Driving home from the park today Sparkle composed the first stanza of the following poem. She scribbled it on the back of an old receipt. After we got home she immediately copied it over to her poetry book and added the remaining lines. I have taken the liberty to correct spelling and punctuation.
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God's Love
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God's love, God's love is everywhere.
It blows past you within the air.
God's love, God's love is in your heart,
And of all of it, you're a special part.
God's love wrapped round you like a shawl
Comforts you when you want to bawl.
The chilling overwhelming sadness
Will suddenly disappear,
And you will feel true love, the feeling that is beautifully clear.
***********
Sparkle drew a picture to go with the poem: a girl with black hair and a pink dress surrounded by floating hearts.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Sparkle's timeline
Sparkle has been going through Mary Daly's textbook, First Timeline for history this year. Each week she makes a new index card for the current section. Today we laid out all the cards that she's made so far and they fill the front hallway. We still have about two more months to finish the book.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Schoolish stuff
We work on new memory work at our morning meeting. Each of us reads or recites her piece until it is memorized. Glitter is currently working on a poem (that she picked out) and Sparkle is working on the stations of the cross for Lent.
In math lesson, I formally introduced Glitter to the concept of a hundred. Glitter built 1, 10, and 100 on each of three abacuses and labeled each with the appropriate place value card.
I accidentally deleted the picture of Glitter with the abacuses above, so here is Glitter with her note reading flashcards.
In math lesson, I formally introduced Glitter to the concept of a hundred. Glitter built 1, 10, and 100 on each of three abacuses and labeled each with the appropriate place value card.
I accidentally deleted the picture of Glitter with the abacuses above, so here is Glitter with her note reading flashcards.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
ridiculous requirements
I'm strict when it comes to school. Here's some of the more ridiculous things I insist upon.
- Name and date on all school work. Even papers that are headed for the recycle bin as soon as we are done discussing them.
- Memory work every day of the week, including Saturday and Sunday.
- You're not done with a subject until you put away all of your books and supplies for that subject, including your pencil.
- Any of the following can cause a math problem to be wrong. Missing labels (e.g. inches, feet, dollars). Not clearly indicating the answer, especially in word problems.
- If you get too many math problems wrong, you have to explain *every* problem in the set.
- Handwriting and spelling are important as soon as you are capable of forming letters.
- You are responsible for finding your own pencil and making sure that it is sharp and has a decent eraser. I, however, am free to use your pencil when discussing your work.
- If you want me to come see something, you have to tell me what it is first so I can decide if it is worth getting off my duff. (Okay, so this is really to help Glitter develop her verbal skills.)
On the other hand, I do have my more lenient moments.
- You can avoid school work if it is close to lunch time by cooking lunch for the family.
- If you act angelically when we are at an outing, I'll probably forget that we still have school to do when we return home.
- Everyone is allowed to read a book at lunchtime. (Unless another adult is around, I gave up on lunchtime conversation years ago.)
- Name and date on all school work. Even papers that are headed for the recycle bin as soon as we are done discussing them.
- Memory work every day of the week, including Saturday and Sunday.
- You're not done with a subject until you put away all of your books and supplies for that subject, including your pencil.
- Any of the following can cause a math problem to be wrong. Missing labels (e.g. inches, feet, dollars). Not clearly indicating the answer, especially in word problems.
- If you get too many math problems wrong, you have to explain *every* problem in the set.
- Handwriting and spelling are important as soon as you are capable of forming letters.
- You are responsible for finding your own pencil and making sure that it is sharp and has a decent eraser. I, however, am free to use your pencil when discussing your work.
- If you want me to come see something, you have to tell me what it is first so I can decide if it is worth getting off my duff. (Okay, so this is really to help Glitter develop her verbal skills.)
On the other hand, I do have my more lenient moments.
- You can avoid school work if it is close to lunch time by cooking lunch for the family.
- If you act angelically when we are at an outing, I'll probably forget that we still have school to do when we return home.
- Everyone is allowed to read a book at lunchtime. (Unless another adult is around, I gave up on lunchtime conversation years ago.)
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Science Museum
The week before spring break was our last science museum day for the school year. It was crowded: 1700 kids were registered for field trips!
We spent most of the morning holed up in the basement avoiding the crowds. Glitter and I joined Sparkle to visit the butterfly exhibit.
The afternoon was amazing. We went to see the Texas exhibit. Early in the morning I saw our favorite docent and mentioned that we'd be at the exhibit around 1pm. He said that he'd try to meet our group there. Sure enough, a few minutes after we entered the exhibit, he showed up. Then he stayed with our group for TWO HOURS pointing out cool parts of the exhibit and filling the kids in on the back story. He pulled out box after box of artifacts from the touch cart for kids to feel and talk about. My kids who normally flit through the exhibits like the butterflies we had seen earlier paid attention to his descriptions and ask questions that showed they were actually paying attention. What an amazing learning experience.
We spent most of the morning holed up in the basement avoiding the crowds. Glitter and I joined Sparkle to visit the butterfly exhibit.
The afternoon was amazing. We went to see the Texas exhibit. Early in the morning I saw our favorite docent and mentioned that we'd be at the exhibit around 1pm. He said that he'd try to meet our group there. Sure enough, a few minutes after we entered the exhibit, he showed up. Then he stayed with our group for TWO HOURS pointing out cool parts of the exhibit and filling the kids in on the back story. He pulled out box after box of artifacts from the touch cart for kids to feel and talk about. My kids who normally flit through the exhibits like the butterflies we had seen earlier paid attention to his descriptions and ask questions that showed they were actually paying attention. What an amazing learning experience.
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