Madeline and highlights of the school week

This record is only a snapshot as I am homeschooling all day long and could not possibly include everything..but here it goes. Our daily routine includes bible history and a Wee Sing song or two. We are currently on Abraham and W2 loves the song 'Father Abraham' in Wee Sing. On Wednesday, the children and I went to a guitar store to take in my sickly guitar that I have had since the third grade. I have noticed on Wee Sing, guitar chords on the bottom of the sing along book soooooo..it is time to fix the guitar and play for my wee ones. I think they will not be too critical of me.

We used Five In A Row again last week to study five subjects using the story of Madeline written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans. Monday was Social Studies/Geography. This is the cover of G5s lapbook. Now, on the subject of lapbooking. That is a post on its own but I can tell you briefly, it is a collection or, a record of our research on the subject at hand. At this point, I lead the layout and the what? part of what we put in G5s lapbooks. However, whenever he wants to jump in...he does it himself. I determine whether or not he is going to get too involved and overly frustrated in the cutting part rather than the learning part so he does some cutting and pasting and sometimes I do it to get to the point of learning. So, moving forward with Five In A Row...he starts by putting a story disk (paper drawing circle to remember the book title)everyday on our world map for Paris, France and talk about the Seine River or other things about France. We noticed that Germany, where Oma and Opa and one uncle live, is quite close to the country of France.






This is an overview of the interior of G5s Madeline lapbook.





G5 made a flag of France in paper for his lapbook you see at upper top left. Again, I cut the three colors of the flag and he noted how to arrange them, then pasted them to the mini book. Below it is a 'Where in the World is France' mini book and inside, he colored super duper inside the lines, the country of France. He is a perfectionist child. I have to encourage him when he gets intimidated and also appreciate his perfectionism. See his perfectly colored little France below? Pretty neat and tidy for a 5 year old? Too much I think. ;-)





On Tueday, Language Arts, we looked at rhyming as a literary device. I was surprised at how he did not at first know what rhyming was until I gave lots of examples from the book. I have always been careful to introduce poetry and Little Golden Books with rhyme but this is the first time I have ever focused on it. So, it was interesting for him and he came up with some on his own for the Rhyme Time book now in his lapbook. He is learning something new! For example: What rhymes with 'door'? He came up with 'snore' and 'boar'. That will work! Each tab held others he came up with on his own too. It was fun.

On Wednesday, we studied my favorite, Art. Specifically, architecture. I was able to introduce him to real buildings in Paris that we found photographs for that matched the illustrated ones in Bemelmans book..through his artistic lens. G5 liked this cutting and matching mini book..see it here. (He did all the cutting himself with pleasure...you just never know!)

All of these structures are in the book. I forgot when we looked at it but I also traveled to France in 1998 and went inside the Eiffel Tower..I don't have pictures to show G5 so that is probably why I forgot to tell him. Oh well....


On Thursday is Math. I cut out 48 girls quickly and then we divided and counted them. G5 made groups of 12, four times. The questions were like this: 'If Miss Clavel wants the girls to go to the sink in groups of three to wash their hands, how many groups do you have?' He did really well with this...maybe he will not inherit my challenges with math afterall! I would have to remind him to use all the girls..all twelve. See the Math pocket on the lapbook interior above. It is yellow with a hat on the center right.


On Friday, Science. In the book, Madeline has her appendix removed. We talked about illness you cannot prevent, like Madeline, but there are things you can do to protect your health. Wash your hands! I say this without thinking. If I could count how many times I have supervised this little task...it would take forever. I did a mini book, in lapbook at far right, and asked questions like 'when is it most important to wash hands?' So glad we talked about it purposely because, it took some leading questions to get him to remember...'after using the bathroom'!! He is learning isn't he?


In closing, my favorite thing G5 did all week was on his own initiative. Of course, it is Art. He made a drawing of Madeline herself and I mounted it in the back of his lapbook. Not bad huh? I love her wild hair.

For next week, I have been looking into including Nature Study and how to use it more intentionally..beyond just messing around in the dirt or the backyard and just gathering bugs, etc. Although, all of that is great too! I have been encouraged this week and see that even though the first couple of weeks were a tough learning curve, I think we are developing a rhythm to this schooling with a purpose thing. I am still working on developing activities on a list that I can put W2 and T1 onto when I am schooling so they are content and engaged in something. It is challenging! Next week, we are reading A Pair of Red Clogs and we are taking a field trip to the Cockrell Butterfly Museum. I look forward to sharing our adventures!