Stopping By Woods

Yesterday we finished up Stopping by Woods. We looked for all the hidden animals and counted them. We enjoyed the art - such beautiful art! And talked a little bit about the snowflakes. We read an interesting book, Summer Coat, Winter Coat: the story of a snowshoe hare by Doe Boyle (Smithsonian Wild Heritage Collection). I just happened to see it at the library and it worked nicely with our book. We also read A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats because A. it was a very rainy day and this book is about a rainy day disaster and B. we read The Snowy Day and I wanted to read a couple of other books by him which we own. :) If all conditions are right today, we may make snowflake cookies.

School has been pretty much a bust this week because of various errands, illnesses, and unexpected appointments, but I'm hoping to catch up some history and science today with Carrie and Thomas and start rowing Katy and the Big Snow with Abby. I found some good books to go with it at our tiny library and I think she'll enjoy them. I also have a couple of projects up my sleeve that will be fun for her.

You know, I love unit studies, both long and short. It's fun to do all the projects and activities. But it's also perfectly OK to snuggle on the couch with the kids and simply read and talk about the subject matter. Every unit study doesn't have to be glorious and perfect. I noticed when I was almost finished with Westward Ho! that I had mostly added in cooking projects and that one sewing project - I should have thought of some boy things to do, too, for Thomas' sake. But I didn't and he had a great time and was sorry it ended. Most of my FIAR books are done with a few read-alouds and a lot of conversation. I don't have time for lapbooks very often and I don't have resources here that I've had in other places we've lived. But Abby LOVES FIAR and I still do, too, even after having gone through it several times with 4 children. Unit studies should be a tool, not a master. School should be a joy, not a drudge to the child or the mother.

Stopping By Woods, Day 3

This morning we looked at our snowflake project and found a glorious sight! We hung them in a sunny window and have enjoyed them all day. They sparkle beautifully!

We also made snowman bagels: take half a bagel (found some on sale yesterday!) and toast it. Smear with cream cheese. Insert a baby carrot into the hole for a nose. Use raisins (or if you're a REALLY fun mommy, chocolate chips!) for eyes and mouth.

We read Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats. No, it doesn't have a thing to do with snow, but we read The Snowy Day by him yesterday and I own two more of his books. And we read Footprints in the Snow by Cynthia Benjamin, which is a Scholastic reader. Normally I don't enjoy reading readers aloud, but this one is nice because it's all about home. I have a board book called The Four Seasons, so we read that one and discussed the seasons. Actually, Ab read some lines - her reading is moving right along! And today we talked about the art in Stopping by Woods.

It's been a busy day for me - cleaned house this morning, threw in some schoolwork mid-morning, cooked lunch, went to clean a house with Emily, went to walk, came back and finished up school with Ab. Our family is playing a couple of places this weekend, so they still have some more practicing to do tonight and it's Family Fun Night at church. Think I'll go lie down now......

Shakespeare and Snow....

have nothing to do with each other! But that's what we're learning about in school this week!

We started our Shakespeare reading yesterday with The Taming of the Shrew. I decided that I would read a paragraph or two or three at a time and Abby would narrate it back to me while I wrote it down. Carrie typed it all out and I checked her spelling and punctuation. She printed out a copy and Thomas illustrated that page. It will probably take a us a couple of more days to finish this story. I'll comb-bind the stories when we're finished.

Yesterday we started rowing Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. We read The Snowy Day and a few A.A. Milne poems to go with our story. It's fun to read these poems to Thomas and Abby because they laugh so much while I'm reading. Today we read a few more poems and a great go-along, Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee. It's a poem, too, about a little girl walking in the snow in her yard. We are in the process of making borax snowflakes (I'll post a pic if they turn out). I have a few more books and projects to enjoy this week as go-alongs with this book, which is one of my favorites.

I picked up my photos at Wally-world today and now I'm off to finish putting together our Westward Ho! scrapbook. I'll post some pictures of it later.....