We use a phonics program called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." Despite the cheesy title, it's a solid method (like SRA of my youth) that really does take 100 easy lessons to complete. Dori finished lesson 89 this morning. We started a tradition with Addy of having a party to celebrate finishing the 100th. Dori has requested a fancy tea party.
Our curriculum, Sonlight, seamlessly works geography into literature and history so it seems painless. We're reading about slavery, so Addy is filling in the names of all the slave states on an outline map of the U.S. We've been reading about settling the West, so spots in Oregon and other western states are marked.
I combined three facts to create a special treat for after sit-down school today.
1. We had a box of Corn Chex that no one was likely to eat.
2. Aunt Nini brought these red, white and blue marshmallows for making s'mores and we still had some left.
3. We are studying American history. I'm not sure what this has to do with anything either, other than that I made the treat into a flag.
Today I put together a surprise for the kids when they wake up, using supplies from my kitchen.
The girls will be working with egg cartons. These hold 30 each and we rescued them after a community breakfast before they were thrown out. (I was too embarassed to ask permission to steal the garbage, so Bob did it for me.)
Addy's egg tray is a multiplication table with 5 columns and 6 rows. She will multiply up to 30 and put the appropriate number of beans in each hole. Daddy brought the beans home from a farmers' field tour.
Dori's egg carton is labeled 1-30 so she can practice her counting. I made sure the 5-10-15-20-25-30 numerals lined up so we can practice skip counting by 5s.
The boys each have a muffin tin. They will do free play, but I'll encourage them to put one item per hole as a fine motor activity. They may throw them on the floor or bang them together. Whatever. A secondary goal is to keep them busy while the girls work.
The tins are filled with goodies Aunt Carol gave us over the years, knowing they might make fun math manipulatives.
Our yearly tradition is to have the kids pick out a favorite outfit for their back to school picture. It seems we keep adding bodies to the photos.
(Mom here.)
Two days in a row we got to travel to the small town of Port Sanilac -- girls in costume -- for excellent historical events that tied in with our American history studies this year. Yesterday was Columbus' ships. Today's trip was to Civil War Days at the Sanilac Historical Museum.
Bob and I most enjoyed the Lincoln-Douglas debate. Both reenactors were very good and drew in crowd interaction. The girls especially liked the Punch and Judy puppet show held in the old schoolhouse on the grounds.
The boys liked crawling and running around. Elias crawled up on a bench to see the Governor of Michigan at the time.
Dori spent a lot of time playing a game of gracies with a little reenactor boy, coached by a Union soldier. Addy is shown trying it. Two sticks are held in an X with a hoop on them. When the arms are opened the hoop shoots out for the other player to catch and send it back. I promised we could make our own set. The soldier recommended an embroidery hoop with 3/8" dowel.
A Civil War event needs a battle. We watched a small one with a handful of reenactors with their muskets and cannons on each side. Before we left the house that morning, Bob quizzed the girls about which side they were on, so they were proud to be little Union girls. While taking the picture below, it seemed to me that if this were a good reenactment my good little Union girls might have kicked that Johnny Reb in the crotch while he laid in front of them reloading his musket.
