Learning Notes (Jan.27-Feb.1)

Back in the swing of things with Learning Notes this week.  I just didn't bother to add that extra thing to do to my Christmas and Epiphany,  frankly.  Anyway, here's what we did this week!

The 9yo started a book to narrate...

We're using this book, which was a read aloud a few years ago, to practice our narration skills.  Read a chapter and tell me about it!  I offer a few cues for stuff to discuss such as...is there a bad guy?  What are the characters names?  Did anything exciting happen?   What do you think might happen later in the story?

The 7yo also got a narration book...

The Our Canadian Girl books are written with the 7-10 year old girl in mind, and focus on great events and peoples in Canadian history.  Despite the title of this particular choice,  these are not Christian books.

The 7yo is in the last 2 weeks of practice before she graduates from her piano level, so there was plenty of practice happening.  She also designed and produced invitations to hand out for her piano graduation party.  The 9yo had piano as well.

We made papier maché creations and painted them.  We're now the proud owners of...a container for the cat's toys, two bird feeders, and an organizer for the craft shelf. You get one guess as to which was mine.  I meant to take pictures but then...ugh, I didn't.

All three children worked once in their math workbooks and twice on their online math.  The 9yo did copywork.  The 5yo finished 2 reading lessons.

The children were signed up at the library to learn how to play Nintendo Switch Mario Kart.  They have never played on a Nintendo Switch before and had a blast.  On Saturday our family went to a local church family outdoor fun day.  The kids spent two hours chatting with friends while throwing themselves down increasingly perilous hills, culminating in one the 9yo called Vertical Death.  Then we had a big church community supper,  the kids played board games with buddies,  and slept the sleep of children who had conquered the Vertical Death and won.

Read Alouds!!

The 9yo and I finished The Dark Is Rising, and started our new novel The Boundless.  The 7yo and 5yo are still listening to Milly-Molly-Mandy.  Our group novel read-aloud is The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street and we're also reading the poetry of Mr. Rogers.  We finished a biography of Helen Keller.

We went to the library.  The 9yo has spent the last week reading The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, although I think he's missing the last two books off his list.  However, our library doesn't stock them so instead he's reading the Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles.  Also this book:

The 7yo seemed to be between books for a moment, mostly reading cookbooks, but then latched onto Catwings by Le Guin.  All three children have pulled out this book:

And have spent many hours coming up with a game plan to make money with a pop-selling business.   On Mon. I sat down with them and explained an expense sheet and they're running with the idea.

We wrote a postcard to Mongolia,  which meant heading to the post office, picking a card, discussing international postal rates, carefully printing our message, and spelling exciting words like 'Ulaanbaatar '.  We walked back to the post office and mailed our card with great fanfare.  Then we read the Mongolia entry in this book:

What would a child in Mongolia eat?  Good question!  Turns out the traditional answer is...meat.  So we bought some steaks at the grocery store with the intention of grilled them, which we have not yet done.  Yay Mongolian cuisine!   Cough.

We also looked up Mongolia on our giant wall map, and flipped through a book about modern day Mongolia. 

We finished our hymn study of Be Thou My Vision and the 7yo and I sang it in church as a little celebration.   We started learning a folk song, Land of the Silver Birch.

We watched episodes of the BBC series Weird Wonders of the World (we skipped over the whale autopsy, though, at popular request), and also Antiques Uncovered,  which features Dr. Lucy Worsley, who I think is a marvelous presenter.

The children built a city outside out of snow.  We drove to visit grandparents, twice, once to see my mother for her birthday,  for which the 7yo helped to make biscuits.

 The 7yo also made good progress on her knitting.

Conversations about...

What would you do if you got lost?  How big is Canada and how much of it do we live in?  How many eggs does a chicken lay?  What is the term for being unable to talk?  What is windshield washer fluid made from?  Imagine what it would be like to carry water to your house instead of turning on a tap?  What is a sponsor child? 

Another week!