September 13, 2011

Let me just say that teaching when you're sick is just not fun any way you look at it! But to top it off, today was the girls first ballet class--which is out in Wentzville (a good 45 minutes away in good traffic. let's not talk about bad traffic!). Harry graciously took the girls out for me because I wasn't feeling well. Side note here: the girls really enjoyed their first ballet and tap class. It was way too cute to see them in their leotard and tutu and tights with their hair all slicked back. Harry said they really had a blast in the class. And they will be taking a field trip to see the nutcracker in December. Very EXCITING! Daughters of Grace Dance Company really is a neat dance company. Anyway, back to the school story. Since the girls were gone all morning, we had to do school this afternoon. In 93 degree weather. In our un-air conditioned house. So let's review. Mommy cold+late start+93 degrees+no air conditioning= A STEP ABOVE MISERABLE. But despite my misery, we actually touched on all our subjects. Whew!

Here's what we did today:

Reading Selections:

Genesis 24

"The Frog and the Centipede" Anonymous

"The Boar and the Fox," an Aesop Fable

"The Coming of the Romans," from Our Island Story

Phonics:

Alpha Phonics- Lesson 22

Sight words flash cards- all cards both sides.

Reading and Copywork:

Kahmylia copied Psalm 40:24.

Brisa read the first two pages of "The Boy and the Goat," from the Primer by Harriette Taylor Treadwell.

(Brisa did not do copywork and Kahmylia did not do any reading practice from her First Reader by Harriette Taylor Treadwell. Copywork really should be done everyday, but realistically the day is over so we will just have to try again tomorrow.)

Spanish:

We recited the Spanish alphabet, then used alphabet flash cards to identify letters by sight.

We sang Cristo Me Ama .

Math:

We did word problems aloud involving addition and subtraction to ten, and counting by tens. Kahmylia and I worked through a problem counting backwards from 100 by tens. (We should practice counting backwards from 100 by tens.)

Nature Study:

Today we read from Artist Nature Magazine. We learned about the two different types of cetaceans-- toothed and baleen. Then we watched videos on YouTube of sperm whales and blue whales. We learned a lot of really astounding facts about whales and saw some great footage. The videos were from National Geographic and BBC. A particularly interesting piece we saw was from Jonathan Bird's Blue World, where he swims with sperm whales. Also saw a NatGeo clip about a scientist who has been studying the sounds that blue whales make. The sounds that they make are truly astounding!

Music:

As we are doing a composer study on Mozart, today we listened to three selections from The Marriage of Figaro. Which, as I discovered today, does not really have a plot suitable for children. Live and learn! I should have read the synopsis before our school time so that I could at least make an attempt at helping them understand what was going on without introducing them to the world of philandering and romantic trysts. Anyway, we ended up watching some clips of the selections we listened to on YouTube, so the girls were able to see the context of the music. Pretty cool. They really enjoyed it. I think they would enjoy going to an opera if we could discuss the story beforehand so they could follow along. As a singer myself, this, of course, is very exciting to me. So we also watched a few clips of The Magic Flute and Susanna's Secret- two operas I in which I performed in college. Fun stuff!

Dance:

The girls went to their very first Ballet and Tap class at Daughters of Grace Dance Company out in Wentzville. I wasn't there, but Harry said that the girls did very well. I am excited to check it out next Tuesday!