French, Apples, and Rembrandt

Thursday...

I snapped a shot of French class before it officially started. Seems to be going well.

Kirsty entertained my kids while I went to the doctor. So sweet.

Water fun in the warm sun!

 Our nature study focused on apples.

Noah colors in his tree. Paint fingerprints were added for apples.

Alice and Cooper examine his apple print. 

 Today...

We reviewed the boys' French song. "Rouge et jaune et rose et vert, violet, orange et bleu...."

and we read this book.

Silly Putty, Planting, Vivaldi, and Maps

Caleb used his silly putty to cover letters.  

During our lunch break, Cooper and Caleb did some planting.

Another great find! We picked this book (and accompanying cd) up at the library.

We worked on directions in geography. 

A full day's work and then an outing

Our circle time has become chair time. The boys are less inclined to roll around and cause disruptions. 

We studying Sumer, Mesopotamia, and Egypt today. The boys did map work, and we used the globe to pin-point the location of their maps. I think a trip to the Ashmolean is coming up soon. Hopefully Nick can take us around since he knows a thing or two about this time period.

We finished our unit on the stages of life. The boys glued the photos cut out yesterday into a book and added a few sentences about each stage. 

 I decided to take the kids into town a little earlier than usual (Cooper and Noah go to Whizz Kids at 5:30). We had a picnic lunch in the Botanic Gardens.

That's Magdalen College tower in the background. The boys had a great time running around the rose garden.

The pond is also a favourite (oops...I just slipped and used the British spelling). 

Cut and Paste

Caleb reused his number caves today. I had him paste the numbers in order onto construction paper.

 We're nearing the end of our Stages of Life unit in Science. The boys cut out photos of people in various stages of life and will compile them into a book tomorrow.

Noah carefully cuts from a catalog. 

Cooper places his photo into the appropriate envelope.

 Getting ready for Thursday's nature study...

We're attempting to dry apples. I borrowed my neighbor's oven.

Caleb goes to University

University College, that is. Nick had to register and decided to take Caleb with him. He was a very big boy.

The big boys are ready.

Off they go to catch the bus.

Noah has started using All About Spelling. He really likes working with the letter tiles.

Thursday is Friend Day!

Today was our first day of school with friends. Cooper and Noah had French class (no photos this time - I didn't want to interrupt!) while Caleb played with some of his friends. After lunch, we had a nature lesson. 

Kirsty prepared an activity for the youngest guys to do while she taught the older crew.

Everyone joined in for a fruit hunt.

Next, they painted pictures using fruit dyes (Did I mention Kirsty has GREAT ideas?)

The dyes, Blackberry, Rosehips, Hawthorn, and Elderberry, were applied to the appropriate picture.

Osiris, Set, and the Red-haired Priest

I'm behind on the blog. Sigh. I was consistent for about a week, but alas, I've fallen back into my old ways.  Friday was great. Monday we went on a field trip to Cambridge (pictures will eventually be posted on the family blog). Yesterday was super busy. Here's what happened today...

Set closed his brother, Osiris, in a coffin and dumped him in the Nile.  

The red-haired priest entertained us again.

Cooper was inspired after listening to Classical Kids: Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery.

Nature Detectives

We returned to the nature reserve for our nature studies. The main goals of our nature walks are exploration, observation, and FUN! I hope this time helps the boys develop a love of God's creation and an awareness of their surroundings.

After many attempts, Cooper caught a butterfly. He then caught two more.

Noah recorded some of his observations.

Caleb needed some help crossing the fallen tree.

He also needed assistance climbing.

 Below are two of the worksheets I downloaded from the Nature Detectives website. The third dealt with trees.

by Cooper

by Noah

After 2+ hours, we had to head back home for dinner.

Patterns and Vivaldi

Caleb worked on magnetic tangrams.

Noah and Cooper created patterns. We used their patterns to practice ordinals: "Which block is in the 5th position?"

 Music was GREAT today! After reading our intro to Baroque music and Vivaldi in our book, The Story of the Orchestra, we read the loaner below.

This was an excellent supplement to our study of Vivaldi. 

Take it outside

We're continuing our study of the life stages of humans. We don't have snapshots with us in the UK, so I pointed out pictures in our photo book and had the boys identify the person, stage of life (infant or toddler), and how they determined the stage. 

I read this book to Caleb. He then drew lines from the bear to the cave for some fine motor skills practice.

 We moved on from nomads to the first farmers today in history. School moved outside, so the kids could attempt to build a shelter from found materials.

The first attempt proved unstable. It was not at all shielded from the wind.

The second location turned out well. Here's the hut under construction.

Cave Paintings and some other stuff

Caleb completed his shape book today. 

Cooper fills in his developmental science booklet. I'm loving the organization of this program!

Noah created words by changing the initial phoneme.

 Our history lesson was on The First Nomads. After some reading, the boys worked on cave paintings.

Noah painted a red-eyed highland cow puffing smoke. Very scary.

Here's Cooper's cave painting.

Rembrandt - Self Portraits

We're studying the Baroque Period in music, and I've decided to stick with the same in art. Today, we were introduced briefly to Rembrandt, looked at a number of his portrait paintings on the National Gallery's website, and then completed a project from our book, Discovering Great Artists. Rembrandt practiced by making drawings of himself with various expressions. After making lots of crazy faces at one another, the boys set to work.

Noah worked in front of my wardrobe mirror.

Cooper set up a mirror at his desk.

We only have two mirrors, so Caleb sat in front of the computer at Nick's desk/my dressing table. He had a great time scribble scrabbling (his words) and spreading papers about.

Noah was prolific.

Cooper spent a lot of time contemplating the best way to go about the project.