Classical Charlotte

In Mrs. Katz and Tush, Mrs. Katz’s neighbor, Larnel, convinces her to adopt a kitten for company.  We read about cats on the Nat Geo site plus looked over a few books we borrowed from the library.

We also have 2 American shorthairs in our home – a gray and brown tabby named Nelson (aka: Boo) and an orange tabby named Spenser.  Nelson was named at Mike Nelson of MST 3K fame and Spenser was named after his polar opposite – Spenser from the Spenser For Hire novels.

Nelson

Spenser

Mrs. Katz immigrated from Warsaw, Poland to America when she was young.  Today we read about Poland, looked at photos and watched a video over of the Nat Geo site.  Doo easily found Poland on her bedroom world map and colored a picture of the country.

We also discussed the country’s recent tragedy where they lost their president, his wife and many others in a plane crash.  As we watched a short video of his funeral, we recalled learning about funerals back when we rowed The Rag Coat.

We just continued our lesson on Judaism and as I type this the Doo is reading out loud the story of David and Goliath from One Minute Jewish Stories that I borrowed from the library.

We also read sections from Eyewitness Guides’ Judaism - I read a little bit about past hardships but skipped the pages on the Holocaust (that can be for another time when she is older unless she asks while looking through the books on her own) and concentrated on the religious practices and culture of Jewish people.

Then Doo read several one-minute stories to herself and looked through both books.

We enjoyed the 2 1/2 week Spring Break.  I got this blog up and running plus started a new job.  I am still working full time but just 4 days a week and I will have 2 weekdays off.  That will be very helpful for local homeschool group activities (we’ll probably get more involved in those starting in the Fall, her Kindergarten year.)

I am going to be making some changes to our homeschool “curriculum” which I will share at some point.  For now, we will continue with Five In A Row.

We started rowing Mrs. Katz and Tush today.  This is a story about 2 neighbors, one an elderly Jewish widow and the other a young, African American boy.  They form a friendship and Mrs. Katz introduces many aspects of Judaism/Jewish life to the boy.  He joins her for Passover, etc…  Tush is the kitten he gives her when he wants to help her feel better because her husband had passed away.

Doo and I reviewed the Yiddish words found in the story before I read it.  After our reading, we read a little about Judaism and also watched a couple of videos.