this week in homeschooling

Words of the week are a and he, and our book of the week is The Very Lonely Caterpillar. Esme is also learning what authors and illustrators do, and is perfecting counting to 30.

A Week of Ants and Exciting Realizations

We are doing a five-week bug unit and this week's theme was ants. Aunt Lisa did a special ant activity with Esme and the girls that explores the roles of different ants in the colony, and the next morning made Esme ant-shaped pancakes! This photos is of Esme observing some ants in our yard. We found some under a brick, at Dylan's advice.

This week Esme realized that she is really learning to read! We were reading a bedtime story and all of a sudden she said, "Look, Mommy, look!" She pointed to one of the words and said, "the! It's the!" Her biggest concern about learning to read is that we will still read stories to her, even when she knows how on her own. We reassured her that we will!

We are reading several Eric Carle books because we are studying bugs! This week's book of the week is The Very Clumsy Click Beetle. Words of the week are it and one. We will also be studying ants, reading poetry, and making our first simple graph. Esme also had her first Godly Play Sunday School lesson this week.

R.I.P. Crickets

Sadly our brand new crickets passed away this evening. I am sooo sad! Esme was so enthralled and immediately loved them! I don't know if my jar just wasn't adequate or what exactly happened, but they both died. Esme is taking it well. Here is the documentation we did this afternoon, while they were still alive.

Welcome Molly and Polly

Two crickets came home with me today - part of studying bugs is to observe the real thing! Esme fell in love with them right away and I had to explain that we will indeed be releasing them in a few days. Esme's observations have already included that she loves them and would like to kiss them. Luckily she's also noticed that they're brown and need food and water and air.

This week's book is The Very Grouchy Ladybug and words of the week are she and not.

Looking for Circles

Part of Friday's lesson was a circle hike through our neighborhood. We found manhole covers, electric meters, fire hydrants, doorknobs, traffic lights, signs, satellite dishes, tires, and more.

P.S. Yes, Esme did choose her own outfit.

tracing work

I told Esme she could choose one paper she's done so far this week to post on her blog and this is what she picked - she traced her first and last name, the date, and each of her sight words three times.

Not Back to School

Today was our first official day of homeschooling! Esme and I worked together for approximately two hours and I was amazed how much we did in such a short time! Her book of the week is I Can't Said the Ant and her sight words of the week are I, said, the, and ant. She did not like the activities around her sight words. She did like reading along with her books on tape, tracing words, sorting her attribute blocks, and drawing a picture to record how she sorted the blocks.