Wordless Wednesday 1- May 30, 2012

Week 3.5 of First Grade

I have just one picture that sums up what was supposed to be our fourth week of first grade:

No, my arm is not that dainty.  Or that broken.

My wonderful Gabrielle decided that she wanted to go to Urgent Care this week.  After all, it's been almost two years since we last went, as we seem to have the majority of our anaphylactic, Armageddon-inducing food allergy issues under control.  So as I walked out of the living room to get read to take a shower, she climbed up the banisters on the second floor and decided to walk down the hand rail.  I came around the corner just as she fell.  Ironically, she screamed less from her broken bones than she does when I comb her hair.  Anyhow, we went to Urgent Care, where I felt incredibly paranoid about bringing in a child with broken bones.  I let her answer all of the "how did it happen" questions, and was relieved she didn't announce to everyone that I was napping, like her brother is wont to do.  (Take a nap once and the kid never lets you live it down.  Take a nap often, like I want to, and, well, I guess maybe I earned my reputation.)  Once she was settled playing, and the doc was filling out our release/parole papers, I asked him when the adrenaline would subside.  And I immediately burst into tears.  Guess we know where she gets it.  To put the cherry on top- she didn't want to leave Urgent Care, as she was having too much fun.


The trip to the pediatric ortho the next day to set and cast the bones was a roller coaster.  She went from the happiest, singingest, flirting-with-the-X-Ray-techiest girl to, well, a psycho, in about three seconds flat.  It was like she has a Scream Switch that got set to Ear-Splitting Hysterics (Spinal Tap's Eleven) and then the switch was broken off and stuck there.  Poor thing is terrified of shots, so once that word was uttered, it was all over but the crying.  Literally.


Did I mention we also had the stomach flu?

I will not post a picture of that because, well, that's gross.  Here's the old, tried-and-true pancake bunny, my go-to filler picture.

Needless to say, we decided to take it easy school-wise this week.  We kept up with basic phonics and math for a few days, then sat around staring at each other through our PTSD fog.  Then Rob came home Friday and all is back to being right with the world.


We'll pick up in Science and History where we left off, making next week our new Week 4 of First Grade. If I can get out of bed come Monday morning...

Week 3- SOTW and TOG Reading List

READING LOG

First Grade

TOG-1, SOTW-1

We're using both Tapestry of Grace and Story of the World this year, so I thought I'd keep a log of the books we read, as well as the sections/weeks we've coordinated between the two spines.  Both kids are in first grade.  I have an Excel spreadsheet in progress but I'll wait to post that until we're further along.

*I liked the way that SOTW laid out the first few weeks in chronological order, so I used that as my main "map."  I pulled literature recommendations from TOG in the weeks that I felt corresponded to the topic SOTW covered.  There are lots of over-laps in the first few weeks.  We frequently read a few of these books out of order, and/or repeated them if we enjoyed them.

** We combined weeks 1 and 2 of SOTW, as we had covered them before.

Week 3: (May 14 - May 20, 2012)

Coordinated Weeks: SOTW week 4, TOG weeks 2-3

• SOTW chapter 3
• Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, “Ancient Egypt” pages 10-11
• Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of the Ancient World, “Early Egypt” and “The Old Kingdom”, pages 51-54
• Illustrated Book of Myths, by Neil Philip
• You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Pyramid Builder, by Jacqueline Morley
• Tutankhamen’s Gift, by Robert Sabuda
• Mummies and Pyramids, Magic Tree House, by Will Osborne and Mary Pope Osborne
• The Curse of Kin Tut’s Mummy, by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
• Mummies & Pyramids, Usborne Internet Linked, by Sam Taplin
• Why, Why, Why Were the Pyramids Built? By Mason Crest Publishers
• Bible Stories: pre-view Patriarchs, Life in Egypt- The Children’s Illustrated Bible, pages 28-31, 66-67 (discuss that these topics are out of order per our history timeline)

Books in Red are books I consider Historical Texts, and the books in Blue I consider Literature.

Things We Can Throw

Making History and Science interesting for little ones can be challenging.  Especially when your beautiful offspring go beyond the description of "wiggly" into the realm of "Help, I think I've given birth to a visitor from the Other Dimension of Perpetual Motion!  And he brought his sister!"  At five and six, my kids are simply not going to be able to sit through "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."  (And I think only one of their parents could.  I'll let you guess which one...)  So studying these subjects becomes a balancing act between trying to teach them something and trying to capture their interest-quickly.  Because I've usually got about 5 minutes to keep their attention before someone starts poking a pencil in someone's ear.

These may look like typical sunglasses, but they're really protective safety goggles.  Because you never already know who may come after you with pink paint on a brush. 

I have had to learn to make peace with the fact that sometimes the project we do may be, technically, not that educational.  Sure, I'd like every science experiment to be the first step toward their PhD dissertation or their drawings of monuments be done to scale using high level geometry and algebra.  But more often than not, their projects are more educational in the "How to Not Get Glue Stuck in My Nose, Because I Picked My Boogers While Making Macaroni Art 101" or "Advanced How Far Can I Spread Paint Around the House Before Mom Packs It Up and Declares It's Quiet Time."

We've never actually made macaroni art, but if we do, I hope my kids make this.  And then they could sell it for $600 on Etsy.  (http://www.regretsy.com/2012/02/07/im-going-to-need-600/)

This week we return to study Egypt, as we're getting started to put our historical timeline together.  A recommended project- making Egyptian throwing sticks.  Apparently, these were toys used by Egyptian children, painted to look like serpents, used in throwing games.  I guess this would be useful for children who will grow to hunt and fight with spears.  My kids will use them to bang on the walls and torment the cats.  Like they use every other craft they make.

It's okay, they find their ways to get their revenge.  (Not pictured- poop.  IN MY DRYER.)

Basically, all this build up is going to be disappointing when you see what we made.  We painted wooded spoons to look like snakes:

It's okay, you can relax.  Despite the what the authentic colors and patterns may make you think, these are not actual snakes.

Look how happy we are when we're done painting!

"We smiled for the first fifty-six pictures, now all you get from us in barely-contained rage."

And, the most important part- they can be thrown.

Look at that form!  We're ready to go kill some boar!

Or not.

Duck!  A wooden spoon painted to look like a psychedelic snake from the River Styx is coming right at your face!  That kid in the Where's My Water Shirt means to kill us all!

I have no idea if this throwing stick thing has any historical accuracy.  I also don't know that I think this would be the most valuable fact for my kids to remember about Ancient Egypt.  But they had fun and got to practice some painting.  They got some fresh air and got to throw things.  Overall, I give this project a rating of "Successful: They Had Fun."