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One of the things I love about this movie is how they animated the Boxtrolls. They don’t speak human language, so their hands and facial expressions have to do the talking for us to understand (unless Eggs translates for them). But I’ve found (with both kids) that they’ve understood what the trolls are saying without Eggs’s help. It’s impressive. Pegasus was very upset near the end of the movie (no spoilers) but really enjoyed it by the end.

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book. He’s only 20 pages away from finishing the first book.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

We’re working on spacing and keeping the words on the bottom line. He really doesn’t care about spacing.

Counting objects/math-type activities

He missed four of the images in the middle of the worksheet, but was fine with adding them in when I pointed them out to him.

Math worksheets. He did them both on Monday morning because he was so excited to do them once again. He didn’t need my help, and calmly took my correction regarding which way the 7 was supposed to face on page 1.

Storytime

We have no French library books this week, so he read some French books through Boukili.

Activity

Learn how to draw a box – despite Pegasus insisting that he already knew how to draw a box because his sister taught him, he sat down willingly enough to follow the instruction video. He didn’t want to erase the guidelines, which… it doesn’t really matter, right? He had fun, and that’s what this is about.

Make stop-motion movie – He took the pictures on Monday. Éric had him help with the set-up of the lighting. He did a much better job with the timing of the pictures this time, and only got my hand in the shot once. We recorded his voice on Wednesday, which was a lot of fun. He was willing to do several takes to get the voices just right (maximum 3 times unless it was really short) and had fun making his voice sound different to imitate the villain. Pegasus helped put the dialogue onto the frames of the pictures on Friday, and then recorded the music overtop on Saturday (delayed because Éric wasn’t feeling 100% this week).

Pegasus loved the movie and wanted to rewatch it immediately after it was over. It really shows the universality of these movies, that they’re still so loved by kids over 30 years later. He watched it again in English on the Wednesday and still wanted to see it again.

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book. He’s only 20 pages away from finishing the first book. I don’t know where the 4 pages idea came from – probably Pegasus himself exaggerating!

Crochet

We haven’t started this yet.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

We’re working on spacing and keeping the words on the bottom line. He really doesn’t care about spacing lol

Counting objects/math-type activities

He did very well with his numbers this week.

Math worksheets. He did them both on Tuesday morning because he was so excited to do them once again. He didn’t need my help, and only made one mistake, which he corrected when I pointed it out (on page two, he added instead of subtracted 9-6. He did get the right answer if it had been a plus, and was very disappointed that it wasn’t). He was very proud of his rectangle. He was very excited about the letter sequence.

Storytime

We have no French library books this week, so he read some French books through Boukili.

Activity

Plan stop-motion movie – On Monday, since the eclipse was happening, school didn’t really happen, but I did spend some time cuddling him before fully waking up in the morning, and we discussed what he wanted to make his movie about. Then on Tuesday, he dictated the scenes that would be in his movie and the dialogue that would go along with it. On Thursday, we built the glider for the villain to fly on. The cardboard was already cut from when we had cut off the excess when making his touch and feel book, and after looking at the glider from the show for reference, we folded the glider into a similar shape. Then we made straps for the villain’s feet (conveniently, his shoes are curled up at the toes, so he’s actually quite secure!) and taped them down. It’s decently built, but he’s not allowed to use it as a toy until after filming. Then I cut the pieces of yarn to use as webs on Friday.

Make a soot sprite – Once again, we were able to use cardboard excess from the touch and feel book, this time as the pompom shaper. Pegasus wrapped the yarn around it, I tied the knot (it needs to be VERY tight; no, tighter than that), and then he glued the eyes on. He’s very pleased with it and said he wouldn’t have complained that wrapping the yarn was hard if he had known it would be that easy. Right…

Pegasus was glued to the screen yet again, and nearly squeezed my arm off a few times when it got scary. (Specifically the point when they had only one cannon left, and then the massive hun army showed up.)

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book. He’s only 4 ish pages away from finishing the first book.

Crochet

We haven’t started this yet.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

We’re working on spacing and keeping the words on the bottom line. He really doesn’t care about spacing lol

Counting objects/math-type activities

He did very well with his numbers this week.

Math worksheets. He REALLY likes these. He did them both on Tuesday morning because he was so excited to do them once again. He didn’t need my help, and only made one mistake, which he corrected when I pointed it out (on page two, he subtracted instead of added 9+4). He doesn’t care very much about drawing the shapes, which is fine.

Storytime

We read 2 of the French library books this week.

Activity

Learn about makeup – Pegasus decided he didn’t want to wear it (totally fine, obviously!) but since we had special guest Aunt Lindsay over, she put it on herself and talked about what she was doing and the two main rules of makeup: 1. Makeup is for fun and for yourself, and 2. Never share makeup brushes!

Fireworks with paint – I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. Dragon had a major meltdown over it. But Pegasus had a lot of fun, I think partly because I used regular forks instead of plastic ones, so they worked really well. He insisted that I make fireworks with him, and I had fun with it as well. He chose both of our colours and I think it turned out very well.

Make a puzzle – Instead of gluing the paper to foam, which didn’t really work last time and we didn’t have any foam this time, I just let Pegasus have fun cutting shapes into the paper. Wait, let me begin at the beginning. He had fun choosing pictures to put on the background he had chosen, and then when I explained that he was going to cut it up, he decided that he didn’t want pictures, he just wanted the background. Okay, now we’re caught up. He proceeded to cut literal shapes into the paper, which I found hilarious. And for the leftover paper, he cut it into tiny pieces because, and I quote, “I want it to be harder than Dragon’s.” Then he put it “together”. He said it was too hard and that he probably should have made the pieces bigger (no kidding, buddy). But he was very happy with the resulting “image”, which was not the original shape of the paper, I might add. He cleaned it up before I had the chance to take a picture of his creation.

Pegasus was glued to the screen. He whimpered in fear a couple times, and curled into me when I offered each time. He also laughed multiple times when funny things happened.

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book.

Crochet

We haven’t started this yet.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

We’re working on spacing and keeping the words on the bottom line. He really doesn’t care about spacing lol

Counting objects/math-type activities

He wrote some numbers backward, but changed them when I pointed that out to him.

Math worksheets. He REALLY likes these. He did them both on Monday because he was so excited to do them once again.

Storytime

We read 2 of the French library books this week.

Activity

Draw Dreamland – we did this the same way as drawing an island a few weeks ago, because he really loved doing it that way. The Nightmares have their own island off to the southwest (see sad face). He has a lot of hills and lakes, and a lot of houses because he likes drawing them.

Make ice cream – This went really well! As a warning, I suggest that you have mitts handy, because the bags got really cold REALLY fast! We followed this recipe and it worked super well. I’d maybe shake it for a little longer than 7 minutes, or store it in the freezer for a little while after making it, just so that it solidifies a bit more. I’m actually kinda disappointed that this wasn’t something we discovered during the lockdown, because this was so fun to do with the kids and would have been perfect to brag about on social media! Pegasus gave his ice cream 4 thumbs up, but he said he could only show me 2. Maybe add in his toes, he says!

Learn about the moon – we watched some videos and talked about tides (specifically the Bay of Fundy) and why there are phases of the moon. No pictures.

Pegasus says he remembered this movie while he was watching it. His body tensed at the scary parts.

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book.

Crochet

We haven’t started this yet.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

We’re working on spacing and keeping the words on the bottom line. The March break work that he did helped a little.

Counting objects/math-type activities

I feel like his numbers have improved. He didn’t need my help with writing them.

Math worksheets. He REALLY likes these. He did them both on Monday because he was so excited to do them once again.

Storytime

We read 2 of the French library books this week.

Activity

Yarn collage of emotion – I didn’t want to do papier maché. It didn’t sound like fun, especially since Pegasus doesn’t like touching squishy things. So I made the executive decision to change the activity to a collage of emotions using yarn. He describes this piece as “showing how I love and not love”, which I think is as good a description as any.

Write touch and feel book – This was still a monumental project. We started it on Monday, building the concept and starting on the first page (Joy). Tuesday, we completed Fear. Wednesday saw the completion of Disgust and Sadness, and Thursday was Anger. Friday was the cover. I explained how to measure and cut each page and guided him in that. He drew each picture for each page after designing them. Joy – playing with toys (a toy car on a play mat), Fear – ghosts (Slimer from Ghostbusters), Disgust – mushroom, Sadness – a mirror to show loneliness, Anger – not being allowed to play with his sister (a picture of himself behind a closed door). I used the xacto knife to cut out the holes in the paper to avoid cutting tiny fingers.

@jendesmaraisauthor

Pegasus made a Touch and Feel book about Emotions this week. (with help putting it together) I recorded him reading it.

♬ original sound – Jen Desmarais, author