Back to School
Today was our first day back to school after spring break and Dakota woke up whining and hoping that I would change my mind. Didn't happen lol. We spent the morning finishing up our Magic Tree House book, Monday with the Mad Genius about Leonardo da Vinci. I love how these books let you peek inside the lives of famous people and make them seem like someone you could be friends with. Today we finished with chapters 9 and 10 and in chapter 9 we watched da Vinci painting a portrait of a woman who didn't want to smile. Finally she graced him with just a small smile and he finished his painting of Lisa....Mona Lisa. Koda was shocked! "I know that picture!" he said. "I've seen that before!" I love how in the future, when we see that painting, the odds are good that not only will he remember who painted it, but the story that went along with it! We did a storyboard, a word search, a crossword puzzle and a character trait paper. We started our poetry unit, focusing on Haiku poetry, and wrote two of them based on Da Vinci and the book. Dakota did really well with them and seemed to enjoy finding words to fit the syllable form for that particular type of poem. For art, we did a cloud picture, using cotton balls to make a cloud that looked like a dragon head. Da Vinci used "observation and imagination" in his every day life and one example was was finding pictures in the clouds, something Dakota enjoys doing on a regular basis. The mission in this particular book, the second in the four part set, was to find one of the keys to happiness. Curiosity ended up being the secret, something else Dakota could really relate to.
Just before lunch we sat together and talked about moving into the 1900's in history. This week we are going to focus on 1900-1910. Teddy Roosevelt was president and he is my very favorite one. Dakota is familiar with him from the Night At The Museum movies. We read a book that talked about President Roosevelt's camping trip to Yosemite with John Muir, where he honed his love of nature and began working to give the nation our National Park system. He also saved the baby bear cub on this trip, hence the invention of the "Teddy Bear". Dakota seemed to appreciate that our natural areas needed to be preserved and he loved learning about the teddy bear. He ran into his room while I made lunch to see how many teddy bears he had left.
After lunch we did our spelling unit and starting testing out in Abeka 2. I know he's probably familiar with almost all the concepts in the book, but I want to find out what he still needs work on and I just wasn't confident in the Harcourt material. We also got back to our rocks unit, learning a bit more about igneous rocks, filling out our booklet and doing a sorting activity based on color. I think we were both done by this point, so I let him go and wrapped up the paperwork that needed to be cleared up for the day.
Tonight is a quiet night in the house. Our older son is working the O's game and the three of us left at home are in pjs watching TV. I know I am personally looking forward to a new Ghost Hunters and the top 7 in American Idol.
Just before lunch we sat together and talked about moving into the 1900's in history. This week we are going to focus on 1900-1910. Teddy Roosevelt was president and he is my very favorite one. Dakota is familiar with him from the Night At The Museum movies. We read a book that talked about President Roosevelt's camping trip to Yosemite with John Muir, where he honed his love of nature and began working to give the nation our National Park system. He also saved the baby bear cub on this trip, hence the invention of the "Teddy Bear". Dakota seemed to appreciate that our natural areas needed to be preserved and he loved learning about the teddy bear. He ran into his room while I made lunch to see how many teddy bears he had left.
After lunch we did our spelling unit and starting testing out in Abeka 2. I know he's probably familiar with almost all the concepts in the book, but I want to find out what he still needs work on and I just wasn't confident in the Harcourt material. We also got back to our rocks unit, learning a bit more about igneous rocks, filling out our booklet and doing a sorting activity based on color. I think we were both done by this point, so I let him go and wrapped up the paperwork that needed to be cleared up for the day.
Tonight is a quiet night in the house. Our older son is working the O's game and the three of us left at home are in pjs watching TV. I know I am personally looking forward to a new Ghost Hunters and the top 7 in American Idol.
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