September 9, 2011

Today was kind of icky. Harry was not feeling well and Quint woke up very congested. Brisa is getting over her cold, and I'm catching it. Fun times. Needless to say, school required special effort today! In order to conserve our energy and stay as comfortable as possible we all had to stay in our pajamas. ; ) Actually, I think we all just felt so tired and icky that we forget to get dressed!

This is what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 21:1-8

"The Monkey and the Camel," an Aesop Fable

A Lesson of Faith," Chapter 1 of Parables from Nature by Mrs. Alfred Gatty

"Little Things," by Julia Fletcher Carney

Reading Practice:

Brisa read two more pages of "The Old Woman and the Pig."

Kahmylia read four poems from a collection of Mother Goose Poems. Both of these selections came from Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Primer and First Reader respectively.

Copywork and Phonics:

Brisa completed Lesson 2 of her copywork book. She had a few well formed letters, but she is still pretty sloppy at times. Her handwriting has improved considerably, though, so I am encouraged. She is trying very hard.

Kahmylia completed tracing and copying Psalm 25:4. She is very conscientious and it bothers her a lot if she makes any mistakes. Her handwriting is coming along.

For phonics, both girls read Alpha Phonics-Lesson 20.

Math:

Today Brisa worked on some addition and subtraction word problems

Kahmylia did a calendar activity where she numbered the calendar and then answered some questions about it.

Geography:

We identified all the continents and worked on memorization by singing the continents song.

Kahmylia learned this song at a Classical Conversations Day Camp two summers ago, and she still remembers most of it. She needed a bit of a refresher today. Brisa started picking it up too. We also found Austria, birthplace of Mozart, and England, the setting for the book Our Island Story, on the map of Europe.

Spanish:

Today we sang a few songs in Spanish- "Jonas no hizo caso", "Las flores se inclinan," and a new one- "Alabare." I also tried to teach them the names of foods while we made lunch.

Music:

We had piano lessons today! Yay! I have been wanting to do this for so long, and I think the girls are finally ready. I was pleasantly surprised that they can both keep time fairly well. Kahmylia has a natural feel for the hand posture, and picked up the note names quickly. She is working through Alfred's Prep Course for the Young Beginner Level B. Brisa can concentrate on playing a simple part in time while I play another part. She is working through Alfred's Music for Little Mozarts. I was VERY impressed with both lessons.

Narration:

Kahmylia narrated "The Monkey and the Camel." She did very well. I think she is finally over her anxiety about narrating. Brisa narrated "A Lesson of Faith" from Parables from Nature. I noticed that she picked up a little of the enthusiasm I used in my reading of the story in her narration. Her expressiveness was really cute.

Bonus: Today we baked a loaf of banana-walnut bread and some banana-walnut muffins from some EXTREMELY fermented bananas and it was delicious! So don't throw out your old bananas (unless they are moldy), they make fantastic banana bread! And now that it isn't so hot, it is banana bread season...