Geography: reading Geological regions

Here we are in our Geography book written by Donna Ward. We are reading  Political Regions today. The children are doing as the book has directed and are testing each other on the provinces and territories, provincial and territorial capitals, major bodies of water, major rivers, large Islands.

 

 

 

In Geographical regions we learn about vast mountainous and lowland

areas that we will have to identify on a map .

Fall raking, crafts and art.

 

                                                           Getting our blood pumping!

 

 An impromptu project. I cut up candles and melted the wax into the glass baby jars so thatI could stand up little candles inside a receptacle. The children watched as I melted wax, talked about the flame being hot and about oxygen being needed for it to  burn. I showed K the materials of glass, wax, string and  wood matches. He watched as I singed my fingers and winced. He was learning so much at a preschool level about materials and safety!

 

A fox that Mary drew for fun!

 

 

 

Chores! Note the foot. I had sent Mary out with the camera when they were raking in the yard. 

 

Doing our first French test.Premiere Lecon.

 

We have gotten some simple  French picture books from the library to read, to become familiar with the language. As well, we have read this book, "Claire's gift" by Maxine Trottier , a fantastic author. This is one of my favorites with its art reflecting the culture of Cape Breton in  the 1800's.

 

 

http://www.amazon.ca/Claires-Gift-Maxine-Trottier/dp/0439988608/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383287581&sr=8-1&keywords=maxine+trottier+claire%27s

 

As well, we have found "Something from Nothing" in French. We can't wait to stumble through it and let the words roll over us!

 

 

 

 

 

A nod to A for being so willing to take on the task of doing his first French test. This curriculum jumps in feet first and explains the why and what of possessive adjectives and  direct articles and all sorts.  Not for the faint of heart. But, we seem to be making slow headway. Letting the words pour over us and getting used to the grammar and the way the French speak within their own culture. I am so glad that our Reading and LA programs with CLP are so detailed  in explaining structure and rules and grammatical names. It is helping us add on French a lot easier as Aidan knows what  say, "pronoun" means. 

Learning about the perils of smoke on lungs in our Sonlight curriculum

This is week 4 in the Sonlight curriculum. We are discussing the respiratory system with the help of  Usborne:) The children took one of the questions about the harm that smoking does to you and answered it, presenting it in Elluminate their classroom time.

 

Monday mornin learnin K preschool.

Aidan teaching his younger brother on a Monday morning.  Baby is peaking up over trying to see what is going on! I have started adding in some speech help for |Kellen as he is muddling up a lot of his sound just like Aidan did. This time though, as I have sat through speech therapy with Aidan. I know that he needs a positive correction of his speech , showing him where to put his tongue, palate, teeth placement. As well, guilt free correction when a word is noticed to be said wrong. It is working really well!  Coming in under the radar allows K to maintain his self esteem in the way that he expresses himself but he knows that he is being helped and is pretty up for learning it the right way!

Chef at home

Today, we watched one of our favorite chef shows, Chef at home. The show is on the food network. In keeping with us starting French this year I came up with the idea to journal our food journeys. Or to be exact, for Aidan to journal his cooking journeys. He has expressed his desire to cook this year. When I asked him how he would like to express himself artistically this year, he expressed his desire to cook. I have added in a French element to tie in the French culture(that we are studying this year), well known for its cuisine. Hence the name "Livre de Cuisine" chosen for the front page of the journal. #french#english#cursive#journalling#science#math#fine arts

Maths

A figuring out his decimals and fractions. Simplifying too. 

First time typing

Math discussions in decimals

J&A working on Singapore Math 4B in the evening.

 

 Kellen had a wonderful learning day today! I pulled out some old workbooks and Rod & Staff books.for him. He sat for so long, absorbed in his coloring. He even chose another color than red!! He is interested in tracing the letters and identifies all of the basic colors.He is naming animals and classifying!

 Today our schooling went so well. The sun was shining and the children were accommodating. Baby fell asleep at noon and we were able to take a bite out of our studies. Mary did her TTextbooks and Aidan and \I| worked through finishing his first Lesson in French. Not surprisingly he is very good at recollecting the words and we had some good conversations in answering the questions and sorting out the vous and tu of it!

There was even a lovely song to listen to on the CD that comes with the manuals. We will be doing some quizzes in the near future. .dun, dun, dun, dun !

 

 

Above you can see Aidan sitting with his new reader Bridges and Beyond. It is a big deal for us in this house when we reach a new Level in our CLP books. Lvel 4 promises to be right up Aidan's Alley. it is a historical sweep of America including the pony Express, the chinking of log cabins

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.canadianloghomesupply.com/sealants/images/chinking.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.canadianloghomesupply.com/sealants/&h=173&w=336&sz=11&tbnid=LYPTnhkxMRTXOM:&tbnh=64&tbnw=125&zoom=1&usg=__KhhNqLCxqFXvf8kXWM2IL3EV8vw=&docid=xqLPEDtdmX6qkM&sa=X&ei=t3FUUtaYFaibygGHtoDwAw&ved=0CC4Q9QEwAA

 right from the get go:) and wilderness stories about old America!

 

Mary is always really willing to work that extra lesson and to finish off things and is working on her LA unit book to get it done!  Mary was helping her brother today with his letters and coloring and really being patient and mentoring him. .. A really great day!!

 

 

French starts.

The children start their French course today.  Aidan is required to start a language in grade 5. Memoria Press has a fantastic program for beginners. We opened our books popped in the CD and conversed. Mary has been very excited about us learning French.One of our old favorites is Claire's gift! Mary brought out her Cecile ,American girl series, She enjoyed reading, vocabulary and history from the back of the books.