We were so lucky to have Raija Alahuta, Matt's best friend Topi's mom, come teach us about Finland today. She even taught us how to make fabulous scandinavian gnomes out of pine cones. We learned a lot and made a new awesome friend.
In honor of Finland day we began reading Finn Family Moomintroll which is kind of like a finnish Winnie the Pooh that is huge over there. It's whimsical and silly and the kids are enjoying it.
TUESDAY Feb 9,
We learned the Digestive system today for science. We made a model of it and used cheerios mashed up to go through the whole process. By the time it exited the "large intestine" we were pretty grossed out. Hahaha.
WEDNESDAY Feb 9,
Eliza's best friend Serena, who moved to Arizona last year is in town for the week, so after doing our Beast Academy math (which is going quite well for Sam now...) we met our friends at the Bailey swimming pool. It was the first time we have swam in forever so Sam and I practiced swimming a bit, but didn't make too much progress. It was a bit too chilly for comfort but so fun to get wet and see friends.
THURSDAY Feb 10,
Benson learned the letter Y. We watched a bunch of Sesame Street Letter Y clips on YouTube. Then we read the book, "Yes, Day" where a little boy gets to ask anything and his parents say Yes that day. We made our own Yes Day book with the things Benson would ask on Yes Day. The illustrations were my favorite. He asked things like "Can I have a food fight?" "Can I take my friends to Space?" "Can I have a sleepover?" I loved his book.
Had a pow wow with Ally to make sure all her independent study stuff was working out. She is doing good. Had a little hiccup in the turning in of language arts assignments so here grade looked spooky but she did the work which is all I am concerned about. Since she maxed out Beast Academy we went back to Khan, but she just sort of hates it, so I think we will do FRED pre-algebra books 1 and 2 before Summer and see how that goes for her.
We also had the girls do the first workshop video from Institute for Excellence in Writing. Learned how to write a good nonfiction paragraph report. "Sea Snakes" They didn't love it but results were solid. We will keep doing it.
FRIDAY Feb 11,
Not sure why but everyone else in the district has this day off of school so we are going to play with friends today. Bestie Serena slept over with Eliza last night and so we are just having an impromptu party day. Social interaction is the name of the game today. ;)