Dull Week

After having a whole week off last week I am finding it really hard to get back into the swing of things this week. I'm not the only one, the girls feel it too. Maybe it is all the distractions that come with this time of year, I don't know, but it is really hard to be motivated to sit down and get a lot of work done.

Our work for the week:

1. Continue with Book 2 for math (we just started this on Monday)
2. Combining Explode the Code (Julia thinks its boring) with another phonics program that I already have that is less writing and more reading.
3. Continue working on her handwriting.
4. Begin studying about ancient India.
5. Begin our unit on reptiles.
6. I have two parent meetings this week.
7. Julia has both PE and Hip Hop classes.

Sounds kind of boring to me. I guess its time for a field trip!

Magic Leaves

Today the girls and I were headed out for some shopping. I opened the garage door and got Karley buckled in her seat. Julia usually goes to her "thinking spot" during this time and I always have to call after her to come get in the car. Today was no different, but instead of going to her usual thinking spot on the driveway she ran towards the street, looking up at a tree. I called after her to stop and when I asked her what she was doing she replied, "Oh! Do you see that magic leaf up in the tree?" She was so convincing that I found myself trying to pick out the exact leaf (actually, I thought that maybe enough leaves had fallen to reveal an abandoned bird's nest or something by the level of her excitement). It made me think about how magical simple, ordinary things are in the eyes of a child. I hope she never stops seeing magic in her world.

She's READING!

Julia has been reading those early reader books for some time and she is always reading things she sees when we are in the car or things that are laying around the house. She reads books to Karley and books to me, but last night takes the cake. I checked out a book from the school library called The Boxcar Children. The book was published in the 1940s and written by a teacher who decided that there were not many choices of exciting books to read for new readers. There are dozens of books in the series about these four siblings who are orphans and have all these adventures. It sounded like just Julia's thing. So last night at storytime I get the book out and we open it up. I ask Julia if we could alternate paragraphs. She asked what a paragraph was and I showed her in the book. That made her think and she asked me why there were no words at the end of this one paragraph that ended with just one or two words on a line (maybe she is ready for grammar after all). So anyway, we get to reading. At first she wants only the short paragraphs. Then one paragraph leads to another and another and before I know it she has read a whole page (this is a childrens' novel with 6-8 page chapters). But she doesn't stop there, she reads the facing page as well. At the bottom of that page she tells me it is my turn again. So I turn the page and continue, but before I get too far she says it is her turn and she is off and running again, this time she turns the page and keeps going. She's off and running....

Always Thinking

This morning at breakfast Julia asked me, "Mom, what comes before zero?" I told her that negative numbers come before zero. She thought about it a minute and then said, "Oh." Like it was no big deal...... We finished the K-1st grade math book today.

Great Pyramid

Here is Julia hard at work creating a model of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. She used Elmer's glue to glue sugar cubes in place. After it dried she painted her structure with acrylic paint. She did point out that sides of her pyramid are not smooth like the Egyptian pyramids. I told her not to worry about it, that it was good enough (I didn't think sugar cubes would stand up to sanding. Frankly I was surprised we were able to use while glue and paint without making a big gooey mess!).

Belle the beauty

Julia thought she wanted to be a ghost all summer until the three of us went to the fabric store and she saw all the beautiful fabrics. All of a sudden it came to her.....she wanted to be Belle for Halloween. Not so much because of the big, fancy gown, but mainly because she wanted a red rose. Good grief! Next year I'm hoping for easier costumes, hopefully using easier fabrics!

Princess Karley!

Yes, I finally finished Karley's costume in time for Halloween. She felt like a princess and smiled from head to toe while she wore her dress. When asked her favorite part of her costume she replied with, "my tiara." Go figure.

Papyrus Scroll

This was a history project that Julia did awhile back. The assignment was to make a "papyrus" scroll using paint and a stiff brush. I had no idea she was going to make her hieroglyphics so large so I had to keep adding sheets of paper. The images that she painted spell out "Julia" from top to bottom. (sorry the photo is blurry)