We took a mini break this week. Emma was sick over the weekend and while feeling better Monday I wanted to mix things up a bit but not completely take the week off. So for a good part of it, she did “real life” school. She wrote a letter each day and went to the post office to mail it.
On Monday, she threw together a little package to mail to her friend in Denver, complete with some Valentine’s candy and a letter. We went to buy the envelope to mail it and she was to count the money out. The place was empty and even though I mentioned what we were doing to the gal running the place (this was a shipping store), she was all to happy to help Emma out. It was pretty funny because the total came to $1.07 and Emma had the quarters counted out and the lady is there counting out 7 pennies. After we left Emma tells me, “What if I wanted to give her a nickel and two pennies instead? Or if I gave her a dime, she would have had to give me 3 cents back.” Next stop, Walgreens to pick up some photos to mail along with the package. The clerk was more than happy to let Emma count out the money. Then off to the post office to buy postage. Again, very patient while she counted out the money and impressed when the clerk found out Emma was just in first grade.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday she wrote more letters. Often more than one considering she mailed one each day as well as hand delivering one two of those days! I might continue this through the weekend/early next week until our beginning list is complete. I told her she might get something in return!
She really impressed me with how far she has come with her writing. We talked about what she could write about but she was more than happy to write quite a bit, in fact even mentioning that if she ran out of room, she could go onto the next page! Her spelling has improved so much! I did not correct everything, but we did talk and correct a lot of things. What I did not worry about were words that would be cleared up easily in the future such as “playd.” We did talk and correct some things that we may not have covered yet in spelling but that I did not want bad habits forming. Some of the more common words have or will be added to her word wall. It was amazing to see her mind working through some of the rules she has learned.
We did continue with memorization and she learned 1/2 of a new poem about the months. She is almost done with her pronoun definition and pronoun list as well. Continues to nail the western states and we are polishing up on Nevada’s spelling. Not sure yet which region will be introduced next.
We did not touch history or science at all this week. She continues to be interested in pirates and wants her room theme to be pirates. Once done, she will have a built in loft bed that she wants to be fashioned after a pirate’s ship. She went as far as to ask for a poop deck. Yesterday she tells me she wants a barrel that has a pluggable hole and two cups. She wants it filled with apple juice because apple juice is the closest to… and then she had to grab Treasure Island to look up what the apple juice represented…. Rum!
I stand corrected. For science we watched barn owls a lot throughout the week waiting for the first owlet to hatch! She got to see fresh kill brought in as well as the female eating! She had already gone to be when Matilda (what the owlet was named) was born but came running when I called out to her!
Emma did a few more lessons in her cursive book and we might continue that through the weekend since she loves it so much! She is realizing how close she is to being able to really write in cursive!
Aside from money, in math she finished up the unit on weight for CWP. I also installed (through many trials and errors) Timez Attack and she started working her way through that. I am not sure how it will go but it is a video game that helps kids learn their multiplication facts. She can figure them out through 5, but they are not memorized. She is liking the program now that I have the kinks worked out.
PE- swim lessons started this week and she is loving them. Not being challenged yet but according to her teacher she thinks Emma will move up next session. What Emma needs to work on, is what they will get to next week. However, I have seen a huge improvement in her swimming when she was playing around before and after class. She actually started moving when trying the front crawl instead of only going a foot or two. They say in order to move up she has to go 5 lengths of her body which is close on her front, just need to work on the back.
Violin- We canceled her lesson Monday and had a make-up today. I forgot the bag with her book in it, so she got even more practice at sight reading today. Her teacher completely understood. She had a spare book but it did not have the fingers written in, so Emma had to really work at the part she had not memorized yet. Her teacher says she will probably pass off on it next week and started her working on the next song as well.
Extra stuff- We stopped in at Lowe’s (and Home Depot the week before) for their kid’s clinic which was fun. She made a music box (and a heart shelf at HD), We will be checking to see what project is and try to go when we can. Lowe’s is every other week and Home Depot is one time a month.
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