Monday, December 5, 2011

Week of November 27

Back to the routine of regular math, grammar, spelling and French lessons this week.

Lily is learning how to multiply, divide, add and subtract fractions and decimal numbers with relative ease.  John showed me he can count to 100!  He needs a little help with some of the tens as he goes but is able to follow the number chart and count most of the numbers.  He also learned to add double up to 5 + 5.  He has been doing some simple adding but this was the first introduction of the formula.  Gabe is also making good progress with math with the new skill this week being balancing and weighing objects.

We delved into Ancient China this week with readings from Story of the World, the Kingfisher History Encylcopedia and fictional stories from our bookshelves.  Lily and Gabe completed maps, coloring and narrations.

We started our study of rocks and fossils with reading from Usborne Encylcopedia of World Geography and Kingfisher Young Knowledge Rocks and Fossils. We are expecting a rock and fossil kit to arrive any day and will do experiments from there.

Lily and Gabe both spent time every day at French and are making good progress.  They are also both doing really well with piano.  Lily has been serious about spending time practicing and Gabe has been practicing and really enjoying playing.  We had a good lesson focusing on rhythm and John joined in and had fun tapping and clapping out simple rhythm patterns.

Gabe and Lily are stilling loving Judo and Highland dance respectively with Gabe trying to convince John to join his class.  Gabe has taught John a few Judo moves at home.  We've also been getting together with another family every week to play outside, mostly tag and jump rope.

Update: Our rock and mineral kit arrived this afternoon and we already started growing some crystals.