Our Head in the Clouds

We've been doing a unit study on weather for the past couple of weeks, which has been a lot of fun. Reilly really comes alive when we do science and it's great because I see it as a way to practice reading, writing, grammar, and language arts all while she's learning about weather. I mean, why go and do a "reading packet" when I can have her read this portion of the book that we're using? Then she answers the questions in her student workbook and is learning a little bit about charts and things like that, simply because of how the student workbook is laid out. I'm making this sound much more complicated and higher level than it really is, but it's kind of hard to describe! Suffice to say, she's learning the things she needs to learn and and she's even learning some things that are extra, and all in a fun way!

Yesterday she made a cloud chart because we had been reading about the different types of clouds. The funniest thing was that we were reviewing what we'd talked about on Monday and I said "Do you remember what clouds are made of?" and before she could answer, Declan piped up from behind us, "Water dwoplets!" (Learning by osmosis!)






It's been neat because there were a couple of days last week where Declan asked if he could do some "school stuff". Usually he's just content to sit and play with his Legos or action figures, but school has been taking longer and I think he's getting bored. I got out his preschool books and we did some counting and coloring worksheets. On another day he and I counted blocks and made patterns. He also wanted to practice how to write his name, which was really cute. I'll have to see if I can find that paper to scan and post. He did a pretty good job for his first time!

Math is still going well. Just when I was starting to despair about Reilly's +2 facts and the fact that we'd been on them for 3 weeks, we played "Math Fact Hangman" (Thanks for the idea, Heather!) and she aced them! So I think that we'll start a new lesson today. Yippee!!