I MUST start updating this more often. It makes it difficult to remember what we've done. Essentially, I'm at the point where I have to give a portfolio summary for this first half of the year. B is 7 and would be in second grade. T is not old enough to be in school yet, based on the birthday cut-off, which he misses by a month and a half. I still consider him to be in K and it cheers him up to tell people that he's in kindergarten. T has just turned 5. Anyway...

Science:
This has mostly taken the form of nature studies this year. B has spent a lot of time learning about arthropods, both with library books and by first-hand examination. A month or so ago, he caught a Chinese mantid with a zippered insect bag that I bought him. We used a field guide to determine that it was a Chinese mantid, rather than a praying mantis. After keeping it for a few hours, he released it. Originally, he was trying to feed it leaves, but he learned that mantids are carnivores.

He also started a dead arthropod collection. So far, he has a wolf spider, a dragonfly, and a colorful moth that we haven't identified yet. Oh, and he has a mystery beetle. We learned that there are a tremendous amount of beetles.

We've also made leaf prints and learned about how different trees have different leaf shapes.

We've examined animal scat (deer) and animal tracks. For the deer tracks we found (and one little cat track), we cast them with plaster. Unfortunately, we're having a difficult time getting all the dirt/clay off the plaster cast.

We've also learned about different trees through the seeds that they drop. We've gone harvesting in the woods for acorns, sweet gum balls, beech nuts and hickory nuts.

History and Geography:
We visited the local history museum to learn a little about the history in our part of the state.

We've read various books about:
1. Guy Fawkes
2. The Great Fire of London
3. Kings and Queens of England
4. Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights movement ("Martin's Big Words")

We have some books about the Constitution and Colonial times on order at the library but it's taking forever for it to be our turn. I had anticapted reading them by now.

Also, dh's citizenship test preparation was interesting for the kids. They learned about the physical qualities of the flag and the names of some of the original colonies. I had to quiz dh to help him prepare and they wanted me to quiz them too.

The election in November was also a great lesson in civics and government.

This sounds crazy but we're been watching, "The Amazing Race" as a family to learn a bit about world geography and culture. We've been using a map to see where the teams are on each leg of the race. Some examples of Amazing Race spin-off discussions have been:
1. The Mongols (who were they? who are some famous Mongols? how far did they extend their empire?)
2. St Basil's Cathedral (they really liked that building so we looked it up in another book and read a bit about it).
3. The difference between the Roman and Cyrillic alphabets. We used my Russian phrasebook to see examples of words written in both alphabets, in addition to trying our hand in saying some Russian words.

T and I attended a kids' library event about Sweden. Unfortunately, B was in a class and could not come.

Arts:
1. Both kids have taken drama classes this fall.
2. B has taken two art classes at the museum: sculpture and print-making.
3. T takes dance lessons.
4. T and I saw a performance of "Poor Pluto", complete with a mini-performance by local symphony members.
5. We've visited the art museum.
6. We continue to listen to a wide variety of music, including jazz and opera.
7. We watched "Singin' in the Rain" together, in addition to scenes from "An American in Paris". T, in particular, loved these.

Language Arts:
1. B has started reading for pleasure. He's been able to read for quite a while but he just didn't. Now, he actually reads by himself, silently, and for fun. Some books that he's read on his own have been: "Star Wars the Clones Wars" (chapter book), "Chocolate Fever" by Robert Kimmel Smith, and several books in the "Secrets of Droon" series. He has recently started the Spiderwick Chronicles but I don't know how that is going.

2. B writes a lot and his spelling is improving.

3. B has been reading aloud to his little brother, which is nice for both of them.

4. We always have a family read-aloud each night, in which dh and I read to the kids. Some books that we've read to them have been: the first two Harry Potter books, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis, "Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis and "The Hobbit" by Tolkien. We are still reading the Hobbit.

I'm happy to say that this (#4) is my academic area, where I feel best. I don't just read to the kids. I stop and talk about what we're reading. I ask them what they think is going on, what they think might happen, why they think certain characters are feeling a certain way, etc. I frequently paraphrase after reading something and translate. We talk about what certain words mean. And we often act scenes out.

T is very good at coming up with theories and he remembers an insane amount of detail from earlier reading. He was the only one who remembered Elrond's moon runes in "the Hobbit" when the dwarves finally got to the mountain and looked for the secret door. He has a hysterical set of theories about how Professor Quirrel was somehow behind every trick in the second Harry Potter book, despite our insistence that Professor Quirrel was dead. Sometimes, he's quicker than B to surmise what's really going on. I have a feeling that T's strengths are going to be in language arts, whereas B excels in science. It would be funny if we had one kid like dh (science/math) and one kid like me (liberal arts).

Because Lewis and Tolkien use very rich language, we have spoken a great deal about what certain things mean. I generally read word-for-word and then I follow up with paraphrasing if the meaning cannot be guessed by my tone of voice, expression and actions. The other night, we talked about the words "desolate", "bleak" and "barren" in Tolkien's description of the land affected by the dragon. I like for them to guess and tell me what they think these words mean if they can but I will always give synonyms afterwards. We also talk about how words sound ("desolate" has such a nice sound). Some words require actual translation, such as Tolkien's usage of 'attercop' for 'spider" (atter comes from 'poison' and cop means 'head'). We have a good time with the language in the books.

I feel confident that both kids understand what's going on in the books and that they are developing critical thinking and reading comphrension skills as a result of how we read to them. And they're having a lot of fun in the process.

#5. T is continuing to teach himself to read. It appears as though he's going to follow dh, Ben and I in in being a spontaneous whole-word method reader. One day, while talking via the computer to my ILs in England, he read FIL's full name from the bottom of the interface. On another day, he "Little Bill" from the text-only guide on the TV, despite the fact that we rarely watch that channel or that show. And then yesterday, he read "Jack Frost" from the text-only on-screen TV guide (no audio), despite the fact that he has never heard of that movie before.

Math:
This is something that we need to focus on next semester. The kids use math in their everyday lives. They both seem to have a natural number sense. They like numbers. Sometimes, they ask me questions like "what are 3 3's?". They seem to play with numbers a lot. Using dice has been helpful for T, who announced at dinner one night, " I want 5 pieces, that's 4 and 1. And that's 3 and 2. And that's..." My SIL and BIL recently bought them a card game called "Dr Who Top Trumps", in which you battle with various character points; the kids love it and it requires math.

I do want to find ways of playing games involving multiplication, however, since they seem interested in that. I am working on some ideas for next semester to include more math in our lives.
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I can't think of anything thing else, although I'm sure I've left stuff out. I desperately need to update more often.