Tag Archives: five in a row

The study of cakes, cats and composers

NaBloPoMo 2010This week’s “Five in a Row” book was “The Duchess Bakes a Cake,” about a bored duchess who bakes a ridiculous cake that’s so full of yeast it carries her up into the sky. Ridiculous, but Poppy thought it was pretty funny. We talked about feudal society (while Pete wore the knight costume he got for his birthday), alliteration and baking. We tried to make a tres leche cake, but something went amiss. It didn’t home/schoolabsorb all the milk and ended up looking like a cake that someone had spilled a cup of milk on. Rockford says he’ll eat it anyway, so I’m going to pour off the excess later today and let him try it for dessert.

In that-which-we-do-every-week news:

  • Poppy is pages away from the end of her handwriting book. Happily, Zaner-Bloser has a great tool available for making your own copywork pages. I’m using lines from the poems she’s memorized, songs she likes and movies she loves.
  • Speaking of poems, this week’s was “The Cat of Cats” by William Brighty Rands, which naturally became “The Marsha of Marshas” or some such derivation.
  • We read chapters three through seven of “The Water-Horse,” and I still haven’t decided whether or not to put the movie on the Netflix queue. I’ll be googling at some point to find out how it stacks up to the book. Have you seen it? What do you think?
  • Once again, Poppy finished her BookIt challenge this month with weeks to spare. Her assignment for November was to read 100 pages. It’ll be 200 next month. I don’t want it to be insurmountable, but I’d like to find a number or a book that will actually take her through the whole month.
  • We did start something new this week. I’ve been thinking about doing composer studies for awhile now, but I don’t have much classical music on hand. But I was given an iTunes gift card for my birthday (thanks Chloe!), so I downloaded a Mozart compilation. On Monday we listened to the Classics for KidsAbout Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart” podcast and then spent a little while actively listening to some of his works. We usually have music on in the background as we go about our day. This week, it was mostly Mozart. Pete enjoyed it even more than his sister did, even if he was disturbingly fixated on the composer’s fate. Nearly every time I turned it on, he’d walk into the room and say, “Is this Mozart? Mozart is dead.” At least it’s proof that he was paying attention to the podcast.

    Our three Rs are a bit unbalanced

    home/schoolWhen we were first planning our kindergarten year, I suspected that I’d need some kind of curriculum to keep me on task on science and math. That has most definitely proved to be the case. We’ve been heavy on the reading, writing and arts lately, but we haven’t done much formal study on math or science at all. That’s not to say we’re not doing anything, but it’s definitely been more casual and kind of “Hey look! It’s a math application!” than I’d hoped to do.

    So that’s what we haven’t been doing. Here’s what we have done lately. (As in this week.)

    Our “Five in a Row” book this week was “The Finest Horse in Town.” It’s about a pair of sisters at the turn of the century who own (you guessed it) a really fabulous horse. The narrator is the great-niece of the sisters, and the story is a combination of the memories of someone who knew the sisters and the narrator’s imaginings of what might have happened. We talked a bit about life at the turn of the century, watercolor paintings and how the leaves change color in autumn. We’re also working on writing and illustrating a similar story based on a story Rockford’s grandfather has told us of his childhood.

    In Health, we’ve finally gotten to the interior. Poppy learned about the circulation system and the heart this week, and we also talked a little bit about the lungs. This is the stuff she wanted to learn about, so she was pretty excited. She’s been talking about her veins all week.

    We’ve been reading “The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter” for the last few weeks, and we’ll finally finish it this afternoon. Poppy also finished her first BookIt challenge last week; she read “Mercy Watson: Princess in Disguise” out loud to me. I was surprised by how easily she got through it, but I’m thinking she may have memorized part of it. She’s listened to the story on CD before, and she memorizes things really easily. Next month’s book will be something she hasn’t heard before, so that’ll give me a better idea of how well she’s reading.

    Speaking of memorization: Poppy has been memorizing poems like nobody’s business. I started with some pretty short poems so she wouldn’t get discouraged and want to quit if she had a hard time with it. But I think she could memorize “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” with little problem. This week was the first one she didn’t have down cold after the first day, and it still only took her until Wednesday to recite it without help. I’m so glad she inherited Rockford’s memory instead of mine! Here’s what she’s memorized thus far:

  • Fly Away, Fly Away Over the Sea” by Christina Rosetti
  • The Purple Cow” by Gellett Burgess
  • There Was a Little Girl” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  • A Leaf” by Aileen Fisher
  • Autumn Fires” by Robert Louis Stevenson

    About that science/math thing: I’m looking at Nancy Larson for science and RightStart for math. They’re both pricey, though, so it’ll be January at the very earliest before we can get either one. Have you used either program? Or is there another math/science curriculum you’ve loved?

  • I could’ve done without all the snake references

    home/school
    This week’s “Five in a Row” book was “When I Was Young in the Mountains” by Cynthia Rylant. It’s set in the Appalachian region years and years and years ago, before electricity, plumbing and, apparently, snake deterrent. Having grown up in the same region — with indoor plumbing, electricity and a dearth of snake sightings, happily — I was pretty excited about exploring its history with Poppy. We listened to a lot of bluegrass this week and read a few Jack tales in addition to our regularly scheduled activities.

    I’ve been trying to jot down some notes on each day as we go along, but I didn’t do that very consistently this week. I’m sure you’ll be able to tell on which days I neglected to do it! Here’s what we did this week:
    Continue reading I could’ve done without all the snake references