure out how to create that with the 9 colored pencils I had. It was interesting and fun. She however did not like my bird and did it herself. I must admit hers was actually better than mine.

Then we had art time. She drew in her "Nature Study" notebook. This time we decided to draw animals as it has been too cold to be outside collecting things to draw. We used Usborne's Drawing Animals guidebook and she was able to draw something that looks like a bird, an elephant and a baby mouse. She did pretty good work and it was fun to foster this side of her personality as art is not her strength and she does not show much interest in it.

Then we worked in our Usborne World Atlas and spent some time looking at maps. We reviewed the continents and then spent time on the US map talking about where all our relatives and friends live and where we have traveled. Then we looked at a topography map and talked about the different regions (mountains, desert, urban, temperate) and she had to find those regions on the map (they are color-coded). Then we flipped through the book looking for volcanoes and hot lava. She has a new interest in hot lava and asked me to get some books out of the library on the subject. Lastly we looked at the flags and she had to flip through them until she found the USA flag - she found it right away (they were listed alphabetically) and it was on a later page.

Next we reviewed our poetry and nursery rhymes. Today she recited:

SeeSaw Margery Daw
Jack Sprat
Three Blind Mice
Sing a Song of Sixpence
Old King Cole
Old Mother Hubbard
Simple Simon
Hot Cross Buns
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Little Jack Horner
Humpty Dumpty
Little Miss Muffet
There was a Girl
Jack be nimble
Jack and Jill
Tommy

Of these I only had to correct three of them - and it was for a different word use not for not remembering. That amazed me - I don't think I can do all of them from memory myself!

Then we read an adapted version of the Brother's Grimm Snow White. She kept asking why it was different from the one she is familiar with (disney story) and I explained that this was the original fairy tale (though I was reading an adapted version as she is still young and often Brother's Grimm is too dark) and the other story was based on a movie which was based on this story. I don't think she really understood - but she smiled and nodded and asked me to keep reading. I even edited some of this story as I read aloud - as the word choice and harshness of subject may not be appropriate by my standards.

Then it was math sheets - she got to choose two pages in her Spectrum workbook. She chose one on night and day and the other was a simple addition page. She reviewed them while I got Sirah to sleep. Then we read a short story on a Mud Wasp from the Christian Liberty Nature Reader. We talked for awhile after this story because she was saddened that the mud wasp mother flies away before her baby is born and never comes back. I could sense she was very troubled by that so we talked about it and how that is not going to happen with me. She wanted to know why God makes mud wasps that way and aren't they lonely? She decided she did not like that very much.

We concluded our study time with a review of last weeks bible verse John 3:16. As this is a very important and long verse and the wording is challenging for her - we are doing it again this week. I don't feel she is ready to move on yet. She definitely knows the gist of it and can say the end word for word - but this is one that I want to be sure is hidden away in her little heart.

As I type this she is in the library acting out scenes from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by herself. She has a vivid imagination and loves imaginary play. She spent half the morning in her room jsut listening to the reading of the story on her tape recorder so it is pretty recent in her memory. Well I should get going as it is now time to clean up the house and get ready for the evening.

Peace,
Tenn