We took a sick day.

Last week we had our first opportunity to enjoy the flexibility of homeschooling. We took a sick day on Friday, and did our make-up day on Sunday (8/17). Bonus: Daddy was here to watch the toddler!

Today we did lessons 5 & 6 of our math book. We reviewed patterns, and tried a couple different sequences (do-re-mi and do-re-re). 

Then we did some more active learning using the nursery rhyme "Hickory Dickory Dock". 

The clock struck 4....

He hit the floor...

Previously, we had focused on our left side, since numbers 1-5 are shown only on the left hand. Today, we introduced the right side! We practiced showing body parts on both sides.

Next, we worked on showing the number 6 different ways. With the tiles, we show it as 5 of one color, and 1 of another color. This helps with visually identifying that 6 = 5 and 1 (like we learned in our song). E caught on quickly and knew exactly how to show 6 using his tally sticks, too!

After math, we worked on more handwriting readiness. Today, we spent more time with our wooden lines and curves. We polished them, grouped them, talked about their similarities and differences, and practiced descriptive words such as above, below, under, over, around, horizontal, and vertical.

Last, we worked on our solar system unit. We learned some new vocabulary (atmosphere, energy, temperature, sun spot, and solar flare) and added it to our bulletin board. We also started making our solar system books. We did our book covers, title pages, and our first page about the Sun. 

We practiced doing research and looked through all the books we had to find the information we needed to do our Sun page. E very intently looked at the pictures of the Sun's surface as he colored. He wanted it to be accurate. 

He chose to color it mostly orange, with yellow and red areas to show the change in temperature. Then he added black sun spots. 

So that wraps up our first week. We had a lot of fun and learned many new things! We are taking a week off since the kids are starting preschool (out of the home) this week, but we will resume August 25th!