Week of 10 Apr

Phonics/Reading:

We are keeping going with Funnix 2. I keep looking at the library to see if they have a copy of The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. I was thinking I'd go over some sound combinations and find a few game ideas to play to keep things interesting... We are getting close to taking a break with Funnix 2 and I think OPGTR might be a different option to do during those breaks. If I had a ton of money, I could find other options, but seeing as it is supplementary, I'll just wait till I can get it from the library. She doesn't mind Funnix and it is building her fluency, confidence and speed, but a break is always nice too...

ABCs:

Emmett did the letter H this week. We watched some Leapfrog, wrote Hs in the carpet, did some wet-dry-try, pasted our H on our coconut tree, and then topped it all of with a worksheet. He still loves doing his letters.

Five in a Row:

Emmett was ecstatic when I pulled out Harold and the Purple Crayon on Monday. Once upon a time (probably sometime last year), Abby pulled a DVD off the shelf at the library that was based on this book. It's done by HBO Family and we now own a copy of it because they love it. So, there was much excitement that we were reading the book (again!) and doing a unit on it.

Here they are watching the DVD. The first episode actually stays fairly true to the book, which is neat.

For Family Home Evening we played what we called a "Harold Game" using our dry erase boards and purple markers. It was mostly just Pictionary, but the older kids really enjoyed it.

This is Abby's dog:

Emmett insisted that Daddy show him step-by-step how to draw each item.

We watched some YouTube videos on how crayons are made and then we tried our hands at melting down and mixing some of our own crayons. This turned into a bit of a talk about primary and secondary colors and experimenting with what colors we get when we mix certain ones.

Before:

After: (You can't really tell from the picture, but the crayons really did melt into orange, purple and green!)

We even did some fun swirly crayons:

We let the older kids draw with their newly-shaped/created crayons, but it didn't last long. Ellie loves them, though. She loves to take them out of the containers, place them in different spots, stack them, color with them, place them back in the container, repeat, etc.

We talked about the setting of this story and where it takes place. Abby was the first to pipe up, "In Harold's imagination!" So, of course, we drew our own imaginary story. Sadly, I don't have pictures of those, but they came out pretty cute.

We also observed how Harold gets around in the story and what other ways we get around. Emmett's favorite was the hot air balloon. Abby's favorite to remember was an AWACS (it's the jet Daddy flies on for work).

We have been loosely keeping things together in notebooks for the kids. I guess you could call it notebooking. I like the idea of keeping everything together in one central place. We've done one for each story, but apparently am only now getting around to type about it. If we write anything, or create anything, or what-have-you, we just stick it in their notebooks. We have since come to love double-sided tape (much better than glue sticks)!

This is Emmett's for Harold:

Handwriting:

I didn't think we'd do a specific handwriting for a while. I learned to write without one. My mom just showed me how to form the letters and I did a lot of copying her. Abby, however, is totally a workbook-loving kid and it's easier for me to give her a sheet to do...only because she doesn't complain at all. In fact, she asks to do more! So, she is currently doing the kindergarten-level book from Zaner-Bloser and she loves it.

Read-Aloud:

Because we finished up My Father's Dragon last week, we just did some picture books this week. Here's Daddy reading Purplicious to all three kids. The Pinkalicious books are favorites around here.

We did pick up The Littles for our next chapter book. My kids have seen the TV series thanks to Netflix. I hope they enjoy the book just as much!

Church:

I think I have found something for Church-related activities for the kids. I'm not sure exactly how it will go because we haven't implemented it yet, but I am thinking the School of Abraham's review of Gospel Principles will fit in nicely. Instead of bouncing around in their scriptures, like they are now, we will do each day's lesson right before bed. It's all very tentative, though, because Daddy heads up scripture-time with them. As long as I have it prepared, though, it shouldn't be too much...