Although next Monday is still November, the rest of the week is in December, so we are starting Christmas activities! You may, of course, substitute your own personal holiday traditions in place of ours. I would love to hear about them!
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano
Crochet
The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)
Basic Information
We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.
Printing words
Download materials
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –in download materials
Virtual school started off a little rough this week. Dragon told me her tummy hurt. I think it hurt because she was exhausted. It felt better by the time she had recess. She sang the Bonjour song, both while it played and then when her teacher asked her to sing it by herself. Then she was asked how many days in a week, but she wanted to list the days of the week, so that provided some confusion. She did not get the chance to say the months of the year this week. The teachers taught the students about the letter “L”. Dragon got to write in the chat any words that started with the letter “L”, which she was very excited about. She wrote “livre”. Then they were asked to make the letter with playdough, and then asked to make a word with playdough. Again, she made the word “livre”. She even got a little one-on-one time with the teacher when she was supposed to start recess, because she hadn’t finished and shown her word yet.
After lunch, they did some math. Dragon was able to count to 20 (with a little help for the numbers above 12 from the teachers). So guess what we’re working on this week? We also were introduced to addition of groups of 10, and addition of the under-10 numbers.
Dragon got to present twice this week – first thing in the morning, she presented her wand (baguette magique). She was asked about the colours on it, but she wasn’t feeling well and was tired, so her comprehension wasn’t really there yet. In the afternoon, she presented her family tree to the class. There was some confusion when the teacher asked her how many people were in her family, since her paternal grandparents are no longer with us. (It’s been over a decade, but that night, Dragon was very upset that she had never met them.)
No martial arts again this week (seems to be a trend, but Éric has been busy with coffee roasting), but she did ballet 2-3 times this week.
Music
Her letters are doing well. She learned where the A and E are on the piano and on the staff. They did a review of the clapping and counting (success), and they tried clapping and counting with notes on the staff (limited success). She learned two new songs with using the two new notes. She practiced the two songs she sight-read last week.
We listened to French Christmas music this week.
Crochet
We did not crochet this week. I am crocheting baby octopuses for twin preemies.
Basic Information
Working on the days of the week verbally is going well. She remembers without prompting, and can tell me the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is also going excellently. On Friday, she was able to tell me all 12 months, with proper pronounciation. Prior to that, November and December had English pronounciations.
The saisons de l’année are going well. She’s got automne, hiver, and été, but still has trouble remembering printemps.
Printing words
Tracing letters went well on Wednesday. Printing went fairly well on Friday. She tried really hard to make the letters look the same as the traced ones. She tried to tell me that she had never printed letters without tracing them before. lol
Counting objects/math-type activities
She is doing much better with verbal counting. Her printing needs work on some numbers, but she is working hard. She can count to 14 in French, consistent 95% of the time. We are working on counting to 20. She can count to 12 no problem this week.
Patterns – her patterns have gotten more complex. She understands how to complete a pattern and how to define the first part (the repeating part).
Grouping dice – we used dice to make groups of objects to make it easier to count. But first we had to sort them into the different shapes.
Éric has 31 d10s!
Storytime
We read stories from the teacher’s outline that was sent to us on Monday. She enjoyed that, and we will continue to do it next week.
Activity
Make a pop-up diorama – Apparently Dragon was expecting it to “pop!” and was very disappointed that it didn’t. Personally, I was disappointed in how the glue came through the paper, making it blotchy. She doesn’t seem to mind so I haven’t pointed it out to her. I coloured for the first time in a while at the same time as she did, and OMG I didn’t realize how much it hurts to colour after a while! I will definitely bear that in mind next time she says her hand hurts!
Make a dungeon maze – initially I had this as a drawing activity on paper, but then I remembered that we actually have dungeon tiles for D&D, so I changed my mind and had her use them like a puzzle. She was thoroughly entranced by all the different pieces and enjoyed this activity a lot.
Sully and Buzz minis are checking out the “scary dungeon”!
Plan a menu for the Manticore’s restaurant – She wrote the menu on paper first, and then I had her type it up on the computer. It was excellent practice for her to use the keyboard, and excellent practice in patience for me! She came up with a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert item (one each). We only wrote this in English. Her restaurant’s name is FOOD. She was very disappointed that we wouldn’t be making the items to give out to people. Link to PDF of resturant menu.
I’m writing this at the end of September, so I’m hoping there’s a light dusting of snow on the ground by the time we watch the first Frozen movie. I’m not holding my breath, though.
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano
Crochet
The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)
Basic Information
We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.
Printing words
Download materials
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –in download materials
Count paper pieces from the paper snowflakes; group them based on size/shape
Virtual school was excellent this week. Dragon sang the Bonjour song, repeated the jours de la semaine, and repeated the mois de l’année (although she’s not as fast as the teacher expected, so she was prompted, which threw her off, and then she stumbled of the entire rest of them). She got to present her video from week 6 ParaNorman Results to the class, and tell them how much work she did on it (lots). She was also asked to describe a suite (pattern) and answered very well, once she understood the terminology.
Different sizes
Les saisons
During the exercise portion of the day, they played a bunch of really fun songs, including Mario twice. On the second time, I told Dragon she could dance with her life-size Yoshi. And when I say life-size, he’s a little taller than she is, and definitely heavier. At one point, she managed to get him standing up, and then he fell on top of her. She (and I) laughed so hard that she couldn’t get up or wiggle out from underneath him for a couple minutes. Very fun.
The home school portion of the week went well. She enjoyed the activities (and the results).
Dance
No martial arts again this week, but she did ballet 2-3 times this week.
Music
Her letters are doing well.
She learned where middle C and D are on the music staff, which is a big deal. Very exciting stuff! She also managed to site-read two pieces, keeping time and playing the notes (C-D on the right hand, and C-B on the left hand)!
Notes from her piano teacher: We clapped and counted whole, half, quarter and eighth notes and rests. She learned the name of the treble clef, bass clef, and staff. Introduced the idea of the time signature and bar. Learned where middle C and D are on the treble staff and middle C and B are on the bass staff. Played a short tune for each hand – reading the music! Sight read a longer tune using the two notes on the treble staff. Played it well!
We listened to a bunch of French music. We listened to Isabelle Boulay at the beginning of the week, and then French Christmas music at the end of the week.
Crochet
We did not crochet this week. I am crocheting advent calendar boxes all the time! (I finished that before this post goes live.)
Basic Information
Working on the days of the week verbally is going well. She remembers without prompting, and can tell me the day before and the day after any given day. As for the months of the year, she has the first 10 down and can repeat them without prompting. November needs prompting still, as she skips it to December.
We’ve added the saisons de l’année (verbally), as they are doing that in virtual school, and I realized we should probably go over it daily. She remembers automne easily enough, and hiver with prompting of the first sound, but the other two are not there yet.
Printing words
Tracing letters went well on Wednesday. Printing went fairly well on Friday. She tried really hard to make the letters look the same as the traced ones.
Her name is “Abominable Keladry” lol
Counting objects/math-type activities
She is doing much better with verbal counting. Her printing needs work on some numbers, but she is working hard. She can count to 12 in French, consistent 95% of the time.
We did more patterns this week. I think she finds them very easy. I feel like I must be missing something if she finds them so easy.
The repeating portion of the pattern.
Storytime
We read stories from the teacher’s outline that was sent to us on Monday. She enjoyed that, and we will continue to do it next week.
Activity
Make pork buns – she marinated the pork shoulder on Wednesday and we cooked it in the slow cooker all day Thursday. Then the leftovers were used on Saturday (flu shot on Friday afternoon, so we had no time) to make the steamed pork buns! We feel like something went wrong in the first few, though, because the bread did not puff up, so the yeast didn’t activate. But the later ones worked much better. Hypothesis: they were not cooked fully. Read Éric’s account of their cooking here!
Making the marinade on the pork shoulder for barbequeing.
Making the pork buns
Make paper flowers – This was fun and frustrating by turns. Her scissor use has improved greatly, and she’s gotten better at folding too, but keeping the tissue paper in one place was very difficult for her. I think I did the stapling wrong, because I feel like it left a large gap in the middle. This was mostly pretty fool-proof, though. The frustration on Dragon’s part came from the delicateness of the tissue paper. She didn’t want to damage it. But she and I ended up with beautiful paper flowers, so I’m going to call this activity a win.
Learn about endangered species – no pictures from this activity as we watched youtube videos and read about different animals online. She was very sad that animals are dying, but felt better once we learned about some of the things that humans are doing to try to help the animals.
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano
Crochet
The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)
Basic Information
We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.
Printing words
Download materials
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –in download materials
Virtual school went well this week, for the most part. The teacher asked Dragon a question when two other kids had their mics on, and Dragon couldn’t filter out the extra noise (I don’t blame her; I was on the verge of tears myself from the overstimulation) in order to answer the question properly. (Note to self: remember to put the microphone on her table before school starts!) She got to present her Halloween costume in the afternoon (a pink bunny costume that my mother made for me. This was her 4th year wearing it, and her last. Pegasus will inherit it next year) and she was able to show off her letter m worksheets in the morning.
Work for virtual school this week
Even better, though, was the conversation I got to have with her teacher after school. She pointed me in the direction of Mini TFO youtube channel, which helps both Dragon and I learn the vocabulary necessary for math stuff (like patterns – les suites) and stuff like that. I was also able to show her this blog, and Dragon will be presenting her stop-motion movie next Tuesday (yesterday, when this posts).
Home school was a little more relaxed this week, as most of the activities were verbal. Good thing, as irl stuff was a little overwhelming this week.
Dance
No martial arts again this week, but she did ballet 2-3 times this week.
Music
Her letters are doing well.
She had a rhythm piano lesson on Wednesday afternoon at our house. She did very well. Whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes and rests were clapped (or not).
We listened to a bunch of French music. We listened to Isabelle Boulay, whom I very much enjoy. (I forgot to change the CD again…)
Crochet
We did not crochet this week. I am crocheting advent calendar boxes all the time!
Basic Information
Working on the days of the week verbally is going well. She remembers without prompting, and can tell me the day before and the day after any given day. As for the months of the year, she has the first 6 down and can repeat them without prompting. The second half of the year is getting there. She’s SO close!
Printing words
Tracing letters went well on Wednesday. Friday was decent, but it required a lot of nagging to get her to focus.
une phototographe! 😛
Counting objects/math-type activities
She seems to be doing better with verbal counting. Her printing needs work on some numbers, but she is working hard. She can count to 12 in French, but not consistently yet. She did it without help on any number for the first time on Friday.
the counting was very easy for her. Next semester, I’ll have to make these harder for her
We did multiple different patterns this week, after watching the mini TFO videos on Les Suites. She greatly enjoys doing them…probably because she can do them with absolutely anything.
I started this pattern and she completed it easily.
Storytime
We read stories from the teacher’s outline that was sent to us on Monday. She enjoyed that, and we will continue to do it next week.
Activity
Remember the dead: go through old photo albums – my mom and dad really came through on this. My mom brought over a banker box full of photo albums from both sides of her family (three generations back plus half of the one before that!), and she told stories about all the people in them. My dad emailed my aunt, who sent him pictures all the way up to three generations back of the grandparents. So Dragon’s great-great-great-grandparents.
Yes, my family is awesome like that.
My father’s family
Stories about my father’s family
My mother’s parents
Dragon’s family tree. We could easily have gone further back.
Bake traditional Mexican food – Dragon and her Papa made Conchas. And they were delicious. A couple slight modifications to the recipe that we made, if you use the one in the link: – Extra tbsp of evaporated milk to the dough because it felt flaky and dry. – Extra 2 tbsp of butter to the topping (and green food colouring) because it wasn’t sticking together. In the future, we will split each ball in two – these are quite large! Dragon did the following to assist: dumped the ingredients, scooped the sugar and dumped it, kneaded the dough, formed the dough into balls, flattened and placed the topping, cut a few of the toppings
kneading
folding
yum!
she cut this one
it’s practically the size of her head!
Learn about Dia de Los Muertos (watch Elena of Avalor special episode) – we mostly did this verbally. She had lots of questions, and I can’t remember any of them!
P.S. The bruise on her cheekbone is because she decided to run in circles, got dizzy, and fell into a bookcase.
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano
Crochet
The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)
Basic Information
We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.
Printing words
Download materials
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –in download materials
Virtual school this week was MUCH better than last week. Dragon raised her hand and got to list out both the days of the week and the months of the year (with assistance on the latter). She answered 2-3 counting questions in French. She asked a question during the presentation of another kid, although she didn’t understand the follow-up response. And she got to present the geometry cut-and-paste that she had done with four different shapes, responding to requests to point at each different shape and many different colours. She repeated French said to her by the teachers, and even responded a tiny bit in French (oui). And she paid attention throughout the school day. There was another minor incident with the playdough – she still doesn’t quite grasp the rolling of it and doesn’t care to learn. She does enjoy using the cutters to make shapes and will make a series (pattern) with them, but ask her to roll it out and place it along a letter? Tears. Screams. “I can’t do this!” Result: I will ask her to use a crayon to print the letter instead of using playdough to make the shape. I see no reason to get her all upset for no reason.
The home school portion was quite fun this week, with a couple special surprises.
Dance
No martial arts again this week, but she did ballet 2-3 times this week.
Music
Her letters are doing well.
She had a rhythm piano lesson on Wednesday afternoon at our house. She did very well. Whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes and rests were clapped (or not).
We listened to a bunch of French music. Coeur de Pirate was the favourite yet again and I am thrilled because it is a beautiful album. But we also listened to Isabelle Boulay, whom I also very much enjoy. (Yay for remembering to change the CD lol)
Crochet
We did not crochet this week. I am crocheting advent calendar boxes all the time!
Basic Information
Working on the days of the week verbally is going well. She remembers without prompting, and can even pick out the words and put them in order when given the full seven days. As for the months of the year, she has the first 6 down and can repeat them without prompting. The second half of the year is a bit of a struggle still, but she can figure out the rest of the word if given the first sound.
Printing words
Tracing letters went well on Wednesday, but Friday when she had to print the letters did not go as well. I think she didn’t sleep well the night before, because everything was very dramatic.
Counting objects/math-type activities
She seems to be doing better with verbal counting. Her printing needs work on some numbers – 5’s come to mind right now – but she is working hard. She can count to 12 in French, but not consistently yet.
Counting 12 random objects
We started doing patterns (les suites) this week, as the virtual school teachers mentioned it again this week, to one of the other students. I thought it might be a good idea to do more with that.
Storytime
We didn’t read any French books together this week.
Activity
Experiment: elephant toothpaste – this was quite fun, although it was mostly a demonstration. We didn’t have the right kind of yeast, and we didn’t realize that the narrowing at the top was relevant, so we ended up trying this three times. First was as written in the experiment. Second was halving it. Third was with the right yeast AND the right kind of bottle, but I shook it and didn’t wait for the bubbles to go away, so it had a similar reaction as the first two. Also – don’t buy the cheap food colouring. It doesn’t work as well.
Pumpkin carving: Dragon picked her stencil (stencil weblink) and drew it onto the pumpkin. It turned out very well!
Learn about Samhain – we had a video call with one of our friends, who celebrates Samhein (pronounced Sow-in). He told us about the history behind it and how it is celebrated today. We won’t be having a feast, but we set out an extra place on Halloween night in honour of our ancestors. No pictures of the chat, but here’s one of Dragon waiting for the chat to start:
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano
Crochet
The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)
Basic Information
We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.
Printing words
Download materials
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –in download materials
Count flowers/petals and group them (fake flowers or real)
This week was not as good as the previous week for virtual school. I’m not sure what happened, but she didn’t want to talk to, listen to, or try to speak French with her teachers. And then there was the thing with the playdough. She had never played with playdough before, and the teacher asked them to make letters out of playdough. Dragon just had a complete meltdown because, and I quote, “but the playdough is ripped apart now!!” Cue tears. She got a nice bit of one-on-one with Mme at this point, which was nice. It was just a little frustrating on my end, because she *is* doing better with her French.
This was a worksheet from the teacher. She LOVED it.
As for the home school portion, it felt like there was less to do this week, thankfully, as there were a lot of handouts from virtual school to complete.
Dance
No martial arts again this week, but she did ballet 2-3 times this week.
Music
I forgot to get her to practice with the letters, so we did it verbally just now as I’m writing this post. I’d say she’s doing pretty well.
She had another piano lesson on Saturday. She worked on rhythms and clapping (eighth notes seem to be the easiest for her), as well as the song she played last week and Chopsticks.
We listened to a bunch of French music. Coeur de Pirate was the favourite yet again and I am thrilled because it is a beautiful album.
Crochet
No crochet this week.
Basic Information
Rather than pull out the papers, we did these verbally this week. She can now recite the days of the week in French without prompting. She has the first five months of the year down pat (when she remembers to start with Janvier and not Février) and is working on remembering Juin. Next week, I think I’ll add the next 3 months.
Printing words
Despite not wanting to complete the printing words on Friday, she did pretty well.
Words are traced
Not sure this is the best way to sit to print properly….
Words are printed
Counting objects/math-type activities
She’s still forgetting that sept comes after six. We tried repetition both verbally and written. I’m guessing that this will just take time. Her printing of numbers is getting better, I think.
Objects counted
Numbers are coming along nicely.
Storytime
We didn’t read any French books together this week.
Activity
Draw pumpkin face – she wanted to draw a scary pumpkin face. This is the one she chose. Appropriately spooky.
The middle face is the one she deemed spookiest
Trying to copy
Look at all those teeth!
Very spooky. I approve.
Finger painting with Crayola washable paint on paper – she decided that although it was fun to make hand prints, she didn’t like washing her hands in between each colour. Verdict: prefers painting with a brush.
Set up
Two by two, hands of blue
Cleaning station
Purple prints
Look! The water is green!
Completed abstract art
Learn about monkeys – she found this fact sheet very interesting.
