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What a cute book! Can you believe I've never read this one until today? We had a good start to our unit today, and I especially like this one because we get to study Paris!
We started the day with lesson 6 in Leading Little Ones To God called God Sent His Son. In this lesson, we were introduced to the concept of God and Jesus being one and the same. We also learned a little bit about Jesus' ministry here on earth and how he was sent to die for us. I love how this book is written in a conversational tone on a child's level of understanding.
Then we read Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans for the first time. DS was enthralled from the first page. I have noticed that he really likes books that use a poetic style. This is probably true for most children, as it adds an extra element of interest to the book and it sounds so nice when it's being read. Later in the week, we'll be learning about poetry. After reading the book, we went back through and discussed what was happening on each page. I always find this to be helpful for him after we read a story for the first time so that he can pick up on everything.
After that, we did our Bible application. We looked at Creation in Genesis 1 & 2 and discussed how God is a God of Order. When creating the heavens and the earth, there was an order that was necessary. For example, he had to create the seas before he could create the fish. We also looked at how God organized the 12 tribes in Numbers 2. DS was so excited to see that one of the tribes was named after him! We compared these lessons to how the girls were always orderly in the book. I even snuck in a little math lesson by showing DS an illustration in my Bible of the 12 tribes situated around the tabernacle, 3 on each side. We looked at the 2 lines of 6 girls and the 4 groups of 3 tribes and saw how each of those combinations added up to 12. Beginning multiplication and division!
We decided at this point that we should learn about France and Paris. We got out a map and located France. Then, we compared France to the United States. France is much smaller, about the size of Texas, but I showed DS how it is divided into states, just like America is. Then, I pointed out how there are cities within those states and we located Paris, inside Ile-De-France. We labeled a blank map that I had printed out for him and this will go into our lapbook.
Then, we found a picture of the French flag and made one of our own. We discussed how it has the same colors as the American flag and we discovered that it is sometimes called the Tricolor. I studied French in school for 6 years and I didn't even know that!
We cuddled up on the couch with the baby and started looking at a couple of books we got from the library, one about France and one about Paris. Our art lesson for the day was architecture, so we really looked at some of the buildings that we found: the Eiffel tower, the Louvre museum, the Arc de Triomphe, Versailles, and the Notre Dame. Then, I got out my photo album from 12 years ago when I went to Europe and spent a few days in Paris. It was amazing how similar some of my photos were to those in the book. DS thought it was so neat that I had been there and I had real photos of these places!
For Language Arts, we studied 3 new vocabulary words: appendix, solemn, and disaster. We found each one within the book and then I had DS tell me what he thought they meant. His answers are always funny when we do this. For disaster, I asked him to give an example and he said "Like when a T-Rex stomps on your house and breaks it into pieces!" Yes, I would say that constitutes as a disaster!
Then we looked up the definitions of these words and then put them into simple sentences so that he would better understand them. For appendix, I had found a color illustration on the web of the digestive system and was able to show him how the appendix is attached to the intestine. We had a little anatomy lesson with this one, showing the path of our food, from beginning to end - as you can probably guess, this ended with a "Ewwww!" from my DS! Plus, he was horrified that Madeline had to be cut on her stomach for the doctor to remove the appendix. I had to ensure him that she didn't feel a thing because she was asleep. He felt a little better about it after this, but later in the evening, that's all he could talk about with DH. I could tell he had been thinking about it all day!
We used the vocab words for penmanship and DS did a good job copying the words into a list, using proper placement on the lines.
We took a break for lunch and playtime. There was a break in the rain, so we were able to get a little fresh air, and even a peek of sunshine!
For Science this week, we are going to be talking about taking care of ourselves to prevent sickness and injury and avoid hospital visits like Madeline's. We will be learning about healthy eating and exercise, cleanliness and hand-washing, taking care of our teeth, and getting plenty of fresh air, sunshine, and rest. Today was just an introduction to these concepts (don't worry, we've taught him these things all along, this is just the first time we've sat down "formally" and discussed why these things are important for our health!), so we talked about what a "habit" is and how we can develop good habits or bad ones. We used pages 4 & 5 in Health, Safety and Manners 1. There were sets of pictures, one showing a good habit and the other showing the corresponding bad habit. DS got all of these right on the first try - that's a good sign!
Then, we looked at pages 32 & 33 in the same book. We called this our "Path to Good Health" and we briefly discussed each step along the way.
We finished the day with DS reading a story called Easy To Find out of Friends Old And New. This is an old Dick and Jane reading book that we are working our way through. It is excellent practice for DS and he has enjoyed each story so far.
Later in the evening, while DH and I were watching Monday Night Football, DS asked if he could build a model of the Eiffel Tower with his Legos! Absolutely! I love when he carries his school lessons over into his play time, it shows me that he is listening, learning, and is interested! This is what he came up with:
He proceeded to create an entire city around it. Then, he destroyed it playing "superhero" with some of his toys. Don't you just love boys!?
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