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Last week we continued with our theme of Italy and read the story Clown of God, by Tomie dePaola. This is a colorful, fun story that deals with some serious topics: homelessness, aging, and death. My children enjoyed this story and we had fun learning more about Italy. Language: vocabulary words, famous, arrangement, troupe, maestro. Tristan wrote a descriptive paragraph this week. For Math we counted items juggled in story and also did some grouping activities, pre-multiplication. I am trying to familiarize Tristan with the multiplication/division vocabulary with these small activities that we can do with Ana. Tristan, of course continues his lessons in Saxon Math. For History, Geography, Social Studies: we learned about Italy. We tried a few Italian meals. Jason and I really enjoyed homemade Basil Pesto on angel hair, but the children weren't as fond of the pesto. We also learned about aging, and getting old. In art we practiced drawing trees as Tomie dePaola draws the...

This week we read the story Papa Piccolo, by Carol Talley. A colorful story about a Venetian tomcat who is adopted by two stray kittens. We enjoy this story, and with all the illustrations it is a rich story about Venice, Italy.   Anastasia's vocabulary words: Situation, Chimed, Regatta, Skiff, Scow, Barge Gondola. Tristan completed the final lesson in  First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, Level 1, by Jesse Wise Bauer. We are having a difficult time jumping back into a good math routine together, since taking a week off due to sickness, yes even homeschoolers take sick days! Anyway, the Saxon Math lessons have remained consistent and Tristan enjoys them. I attempt to challenge Ana in mathematics a little each day, but nothing specific to this story. We learned tons about Venice this week in history and geography. Ana colored a picture of the flag of Italy, and we looked at the flag of Venice each day. Tristan and I began reading a new book about...

I'm a few weeks behind here on the blog. I guess blogging is one of the first things to go when life gets busy (that and cleaning the toilets, yikes!). Well, This morning I am blogging instead of cleaning; I hope that time for cleaning will come later in the day. Three weeks ago we found ourselves back in Japan. Our story was Grandfather's Journey, by Allen Say. I really love Allen Say's books and this one is excellent. Say is really telling his own story with this book; he starts at the very beginning.   We did not have vocabulary words for this one. We looked for the imagery used to tell the story. We looked for simile and Tristan wrote his own simile about the rain. Tristan and I continue with Language Lessons and Anastasia is learning to print her letters. Math lessons this week consisted of Saxon Level 2 for Tristan and Bedtime math with both Tristan and Ana. This story is done in beautiful water color, and we love to watercolor. So we painted pictures...