November 29 - December 5, 2010

What we're working on this week:

Monday

• Letter "V" flashcard
• Snow White, page 26: prewriting skills (Upper Case V)
• Cinderella, page 26: visual perception (recognizing squares), prewriting skills (tracing and drawing squares)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 24: learning colors (red), distinguishing one color from others (red)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Wednesday

• Letter "W" flashcard
• Snow White, page 27: prewriting skills (Upper Case W)
• Cinderella, page 27: visual perception (recognizing rectangles), prewriting skills (tracing and drawing rectangles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 25: learning colors (green, orange), distinguishing one color from others (green, orange)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Friday

• Letter "X" flashcard
• Snow White, page 28: prewriting skills (Upper Case X)
• Cinderella, page 28: visual perception (recognizing triangles), prewriting skills (tracing and drawing triangles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 26: learning colors (red, black), distinguishing one color from others (red, black)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Saturday

• Science Play!: Get Soaked!:  We will collect a variety of materials from around the house and have Henry predict which will soak up water and which will not.

Sunday
Who Am I?, lesson 7: Wrong Choices - Sin

• Concepts of Faith:  We sin by choosing to do something we know is wrong.  We disobey God.  We do not love him as we should.  When we sin, we hurt ourselves, we hurt others, and we displease God.
• Activities: Let Henry choose a snack to make as a surprise for the rest of the family.
• Story Time: selection from Everyday Graces

Week in Review: November 22 - November 28, 2010

Henry completed all of his workbook assignments.  I'm pretty excited about this past week because we moved beyond simply tracing shapes and on to actually drawing them.  He's getting better each day!

Of course, science was a lot of fun.  We had a lovely, long discussion about why things float and sink.  Henry's original hypotheses about which items would float and which would sink were about 50% correct.  After the experiment, this improved to about 75%.

Oliver was pretty interested in this experiment, too.  You can just see him peeking around the high chair.

Sunday's assignment was moved to today.  Our parish has Eucharistic Adoration on Mondays, so it was a good day to visit.  We walked all around the church and I talked to Henry about all of the different items: the Baptismal font, the Stations of the Cross, the altar, the Advent wreath, stained glass windows, and the Tabernacle and the Host placed out for adoration.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day today. Here is the first Thanksgiving proclamation, written by President George Washington in the Massachusetts Centinel in 1789:

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

November 22 - November 28, 2010

What we're working on this week:

Monday

• Letter "S" flashcard
• Snow White, page 23: prewriting skills (Upper Case S)
• Cinderella, page 23: visual perception (recognizing triangles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 21: learning colors (blue), distinguishing one color from others (blue)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Wednesday

• Letter "T" flashcard
• Snow White, page 24: prewriting skills (Upper Case T)
• Cinderella, page 24: visual perception (recognizing triangles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 22: learning colors (black), distinguishing one color from others (black)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Friday

• Letter "U" flashcard
• Snow White, page 25: prewriting skills (Upper Case U)
• Cinderella, page 25: visual perception (recognizing circles), prewriting skills (tracing and drawing circles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 23: learning colors (brown), distinguishing one color from others (brown)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Saturday

• Science Play!: Floaters and Sinkers:  We will collect a variety of small objects from around the house and have Henry predict whether they will sink or float when placed in a bowl of water.  We will then test Henry's predictions!

Sunday
Who Am I?, lesson 6: God's House - The Church

• Concepts of Faith:  God's house on earth is called the church.
• Activities: Visit our parish church after service and allow Henry to walk around and look at everything.
• Story Time: selection from Everyday Graces

Week in Review: November 15 - November 21, 2010

Henry completed all of his workbook assignments. We continue to work our way through the collection of Beatrix Potter's tales. Henry has mastered identifying letters. He is able to correctly identify upper-case letters every time. Numbers are a little harder; he sometimes confuses '3' for 'E' and '6' for '9' and vice versa. Not so much that I think he's dyslexic or anything. When he stops to look instead of rushing, he's able to correct himself immediately.

Our science project this week was a blast. Water, fire, Daddy; what could be better?

Our materials:

And one happy scientist:

Watching Daddy heat up a bolt:

Using the hot bolt to melt a hole in the bottom of a soda bottle:

A vertical row of holes in a milk jug:

A horizontal row of holes in another milk jug:

Controlling the water flow by covering and uncovering a hole in the lid of the soda bottle:

Watching the differences in the streams as the water comes down:

Making the different jets merge together:

Lots of fun!  Henry kept playing with the jugs and water for quite some time after our official experiment ended.  He's really enjoying this unit on water.

November 15 - November 21, 2010

What we're working on this week:

Monday

• Letter "P" flashcard
• Snow White, page 20: prewriting skills (Upper Case P)
• Cinderella, page 20: visual perception (recognizing rectangles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 18: learning colors (purple), distinguishing one color from others (purple)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Wednesday

• Letter "Q" flashcard
• Snow White, page 21: prewriting skills (Upper Case Q)
• Cinderella, page 21: visual perception (recognizing a triangle)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 19: learning colors (yellow), distinguishing one color from others (yellow)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Friday

• Letter "R" flashcard
• Snow White, page 22: prewriting skills (Upper Case R)
• Cinderella, page 22: visual perception (recognizing triangles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 20: learning colors (green), distinguishing one color from others (green)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Saturday

• Science Play!: Wonder Water Bottles: We will use clear plastic soda bottles to make water movers, showing how placing holes in different places causes the water to move out of the bottle in different ways.

Sunday
Who Am I?, lesson 5: Love Others as God Loves You

• Concepts of Faith:  God loves everyone.  We are to love God, ourselves, and everyone else.
• Activities: Telling our family members that we love them!
• Story Time: selection from Everyday Graces

Week in Review: November 8 - November 14, 2010

Henry completed all of his workbook pages for the week.

For Science Saturday, we began our day of exploring liquids and solids by... baking!  Since our science experiment for the day involved suspending solids in a liquid, I thought baking a pecan pie would be a great (and tasty) start.  I will always remember my 10th grade chemistry teacher using the directions for baking brownies to help us learn how to balance chemical equations.

Our results:

Yum!

While the pie was baking, we got started on our actual experiment.  Although the book called for making a necklace, I decided to modify a bit and use a canning jar instead.  I wanted Henry to get a good look at what was inside and I didn't think a film canister would be large enough.

Materials - Canning jar and plastic lid, water, crayon bits, glitter glue:

Pouring the water into the jar:

Adding the crayon bits:

Crayon bits in the jar of water:

Adding glitter glue (a lot easier than using loose glitter!):

Examining the particles in the water:

Shaking things up:

Making a tornado:

After inspecting the jar and its contents and shaking and swishing and stirring it all about, we put the jar in the freezer.  Later that evening, Henry was excited to see that the liquid water had now become solid water, AKA ice!

We left the jar on the counter overnight and Henry rushed down in the morning to see what happened.  He was amazed that it had turned back to liquid water.  After this experiment, Henry was confidently pointing out liquids and solids throughout the house.

Sunday, Henry helped his daddy wash the car and got a lot of practice following directions.  And also dealing with the consequences of not following directions.  I feel that this "lesson" will continue for years...

November 8 - November 14, 2010

What we're working on this week:

Monday

• Review Letter "M" flashcard
• Snow White, page 17: prewriting skills (Upper Case M)
• Cinderella, page 17: visual perception (recognizing rectangles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 15: learning colors (black), distinguishing one color from others (black)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Wednesday

• Letter "N" flashcard
• Snow White, page 18: prewriting skills (Upper Case N)
• Cinderella, page 18: visual perception (recognizing rectangles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 16: learning colors (blue), distinguishing one color from others (blue)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Friday

• Letter "O" flashcard
• Snow White, page 19: prewriting skills (Upper Case O)
• Cinderella, page 19: visual perception (recognizing rectangles)
• Rumpelstiltskin, page 17: learning colors (orange), distinguishing one color from others (orange)
• Count with Peter Rabbit, pages 1-10: learning numbers (1-10)
• Story Time: Henry's choice from the Good Books list

Saturday

• Science Play!: Solids, Liquids, and a Wiggly Water Necklace: We'll look for different liquids throughout the day, play a "guess the liquid" game, and make a necklace with water in it which we will then freeze.

Sunday
Who Am I?, lesson 4: Actions and Attitudes - The Ten Commandments

• Concepts of Faith:  We should show our love for God by choosing to follow the Commandments that He gave us.
• Activities: Work together on tasks throughout the day, pointing out the steps and practicing following directions.
• Story Time: selection from Everyday Graces

Week in Review: November 1 - November 7, 2010

Henry completed all of his workbook pages for the week.  I can definitely see that he's becoming more proficient at tracing his letters.  He continues to refine his coloring skills, also.  He's not quite all in the lines, but he's getting there.

This week, I purchased a dry erase board for our schoolroom.  Henry is enjoying practicing his letters on the board.  He was able to write an "H" and an "I" on his own.  He was also pleased to find out that together they spelled "hi."

Our nightly bedtime reading is becoming a highly anticipated event.  We are still allowing Henry to choose a story of his own and then also reading a story from The Complete Tales of Peter Rabbit. We've read:

• The Tale of Peter Rabbit
• The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (of course!)
• The Tailor of Gloucester
• The Tale of Benjamin Bunny
• The Tale of Two Bad Mice
• The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkles
• The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan

Some keep his attention more than others, but he always enjoys looking at Potter's beautiful illustrations.

On Saturday afternoon, we dug the apple, lettuce, and Styrofoam out of the Garbage Viewer and had a look.

The results:

 Henry pronounced the apple "squishy," the lettuce leaf "soft," and the Styrofoam "the same."  I was actually getting a little nervous with this one because it took until yesterday to see any kind of change in anything.  I suppose that's why you're supposed to turn  your compost bins frequently.

Saturday's science experiment was fun.  It was too cold (!) to play in the water table outside, so we used the kitchen counter instead.

Seeing the water take the shape of each different container:

Pouring water into a spray bottle:

Spraying the water on the counter and seeing it spread out:

Letting the water drip off of the ends of his fingers:

Putting water in to a glove (he thought this one was extremely funny):

His conclusion?  "Water changes shapes."  Yes, indeed.