Thursday, February 16, 2017

Plan Book Before & After: Thursday

I'm working on a series this week that follows from Sunday's post Do I Try to Fit Too Much in a Day?

I listed my entire plan book for the week on Sunday and now I'm going to go through day by day and post what we actually accomplished.

Wednesday, February 15

Yesterday the kids had Farm Day and after I went down and picked them up, we did the Quote for Kindness from Wonder.

My experience with this book was pretty profound. Back when it first came out and I knew nothing about it, I bought a copy. I was taking a class in Children's Literature and it was getting rave reviews from everyone. Well, my dachshund Toby NEVER chews on books (books are pretty sacred in our house and I think even the animals can sense that) but he got into this one and gnawed at it a bit. Not terrible, just enough to mangle the paper cover and the front cover of the book but all of the pages were OK. I put it in the recycle bin assuming it was ruined. And it sat on my screen porch under the table. Then something a few days later made me go back and take it out of the bin and look at it more closely, which showed me that it was still completely readable. I opened it and read it and was stunned to find out it was about exactly that... something which seems mangled still being beautiful and amazing on the inside. I gave the book to my colleague and told her the story and about why I kept it and how the outside of it actually goes perfectly with the book and this fact makes the story even more incredible. I loved hearing her share it to her class and say, this book looks ruined but Ms. Rhoda kept it and you'll see why she did as I read it to you.


Thursday, February 16

No, we forgot to do our verse today but yes, we did do Article of the Day (this routine is working so well for that first settling in time when the kids are getting out snacks and conversing and I'm putting Zac down for his morning nap) and our Quote for Kindness (from Charlotte's Web). They opened up to this quote more than any other:

    Quote: "You have been my friend, replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing."

    Prompt: Why is being a friend a "tremendous thing?"

    Because then you will never die in someone's heart? You will live forever? Because then you will never be lonely? Because then you will feel wanted?

    It means being someone's friend is so important for that person because if you have a bad day a friend can get you through it and also people with a little group of good friends are happier than people with lots of bad friends.

No, we didn't do mental math or the Montessori bank game or finish our long-ago-begun birdhouse Puddle Question. Today one of my students didn't feel well and so we just kept it calm and peaceful. Handwork, Art, MLB.

Yes, we read the Caldecott Honor book Leave Me Alone! and started new handwork projects. He began to weave on the tapestry for the first time (first stalagmites are going in) and I wove alongside him and helped him with his selvages and she began a crochet project (tool pouch, page 32).

No, we didn't start a knitted chicken (my idea for his handwork project). He seemed more comfortable with weaving. And no, we didn't measure the wall and hang up my grandmother's decorative bird plates. Something I keep meaning to do and never remember to until the day is done! I do think it would be a good practical life/mathematics project but it continually slips my mind. Poor plates. They have been sitting on my Nature table for months.

In addition to reading Leave Me Alone!, I also reviewed the other 2017 Caldecott books we purchased this year. So far I've been very happy with all of them and REALLY impressed with the story in Freedom in Congo Square.

To me, this book is a must-own for Black History Month, slavery, the Civil War, history of Louisiana, or the history of music in general and jazz in particular. It's also a good one for Philosophy.

Everyone also chose a 2017 Newbery book to read. He picked the winner, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, and she picked the honor book Wolf Hollow.

I am apparently last in line for the new books.

No, we didn't do watercolor painting but yes, we did choose a drawing lesson with Jan Brett and follow along. I wouldn't recommend these for elementary school children but I think they are fine for middle school. There was some to-ing and fro-ing but ultimately they picked how to draw a tiger and we viewed the video and followed along and paused it as needed. We used colored pencils and plain drawing paper. She used paint. The video also had some footage of her actual trip to India where she saw a tiger... pretty cool.

Qwirkle is still the board game of choice for indoor recess and Becca finished her Colorku game from yesterday as well.

No, Becca and I didn't read her chapter on Wind (Kovacs chapter 12) but she did add the three kinds of rocks, the rock cycle, and the water cycle to her book. No, we didn't get to her science experiments. She had to finish the main lesson book pages for homework this evening. It was A LOT!

No, he and I didn't read the planets chapter from Kovacs but he spent all of his time adding his heavenly body research to his MLB and was very productive. Tomorrow he will add the famous astronomer summaries from the Gibson book Stories of the Great Scientists (Copernicus, Brache, Kepler, Galileo) and share all of this with us. We will also have a visiting student!

Tomorrow we hope to do a quick field trip in the morning and then I would like to do more extensive driving/hiking trips on Saturday and Monday.


This post contains affiliate links to the materials I actually use for homeschooling. I hope you find them helpful. Thank you for your support!

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