Despite my struggles at the beginning of the week (con-drain is all too real), this week went well.
Dance
I haven’t been doing much formally for this one. I’ll put music on and he’ll dance to it unprompted.
Music
This week, we’ve been focussing mostly on him practising his scales on the piano. He needs to build up his finger strength, especially in his baby fingers, before my mom can teach him properly. He also needs to be more familiar with the names of the keys, which I continued teaching him, both forward and backward.
Crochet
I helped him do several blocks of stitches… probably about 6 inches. He’s excited to be able to wear it, but there’s still so much left to do.
Basic Information
We alternated between listening to videos for the days of the week and months of the year (M, W, F), and attempting to put them in order with the pieces of paper (days on Tuesday, months on Thursday). I suggested he sing along, which he was happy to attempt.
Printing words
The pencil grip is helping immensely, especially now that I’ve noticed that it was on the pencil upside down. He didn’t struggle with the printing words and I’m very proud of him for trying so hard.
Counting objects/math-type activities
He moved the pencil himself, but he kept losing track of what number he was on (Monday). On Wednesday when he did the second sheet, he wanted me to move the pencil.
Storytime
We went to the library on Monday and picked up 3 mini French books, which we read during the week.
Activity
Bake bread – I’m going to call this a complete success. We used this bread-in-a-bag recipe, and it worked perfectly. Everyone wanted a second piece. Pegasus wasn’t really strong enough to knead it, but he had fun punching it.
Make butterfly (akuma) bookmarks – we used construction paper, which is a little thicker than what is recommended, but still functions quite well. I liked this activity, because even though he needed to refold several times, or he didn’t quite get the fold in the right place, it still turned out looking like what it was supposed to.
Design a superhero costume and kwami – I was hoping that he would slow down and really think about what he wanted to design for his superhero costume, but he really didn’t. He always thinks of colouring and drawing as if it’s a race against time and it makes me sad.
This second week was much better for both Pegasus and I. We have come to an agreement that he is not allowed to say “I can’t”, because he is capable of more than he realizes. He is allowed to ask for help or for a break, obviously. I am more than happy to allow him those. We have discovered that the mouse we have currently is too big for his hands, and we are going to try one of the smaller mice next week.
Dance
I haven’t been doing much formally for this one. I’ll put music on and he’ll dance to it unprompted.
Music
This week, we’ve been focussing mostly on him practising his scales on the piano. We have one this time around, and it’s a wonderful activity to distract him with because he enjoys it.
I continued working with him on the names of the keys. We practised both forward and backward.
Crochet
We didn’t work on his shawl this week because I was working on Comiccon projects all week. We’ll pick this up again next week.
Basic Information
We alternated between listening to videos for the days of the week and months of the year (M, W, F), and attempting to put them in order with the pieces of paper (days on Tuesday, months on Thursday). For the first few weeks, I’m just letting him listen and passively absorb the information. He attempted singing both songs this week, and needed a lot of assistance, which is a little earlier than I thought he’d want to try.
Printing words
The pencil grip is helping immensely. He didn’t struggle with the printing words and I’m very proud of him for trying so hard.
Counting objects/math-type activities
The colours printed well! Using a pencil to cover up the lines that he hadn’t gotten to yet worked well again. I’ll see if next week, he’s willing to try moving the pencil himself.
He’s very good at writing 4’s.
Storytime
Not much French read this week, as it was such a short week (holiday Monday and comic con on Friday).
Activity
Baking – cookies. Pegasus made multi-chip cookies, with Papa supervising. He did a great job and they taste delicious.
Painting – free-style with Crayola washable paint on paper. We did this outside on possibly the hottest day imaginable and I hated every second of it lol!
It’s the story of Rapunzel (see her yellow hair at the top?) The black at the sides represents the cavern that Rapunzel is hidden within.
Make a paper lantern – need paper bag, stencil (in download material), cardboard, paper towel folded in fourths, and screwdriver (instructions are Number 11). Put the paper bag over the cardboard box, and slide the folded paper towel in between the box and the bag. Place the stencil overtop of the bag/paper towel. Use the screwdriver to punch holes in the stencil/paper bag. Be careful not to move the stencil, or you will mess up your design.
So we used a pushpin instead of a mini screwdriver, and it worked, but the holes are VERY TINY. I forgot the paper towel, so that might have something to do with it? He’s happy with it, and that’s all that matters, right?
We held the stencil down with clips, which worked perfectly.
Pegasus’s first week of school was… interesting. He alternated between being a focussed and attentive student and complaining that he didn’t want to learn French. He would complete half a worksheet so fast and then not want to do anything else. But I’ve learned a lot since I taught my Dragon and when he gets in a mood, I switch the activity to something else. It’s been working well so far.
Dance
I haven’t been doing much formally for this one. I’ll put music on and he’ll dance to it unprompted.
Music
This week, we’ve been focussing mostly on him practising his scales on the piano. We have one this time around, and it’s a wonderful activity to distract him with because he enjoys it.
I also worked with him on the names of the keys.
Crochet
I started the base of the project because it’s not an easy beginning to teach a child, but he made half a row or so of stitches with a lot of assistance.
Basic Information
We alternated between listening to videos for the days of the week and months of the year (M, W, F), and attempting to put them in order with the pieces of paper (days on Tuesday, months on Thursday). For the first few weeks, I’m just letting him listen and passively absorb the information. I’ll start asking him to sing along in a couple weeks and see how that goes.
Printing words
We have a pencil grip thing to help train him to hold his pencil properly (thank you to my kindergarten teacher Ms. Bertrand for dropping those off last spring!) and he seems to be doing fairly well with that. He really struggled with printing the words (tracing was fine), so I think I might skip those worksheets for the next couple weeks. (He wanted me to guide his hand for “La famille”.)
Counting objects/math-type activities
The colours didn’t print very well for this. I’m going to see if the Tangled ones print better and if not, I’ll ask Éric to look at the printer. I explained how to count logically, either side to side, top to bottom, or bottom to top, and we used a pencil to cover up the lines that he hadn’t gotten to yet.
Storytime
NGL, we mostly read English books this week. We did get one French book from the library and read that. Pegasus learned how to read the words “la”, “le”, and “de”.
Activity
Make paper flower – somehow, he managed to flip his triangle around, so that when he cut the petals, they separated into 4 pieces instead of one flower. But we taped them together and it looks great, so woo!
Make empanadas – even though I had Éric look over the recipe I selected and he approved it, after completing this recipe with Pegasus, he says that they should have made arepas instead because the empanadas are a little more complicated than he’d realized. This recipe is great for arepas: https://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-arepas.
Pegasus learned how to curl his fingers so that he wouldn’t cut them, he did a lot of mixing, used the food processor to chop (onions, garlic, and others), he made the balls of dough for the shell, he stirred the meat, and he did all the measuring himself (including the spice mix, which was made from scratch).
Make a paper plate toucan – we used the paint sticks (like glue sticks, but paint) to cover the plates. I helped him figure out where the middle was, explaining how to use a ruler to draw the straight line. He did the cutting and followed the line very well. He didn’t want to add the tail.
Over the course of the year, we cooked a LOT of food, completed a ream of worksheets, and made a lot of crafts. Here is what all of that looks like all together. (Minus the food…that was eaten and it was delicious.)
It’s both a lot more than I expected, and a lot less. Weird dichotomy.
It has been a year (39 weeks) of teaching my Dragon. It has been rewarding, exhilarating, and exhausting. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the teachers who do this every year with 20+ students.
Things I learned this year:
I have no patience when she doesn’t try
She knows how to push my buttons
I don’t have to do everything by myself
I know a least a little bit about a lot of different topics
When she tries, she learns really well
She has great ideas
She really enjoys creating
She’s good at math when she focusses
I forgot about the crochet portion a LOT
I’m incredibly proud of my Dragon
Things my Dragon learned this year:
How to print all the letters in small caps (she already knew caps)
How to play with playdough
The sound of each letter
How to count to 100 by 10’s
How to count to 100
What a pattern is and how to make one
A few French words
The days of the week
The months of the year
The seasons of the year
How to brainstorm a story, storyboard it, write dialogue, and then put it all together
How a stop-motion movie works and created two
How to draw from reference
How to measure baking ingredients
How to measure something with a ruler
How to raise her hand and wait for her turn (in virtual school)
How to turn on and off camera and microphone in a video conference
How to navigate to the chat and click on a link
She learned to read music – the 9 notes around middle C
The values of whole, half, quarter and eighth notes
Can clap and count a line of music using those notes
Completed several finger exercises and the value of practicing them
How to play chopsticks
Overall, I would call this year of Junior Kindergarten/Maternelle successful, even though the hard part, the learning French part, didn’t go as well as I had hoped.
The important thing was that she had fun, and she tells me that she did. She also wants to make another book and another movie during the summer, so we’ll see how that goes.
I’m so very proud of how well my Dragon did this year.
Virtual school was a little different this last week – they had a virtual graduation ceremony for all the kids first thing in the morning. The teachers showed each student’s diploma and the kids all clapped for each other. It was really cute (and very loud).
They listened to a couple stories, danced a lot, and did some crafts (made a puppy origami and a graduation hat). Overall, it was a good day.
When we signed off for the last time, Dragon burst into tears because she already missed her teachers. Poor kid.
She did ballet 2 times this week, once with her Aunt leading the “class.”
Music
Piano: she practiced her finger exercises every day this week. Lesson: She’s been visibly getting better at her finger exercises. They added another finger exercise. They did the Frogs perfectly in time. It will not need to be played again. Then they did the Raindrops and Bells, which she did very well but needs to work on the counting. She did the Kitten page under duress (Dragon didn’t want to do it at first) but she had no problem with the notes but needs to work on the timing. Then they tried a new piece, Summer Showers, which had a more complicated note pattern, and she had very little trouble with it. Then they played chopsticks.
We have a French playlist that I can play through the Google mini, with a variety of artists. Dragon has mentioned that she really likes Coeur de Pirate. So do I.
Crochet
We did not do any crochet this week. The shawl was not completed this year.
Basic Information
We are working on yesterday (hier) and tomorrow (demain) around any given day. The months of the year is going well. We’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.
The saisons de l’année are all memorized. We’re working on how each of them feel and the types of things we can do during each of them.
When I ask her “combien” for any of the above, she responds in complete sentences.
Printing words
Printing went very well this week. She drew a person fishing next to a tree. On the tree is a ladybug, a worm, and an ant. On the other side of the tree is grass and a lake. There is a bird in the sky with the sun.
Counting objects/math-type activities
She had no problems with the counting worksheet. She counted by 10s to 100 and counted up to 70.
Math was a mixed bag this week. The first worksheet went very well. The second was a little more complicated (I shouldn’t have included 20-4). She had no problem with either 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.
We watched Raiponce in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!
Activity
Table settings – Dragon learned about basic, casual, and formal table settings. As she pointed out, she already knows how to set the table (basic).
Make grey stuff – Dragon made a savoury and a sweet grey stuff.
The savoury was a mushroom paté. A black truffle cheese was added to ours – I do not recommend it. Link to recipe.
The sweet was a pudding, modified to not have any chocolate. We used black icing instead. It was delicious. Link to recipe.
Make bookmark – Dragon made bookmarks for all her teachers, including her Sunday school teacher and her Grannie, who was teaching her piano.
And that’s a wrap for the 2020-2021 school year! Congratulations, Dragon, on completing your Junior Kindergarten/Maternelle!
Virtual school went well this week, for the most part. Dragon got overwhelmed by noise several times and asked to mute the computer.
They practiced syllables again before recess, and worked on the sound ‘T’.
After recess, they listened to a story about a father who is friends with monsters.
After lunch, they did a craft for Father’s Day. Dragon did both crafts, and did really well with the scissors. I was very impressed. However, I spilled white glue on the carpet, so obviously I need some practice with that.
Homeschool was a lot of fun this week. I’d say that I planned this week to have a lot of fun crafts, but I really didn’t think of it like that…
Dance
She did ballet 2 times this week, once with her Aunt leading the “class.”
Music
Piano: she practiced her finger exercises every day this week. Lesson: no lesson this week.
We have a French playlist that I can play through the Google mini, with a variety of artists. Dragon has mentioned that she really likes Coeur de Pirate. So do I.
Crochet
We did not do any crochet this week.
Basic Information
We are working on yesterday (hier) and tomorrow (demain) around any given day. The months of the year is going well. We’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.
The saisons de l’année are all memorized. We’re working on how each of them feel and the types of things we can do during each of them.
When I ask her “combien” for any of the above, she responds in complete sentences.
Printing words
Printing went very well this week. She drew lots of people and flowers. There’s a jellyfish in a pond in the middle of the dandelion.
Counting objects/math-type activities
She had no problems with the counting worksheet. She counted by 10s to 100 and counted up to 60.
Math went extremely well with both worksheets this week, even though they were not in sequence, which she pointed out to me.
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.
We watched Raiponce in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!
Activity
Painting – Dragon doesn’t enjoy finger painting, so she painted with brushes instead. Then her little brother, Pegasus, desperately wanted to paint as well, so he got to do that after Dragon was done. Both of them had a lot of fun.
Make crown – I’d call this a mixed success, mostly because the crowns didn’t staple very well, so that’s on me. But both kids had a lot of fun colouring on their crowns, as once again, Pegasus insisted on joining in Dragon’s craft.
Bake with bananas – Banana splits aren’t strictly baking, but Dragon made the whipped cream, so I think that sort of counts. Obviously Pegasus was included in the activity, as were Éric and I. Delicious.
Virtual school was a little rough this week, although it wasn’t Dragon’s fault. The other kids kept turning on their microphones without permission and both teachers sounded like robots. Dragon had a bit of sensory overload from all the noise and it made it hard for her to concentrate. They worked on syllables that started with “N” today, with Dragon seemed to enjoy.
After recess, they continued with the N syllables game.
After lunch, they talked about the difference between possible and impossible, and were asked to come up with sentences describing one of them. Dragon said that it is impossible for 1+3 to equal 2.
She also presented her paper boat that she made last week. She needs to practice speaking louder. But she said “bateau de papier” and tried to answer the questions.
Piano: she practiced her finger exercises every day this week. Lesson: Finger exercises are going extremely well. They worked on the Frogs and her timing is getting better. The Raindrops got all the notes no problem, a little trouble with the timing. Then she played the Bells and it was perfect, timing and notes. Kittens, got the notes but not the timing. And then they did chop sticks and she’s doing well.
We have a French playlist that I can play through the Google mini, with a variety of artists. Dragon has mentioned that she really likes Coeur de Pirate. So do I.
Crochet
We did not do any crochet this week.
Basic Information
We are working on yesterday (hier) and tomorrow (demain) around any given day. The months of the year is going well. We’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.
The saisons de l’année are all memorized. We’re working on how each of them feel and the types of things we can do during each of them.
When I ask her “combien” for any of the above, she responds in complete sentences.
Printing words
Printing went very well this week. She drew a picture on the last page of three people swimming with jellyfish. They are all very happy.
Counting objects/math-type activities
She had no problems with the counting worksheet. We counted by 10s to 100 and counted up to 50. We also played dominos.
Math was interesting. She resisted trying to do it my way a couple of times, but then it clicked. Either that, or she recognized 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.
We watched Raiponce in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!
Activity
Make fish and chips – Dragon and her papa followed our recipe for beer-battered fish and chips. They also made zucchini sticks. I think they were the best that has ever been made in our house.
She loved it. This is her “my mouth is full and I’m trying to smile without getting fish everywhere” face.
Learn about sustainability in fishing – Dragon enjoyed watching the videos, but she said that she didn’t understand much. After talking about it with her, she seems to have understood the basics.
Learn about shipwrecks – She was fascinated by the idea that there were whole ships under the water. She wanted to see a pirate ship.
Virtual school went well this week. Dragon sang along with all the songs and answered the questions about what day and month it is.
They learned syllables, and Dragon wrote them down on a paper with the rest of the students.
After recess, Dragon was taken aside to do her evaulation. She was shown a picture with a bunch of different objects and asked to identify things with the letters D, C, and G. She got the D ones with no problem (mostly because two of them were the same in English as in French, and one was the number 2), but she needed help with the others. Then she was shown the letters of the alphabet and asked to tell their names. She decided to give their sounds instead, which I think was a good thing? I don’t know, I feel like that’s harder. If she didn’t know their sound (Q, X, Y), she said their name. Then she was asked to count as high as she could. She quickly counted up to 29 and then said she didn’t want to continue. Then she counted to 100 by 10s without prompting, impressing the teacher. So I think it went well. She definitely needs to learn more French words.
After lunch, they did some true/false flash cards. I don’t think Dragon understood at first, but she seemed to catch on by the end. It helped that there were images.
Then they played with a block-based animation coding program called Scratch. Dragon had a lot of fun playing around with it.
Piano: she practiced her finger exercises every day this week. Lesson: Finger exercises are going very well, very impressed with how much she’s improving each week. Even the new one is going well. They did the frog song and she did well. The raindrops song went well as well (also, she added some thunder lol). After some unfocussed time, she did the kitten song with very few issues (she’s only done it once before). Then they played chopsticks and she’s doing well.
We have a French playlist that I can play through the Google mini, with a variety of artists.
Crochet
We did not do any crochet this week.
Basic Information
We are working on yesterday (hier) and tomorrow (demain) around any given day. The months of the year is going well. We’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.
The saisons de l’année are all memorized. We’re working on how each of them feel and the types of things we can do during each of them.
When I ask her “combien” for any of the above, she responds in complete sentences.
Printing words
Printing went very well this week. She drew a picture on the last page of two people holding umbrellas in the rain, going home.
Counting objects/math-type activities
She had no problems with the counting worksheet. We counted by 10s to 100 and counted up to 50.
Math went well this week. She enjoyed the second worksheet especially, and was very excited about how 10+50 worked. The people at the bottom of the pages are holding dandelions. In the second worksheet, the people are Kennedy and the Phantom. (Our little fan artist!)
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.
We watched Raiponce in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!
Activity
Design a dragon – Dragon did very well at drawing from the reference and was quite happy with her result. The only thing I helped her with was pointing at her paper as to where the lines should go.
Learn about prosthetics – Dragon was fascinated by the videos I chose and asked to watch more. I’m not sure how much of the science she grasped, but she did understand the concepts by the end.
Make a paper boat – This activity went really well. I was impressed by the flexibility of the pattern we were following – even though she wasn’t as careful with her folds, making them even, her boat still turned out quite nicely.
Virtual school went well this week. Dragon listend and danced to all the music at the beginning and applauded when her classmates sang.
Instead of learning a new letter, they reviewed all the letters. I think that means that they finished the alphabet last week. (Tbh, I wasn’t paying attention because they learned the letters out of alphabetical order.) We were given a link to the different vowel sounds, which Dragon enjoyed.
After recess, they read a book. The older students read one line at a time and the younger students repeated. Dragon was paired with her favourite older student. He’s very patient with her. She did a good job repeating, but I’m not sure she associated the sounds of what she was saying with the letters on the screen. That’ll come with time, I guess.
After lunch, they reviewed coding and Dragon got to go through 5 modules with the teacher. She did very well and was very proud of herself. Then she was given a new link with words to practice (above, below, beside, etc). She really enjoyed it and I bookmarked the link so she can continue with it througout the week.
Piano: she practiced her finger exercises every day this week. Lesson: They started with finger exercises. They added another finger exercise, so she’s up to 3. They did the lesson that uses all five fingers on both hands. They’re working on timing. She’s doing well with the next lesson, but needs to practice timing. Then they did a new lesson, and she got all the notes right, but needs to work on the timing. Clapping and counting is going fine. They did chopsticks; first time through she was slower than she used to, and she was told to speed up, and she had no problems. Focussed and concentrated well.
We have a French playlist that I can play through the Google mini, with a variety of artists.
Crochet
We did not do any crochet this week.
Basic Information
We are working on yesterday (hier) and tomorrow (demain) around any given day. The months of the year is going well. We’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.
The saisons de l’année are all memorized. We’re working on how each of them feel and the types of things we can do during each of them.
When I ask her “combien” for any of the above, she responds in complete sentences.
Printing words
Printing went very well this week. Her drawing is of two people who are in love. They are holding books. One is sad because it is raining and he doesn’t want his book to get wet.
Counting objects/math-type activities
She had no problems with the counting worksheet. We counted by 10s to 100 and counted up to 50.
Math went well, for the most part. She’s still fighting me about keeping the larger number in her head and counting up the smaller number. She says that her method is working, so why change it. Except that if she loses count, her method doesn’t work, so… We shall see what happens. (Side note: I only noticed that she’d written her 4 backwards on the second page as I was uploading the pictures. Oops.)
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.
We watched Raiponce in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!
Activity
Play with makeup – I had been planning on simply handing over several different eyeshadows and letting her go wild after a minor lesson, but my sister volunteered to come over and teach her the fun stuff.
My favourite part was how she started: “Number one rule about make-up: Make-up is just for fun and for yourself.”
Dragon had a lot of fun trying to put the eye shadow on. She missed a couple times, but she did get some where it was supposed to go!
Fireworks with paint – This was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Dragon got very frustrated because she couldn’t pick up the paint easily with the back of the fork. So we tried with a spoon, and we tried with a paint brush, but by that time, she was so frustrated that she didn’t want to paint fireworks any more. So I got her a fresh paper and she wrote her name and drew a person sleeping.
Make a puzzle – Dragon got very frustrated with this activity as well, mostly because her art didn’t turn out the way she wanted it to. Let’s just say that she had a bit of a rough week when it came to art. But I managed to get her to calm down and showed her abstract art, which she filled in the rest of the page wiith.
Then we glued the art to a foam board that came with a new monitor that we got. Once the glue dried, I used an exacto knife to cut it into pieces and Dragon got to put the puzzle together. She loves it.
