dragon

Week 17 – Meet the Robinsons Results

by

Virtual school was a bit rough today, especially in the morning. Dragon was NOT doing well and got very upset when she wasn’t called on (there are other kids in the class, she won’t be called on every week, obviously!), and then the noise level was higher than usual and she started to melt down, so I had to put the computer on mute so that I could get her to calm down. There seemed to be a lot of confusion happening.

After lunch, she presented, but it seemed as though she didn’t know how to begin. I think I’ll start getting her to present to me at least once during the rest of the week so that she gets used to the format.

Math was not a good time for her either. They were supposed to be counting by twos using a website, and Dragon couldn’t figure out how to drag the pieces and was getting more and more upset. Finally, once I told her that she didn’t have to do it, she was able to get it.

The day was exhausting and stressful, for both of us.

Homeschool was actually surprisingly good this week, especially considering how poorly virtual school went this week.

Dance

She did not do ballet this week, as our basement was taken up by inflating mattresses (the kids both got new mattresses).

Music

Piano: They did clapping and counting, but no piano this week.

We have a new French playlist that I can play through the Google, with a variety of artists.

Crochet

She did not do any this week.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before (hier) and the day after (demain) 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 now responds in complete sentences.

Printing words

Printing went extremely well this week. I am very impressed.

She played with the alphabet magnet board, and wanted to write some words. I suggested she get a book and try writing a couple sentences. She was very enthusiastic.

Counting objects/math-type activities

This is too easy for her, but she really enjoys the pictures, so I don’t mind doing them. Also, it gives her practice with printing numbers.

Math worksheet: This was WAY too easy for her. We thought last week was a fluke, or that she recognized that it was in number order, but she had no trouble with this one. So I’m going to make another math sheet that’s slightly more advanced for each week.

We also traced her hands and had her write down the numbers inside each finger. She enjoyed that, and we’ll do it again sometime, but with my hands so that there’s more room inside each finger so she can count higher.

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 Vampirina in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!

Activity

Draw a new invention – It’s a lightbulb that makes light so much brighter because it’s connected to a computer by a cord.

Lava Lamp Experiment – VERY easy and simple experiment. And repeatable. It’s not as flashy as I thought it might be, but still fun and Dragon was enthusiastic about it. So was Pegasus, who watched us.

Make marshmallow robots – This was a fun (and tasty) little build. Big hit – although I don’t think she cared too much about building the robot and was just excited to eat the marshmallows.

Busy busy busy

by

Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I’m working on a new writing project and it seems to have taken over a large portion of my brain. In order to free up my brainspace I’ve been trying to write. Not easy with all my other responsibilities but I’ll make it work.

It’s really exciting and a little different then what I normally do, but so far it’s great.

Now I really need to go finish the last hundred or so words of this chapter.

Have this cute picture of Dragon building Maleficent the Snowperson.

Be safe and be kind

Éric

Week 16 – Balto Results

by

I’m not going to lie, I was not expecting virtual school to go well this week, seeing as it’s the first day back after the break. And it was a little chaotic. But Dragon focussed well until ten minutes before morning recess, raised her hand multiple times, and even tried to sing one of the new songs (she got the first line, in tune and everything, so I’m going to call it a win). She did printing of words that started with the letter N, and she gave suggestions of words that start with N – neige! (We talked about this word yesterday! Yay!)

After recess, they were read a story, and Dragon focussed well. She REALLY liked the cute animal, but I don’t think she folowed the story. I find that a problem with the YouTube readings – they read too quickly, don’t pause, and don’t have the words, so it’s harder to follow. I’m hoping that there’s more this week that I can read aloud to Dragon.

After lunch, there were multiple kids who wanted to present various toys. Dragon presented her creme glacee shop, and even used French words here and there, like for the colours. She answered questions and showed off all the pieces (sometimes showing the screen instead of the camera, which was quite funny; our set-up consists of a camera on a tripod, a snowball microphone, and the “monitor”, which is a TV mounted to the ceiling).

Lastly, they counted how many school days they had had. Dragon did NOT understand what was going on. They asked her to count, which she got, and started counting at her usual pace (quickly). But the teacher was circling the days, so she was counting much slower. Which meant that, from Dragon’s perspective, she was restarting. So she got super confused and upset. So I had her just listen, but she wasn’t happy about it.

Therefore, I’m going to say that overall it was a good day, but it ended on a sad note. Fortunately, we had a convenient distraction in the form of new mattresses for the kids that arrived during the school day.

Homeschool was actually surprisingly good this week. Again, I was expecting a lot of resistance, especially since I changed up the worksheets somewhat.

Dance

She did not do ballet this week, as our basement was taken up by inflating mattresses (the kids both got new mattresses).

Music

Piano: We reviewed the clapping and counting for the notes and the tests, since of which she remembered and some of which she didn’t. We reviewed where the notes were on the staffs (ABCDE). She played all the pieces she knew before the break, mostly very well. Then they discovered that she’d been reading the letters instead of looking at the notes when she was sight reading. They played chopsticks (she’s remembering all the notes and hand movements; the only problem was counting to six on the first key) and Jingle bells (first two bars by herself).

We have a new French playlist that I can play through the Google, with a lot of songs. Before we got this set up, we listened to La Chicane.

Crochet

She did crochet twice this week, and we got a couple inches of one row done. It’s slow going, but her hands aren’t used to the hold on the hook, so I feel like this is good progress.

Basic Information

We kept up with these throughout the break, so she was still able to repeat these quite well. We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well, although she keeps forgetting about Septembre and Octobre for some reason. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

The saisons de l’année are now 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 now responds in complete sentences.

Printing words

Printing was one of the new worksheets. She told me that the words I chose were excellent choices. It’s nice to get positive feedback from the student. 😉 I feel as though her letters have improved. I like that she’s really trying to do the letters in lower case, including her name. I changed up the font for the “blank” worksheet to Comic Sans before the font I was using (Calibri) had funny shapes for ‘a’ and ‘g’, and the ‘t’ was too short – she didn’t believe me when I said it needed to be taller.

Counting objects/math-type activities

This worksheet has more space for pictures, which Dragon noticed immediately. “Mum, there’s more of them than usual!” She still has no problems with counting these, and I feel like her numbers have improved.

Then there was the new math worksheet. I think it was too easy for her. I explained what she should do for the first one, with the drawing of the pictures, and then she zipped through the rest. I might be making the worksheets more challenging in the future… The suite at the bottom was really easy for her too.

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 Vampirina in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!

Activity

Viruses – We watched Wil Wheaton’s Table Top episode of Pandemic in the afternoon before we played the game itself, which ended up being an excellent idea. She understood what we were trying to do and a bit of the strategy (she’s actually quite good at logic puzzles, which is super nice). And we managed to win! With one Player card left! So it was VERY close, despite having completely erradicated 3/4 of the diseases.

Learn about sled dogs – we watched a bunch of YouTube videos about how sled dogs are trained as puppies, and how excited the puppies are to pull the sled. They’re so cute. It almost got me wanting to have a team….and I do NOT like dogs.

Make book of shapes – this was an activity that one of Dragon’s due date group kids did before the holidays. I really liked the idea, so I saved it to remind myself to do it with Dragon this semester. Dragon really enjoyed making a book. I didn’t have to fight her at all to work on it. We started by making a list of shapes (formes) and figuring out their names and what colour they should be. Then we ordered them based on least complex to most complex (number of sides). She printed every word and drew every shape in the book itself (although I helped a tiny bit with a couple (triangle and losange)).

  • plotting out the book
  • front
  • circle and oval
  • heart and triangle
  • square and rectangle
  • trapezoid and diamond
  • pentagon and star
  • back

Week 15 – A Muppet Christmas Carol Results

by

Despite being very tired when I woke Dragon up on Tuesday morning, she participated very well at virtual school. She answered several questions, including how many months of the year and how many seasons with FULL SENTENCES in French. We’ve been practicing and it shows. I’m very proud. She also listed the days of the week. She listed the months of the year and the seasons to me, because the teachers asked someone else to list them.

She presented the giant pink pony that we have on top of one of our bookshelves. She mostly spoke in English, but she responded the colours in French when asked.

We came back a little early after the first recess, and she got to talk to her teacher one-on-one. They talked about arbres de Noel, and how we have deux. They talked about her dress (one my mother made for my sister when she was 4 years old) and that it was rouge and blanc.

She listened intently to the story, that was read three times because the kids all loved it so much.

After lunch, Dragon was asked to count as high as she was able, reading the numbers on the screen. She kept losing her place, so I had to get up to point to the numbers (and then the teacher started highlighting them). She got tripped up at 16 again (we’ll continue to work on that) and skipped 19 (ditto), and then refused to count higher than 20.

Then the teacher asked the kids to print all the numbers that they can. Other than a few meltdowns (my 7 looks like a c!) she did excellently.

Homeschool was pretty good this week. It was a little all-over-the-place, since we delivered some presents on Friday.

Dance

She did ballet 2-3 times this week. 

Music

Piano: no piano this week

We listened to French Christmas music this week. (obviously)

Crochet

She couldn’t sit still thanks to the excitement of Christmas. We’ll try to get some more done over the break.

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. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month.

The saisons de l’année are now memorized, including printemps. 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 now responds in complete sentences.

Printing words

Printing was pretty good this week, although she was rather disproportionately devastated when her crayon broke, so I feel like maybe there was some underlying stress about printing that I didn’t pick up on.

Counting objects/math-type activities

Numbers were hit or miss this week. Sevens, particularly, were a stress.

  • It’s slightly different and I didn’t notice! :O

I had her figure out how many cookies were across and how many were down on the cookie sheet, and then I asked how many rows down I’d need to do, and she figured out that there needed to be 6 across:

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 Vampirina in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!

Activity

Make toilet paper roll art – This was a HUGE hit with Dragon. We picked out what designs we wanted to do, and then we went through the button stash to find appropriate buttons. Apparently we have no black buttons….so instead, we picked out fun shapes and painted them with nail polish. We also had no green buttons, so the nail polish was used for that as well. Then we fought with paper and pipe cleaners and fortunately found little puffs for the ear muffs because I hadn’t considered that we needed that sort of craft supplies! Then came the glue challenge. Gluing pipe cleaners is NOT easy, and I had completely forgotten! Punching a hole and threading it through or stapling it would have worked much easier, however, when I checked them the next morning, the glue seemed to have solidified nicely, so I’m not too worried about it. I will call this a success.

Bake cookies – We made A LOT of cookies. She helped make doughnuts, too.

  • Making doughnuts too!
  • Cherry ice box
  • Orange cookies
  • Brown sugar cookies

Learn about Xmas pasts and other culture’s Holidays – On Monday, we had a video call with a friend of ours who celebrates Hannukah. He told Dragon about what the holiday means to the Jewish people, and how it has become more celebrated more recently as Jewish and Christian kids are closer friends and discuss their traditions more often.

On Thursday, we talked to a different friend, who celebrates Lucia. She told us the history of Lucia, how she brought an end to a famine in Sweden, and how it is celebrated now. Here are some videos you can watch about it.

One – the swedish tourism board put out this “lucia for dummies” video a few years back and it manages to be both informative and quite funny! And two – a long string of Swedish Christmas songs for kids.

Jasmine Murray-Bergquist

Keep your eye on this blog, as next week on Tuesday I will be doing a review of the semester and how things will change next semester. Then on Thursday I will be positing the first movie for January! How I Taught My Dragon blogs will continue on a Tuesday/Thursday schedule throughout the new year.

Week 14 – A Very Merry Pooh Year Results

by

Virtual school was pretty good this week. Dragon did the days of the week and the months of the year for the teachers. She told me the seasons. She was asked to sing the Automne song (which she doesn’t know yet, so that went about as well as can be expected).

They were read a book about a cat planting a seed. They had to raise their hands when they heard a word with a V. Dragon raised her hand for the word “livre” and got to tell the teacher. (I’m sensing a theme…)

We logged on a tiny bit early after lunch, and the teacher was already on, so Dragon got some one-on-one time with math! They did some addition. Dragon was having a hard time conceptualizing the numbers, so I asked if she could count crayons to help her, which was eagerly agreed to by the teacher, and Dragon seemed to grasp the concept much faster, so I’m pleased and impressed.

They were read a Christmas story about a bird giving away all his sweaters to other animals in need and almost freezing to death, but then Santa brought him a new sweater because the bird understands the true spirit of Christmas. It was beautifully illustrated.

Homeschool was a lot of fun this week. There won’t be pictures of the presents she made until after Christmas, for obvious reasons. I will amend the post after then and reshare this post on social media so you can see them. 🙂 Post amended as of December 25.

Dance

She did ballet 2-3 times this week. She also played outside and built a snowman (something she’s been begging to do for weeks, whether there was snow on the ground or not…)

Music

Piano: she played all her old pieces and reviewed the clapping and counting. And then she played two new pieces that she had never seen before, using ABCDE. And then she did clapping and counting from a pattern of quarter and half notes, which is a lot harder than it sounds (according to the teacher). She did very well this week!

Them they played chopsticks and Jingle bells (with major assistance).

We listened to French Christmas music this week. (obviously)

Crochet

We did not do crocheting this week, as she wanted to wrap the presents she made.

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. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month.

The saisons de l’année are now memorized, including printemps. We’re working on how each of them feel and the types of things we can do during each of them.

Printing words

Dragon did not want to do the second set of printing. I think she did very well, though. Lots of hearts because, and I quote, “I love you Mum!” Awww!

Counting objects/math-type activities

She is EXCELLENT at counting. Not so great at printing the numbers. I think the new number worksheets in 2021 will help with that. (I hope)

We did more addition math with objects like in her virtual school, and had a lot of fun with that.

  • Grouped by type didn’t work out well
  • Grouped all together didn’t work either
  • Grouped by ten worked! (plus 3 left over)

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 Vampirina in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!

Activity

Make Xmas gifts – she had a lot of fun deciding on colours and working the tools to make these (with assitance).

Note: I will add more pictures here once the presents have been given; Dec 25: pictures added.

  • Drawing
  • Putting them together
  • She made magnets!

Make Xmas tags – we discovered a bunch of Disney tags, so rather than cut them out, she wrote her name on them. They were too small for her to feel confident to write the other people’s names, so I did that for her.

Week 13 – Arthur Christmas Results

by

Despite a later night than usual, and us forgetting to wake the Dragon earlier on Monday morning, Tuesday virtual school went incredibly well.

Dragon sang the Bonjour song, answered combien de jours dans la semaine, and also answered combien de mois dans l’année (although did not answer in a complete sentence, so we will work on that). They listened to a new (to us) seasons song, which we really enjoyed.

They learned about the letter V today, and they wrote some words that started with V. She not only wrote the words on the screen, but she wrote three whole sentences. “V comme volcan”, “V comme vélo”, and “V comme verre”.

After recess, we were read a book about the seasons, and the kids were asked what their favourite seasons are. Dragon said automne, because of pommes and jumping in leaves.

After lunch, they did math. They started reading a book about a cat that likes math, but then the lesson got sidetracked (in a very good way) when the teachers asked the kids to get multiple objects from their house (blocks, cars, etc) to do math with. To hurry Dragon along in her choice, I gave her three options: blocks, dominos, or the playdough jars. She chose crayons, which was better than her eying our bookcases and wanting to pick out multiple toys (which we usually do during homeschool lessons). Mme Houria had her count out her crayons and I had to stifle a laugh because there are a lot of crayons in her little cup. Dragon got to 10 and Mme Houria tried to get her to stop there, but Dragon didn’t hear her and powered on all the way up to 20 (with a tiny bit of help with the first sound of the numbers 15, 16, and 20 – again, we’re working on those this week, but I already knew we had to). At 20, Mme Houria managed to stop her, mostly because Dragon doesn’t know how to count higher than that yet! Then, she was asked to remove 4, and count how many were left. I think the teachers were impressed that she was counting so high, but I’m not sure if they heard my slight assistance (PS Mme Samaké, I’m calling myself out here!).

Then they got to present, and Dragon started off by presenting her witch’s hat. She did an excellent job with her French, calling it a chapeau de sorcière. She was asked quelle couleur, and she said mauve without hesitation. She was then asked if there was a V dans mauve, and she thought about it and then said oui! (Yay for answering in French!) Then she presented her petit frère, who was super cute and kept trying to put her hat back on her head. She was asked how old he is, and she needed help with that because she didn’t know (17 months). Then she listened to everyone else’s presentations (with a slight bit of impatience and sadness when she had a question for one of the kids but nobody saw her hand was up).

Homeschool was a lot of fun this week. We baked a lot of cookies…and will be making more in two weeks (possibly more next week as well, but it won’t be school related).

Dance

She did ballet 2-3 times this week.

Music

Her letters are doing well. She didn’t learn anything new. She reviewed counting and clapping and was perfect. They did all three pieces that she already knew, including A and E, and she did them no problem, and the long piece without E and A and she did very well. No new pieces because she wanted to help decorate the house. However, she did get to play chop sticks and Jingle bells with major assistance.

We listened to French Christmas music this week. (obviously)

Crochet

We did not do crocheting this week, as she wanted to make more cookies. I can’t say no.

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. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. (Except on Friday, she seemed to have forgotten Juin, Juillet, and Août all of a sudden.)

The saisons de l’année are now memorized, including printemps. We’re working on how each of them feel and the types of things we can do during each of them.

Printing words

We did the first sheet on Thursday and the second on Friday. Thursday was not a good day. Friday was not much better, but there were no tears, at least. Some of her letters look much better, others…less so.

Counting objects/math-type activities

She seems to be struggling with printing her numbers, which I find odd.

Counting while drinking tea from Thesaurus Tea!

Her verbal counting in French is going well. She’s fairly consistent up to 14, then needs help with 15-16-17, can get 18 and 19, but needs helps with 20. I’m happy with her progress.

We did some math with shapes, and then made a complicated suite (pattern).

12-3=9
A pattern using all the pieces

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’ve also started watching Vampirina in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!

Activity

Write letter to Santa – she has been SO excited to write her letter to Santa. We’ve been discussing what she would ask for since mid-November (possibly earlier). Santa connected to our printer on Sunday night, when I printed the rest of her paperwork. She filled it out on Monday and I uploaded it back to him.

Nice things: Listening, Bought a present (for Pegasus)
She would like: A ice cream shop, and Pegasus would like a stuffed Tigger

Geography – we played with a kid’s geography app on my phone. It had images of major landmarks for different countries as puzzles, as well as an image of each country’s flag, and a mini game for each country’s food. No pictures of this activity because I was using my phone lol

Bake cookies – this week, we made three family recipe cookies (my grandmother’s). Scottish shortbread, butter buds, and Swedish tea rings (with some homemade jam that Éric made). Dragon was very patient with rolling the dough into balls, and even managed to make them all the same size (and larger than the butter buds) for the tea rings (to have enough space for the jam).

shortbread
butter buds
tea rings

Week 12 – Frozen 1 Results

by

Virtual school was much better this week (seems to be on an alternating schedule – one week good, one week bad). Dragon was disappointed to not be called on to name the days of the week, but when I pointed out that they already knew that she knew them, she was happier. She got to sing the Bonjour song, and then she was asked to sing the Automne song, which she hadn’t been asked before. She really didn’t want to do it, but unmuted her microphone and whispered along with Mme Houria. I was very proud of her for trying something new.

They reviewed the letter L, and Dragon volunteered the word “livre”. Not surprised. She loves her books. Then she wrote it down, with me only helping to sound out the word, not specifically telling her the letters.

During recess and lunch, we built a gingerbread house, and I took a picture to upload it to the Classroom so she could present it after lunch. Mme Samaké was thinking on the same wavelength as I was, because she had the pictures uploaded before I or Dragon even had to say a word! They had Dragon describe the picture (a maison gingerbread!) and then I asked her to mention what she did with the lights (I made the lights a suite!) The teachers thought she was saying sweet, but were very impressed when they realized she was saying suite (pattern). They had her list the suite in the lights and in the roof. Then they asked other kids the same thing. Then they asked Dragon about the formes (shapes) that she could see. (I hadn’t really covered that with her…something I remedied on Wednesday!) But she surprised me – when prompted if she could see any triangles, she said an arbre de noel! I was very impressed with her.

She danced with Yoshi during the physical exercise portion of virtual school during the Mario song. It makes me laugh.

We had parent-teacher interviews this week, and while Dragon is doing well, her vocabulary needs strengthening. To help with this, the teachers suggested that she watch a show in French, so we’re going to start watching one episode of Vampirina a day. We started this on Friday. She says she didn’t understand any of it, but at the very least she’s being exposed to more French?

Homeschool went well this week:

Dance

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, but she needs to work on the counting of full, half, and quarter notes and rests, so my mom is going to work on that when she visits during the week. Eighth notes/rests are great. She did all three pieces she knows and did well. She’s getting better at recognizing the notes on the staff and played the long piece with reading the staff.

We listened to French Christmas music this week. (obviously)

Crochet

We did a little bit of crochet this week, after over a month of no crocheting. It went as well as can be expected lol.

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. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month.

The saisons de l’année are going well. She’s got automne, hiver, and été, but still has trouble remembering printemps. (no change from last week)

Printing words

Her tracing is going very well, but her small letters are iffy. This is a work in progress.

  • I asked her to practice her ‘g’, pretty please with sugar and a cherry on top. She took me literally lol

Counting objects/math-type activities

She seems to be struggling with printing her numbers, which I find odd.

Her verbal counting in French is going well. She’s fairly consistent up to 14, then needs help with 15-16-17, can get 18 and 19, but needs helps with 20. I’m happy with her progress.

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 paper snowflakes – She really enjoyed this. I needed to help her cut through the thickness of the folded paper (we just used regular printer paper), but she told me where to cut and how long a cut to make, and she cut the edges. She also did the folding.

Experiment with states of matter: solid/liquid/gas (make an ice cube) – We decided to freeze water into an ice cube, and then melt it back into water to show a physical change. She saw the liquid to gas change happen when we boiled water for the following activity.

  • liquid
  • solid
  • cold!
  • liquid again!

Make rock candy – we were so very looking forward to this. However, the receipe I had didn’t say when to stop adding sugar, and we were able to add an extra cup and 3/4 more than we should have been able to. So we ended up with solid sugar in our glasses!

  • Peach flavouring with the orange (red and yellow)
  • Vanilla flavouring with the blue
Setting up
Results

Week 11 – Onward Results

by

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.)

The home school portion went well.

Dance

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.

Week 10 – Abominable Results

by

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 Dragon” 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.