I was hesitant to add this one, as I don’t know it as well as other movies, but Pegasus likes it, so why not? Also, I am super excited about the activities this week. He’s been talking about learning Canva for a while, so I hope it goes well.
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano, learning guitar
Crochet
The project he is working on (currently he is making himself 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 material
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –(in download material)
Storytime
Activity
Plan a menu for Boun’s Shrimp Boat Make fruit jerky (recipe) PDF is in download material Make celebration banner in Canva
This movie went over a lot better than I thought it would, although I was thoroughly unprepared for the emotional aspect of the movie. It was an excellent choice to have the week before Remembrance Day. But please go check the website doesthedogdie before watching this. I was taken completely by surprise.
Not only was the movie well liked, but he loved every single activity.
Dance
I haven’t been doing much formally for this one. I’ll put music on and he’ll dance to it unprompted. (repeated from last week)
Music
He has been diligent about practising his scales and doing the exercise from the book. He also says out loud what the scale letters are as he plays them.
Crochet
We did quite a few stitches. There’s only one row left, and Pegasus is excited to be done and be able to wear it.
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). He sang along unprompted. He’s still having trouble with the names and the order when the songs aren’t playing, but he’s needing much less prompting.
Printing words
He enjoys doing this activity and completed it on the second day this week. He wrote g and e for himself above the words as a way of helping himself, which is adorable. (You can just barely see them under the eraser.)
Counting objects/math-type activities
He did well on his counting. He did not need me to write the numbers for him to copy, but did ask for me to trace them in the air.
Storytime
We got reread the little French books from the library. We had the same French books this week, and I brought them to the COVID vaccination clinic with us on the Friday. He read most of the two Zoe books on his own, only needing help with a couple of the words. I was super impressed. We’ll have new French books for next week.
Activity
Make paper snowflakes – he needed help cutting through the multiple layers of paper, but he did the folding himself and told me where to cut. He wanted to make more.
Make a pop-up diorama – we did this slightly differently than the way I did it with Dragon. We printed a background and the characters from the movie and then had them standing in front of the background. I think it turned out really well. (Mostly, Pegasus doesn’t enjoy colouring, so I didn’t want to force him to do something he doesn’t like.) I forgot to take pictures while he was building it, so here is the completed project.
Learn how to make a PNG in Photopea – oh wow. I had no idea how much he’d enjoy this activity. We did the dice on Thursday, and then on Friday we moved on to more complex images. One of the things I really wanted to enforce was the idea that shadows and complex backgrounds are more difficult to deal with. He definitely understands that concept, but he also doesn’t care much. He also really loved putting his PNGs into Canva on a different background. (I helped a bit with the PNG creation, but he did most of it. I showed him how to upload into Canva and helped with the composition, but I just tweaked his designs.)
He said that the background had too many complex patterns.He said the shadows were too frustrating.He’s a ghost!Aliens!Playing with a puppet
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano, learning guitar
Crochet
The project he is working on (currently he is making himself 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 material
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –(in download material)
This week was disrupted greatly, due to illness in the household needing a hospital visit (thank goodness for CHEO). However, Pegasus greatly enjoyed watching Coco, although the bonus features got a little long for him (I don’t blame him).
Dance
I haven’t been doing much formally for this one. I’ll put music on and he’ll dance to it unprompted. (repeated from last week)
Music
He has been diligent about practising his scales and doing the exercise from the book. He also says out loud what the scale letters are as he plays them.
Crochet
We did not crochet this week, as I needed to be upstairs to be near Dragon.
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). He sang along unprompted. He’s still having trouble with the names and the order when the songs aren’t playing, but he’s needing less prompting.
Printing words
He enjoys doing this activity and completed it on the second day this week. g and e are still a struggle.
Counting objects/math-type activities
He did well on his counting. He did not need me to write the numbers for him to copy.
Storytime
We got reread the little French books from the library. I am getting him to read the small words that he knows, like ‘le’ and ‘la’, ‘un’ and ‘une’, and I’ve started him on the bigger words that show up in multiple books, like ‘voici’, ‘regarde’, ‘dit’, and ‘ballon’.
Activity
Remember the dead: go through old photo albums and hear stories about your ancestors. We had my mom bring over photo albums and tell stories about Pegasus’s great-grandparents and greatx2-grandparents, and some greatx2-aunts and -uncles as well. It was fun to hear about them. Pegasus did a great job remembering and linking stories about the different people, which I found impressive.
** Note the picture on thick cardboard – it was taken in early 1800s!! (my mother’s grandmother’s grandmother when she was 19! – who is just barely on the family tree in the bottom corner)
A ridiculously thin picture to show the thickness of the cardboard the picture was printed on
Bake traditional food – we made conchas again because they were so delicious last time. Pegasus requested yellow icing.
Learn about Dia de Los Muertos (+ watch Elena of Avalor special episode) – this one we only watched the episode. No pictures.
This week is a new one for me, but my husband has fond memories of it as a kid. I think this one is a combination live action/animation, but it was filmed in French, so there won’t be any dubbing issues.
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano, learning guitar
Crochet
The project he is working on (currently he is making himself 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 material
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –(in download material)
Storytime
Activity
Make paper snowflakes (link to instructions) Make a pop-up diorama (link to basic instructions) Learn how to make a PNG in Photopea (take a picture of something and then use the Select/Magic Cut tool to remove the background)
I need to apologize. When I chose this movie as a Halloween movie, I COMPLETELY forgot that the Halloween part I was remembering was actually a short that was released at a later time! I hope you enjoyed the movie even though it wasn’t Halloween-y.
Dance
I haven’t been doing much formally for this one. I’ll put music on and he’ll dance to it unprompted. (repeated from last week)
Music
He has been diligent about practising his scales and doing the exercise from the book. He also says out loud what the scale letters are as he plays them.
Crochet
I helped him do several blocks of stitches… probably about 3 inches. He’s getting close to the end and is very excited about that (I’m still doing extra when I feel like it).
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). He sang along unprompted. He’s still having trouble with the names and the order when the songs aren’t playing.
Printing words
He enjoys doing this activity and regularly completes it early in the week. He was confused about why there was an extra line at the bottom, but understood when he ran out of room and needed it.
Counting objects/math-type activities
He did well on his counting. He needed me to write the numbers for him to copy.
Storytime
We got new little French books on Monday (from the library). I am getting him to read the small words that he knows, like ‘le’ and ‘la’, ‘un’ and ‘une’, and I’ve started him on the bigger words that show up in multiple books, like ‘voici’, ‘regarde’, ‘dit’, and ‘ballon’.
Activity
Draw pumpkin face – he has been very resistant to colouring, so I was SHOCKED when he wanted to colour in the entire pumpkin
Experiment: elephant toothpaste – this has failed spectacularly every single time I’ve tried this experiment. It’s getting to be quite frustrating. It failed again on Monday, so we tried with a different kind of yeast on Wednesday, and it worked!!!
Attempt #2
Pumpkin carving – We waited to do this until Monday (yesterday) because we didn’t want the pumpkin to rot. And then I could be there. 🙁 But Éric and Pegasus had a great time!
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano, learning guitar
Crochet
The project he is working on (currently he is making himself 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 material
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –(in download material)
Pegasus hadn’t remembered seeing this before, but by the end of it, he said that we had watched it with my mom “yesterday”, which means recently. He loved it, and asked to watch all the bonus features (which is normal), and didn’t get bored even once (not necessarily normal). He got a little nervous at the end, but he loved the zombies and thought they were hilarious. They are.
Dance
I haven’t been doing much formally for this one. I’ll put music on and he’ll dance to it unprompted. (repeated from last week)
Music
He has been diligent about practising his scales and doing the exercise from the book. He also says out loud what the scale letters are as he plays them. He says that the songs in the book are boring and will add things to them to make them sound better. (He’s not wrong.) He made up the song for his movie and played it on the piano.
Crochet
I helped him do several blocks of stitches… probably about 3 inches.
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). He sang along unprompted. The days of the week song that we’ve been listening to has BEEN REMOVED and I don’t know who made it so we can’t look it up with the wayback machine! Pegasus is very upset about this (as am I). I’ve reached out to Dragon’s Kindergarten teacher in hopes that she has the link, but I haven’t heard back yet. (No news.)
Printing words
He enjoys doing this activity and regularly completes it early in the week.
Counting objects/math-type activities
He did much better counting on his own this week. He didn’t ask for help with the printing of the numbers, but he did refer to the traced numbers instead.
Storytime
We got new little French books on Monday (from the library). I am getting him to read the small words that he knows, like ‘le’ and ‘la’, ‘un’ and ‘une’, and I’ve started him on the bigger words that show up in multiple books, like ‘voici’, and I’m trying to get him to read the bigger words that show up multiple times in the same book.
Activity
Make a shoebox diorama – he had fun picking out which images to put in his diorama. He had less fun colouring them. He really doesn’t enjoy colouring for some reason. (He also didn’t want to change the colour of his crayon.) His scissor-work was much better than when cutting out the Halloween mask, although he did request assistance for the first little bit of cutting.
Film script in stop-motion – He was so excited to be able to do this. It was the most memorable part of Dragon’s schooling, and he’s super proud of what he made. He came up with the concept from start to finish, and while I might have moved the toys, he was the director in every way. (and writer, and composer, and voice actor)
The Halloween Movie by PegasusTaking pictures/filmingRecording voice
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano, learning guitar
Crochet
The project he is working on (currently he is making himself 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 material
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –(in download material)
Storytime
Activity
Draw pumpkin faces Experiment: elephant toothpaste (weblink to experiment) (word doc created in folder) Pumpkin carving: pick stencil and draw it on pumpkin, help scoop seeds (adult do carving; might want to do this on the weekend to be closer to Halloween)
This is a favourite. Pegasus assures me he understood everything. He ended up watching it alone, as I had a business meeting during his movie timeslot, which worked out very well for everyone. It was a very short week, due to Thanksgiving on Monday and Can*Con 2023 on Friday.
Dance
I haven’t been doing much formally for this one. I’ll put music on and he’ll dance to it unprompted. (repeated from last week)
Music
He has been diligent about practising his scales and doing the exercise from the book. He also says out loud what the scale letters are as he plays them. He has been actively remembering to keep his elbows tucked and his hand positioning is much improved.
Crochet
I helped him do several blocks of stitches… probably about 6 inches.
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). He sang along unprompted. The days of the week song that we’ve been listening to has BEEN REMOVED and I don’t know who made it so we can’t look it up with the wayback machine! Pegasus is very upset about this (as am I). I’ve reached out to Dragon’s Kindergarten teacher in hopes that she has the link, but I haven’t heard back yet. (No news.)
Printing words
He has been improving slowly. I like that I don’t have to fight him to get him to do it. He is very pleased with himself for completing them, and usually writes more words than I ask him to do (I split them up over a couple days because he was overwhelmed that first week). I feel like his printing has improved DRASTICALLY since the first week.
Counting objects/math-type activities
He did much better counting on his own this week. He requested help with a few of the numbers.
Storytime
We continued reading the little French books from last week (from the library). I am getting him to read the small words that he knows, like ‘le’ and ‘la’, and I’m trying to get him to read the bigger words that show up multiple times in the same book.
Activity
Plot and write a short Halloween script – we made a list of ideas, Pegasus just rolling with it. I barely had to guide him. I did help him break it down into scenes. Finish script and make background props – Pegasus decided what he wanted each scene to say in dialogue. He has decided to record his voice. I helped him translate. We decided what props he would need, and realized that he didn’t need to make any. (All my writing)
