Wrap Up~ First Week of October~

Poetry~ Still with Robert Frost this week. We read one poem, then M-9 finds the rhyme scheme, we talk about any unfamiliar words and imagery that might be hard to figure out and share our favorite lines. I love how this book is broken up by season. It really makes it real when we are out on the field or picking apples and we remember something relevant from one of the poems we read.

Indian Legends~ The little Indian Legends book we started with developed into a Native American unit study! I surprised M-9 with the Kaya American Girl books this week. All of the books shown except for the Indian Legends she read on her own. She narrated quite a bit from the If You Lived.... books and I typed one of her narrations up as a report.

Math~ Everyone should read the Fred books! We love them so much! Go to
http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html and buy everything available! Really! You won't regret it. We have polished off the first two books in the elementary series.

Five in a Row~ This week we read Grandfather's Journey and I must say it wasn't M's favorite. She thought it was sad and right now she doesn't need sad. It's still a beautiful book and we studied: Social Studies: Japan, Language Arts: Poetic language, Art Appreciation: Light and reflections, Science: Birds (we made a list of all of the birds we could think of and discussed the characteristics of birds.) Sitting outside to do our school gave us lots of opportunities to observe birds and listen to their songs. We started to hear a bird song that sounded familiar to us but we didn't know what bird it was. I searched online and found it! The white crowned sparrow. Now we are going to try to spot him. http://www.all-birds.com/white-crowned-sparrow.htm Free Reading~ I wanted to take this picture to remember that 9 year olds still like to read picture books from their toddler years. It reminds me in a way of what C.S. Lewis said, “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.”

I especially like how she combined Shakespeare stories and original Brothers Grimm with The Poky Little Puppy and a Little Critter story. By the way, I love Cynthia Rylant and her Mr. Putter and Tabby books rank right up the with Henry and Mudge stories in my book. Love these for first readers, and obviously beyond.

Other stuff~ Working on handwriting, spelling and keyboarding skills using copywork and dictation of sentences she makes up. All my kids hate to write. Really, really hate it. (When I say "writing" what I mean is the physical act of writing. They all do a great job of "composing" and have beautiful language skills.) By about 12-13 years old it all starts to click, but those years before are quite a struggle. I think I own every spelling and handwriting curriculum produced and even went to a workshop on a program that helps with dysgraphia, but really the only sure cure for us has been time.

M-9 Health update: This was a little bit of a harder week for her. More stomach pain and some more bleeding after not having any since the hospital. We received the official diagnosis of Crohn's Disease. She is tapering off of Prednisone and continuing the other meds. Have I mentioned what a trooper she is? Yes. She is.