Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Preparing for our 3rd Term

XThis week we have taken a break from "school" year round, as happens when I need to go through the entire room and start packing up our term's nature study, composer, and artist items. It also includes dusting down all of the shelves. And somehow, as the kids get excited with the changes coming, the entire room becomes a hazard zone.

This term we are adding handicrafts for the kids including: stuffed animal making (from patterns), yarn stitching and putting wood models together with screws. The last two weeks we have spent getting a jump start on all of these, and I am impressed with how enthusiastic the kids have been and how quickly they can pick these things up.

I just spent the last two days ordering for our newest term, trying hard to merge CM and Montessori concepts to keep both Grace and Jack fully emerged and interested. Term 3 includes:

Nature Study: Fish and Aquatic Life
Composer: Beethoven
Artist: Renoir

I wasn't too sure how the kids would respond to fish, but a promising sign was given yesterday and today. In an effort to find sand for our Mantis bug box (I know they don't need sand), I pulled out an OLD fish bowl filled with sand and shells from our honeymoon on Sanibel Island. Instantly, the mantis were put on the back burner and the kids took to soaking, cleaning and drying the shells for further inspection inserting Ooos and Aaahs with this pretty one, and that neat one.

Sigh of relief...this should be fun. Especially when we bring our four gigantic pond fish in from the pond in the front yard to observe over the winter.

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