Morning Basket 

Poetry: Psalm 100

Hymn: "Now Thank We All Our God" & "Attende Domine"

Read Alouds: Canadian Summer and Friendly Gables (the remaining books of the Mitchell series we began in January)

Audio Books: Henry Huggins series, Ramona the Pest series. 

 

Catechism
Joseph was super excited to make this First Confession at the beginning of Lent.

We are studying sacraments, especially Holy Communion, now. Also, the Mass, saints, and First Communion stories.

Math

Speed drills. Addition/subtraction. Borrowing. Multiplication 0, 10. Measurement. Perimeter. Rounding. Money.

John Paul and Emilie LOVE doing water paint books.

Language Arts 

Joseph's reading: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, By the Shores of Silver Lake, and many more... I can't keep track.

 

   

Cursive writing - done the notebook and just practicing now. Word building with Wordly Wise. Spelling. Sentence/paragraph structure. Dictation. Grammar.

Gah! That pencil hold used to be correct... we're working on it. But his writing is still beautiful.

Social Studies/Geography 

Canadian Geography: Learning/labeling Canadian provinces/territories and capitals, bodies of water, directions.

We covered a lot of countries in our Around the World program the past two months. For each country we read relevant picture books, study and draw maps and flags, study animals and watch videos, and eat a special meal from that particular country. I've mentioned some highlights below.

Antarctica - exploration, Ernest Shackleton, ate bannock

Australia - watched The Man from Snowy River, learned about crazy animals, ate a medley seafood dish called Seafood Mornay. 

Morocco - studied the art and storytelling culture of Morocco.  

Seafood Mornay from Australia! We all loved it.

Books 📚 Some of our favourite books are below (we definitely read many more than this!)

Mirror is a wordless book depicting the life of an Australian boy on one side and a Moroccan boy on the other. We really enjoyed comparing and contrasting the two!

  

 

 

 

Science 

Astronomy. Making our way through the Apologia Astronomy text. We just finished Earth. Also, supplementing with Usborne books. I really need to get on the ball and take pictures when we do activities and experiments because that's way more exciting than reading what we did. We did a fun activity to see how radar works when mapping and studying planets. The boys are also loving learning about the layers of earth, volcanoes, and magnetism.

  

 

Music 

Joseph is progressing really well with piano lessons. His teacher continues to say how impressed she is with his progress and how well he is able to play his songs hands-together.

Cute little duck she made at the library.

John Paul's Big 5

We have a 5 year old in the house! Wowzers!

On Tuesday night, the kids wanted to watch Dan decorate the cake (it's a great arrangement: I bake, he ices, when it comes to complicated designs like this). They could not for the life of them figure out what he was doing, until the very end, "uh, is it a goalie mask?" And still, it didn't become clear why to John Paul until the next morning when he opened his present.

He spent some time in the morning eagerly waiting for Joseph to be done school, so we could all go take shots on him in the basement. Then he dressed up in Joseph's gear.

Besides all his hockey dress-up, John Paul spent the day in a shirt and tie. Very classy!

We had a birthday party with a bunch of friends at the pool a day early. The water was awesome and the kids had so much fun! Lots of snacks and cupcakes. 

John Paul, at five, is a cool kid. With a twinkle in his eye and a stellar grin, John Paul brings a whole lot of joy to our house! We can't wait to see what five brings. 

An eager-beaver, John Paul has a ton of incentive. He's amazingly eager to help out around the house, do his "schoolwork," play with his sister, and make everything a competition. Often he will come to announce that he's tidied the whole house all by himself. And he loves to think he does a better job at sweeping the floor than Joseph (mostly true). Many mornings, he'll sit right down and finish pages of printing - even before I have a chance to "introduce" a letter or remind him to start his letters at the top. He now corrects Joseph on a lazy pencil hold and exhibits his own to demonstrate. Of late, he will yell out the answers to math facts (9+ facts? He's got 'em!) before Joseph has a chance to respond. John Paul is quick to pick up on memory work: Joseph's poetry memorization, provinces/capitals of Canada, math. He's less inclined to be the center of attention and begin reading or his own poetry, but I'm sure that will come. For now, he's content with choosing his own achievements.

Stuck between a dominant older brother and attention-seeking little sister, he holds his own with bursts of frustration and yelling (fighting if necessary). Ever a little firecracker, he keeps us on our toes disciplining and correcting. But although he's one tough guy, he thrives on morning cuddles with mom and reading stories. He's sensitive and thoughtful. He is very excited at the prospect of a new baby and keeps complimenting me, "Mom, you're getting fatter. That's our baby growing!" In public, John Paul will strike up conversations with total strangers. He wanders around after Mass helping the lady who tidies the altar and sacristy and chatting all the while. True to form, it's got to be on his own terms. Facetime with family is always a hit and miss and he never wants to talk on the phone. If someone talks to him and he's not impressed, he'll shut himself up. He's got his own idea of everything and never afraid to voice his opposition; case in point: he went to bed early for yelling "no" and refusing to obey last night. He's his own little boss.

Five will bring lots of new opportunity: learning "real" school, biking, swimming, and other activities, new baby life... With Joseph, five felt like such an amazing jump into big kid life. John Paul's enthusiasm and joy for life is going to be so much fun to watch as he takes off this year as a big kid!