A Day in the Life

Headache, headache, headache, and more headache. It was not a happy day.

We started out with our autumn circle. Nicholas and Daniel had fun using the play silks to dance like autumn leaves in the wind while Katie Grace and Michael got started on their work.

After showing Daniel what was in his three "surprise boxes" (wooden race track and cars, crayons and paper, and wooden bowling set), Nicholas and I settled in and I told him the story of The Magic Fish. He really seemed to love it. I drew a picture as I told it, and showed him the letter F in the body of the fish.

Nicholas got started on his workboxes. One of his projects was beading, and he was excited to find a "magic fish" bead in the box.
The biggest thing I dislike about the workboxes is the plastic containers. We could do baskets, I suppose, if we had the money to buy 12 perfect baskets, but the plastic shoebox containers have lids, which is perfect for keeping tiny Daniel hands out of the day's work. Ah well.

As Nicholas carried on with his work, Katie Grace settled in with her lesson. She's learning about Native Americans. It's a little bit of history and a little bit of geography, but our main focus is on the stories and the arts. We started off learning about the Pomo Native Americans of California. After looking at pictures of the beautiful baskets made by Pomo people, Katie Grace started working on her own basket as I told her the legend of the creation of the moon and sun. She wrapped up her main lesson by writing out the story she had been told.
Katie Grace continued working through her independent work, which included weaving on our loom
and copywork:
Hey-ho for Halloween,
When all the witches may be seen.
Some in black and some in green.
Hey-ho for Halloween!

After a break for snack and to look at some art (Van Gogh's Starry Night), it was time for Michael's main lesson on folktales. After reviewing the stories he read in Cut from the Same Cloth, we talked about hyperbole and made a character web. By now, the headache was miserable, so I sent him off to read.
Everyone chugged along at their work and I closed my eyes and tried to get rid of the headache. When I opened them again a half-hour later, Michael had made lunch for everyone-- what a guy!

After a little tidy and some outside play, we had read aloud-- The Cat Who Went to Heaven-- and then read about the closing of Japan in Story of the World. We only had time for a little map work before it was time to take Katie Grace over to Cochran Elementary for violin. Afterwards, everyone had some hard-earned screen time and I closed my eyes again and tried to beat this headache.

Busy day!