Yesterday we focused on counting. Doo likes to rush when she is counting something which often ends up in a wrong number. So we made an elephant counting book and I occasionally prompted her to slow down when counting. When she takes her time, she does well with it. I then asked her to start counting out loud. She counted all the way to 100 with a little bit of help from Mommy (for the numbers 21, 30, 70, 80, 90). She was very proud when she made it to 100!
Today was our last day for Babar: To Duet Or Not To Duet. We finished up rowing the book with a science lesson on the ears. Kid friendly info was read on this site then she colored a couple of ear-related pictures. She seemed to enjoy saying “cochlea” because as she colored I heard her telling a whole story which involved saying it over and over and over again.
Now she’s enjoying Baby Ballet. I bought this weeks ago and finally got it out today. It’s a little ballet class that she can follow along with. She loves her ballet class. This week we’re going to try out a Musical Theater class just to see how she likes it. Given that every day she puts on her own musical I kind of think it will be up her alley…
Little ballerina in her cool, new jeans.
Scientist Papa not only sent a few elephant sites to Doo the other day but also brought a couple of books to show her during his last visit (he used to be an Earth Science Teacher). Doo enjoyed looking at the different pictures. Papa also sent her a scanned picture from one of the books for her to color (which can be seen above with the ear pictures).
One of our vocabulary words the other day was etiquette. Today we focused on that word and after reading the book we discussed manners, especially good table manners. We then set up a tea party in Doo’s room and enjoyed our various teas (including “chocolate raspberry with sprinkles” – ooo la la!) while remembering our pleases, thank yous and you’re welcomes.
Tea Party.
As a side note, on my search for a good manners chart I stumbled upon this century-old one from Australia. I thought it was pretty neat.
For Social Studies today we talked about giving/taking advice. In Babar TDONTD, Babar ignores the Old Lady’s advice to learn a simple piece of music since he had never played the piano. Instead, he chooses a very difficult piece and that’s the beginning of his troubles. If only he had listened to her advice (not only is the Old Lady a close friend but also a pianist) he would not have found himself in his later predicament (lying by omission by not correcting the others who think he is a virtuoso). Once Babar is ready to tell the truth about his piano playing, he finally takes the Old Lady’s advice and learns a few simple notes in order to briefly play with the Great Leopold (the visiting pianist). Babar learns to be more humble in his ambitions, to be truthful right away since lies grow and to take wise advice.
We then read Pinocchio Learns the Truth: A Book About Honesty. Pinocchio’s story shares two of the themes from Babar TDONTD – telling the truth and listening to good advice. Pinocchio’s troubles begin when he does not listen to his “conscience”, aka Jiminy Cricket, when he gives good advice about going to school vs. going to the theater with “Honest John” and Gideon. Pinoke doesn’t listen to this advice and ends up getting thrown in a cage by Stromboli, the puppet master. And, of course, the truth/lying theme is very well known in Pinocchio.
Doo was very excited, after we finished the story, when I said we could watch Pinnochio as well. We continued to discuss the listening to advice and telling the truth themes throughout the movie – it gave her a good visual to go along with the lesson. Plus she laughed hysterically throughout, especially when Figaro was on. That’s always a good time.
Yesterday we didn’t get to the planned lesson so we did two today plus we had a field trip scheduled.
Art
We reviewed musical vocabulary such as symphony, orchestra pit, keyboard, and ovation. Then we read the book and pointed out the words as we went along. Doo, with Mommy’s help, matched musical instruments to their names. We then played a game of musical instrument memory after she colored the cards. Mommy won and Doo took it well.
Musical Instrument Matching Game
Science
Today’s science lesson was all about elephants. We read about African Elephants here and she colored a picture of one. Plus we watched 2 videos of elephants on youtube. I really liked the Nat Geo site for elephants. We read through the facts, flipped through the photos, watched the video and checked out their map of Africa and where African Elephants are found.
Field Trip
To go along with the musical/concert theme in Babar: To Duet Or Not To Duet, we went to a children’s musical performance in Topanga Canyon. Karl Anthony does both children and adult music. Today he put on an hour performance and the families all sat on stage with him. This made it very personal. The children and parents participated in the songs plus the kids got to go up on the top stage to perform as well. Doo loved it. The stage was outside, nestled among the trees. A very cool spot.
I finished up my work early this week so I was able to play hooky from my job today. I surprised the Doo with a trip to Disneyland (we are annual pass holders and it’s just an hour away).
The day was filled with character meet and greets (dressed up for Halloween!) and a handful of rides. After lunch I broke out Babar and we did a little homeschool lesson. Today we discussed a variety of vocabulary words from the story such as splendid, regulations, etiquette, ambition, extract and illusion. As I read the story I would sometimes emphasize the words we had just reviewed and she would sometimes notice one on her own. We topped off the lesson with some musical instrument coloring pages that we did not get to during our last art lesson.
We had fun finding elephants in Disneyland as well – Dumbo, one on It’s a Small World, and several on the Winnie the Pooh ride (well, ahem, “heffalumps”). On our walk back to the car (I always skip the tram), Doo decided we should list words beginning with “M”. That kept us entertained for the extremely hot walk (it was around 100 degrees, blerg).
Today was math. In the beginning of Babar: TDONTD, it states that Pom (Babar’s son) had been working on a project for more than a week. After our read, we sang both the Days of the Week and Months of the Year songs that I know from work. The Doo has had these memorized for several months and, during the Months of the Year song, likes pointing to the person whose birthday month it is while she sings it.
She then created a September calendar on Starfall and colored her own as well (I found one I could decorate with a piano to keep with the music theme of Babar). She did well figuring out which day said Tuesday and then finding today’s date, the 22nd, to color in.
Today we read through Babar: To Duet Or Not To Duet and then discussed orchestras. We mainly discussed them while watching a couple on Youtube (the second one being a favorite since she just watched Star Wars for the first time last week). I told her who the conductor was and we had fun identifying the different musical instruments we saw.
In the story, Babar learns the first few notes of Baa, Baa, Black Sheep which are the first notes in Haydn’s Surprise Symphony. This allows him to play with the Great Leopold like he desired (although not the difficult symphony he had first imagined).
I talked to the Doo about how different instruments can play the same song. We then had fun watching the various instruments below play Surprise Symphony, topping it off with an orchestra example.
Before all of this we ran to the mall after work to run a few errands. Our first stop was Nordstroms, in hopes that their pianist was playing. Alas, no, but the Doo did enjoy taking peeks into their piano.
After 2 weeks with The Little Red Lighthouse…, we are moving on to our second FIAR book. Today we rowed Babar: To Duet Or Not To Duet for the first time.
It was not written by the original Babar authors (this book was published in 1990, whereas the first Babar book, The Story of Babar, was first published in 1931). I purchased the first book yesterday and read it to the Doo last night so she knew who these characters were. Babar TDONTD is about Babar telling a story to his son about how he let a lie of omission get out of control. When he was a young king, he wanted to learn to play the piano so he could play in a concert with a very popular pianist. However, he did not practice. His fellow elephants were mistaken to think he was a virtuoso when they heard him listening to records and believing it was Babar playing. Babar did not correct them for many days – he did attempt to a few times but basically let them believe he was a great pianist. This lie weighed on him and even caused him to have nightmares. Finally, Babar admitted the truth to a friend and felt a lot better. The Old Lady taught him a little bit of Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, which happens to be the first few notes of Haydn’s Surprise Symphony. So Babar was still able to go on stage and briefly play with the famous pianist.
We discussed telling the truth and how lies can grow and grow – causing one to feel bad inside and even maybe have nightmares like Babar. The Doo then colored a couple of Babar pages from this site. She then requested “piano games” and Google came to the rescue again: Animal Piano and The Piano.
I am excited to row this book since the Doo is very interested in pianos and wants to learn how to play when she is 5 (a friend told us that was a good age to start lessons).
