Thursday, April 3, 2014

March

Maybe we'll just start doing a "monthly wrap up" as I don't seem to be able to remember to do this every week. We covered weeks 23-26. Lots of things happened in March that have kept us hopping!!

History: The last few weeks have been focusing on the events leading up to the Revolutionary War and then the war itself. We actually covered the events of the Revolution much more in-depth last year. This year was more of an overview, specifically focusing on stories of children during the time of the war. There was a lot of uncertainty for kids left behind while their brothers or fathers went to war. This week we studied George Washington, our first president, though we have been talking about him off and on for the last few weeks anyway.

History Reading: Hannah has been working on Five Smooth Stones which is the diary of a little girl during the Revolution.

Storytime: We have still been reading through Pagoo. We probably should have been done by now but it is often the thing that gets left on on a busy day! We are enjoying reading about the adventures of the little hermit crab Pagoo as he grows up.

Science: We've been booking it through the body! We've covered the nervous system, including the brain, spine and the five senses, the circulatory system including blood, heart,and muscles, digestive system including teeth and stomach, and finally the excretory system including kidneys and bladder. We are slowly working on coloring parts of the body and we will eventually glue them onto outlines of our bodies!

Field Trips: We've had a few field trips this month. We attended Charlotte's Web at the theater which the kids really enjoyed. We also went to a presentation on exotic animals...that includes animals like a boa constrictor, an African turtle (that grows up to 150 lbs!), two different types of lizards, and a cockatoo. The presenter was very informative and the kids enjoyed this a lot! We also got to visit Henning's Cheese where the kids got to watch them make cheese curds and then take a tour of the coolers. They enjoyed getting to sample the different types of cheeses made there and especially enjoyed the Blueberry cobbler variety!

Family News:
We are transitioning from Eric having a flexible position where hew as able to work at home and cover for me as often as needed for field trips to him having a new job where he will have to work in the office. This will ultimately be a good move for our family, but still a bit of an adjustment. We've also been spending a lot of time the last month working on our basement and preparing to have new carpet installed (thank you very much to our sassy cat who made it necessary). We are also getting ready for spring! Who isn't? We fled the house on the very first day above 50 of the year last weekend:







Can't wait until it is warm enough to do school on the deck and spend our afternoons cleaning up the yard!!