READING

Because Samuel is so young to begin reading, I am wanting to guide his progress without a formal phonics program, but I also want to make sure he doesn't get into some bad habits.  So I am always on the search for some good beginning readers at the library, but many of them are just a little too hard and I think he has pretty much gone through all those I could find.

So I was really excited last week when we were at Half-Price Books and S asked for "Ten Apples Up On Top" by Dr. Seuss and I opened it and realized it was the perfect level!  It is awful long for a beginning reader to read in one sitting, but he happily plugged along reading a few pages a day until he finished the whole thing.  He was so proud to read that whole book.  So, now I am looking at other Dr. Seuss books that would be at the right level.

WRITING

He practiced writing quite a bit with his Mother's Day cards.  I have noticed that while he is now staying on the same line and his letters are more evenly spaced, they are all the same size (the top of each letter are even with each other, as well as the bottom of each letter) and he does not have any space between words.  So that will be the next thing I "gently guide" him.  One day I needed to do some work on the computer and he did not want to be away from me.  So I set up the child size table and chair next to the desk and printed a few work sheets.  One of them was to practice printing R's which are one of his hard letters.

LITERATURE and POETRY

1. We continued to read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and finished it.  Samuel didn't comment too much about it, except to say the Radish Cure is his favorite, but he always asked for it as part of his bed-time reading. 
2. We read "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton.  This is a really good story of a little house in the country who watches the passing of seasons and eventually the city growing out and up around her until she is overshadowed by the big city.  Don't worry it has a happy ending and Samuel loved this one. 
3. We are still reading from Jack Prelutsky's "Something Big Has Been Here" for poetry. 
4. I had checked out Winnie-the-Pooh a few weeks ago and this week we read two stories from it.

We read lots more, but nothing else I really felt qualified as "good literature", although I believe that quantity is, while not as important as quality, definitely good, at least in terms of amount of time spent in the act of enjoying a book.

NATURE

On Wednesday after supper we took a walk around our neighborhood that turned into a nature walk.  We watched two worms squiggle around on the sidewalk (it rained most of the day).  We found two caterpillars and decided we should check back on that area over the next several days to see if we can find chrysallises chrysali cocoons and later butterflies.  We noticed that even the evergreens get spring leaves (they are a much lighter green and softer).  And he pulled a weed wildflower with the roots still attached so we are experimenting with replanting it at our house.  My theory is that being pulled from the ground was too big a shock and it will die.

We also finished reading "Porcupines" by Sandra Markle from the Prey series.

MUSIC APPRECIATION (a stretch, but still...)

He rode the free horse ride at Kroger and it played the William Tell Overture.  I told him what it was called, we noticed that the music made us think of horses galloping, which is probably why the makers used this music.  I even told him about the Lone Ranger and that good classical music never gets old.

P.E.

He is doing amazingly well in his swim lessons.  I think having an adult, not his mommy, giving his lessons is just what he needed.  No way would he put his face in the water for me, but for a woman he met only 9 weeks ago...sure!  Next week he graduates from the Rosie Redfish I class and he has already asked to keep going with the Rosie Redfish II class.  His goal is to make Rainbow Fish, which is swim team ready for next summer. We'll see how that goes.

BIBLE

We finished The Beginner's Bible!  I ordered Keys for Kids and I hope it come soon so we can begin.

I also signed up for a free trial of Clever Island.  I hope the link works.  Once I signed up, the cookies take me directly to the login page instead of the free trial page.  This lasts for 15 days and I'm not sure how much it costs after that.  The games supposedly reinforce all the basic school subjects (reading, math, science, arts, social studies).  S has played a few games and one of them had a little money math in it and after a quick explanation from me, he was good to go.  I started him on the easy level, but there are 3 total levels.  I'll give a more detailed review after our free trial is up.