Weekly Reports 2009: Term 1 Week 2

Family Bible Time
We went through the second half of Mark 1 this week. Actually, we didn't get to do FBT on Friday because we spent the time watching Joshua open his birthday presents, but we are getting into a morning routine which ensures there is enough time for FBT before Joshua has to be driven to school.
We broke the stories up into quite small verse sections (21-28, 29-31, 32-34, 35-39 and we'll do 40-45 on Monday) and there were some really interesting insights. The kids' liked hearing how Jesus had driven out an evil spirit from a man, and knowing that Jesus could protect them from evil as well. They also were interested to hear of an entire township who had gathered at Jesus' door to have him heal their sick; and to be reassured that Jesus has time for each and every one of us today as well, just as he had for each of those people.

History
On Monday we read aloud from our Bible in Pictures the stories of creation, the fall, Cain & Abel and the flood. We talked about how the Bible tells the history of what God and His people did before Noah's flood. We also talked about how people can dig up fossils, many of which were formed by the waters and mud of the flood,to find out about animals and plants which lived before the flood. But I made the point that the flood changed things and the earth after the flood is not the same as it was before the flood, so we cannot expect to find Eden, or know where Nod was. Anna narrated these Bible histories and copied the words in bold above.
On Tuesday I read aloud SOTW1 chapter 1, which tells of the early nomads settling in the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates river. Anna coloured the map (from the Activity Guide) and read and traced a few sentences summarising the content of the chapter. We also looked at a whole heap of ancient rock art online, and then entered into an interesting email conversation with Grandad over rock art that he and Grandma have seen on their travels through the Top End.
I think each week I will give Anna trace or copy work based on my summary of the chapter, and she will do a narration not from SOTW but from the literature selections which we will read to accompany it.

mainly music
This week was our last before BSF starts back up for the new year. In our last Wednesday before BSF I took the girls and Sam to a session of mainly music at our church. This is a music-oriented playgroup, using music suitable for toddlers and kindergarteners with a Christian element to some of the lyrics. I had a good time - Jeff came out of his office and joined with us as well - and the kids enjoyed it a lot. Anna took a while to warm up to the idea (as per normal, a facet of her shyness), but she was joining in well by the end. Abigail looked at it all as an excuse to dance around madly with no regard to the directions of the leader, but some to the rhythms. And Samuel loved the idea and was able to join in with some of the stuff with either Jeff's or my help, and even alone for some of the songs. They all loved the delicious morning tea and indoor play session at the end. Normally the kids would all go outside to the courtyard, but I think Wednesday was the hottest day of the week at about 43C (109F) so that wasn't really an option. It was a nice opportunity to talk to some of the other parents there as well.

Science
Science this week was cooking cupcakes with Daddy for Joshua's birthday celebrations at school. They did it while I was out, and I think it went well... our share of the cupcakes were tasty, anyway.

Arts
I was busy on Friday morning cleaning the house so that I didn't have to do any housework on my birthday, so while I swept and washed the floor the girls listened to a Beethoven CD. I talked to them a little about what the first song made them think of (Dragons on the prowl and fairies dancing) and then left them to enjoy listening to it. The CD player is in the Play Room; it's an old one that was being thrown out at church when Jeff said "I'll have that if no-one minds." I wasn't expecting it to work well, or possibly at all, but after a little fiddle with the buttons the music came out wonderfully. The only problem is that later on, Samuel took out the CD to put in a Thomas DVD he had taken out of its box after taking the box off down from the shelf... and I don't know where he put the Beethoven CD (which my Dad lent to me) and so I'm annoyed at Sam and annoyed at myself for not realising just what he was referring to when he told me "CD in... Thomas in" later that day.

Literacy
I have made up a set of flash card for Anna with the "multiple phonograms" she learnt from the LEM Phonics workbook 2 last year with the phonogram on the front and a selection of words on the back featuring that phonogram. The words go from simple to complex, and I have tried to give a few for each different phoneme (sound) for that particular grapheme (letter combination). So ch has "cheek", "church" and also "chicken" (harder to read as she has to differentiate between ch and ck), as well as "school" and "Christ". I also want to make a ps card, which isn't included in the multiple phonogram book, nor their "successive seventeen" workbook. I guess this letter combination is too rare for them to bother, but it comes up in Psalms and also in several of our read alouds from last year (the Psammead of Nesbit's Five Children and It as well as a similar sand witch called Psamathos Psamathides in Tolkein's Roverandom), so the kids have already heard me talk about it a fair bit.
Each day Anna reads the phonogram on the front of at least five cards (we added five new ones each day) and then picks one or two words to read on the back. One unexpected bonus is that giving Anna the choice of which word to read has led to her often choosing the longer and more complicated words to read, just because she can. "Worthy" on the th card is a favourite.
Anna has also been re-reading the Bob Books from the third set this week, one each day. After the Dr Seuss books, she's appreciating an easier task, and I am appreciating the opportunity for her to review and consolidate what she knows, rather than always be stretching and challenging, and thus frustrating, her. She is half way through the set, having finished Ten Apples Up On Top on Monday. That was a laborious task, but I am very proud of my little girl for getting through it. I am sure it will be a lot easier for her to read in only a month or so's time.

Mathematics
We began Primary Mathematics 1A this week. Each day, except Wednesday, we go through the main book activity together and then she does the workbook exercises herself, with less help from me. I am aiming to have her do the workbook exercises on her own, just asking me for help when she has already had a go, but we're not there yet. Not just because it's a challenge to her to do the work on her own: it is also difficult for me to sit back and let her try it all for herself, and correct her at the end rather than in the middle, the instant she makes the mistake. However, I know she needs to learn to check and find her own mistakes, so I'm not actually doing her any favours by butting in too much. I need to work on my own attitude here!
This week was looking at numbers 0-10 and we enjoyed playing a little game where I called out a number and Anna had to hold up that many fingers as quickly as she could. Then I held up fingers and she had to tell me the number as quickly as she could. She wasn't competing against anyone other than herself, and that is what I think made the game really work for her (in terms of improving her quick recognition of a certain number of objects and the 5-5 sub-set of 10). She wasn't competing against Joshua, so she could have fun going at her own pace. When we did it at the table one evening over dinner, she was quite incensed when Joshua beat her occasionally. But on the other hand, Abigail enjoyed that opportunity to join in with a big kid number game as well, so I guess there's always someone to benefit from another's misfortune in this family.

Literature
Literature time is bed-time read alouds, and everyone is enjoying them in this house. I often think Jeff prefers when I read to the kids in the lounge room rather than their bedrooms and he can listen in without being overt about it.
On Wednesday we finished Stuart Little by EB White. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting the novel to end quite so abruptly, but Anna and Abi were content to imagine what might happen next rather than have it spelt out for them in detail.
We also read Dumbo, from the Disney movie, the library book Joshua chose at school this week. The kids looked at the book a fair bit before I read it to them, and Abigail warned me, "you will get scared when you see Dumbo falling from up high, but don't worry..." It's lovely to see how she is so concerned that others might feel bad in the same ways she often does, and that she does things to comfort them (in this case, me).
We enjoyed some of the picture books Joshua was given for his birthday, and a selection of Pamela Allen books Jeff purchased on a whim on Monday. We also read one story from Boxen, the collection of stories of Animal-Land and the kingdom of Boxen, written by CS Lewis and his brother WH Lewis from the time they were 8 and 11 respectively. This was my book-present for Joshua. I couldn't let a birthday go by without giving him at least one book. Not me!