A Hillbilly Smile.....or Redneck Depending Where You Are From

So Roo's top two front teeth came out this week and this is how it went.

They were extremely loose but she refused to let me work at them so I just left them alone. On Monday she was trying to avoid brushing her teeth at bedtime and hid under the covers. When I whipped them back somehow one tooth got snagged or something (she must have been under there with her mouth wide open...strange) but never the less she came out with a shocked look and a tooth in her hand. The other tooth was hanging on sideways barely, so it looked like it was one tooth in the center of her mouth. When she smiled I burst out laughing and told her that it looked like a hillbilly smile. What do you think?





After 3 days of that, she let me take the tooth out on Thursday. She was very excited at 6:15 am the next morning when she woke me to show me that the tooth fairy left her ten dollars. The tooth fairy really needs to keep smaller change in the house.

We did school in 4 days this week because a) I am tired, b) it's hot and that makes me crabby, and c)We had an Opthamologist appointment on Friday. You could tell  Roo was taught reading by using phonics because when she did her eye exam chart she used the letter sounds instead of the letter names;) 

Roo's dance recital was last Friday. They were supposed to be Tinker Belle like fairies and they danced to It's Not Easy Being Green. She was nervous.

But apparently she is not nervous when she video tapes herself dancing. This video makes me think that she should be taken out of ballet and placed into hip hop. I had no idea when she filmed this video when I saw it, but then I remember her yelling "Mom, Where's my leather jacket? I need it for something".

Now on to what we finished this week and last.

Memory Work -  Nothing new has been added, we are just working through our memory box to ensure that everything is being memorized and retained.

Spelling (All About Spelling) - She finished Level 2 lesson 3 and 4 this week. 

First Language Lessons - Daily review

Writing with Ease - Completed week 36 of copy work and narration exercises from The Wizard of Oz. We are now done it and have slowly started Handwriting Without Tears Cursive. 

Latin (Song School Latin) - Review

French (Nallenart) - We learned about time, and numbers 30-59.

Math - Using our abacus we did 2 pages of Math Mammoth 1B (we only have 2 sections left) each day and one exercise from Singapore Math a day too. We continued with math facts online using XtraMath. She is plugging along and each day more go into the mastered list. This only takes about 5 minutes a day.

History (Story of the World) - We completed Ch 36 The First Roman Prince, Ch 37 Birth of Jesus and Crucifixion, and Ch 38 The End of the Ancient Jewish Nation and Ch 39 Nero the Evil Emperor, and Christians in the Catacombs.

Science (Elemental) - Our plant study is almost done and this week we completed Nuts, Cones and Spores as well as Stems.

Geography - Every day she reviews her Canadian provinces and territories as well as Europe via Sheppard Software. I really need to dig in my heels and figure out how I am going to implement The Core's method for Geography before I have to return it to the Library.

These are my thoughts on curriculum for next year (grade 2). Some of these I already have on my shelves. Edited to add some changes.

Language Arts

First Language Lessons 2

Writing With Ease 2

All About Spelling 2 and 3

Handwriting Without Tears Cursive

Math

Math Mammoth 2A/2B

History

Story of the World 2 - Middle Ages

Activity Guide for SOTW 2

Science 

Elemental Science Earth Science and Astronomy

Geography

Ideas from The Core 

Expedition Earth done secularly

Foreign Language

Latin for Children A

L'Art de Lire 1 - French

Art and Composer Study

Art - Meet the Masters Online. I asked around on the WTM Forum about Mac compatibility and they said it would work. I really wanted to use this program but the Internet Explorer necessity scared me away, but I have since been told that I can use my Safari Browser without issues. Yay!

Composer - a study I will put together (presumably one composer a month from the middle ages period) 

And the Beat Goes On

So we have been moved into our new apartment for almost two weeks now. There are still boxes floating about, but not too much to inconvenience daily living. We realize that we are going to have to invest in some kind of kitchen shelving unit. Too many kitchen boxes left and not enough counter top and cupboard space. It becomes kind of annoying to try to make a meal in a 1ft x 1ft square of available counter space. Not that we have been making major meals since the weather has been so hot lately, I have placed a ban on oven cooking. Have I mentioned before how much I hate summer time? At least there is a great little take out restaurant downstairs that has yummy Asian noodle and rice dishes served out of those great little boxes. I totally ruin the effect though, when I dump it into a bowl, put the chopsticks in the drawer and use a fork to eat it.
School, school wherefore art thou school? Just kidding, we are still doing school daily, but have cut down and shortened the lessons enough (for summer) that it makes it seem like we aren't. We get in our reading lessons, math, spelling/handwriting and french (which I still need to cut out and laminate the flash cards if I can remember which box I packed the lamination stuff into). It's funny to watch her putter around the house repeating "le stylo est bleu". It's even funnier to watch her face when she actually came across a blue pen when she was saying it. I love to watch the progress of reading but get bewildered when she has no problem with the word, playing or sunshine, but when she sees a cvc word instead of sounding it out she will make a bizarre random guess. For example bad became cleaning, I think she sometimes makes random guesses based on the pictures in the stories. I'm waiting for the light bulb to go on though, I can actually remember the moment that it went on for me when I was 6.  Now scheduling, online vs paper? We have a Mac so many computer based planners won't work for us, but I like the idea of being able to move lessons forward or back without the use of an eraser or white out. I need to get my butt in gear and figure out how I want to go about everything. I see people on a forum that I frequent (TWTM Hive) and they have these fabulous detailed plans for their new school year and  I sit back in awe and reverence. By the way, does anybody know if Staples laminates huge wall posters (39x55)?

Weekly Report 5/17/10 - 5/21/10

This week it feels like summer has officially hit and it is hot in my house. The central air is broken and the landlords have not gotten it fixed yet. I swear it is sometimes hotter in here than outside, the only plus is that we can sit in front of a fan in the house. If that is considered a plus. There are no plans this long weekend so I figured I would do my weekly report tonight, eat something and then read a book until whenever. We had a good school week this week and I must say her new favorite subject seems to be French.

Walking with her homemade wind sock.

In phonics we have started to cover the silent letters. Her reading is getting more fluent and we have begun the 4th set in the Bob Book series for her to read to me at bedtime. Thank goodness for inter library loans that I didn't actually have to buy the 4th set. A money saver that is:) We have begun a review of lessons 14-18 in Spelling Workout. Her writing the words out is currently our only handwriting practice, but for the moment that's all I am going to use until she gets more comfortable with printing. She doesn't really like to write a lot so I think adding handwriting again will be overkill.

Collecting Pinecones

Math has become a less time intensive subject for us since we dropped Saxon. She worked on odd and even numbers, telling time on a digital clock, and skip counting practice. In French we worked on people in a family, made a small family tree and learned how to introduce people in the family. Next week we work on colours.

Making a wish. I'm sure the neighbors love the fact that the Dandelion seeds blew all over their lawn.

Art class is always fun, but this week she got to make a fairy garden. Since fairies are close to her heart, she really enjoyed this project. We finished Pinnochio this week and have started to read The Wizard of Oz as our next read aloud. I'm trying to figure out what to read after this so I can make sure the library has it and put it on hold, but I am drawing a blank. I am open to any suggestions for books you may have enjoyed with your kids.  I think I hear rain beginning and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will cool the temperature and not make it more humid. I need to move someplace that has cooler summers, I hate the heat:)



Fairy Garden