Daily Report: For The Love Of Books!!

Learning about Magellan is interesting to the kids and I. Today we had a great discussion about speaking up for what we believe in. This was sparked by our reading when it told about Magellan sharing his opinion that he thought the Phillipines Islands were so far around to the east of the globe that they probably came within the Spanish half to King Manuel who did not what to hear this. The King had to abide to the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain was the arch rival. Magellan was punished by the King being called a traitor, and was stripped of his command. Another fun thing we did was play the Journey Around The World game, and it is fair to say that Christopher Columbus is neither one of their favorite explorers, because they quickly responded that they didn't want the Columbus player piece. They also learned that a trip around the world is not easy, no one made it around the world during our playing time.

We read The Story of Passover by Bobbi Katz to get a better understanding about Jewish holidays and to understand the religion better. Again another great picture book!! They also did the 3D Gel Cling craft today and that even brought on a great discussion about what the symbols meant. They hopped on the computer to find the answers. The clings are still drying I'll post a picture when they are finished.

During Independent Work Time they both worked on finding the squares roots using the squares, and made their own Decanomial square by coloring, cutting, and gluing.

 They also did some research work.

 In THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE laughter was interrupting our reading as we read Chapter 7 when they were reading how the Beaver was drinking beer and smoking a pipe. Another struggle of Good vs Evil was happening with Edmund as he started to remember about theTurkish Delight.  

In Life of Fred there wasn't much talking about Math. They were talking more about Freds' nemesis Coalback.

Here is a picture of the five year old Fred who teaches math at a university, he is dressed up as a cowboy.
  

                                                                                
  Their highlight today was being promoted to the Green Belt at TaeKwonDo tonight.

                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Daily Report: The First Day Of December 2011

Yesterday was just another regular day in the classroom. They enjoyed playing outside in the snow during break time. Here are some photos of them while working duing our Montessori work period.

 Ken is working with Christmas themed story problems.

Practicing his recorder, we are still working on fingering positions.

                                Poisonous/Venomous sorting.

                                             Detective Adjective Game

                                                       Grammar Farm work

                                                  The Stamp Game

                       Decorating Gingerbread people with the preschoolers.

The highlight of their day was breaking boards at Tae Kwon Do for the first time.

                                                                 

Gold,Bronze,Gold

The kids first TaeKwonDo tournament was today. We had a lot of fun! I was worried about how the car ride would be on the way home if no one received a medal. I had the "speech" prepared turns out I can save it for another time. My kids are competitive and can have bad attitudes at times even when its' just a board game, as they are getting older the bad attitudes aren't always there as much. There were hundreds of people but they rose to the occasion sporting their Game Face in all. Take a Look!


 DJ patiently waiting for his turn.

         Competition time! He brought home the Gold Medal in his division!!

 Unfortunately I was too far from Ken to get a good shot, she is in action in the ring .  Ken brought home the Bronze Medal!!

                                                                                  
        Michelle brought home the Gold Medal!!

    Group shot of my lovely hardworking children.

 It was a wonderful first time experience, what I liked most is that each one of them told me something that they learned about themselves while participating in this competition. Hearing them talking in this type of way really makes my heart smile, and makes all the evening classes that I really didn't feel like taking them there well worth it.                                                                

Orange Belts In The House!!

Friday night the kids had their second belt testing at TaeKwonDo and they passed! They were so excited to move up rank. They are learning a lot from being in TaeKwonDo. All of three of them practice, practice, practice!!  They have TaeKwonDo class three times a week. Here are some pictures I took of them in class the day they were presented with their certificate and orange belt.

 At the end of class they played the "Chicken Fight" the goal is to knock the other person down while holding one leg up.                       

                                                                                                                         

I am so proud of them ! When you are testing there are over fifty people watching your every move. They stay focus and remain calm.