A legend

How do you explain "legend" to a five year old? The Clown of God is the story of a legend by one of our favorite authors, Tomie dePaola.  We've read numerous stories by him and always enjoy them, especially the Strega Nona series.  To reinforce the idea of "legend" we are going to be watching some Mythbusters and Tales of Legends from Shelly Duval.
We're going to take things easy this week, as a LOT of stuff is happening.  The one I am most excited about is the start of our Community Bible Study class about Revelation!

Rally Day!!

What I thought was going to be the first day of Sunday School, turned out to be a huge eating fest with music :D Hannah was able to make it to the second service's children's church where she learned about Jericho.  They had play blocks that they walked around.  When I asked her if they fell down when they blew their horns she said "No, we had to kick them down."  Now that's worth the price of admission alone!

Don't Get Sick

The science lesson today was about "healthy habits."  I wasn't feeling it, so instead we identified the seasons in the various drawings in Madeline.  We talked about winter, spring, summer, and fall.  We guessed that Madeline must have got sick either in spring or summer. 
Overall, I would say that the lesson plans forMadeline were a little lacking!  But then again, I may know a little too much about Paris to be satisfied. 
I would let you know what we are studying next week, but I don't know yet.  My plan was to run by the library today, but it's closed this weekend for a festival downtown.  We'll have to go by the library on Monday, which will have to be in the evening as we are a one car family. 
It's an exciting week coming up though!  Sunday School starts tomorrow and for the first time in Hannah's life she will be able to have her very own class.  She has visited at other churches, but this is the first time at her own church.  We also start Community Bible Study this week AND Wednesday night programming starts up again.  I think it will be a wonderful week!

Grouping

The little girls in Madeline are always in two straight rows.  Our math lesson was about grouping.  Groups with specific numbers were no problem but groups with concept are a little tough.  Hannah can easily count out three for each group and tell me how many groups she has, but when asked to give me two equal groups, there was a definite learning curve.
We were able to have breakfast with some ladies from the church this morning.  It is always so wonderful to be able to enjoy a meal with them.  And Hannah fits right in.  They have all entered into the realm of Grandma, so they have children in their lives.  Many of them were teachers, so it's a nice time for me to go and be encouraged and to remember that God is good, and that it will all work out. 
It was much needed as Hannah is being very resistant to phonics.  I think we are going to continue to use Writing the Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory Alphabet to help Hannah with printing.  Even if she doesn't want to read, she will at least be able to print.  I'm also going to look into a cursive program.

Artistic License

We had Art lessons today with Madeline.  I pulled out an old photo of Luxembourg Garden and we talked about the difference between a photo and a drawing.  It's kind of fun to take a photo and try and turn it into a work of art.  It's even more fun that Bemelman's drawing was recognizable from a photo taken from a completely different angle.  Now we are watching "My Father's Glory" on Netflix streaming, to get some French language exposure.  Sometimes I wish we could study France every week :D 
In other news, I was ready to stay in bed all day. And then it got worse when I attempted to make breakfast, I went to get a single egg and the carton crashed to the floor .  In addition to the expected pancakes, we had a mess of scrambled eggs as well.  God is good, all the time

First Day of (Public) School

Oh man, I was sitting here, enjoying the weather and looking at my daughter as she chewed on some random piece of plastic toy and realized that TODAY is the first day of public school in our area!  And I thought about how if she were going to public school, I would have dressed her and sent her out the door at 8:10 this morning for a school that doesn't start until 9:00.  And she would be gone all day today, meeting new friends and getting settled into yet another new in her life.  But instead, here we are discussing France, watching a French movie on Netflix streaming, and enjoying life.  Homeschooling, today, is a blessing far beyond what I could have imagined.  Maybe that's because today is the first day that I am truly not sending Hannah to school to be with her classmates in the public school.  Today, our homeschooling becomes a true alternative to something else that she could be doing, not just some words that I use when people ask about if Hannah is going to be in school this year.  She is home schooled, she doesn't attend any of those schools that opened their doors today and welcomed all the new students. 
I think this will be something that I will be realizing more and more as the school year progresses, but today, is the first time that homeschooling is something more than a pipedream.

Where does my food go?

Vocabulary was on our agenda today.  The words in Madeline are appendix, solemn, and disaster.  We had a little body geographyin order to find Hannah's appendix and talked about the digestive system along the way.  And the other two vocabulary words gave a perfect oppurtunity for context guessing of a meaning.  And given the context and illustrations, Hannah guessed correctly the meaning of the words!
I had a magazine about France out on the table this morning and as we talked about what is for breakfast in France, she started to flip through it.  She noticed the statue of liberty, which was gifted to us from the French.  In the end, we had not only vocabulary lessons, but history and geography and health lessons as well!
After the lesson, Hannah wanted to dance, and Michael W. Smith's A New Hallelujah was in the player.  We got to rock out to some Jesus songs!