Canterbury Academy News: This week (3/12 to 3/16)

On Monday, Georgia worked on plural nouns. This is a tricky lesson for her since there are so many different rules involved. We will have to have lots of practice in this area before it becomes second nature. But she is learning and doing good.

She also did a quiz on North America, and finished her map worksheet as well. She read about the Canadian flag and colored one.

Livy worked on match games for shapes and colors, and also worked on a Canadian Animals book. Livy can locate Canada on a map of the world.

Olivia also worked on spelling words in Boggle Jr.

We went to the city park and checked out the changing of the season. The ponds were still iced over despite the rising temperatures. We had a nice walk and encountered a lot of Canadian geese and ducks. The birds were walking on the ice and swimming on the edges of the ponds where the ice had receded. We got to see some take off and land, as well. The girls liked poking the ice with sticks and making holes. But it was cold, so we stayed for only an hour.

We also went shopping and bought some new spring and summer clothes for the girls.

That evening, Georgia started reading Ramona the Brave.

On Tuesday, Georgia worked on plural nouns some more. She also completed a North American label activity in which she had to label the oceans and countries of N. America, including the Caribbean Islands and Central America.

Olivia read some books with me and was remembering some sight words in the books. The words she remembered I would point to and have her read. We also did the number cups activity, and she worked on the PowerTouch and PBSkids.org.

In the afternoon, we went to North Park where the girls played on the playground for two hours. There were other kids their ages and they quickly made friends and had a blast playing together. It was such a gorgeous day with temps in the mid seventies!

Georgia played her zoo game, and had gymnastics in the evening. She has now mastered the bridge position! And her balance is improving greatly.

On Wednesday, Georgia began studying Mexico! She read through some library books and visited four different sites on Mexico.

She learned the Mexico's history, geography, biodiversity, language, music, instruments, dress, flag, etc. We listened to regional Mexican music on XM satellite radio while she studied. We also wore sombreros, danced, and played the maracas! Livy had fun, too. She can locate Mexico on the map of the world now, too.

Georgia also read a printout on the history and symbolism of the Mexican flag, which involves an old Aztec legend. She also colored a Mexican flag in its official colors.

Georgia took a quiz on Mexico on paper, and two quizzes on the web sites she visited.

We also reviewed adjectives, thinking of an adjective for each letter of the alphabet. We couldn't think of one for 'x' though.

Olivia worked on a book she made titled African Animals. Then I quizzed her on animals and she had to answer with whether they came from Canada or Africa. She loved it.

The girls found a coupe pill bugs and caught them. They are fascinated by them. So I printed out an information sheet on them and we learned a bit about them. It was interesting to learn that they are not insects, but isopods, and in the subphylum Crustacea...so they are related to crabs, lobsters, and shrimp! We will be doing an experiment with pill bugs when it is nicer out and we can find some more. (don't worry, no harm will be done to the pill bug in the experiment...it'll be an experiment to find out which type of soil they like best)

On Wednesday, we also read a page on migrations and watched the documentary titled "Amazing Journeys". It included migrations of the monarch, gray whale, red crab, birds, and humans.

That evening, Georgia finished reading Ramona's World, the eighth and last book in the Ramona series.

On Thursday, Georgia was inspired by her studies of Mexico to learn Spanish. She already knew numbers from one to ten. She also learned eleven color names, the alphabet, pronunciation, and simple greetings. (hello, how are you, my name is, etc) We also read the three Spanish books she printed out while studying Mexico.

Continuing on with the Spanish, the girls wanted to watch a movie in Spanish. Most DVDs now have language options in which you can watch the movie in Spanish or french instead of English. So we watched Brother Bear 2 in Spanish!

Georgia started reading the first book in the Henry series by Beverly Cleary titled Henry Higgins. She finished it, too.

Today we started with practicing multiplication equations and word problems. Georgia also practiced her Spanish that she learned the previous day, and is now practicing gymnastics in the living room. She made up a new move called the Tornado in which she spins around after doing a flip.

Olivia worked on PowerTouch and PBSkids.org. She is also doing some flips and rolls in the living room with Georgia.

Monday, Georgia has an eye doctor appointment, and then we are headed down to Dayton to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. We are now members and can visit for free! The membership also includes the SunWatch Indian Village and Archaeological Park.