Week 14 – Arthur Christmas Results

Pegasus loved this movie. He’s also familiar with it. He was extremely excited to write his letter to Santa.

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 exercises from the book. He also says out loud what the scale letters are as he plays them.

Crochet

We’re on break for now.

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 didn’t need any prompting with the days of the week this week.

Printing words

He enjoys doing this activity and completed it on the second day this week. He’s working on making his letters smaller and more contained.

Counting objects/math-type activities

He did well on his counting. He didn’t need help with the printing of the numbers.

Storytime

We didn’t read last week’s French books. Sickness took over our household.

Activity

Write letter to Santa – Santa sent the letters for both kids to the printer at the end of last week. Pegasus was super excited, but reluctantly agreed to wait until Monday to fill it out. He was very enthusiastic about writing it and worked very hard to fill it out.

Geography – we sat down with an atlas and I explained how to use it and how everything affects everything else. Pegasus was very enthusiastic and remembered the Rockies long enough to tell Éric when he got home from work. While sitting on my lap, he thought that the US being called Canada’s pants was hilarious. 😉

Bake cookies – we have 8 types of cookies we want to bake this season. This week, we made my grandmother’s shortbread. I had planned on making a second cookie on the Friday, but both kids were sick, so we left it at just the one for this week. He already understands about the measurements, but I got to explain how to be precise (to my standards). We got a little messy. 😛

Week 13 – Raya and the Last Dragon Results

Pegasus doesn’t really remember Raya very well, as evidenced by his confusion about why the word “dragon” was one of his printing words this week.

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

Pegasus completed the poncho this week! He worked very hard and is very happy with the end result.

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 didn’t need any prompting with the days of the week this week.

Printing words

He enjoys doing this activity and completed it on the third day this week.

Counting objects/math-type activities

He did well on his counting. He needed me to write a 5, but only asked for a 6 traced in the air, and he knew what a 7 looked like.

Storytime

We read last week’s French books on Monday at the dentist while we were waiting. Then we got new French books after the dentist. He learned some new words, like ‘dans’ and ‘ciel’.

Activity

Plan a menu for Boun’s Shrimp Boat – I felt like this was too limiting, so instead, we made a menu for Pegasus’s Restaurant! He had fun planning the menu items (I wrote them down verbatim) and then I helped him search for images in Canva. He shrank them and placed them in the appropriate places.

Make fruit jerky – This turned out pretty well. It was tasty, but we had a hard time flattening it so that it had even consistency. Pegasus did pretty much everything himself, too, which is excellent!

Make celebration banner – We changed this to an invitation to the opening of his restaurant. I wanted to explain how to keep design consistent in theme across similar products.

Week 12 – Abominable Results

This movie was a huge hit. Pegasus didn’t remember watching it in English, but he still seemed to understand what was going on, so I’m happy. There was one point in the movie when you think one of the kids is going to die, and he was VERY concerned, but a quick reassurance from me and he was fine.

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 didn’t need to write the g or e above the words, and he decided to make his a’s look like the font, which I think is adorable.

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 have new French books this week. We did not read them.

Activity

Make pork buns – his progress in the kitchen has improved drastically. He did most of this himself (minus the BBQing, obviously). He was happy with the taste, I don’t know why he’s making that face!

Make paper flowers – this was a tough one for him. He got very agitated when he felt like he couldn’t be gentle enough to separate the flower petals, but when I suggested putting it aside, he calmed down enough to complete the activity.

Learn about endangered species – no pictures. He enjoyed theorizing about what would happen if certain species went extinct and how it would affect others. We also talked about what species are endagered and why.

Week 11 – La Guerre des Tuques Results

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.)

Week 10 – Coco Results

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)

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.

Week 9 – Monsters Vs Aliens Results

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!!!

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!

Week 8 – ParaNorman Results

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 Pegasus

Week 7: Kiki’s Delivery Service Results

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)

Week 6: Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! Results

This was a brand-new movie. The French was very fast. I’m not sure I’d recommend it for the future, but Pegasus says he understood everything. He also took out toys immediately following the movie and had them re-enact most of the movie, so I’m guessing that he understood most of it.

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. My mom noticed that he’s been popping his elbows out, so he’s actively trying to keep them tucked.

Crochet

I helped him do several blocks of stitches… probably about 4 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.

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).

Counting objects/math-type activities

I tried to let him count on his own this week, and he got very angry and didn’t want to do it. It’s frustrating when he’s used to doing it one way and doesn’t want to change things up.

Storytime

We got new mini French books on Monday. 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

Draw a monster mask (web templates) – Dragon used this one, Pegasus used this one
I had forgotten that Dragon hadn’t cut very close to the line when she did this activity, and was surprised when Pegasus did the same thing. (I didn’t know it was the same thing until a few days later.) He really didn’t want to cut the paper close to the tabs (for threading the yarn that would tie his mask to his head), and kept resisting finishing his mask until he came up with the suggestion of cutting the tabs off entirely and putting the mask on a popsicle stick. I am very impressed with his problem solving.

Spooky handprint – do NOT use construction paper for this activity! It doesn’t work! Regular printer paper works perfectly, and both kids enjoyed making their handprint and then painting over it.

Cheesecloth ghosts – VERY messy, definitely take the advice of putting down a plastic bag/sheet! (at least it’s just glue and water, but still…it gets everywhere. Also, I suggest you have two people to do the laying of the cheesecloth over the balloon, because it’s really hard to do with only one pair of hands. It also requires two layers of cheesecloth, and needs to dry overnight, so don’t forget to account for that!

Week 5 – Moana Results

Moana is a favourite in our house, so he’s very familiar with both the dialogue and the story. He says he understood a lot of it, but I’m not sure how much he’s remembering.

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

This week, he was given an exercise from the first piano book. He is ridiculously excited about this. He is still practising the scale that he was taught as well.

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. In this vein, I have asked his permission to work on it when he’s not there, so that it actually gets completed before the end of the year. The first stripe is complete.

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.

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).

Counting objects/math-type activities

I tried a different method of helping him count, by having him write the number in each box. This won’t work every time, but he seemed to like it this week.

Storytime

We read the mini French books during the week. I am getting him to read the small words that he knows, like ‘le’ and ‘la’. He is very proud of himself for reading them.

Activity

Objects floating in water experiment – I had forgotten just how many skills this experiment teaches; cutting with scissors, forming a hypothesis, and then writing down the results. He did a great job cutting, he had no trouble formulating the hypotheses (although I’m not sure that he thought very hard about it), and then remembered what the results were in order to mark them down on the paper. He was a little upset that he got so many of them wrong, but I told him that experiments are more often about getting the wrong answer and then explaining why. That helped.

Star gazing – We learned about the planets (he is very enthusiastic about telling everyone that there are four gas giants in the solar system) and he coloured them in (sort of) to make a book. (He cut the pages using my paper cutter because it is SO MUCH FASTER than using scissors.) We chose to use the telescope on Saturday (the benefits of not being constrained to school hours). We went out to the park nearby our house because the moon was too low to look at from our house. We tried to find Saturn, and managed it, but when we tried to magnify, we lost sight of it. Pegasus and Dragon were both very excited to see the moon through the telescope, but they were very bored of how long it took to fiddle with it in order to see the moon properly.

Bake with coconut – He didn’t want to get his hands dirty, but we talked about fractions in cups, and he was very excited about the idea nad seemed to catch on at the end that a quarter cup would fit twice into a half cup and two half cups would fit twice into a whole cup. He really enjoys dumping things and measuring things, but not so much touching things with his hands, so he did a lot of the chocolate dunking with a fork and it worked well.