Soren finished the orange Miquon math book today and started the red one - which oddly enough, seems simpler than the first one. We started with even and odd by grouping things in twos - I guess a good intro to collections. Then we did a page in her health book, which I immediately decided was too patronizing and simple.

I got some Abeka ( a xian curriculum) books for free and had Emma read some stuff in her 3rd grade health curriculum, which if you can get past the idea of thanking God for giving you your body, has some good information on biology, believe it or not. There is also an American history book, which I am dying to read ;).

There is also a Saxon math book that I got for free and some other math stuff. There is a very good 3rd grade book that I am copying some stuff out of for both Emma and Soren. Emma is finally getting so much better at multiplying. Today she learned how to multiply 2 double digits in columns, which was way cool. Soren did more clock stuff.

Emma learned about different kinds of joints, cartilage and will do a diagram of the skeleton tomorrow. I gave her some reading comprehension stuff, which she moaned mightily about, but did with no problem.

Soren and I played 5 games of Mancala. She won 3 of them. we played 1/2 game of Othello, then got interrupted by Jude, who is sick and crabby.

Then she said she was afraid of monsters in the toilet, so I started saying that she should flush it, so they go down in the sewer because there is a trap to keep them from coming back up. somehow we started talking about other things that may or may not be in the sewer, and one of them was piranhas, which she then said were in Africa (too much Disney Tarzan!), so I told her they were in South America in the Amazon river. She immediately ran off to write this down. When I asked her why she had to write it down, she said it was because she wanted to remember to never go to the Amazon river!

Then we looked up some info online but didn't find much that was very in depth. I'll have to look for more later.

lcg 2/15

Another day has passed, and we're all younger than we'll ever be again!

We had a nice day, complete with birthday and valentine wishes. We missed Alyssa and Michaela.

We did our usual opening, and went right into play rehearsal. We are all becoming more familiar with our play. The Milligans are making copies of an audio tape of the play. Danielle has graciously offered to try and get copies to you all over the next two weeks. If she doesn't get to you, then we'll have them for you at the next
class.

I've included the entire song "Canticle to the Sun" on the tape-- hope my voice doesn't drive you up a wall! We may not sing it all at the performances, but I've included all the verses in case we do.

We did a quick review of a difficult mirror image form drawing. We got deeper into it by "drawing" it in a box filled with rice. The children enjoyed that.

We knitted away with Melissa, and our class blanket is taking shape. It's a true original.

I have to wonder what that means ;)

Lauren and Nora Sample came in to celebrate Nat's half-birthday with us. We enjoyed a great snack, and sang and gave birthday wishes to Nat, and saw come cute baby pictures.

We finished with a long review of the Buddha story, and drew and wrote in our main lesson books.

NO CLASS NEXT WEEK!

It's funny how even we homeschoolers need a break! My family and I are off to Florida for a week-- looking forward to some warm weather and family time.

Peace to all of you,
Lynn

stuff

Soren is doing clock time for math. It is a bit frustrating, but she's getting the hang of it. Damn this age of digital clocks!

Emma is multipying in columns - 2 and 3 digit numbers by one digit. Today we might have time to do 4 digits times one digit. She finally gets the carrying thing I think.

We played drawing charades yesterday using cards where you choose a noun, adjective and verb. Kind of like mad lib charades! Fun. I taught Emma how to play Othello and she kicked my butt. Soren and I played Uno, and we each won a game.

They both did cursive and sent out valentine's day cards in cursive. very cute! their handwriting is coming along quite nicely.typing is on the backburner, as their computer is dead again.

Readers

There are books everywhere! I love it/hate it. I can't get the girls to DO anything, because they're either reading to me, or to each other, or to Jude, or to themselves.

Today we had lunch, and all 3 of us were eating and reading at the same time ;).

lcg 2/8

Hello all,

We had a very nice day. We missed our Erin, though.

Melissa got us started with "Glory to the Mountain" singing and game. Then we did our opening verse and song and went right into play practice. We've progressed a bit, and I'll hand out audio tapes next week.

The Milligans have graciously offered to copy the tapes for us. They might also be able to burn CD's. If CD's are available, let me or Danielle know if you'd prefer a tape or CD.

We then drew beautiful hands on the banner to be sent to Iraqi children.

Back in class we knitted, even quietly for quite a bit. Then Alyssa's dad Brian came in and the children really enjoyed juicing apples and oranges. We celebrated Alyssa's half birthday, since she has a summer birthday, and sang to her and offered wishes.

Then the children soaked in the story of Prince Siddhartha who became the Buddha, and we made beeswax creations from the story.

We ended with a rousing game of "The Big Wind Blows"-- sure to become a classic with this group.

catching up

Emma has been doing times tables, trying to memorize them finally. long division was getting hard, because of needing to re-compute every time.

Soren and her friend made a restaurant today, complete with menu, cash register, and receipts. they did a great job and even had comment cards!

emma's been playing a lot of computer games and continuing to read a lot. we need to get to the library this week finally.

she had a gymnastics meet this weekend. didn't go so well for her, but her team took 1st place again! Go Level 4s! We had a good time spending the night at the hotel and hanging out w/ her team mates. was some good socialization and skill building with 8 to 12 yo girls (cringe!)

Soren is doing more writing and is *really* into cursive. she might catch up to e. if e. doesn't get a move on!

lcg 2/1

Hello all,

We sped through a high energy day today.

We started with opening verse and songs, bean bags and singing.

Sharon Balestra joined us today and stayed to do recorder with the class. For the new folks, Sharon taught recorder to several classes last year, and was a teacher at LCG the very first year. It was a joy to have Sharon back again. She brought in her lyre and a xylophone, and the children had fun experimenting with those. She injected some enthusiasm into our music time, which I greatly appreciate.

Then Melissa came in for handwork, and we all continued to progress on our projects. Snack was simple and delicious. By the way-- it's been very nice to have non-gluten snacks. People are coming up great ideas-- lots of fruit, corn chips, nuts and raisins...

We did a form drawing that was a bit challenging for some-- we may re-visit it again. Then we reviewed the story of St. Jerome and the lion, and drew in our main lesson books.

I'm hoping to carve out more time to work on the play. I'll be recording tapes of the play, for the children to listen to at home. If you can find your tape from last year's play, please bring it in so we can add this year's play to it.

I'm thinking it might be nice for us to have a March gathering, at my house if that works, to have a longer play practice, and some socializing time. Does the week-end of March 12-13 work for you? Please let me know. I live in Penfield-- if you'd rather not come this far, let me know if someone else would be willing to host.
Also-- can we get another gathering on the calendar-- maybe sledding or a museum? Does anyone want to organize this?

Thanks for all who baked for the bake sale-- I think we made over $20! We'll be at it again with a bake sale at the talent show on Feb. 15.

Thanks for all your help. Also-- I'd like to wrap up the "Kid's Kit"-- please send in your items next week. If you're not able to, or don't want to participate, please let me know, and I'd be happy to fill in any remaining items.