Library Day
As a result of the weekend's extended adventures, we missed story time this week, but I never actually wrote about story time last week (which we kept all the books from). The girls were less than impressed with story time this time around. The librarian read alphabet and counting books--actually really good ones that we've thoroughly enjoyed checking out; however, the real enjoyment is found in the illustrations which they obviously couldn't fully appreciate from across the room. They had great fun with the project though--painting with veggie stamps (mostly potatoes with shapes cut into them). We came home with these books:
Twenty-six Princesses
When I Grow Up
Hot! Hot! Hot!
Love the Baby
Hands off, Harry!
Me and Infinity
Obi-wan Kenobi: Jedi Knight (Star Wars easy reader book)
If the Shoe Fits (a fun trip through nursery rhymes with a large, househunting family)

More Stripes!
Karate classes were actually cancelled this week to celebrate Independence Day, but one of last week's classes was pretty exciting. Last Thursday, the girls completed their first strike test, in which they were required to demonstrate various kicks and punches. Monkey and Bug did a great job, and even  picked up quickly on the few punches they weren't actually familiar with yet (they've barely been going long enough to qualify). They passed their test, and each received a new blue stripe on their belts! Grandma, Goose, and I actually got to be there to watch, and Monkey and Bug were thrilled to show off their new stripes to Daddy later.

Happy Independence Day!
For the Fourth of July, we ditched the usual lessons in favor of explaining and celebrating what this holiday is all about. I'd given the girls a few off-hand explanations leading up to the 4th, but we started off the morning by watching the Fourth of July episode of Liberty's Kids (a PBS mini-series about the Revolutionary War; a great show that we'll be watching in it's entirety whenever we study colonial America). Monkey and Bug definitely grasped the basic concept that America used to be part of a different country, but Americans from a long time ago decided they wanted to make their own rules instead of having King George make them; thus, the Declaration of Independence was written. After that, we headed to the study to work on some 4th of July activities: mini-books about the holiday (coloring sheet, tracing words relevant to history, answering questions about contemporary celebrations, word search), a flag-themed search and find page, and a 4th of July Sudoku game (a 4x4 grid with pictures to paste in the blanks instead of numbers.

That afternoon we cut out watermelon stars with cookie cutters, made homemade peach ice cream, and headed outside to our street's block party to hang out with friends, enjoy more yummy food and a good view of the local fireworks show (despite the sudden downpour that immediately preceded them). The entourage was thrilled to get to stay up so late to watch the fireworks and all three girls actually loved them this year!

Lessons
Between the travel adventures and the 4th of July, we only ended up doing three days of our usual lessons. Monkey has now formally covered all the basic letter sounds, so I decided to reintroduce the vowels as a group. We covered a and e this week with each lesson including both long and short sounds. I also made a set of notecards with letters and syllables to have Monkey practice building words and actually sounding them out (for example, c + ar = car). For Bug's reading this week, she gained the letter sound i as in ice cream and read a full page story in her text book and a couple word lists. For For math, Monkey practiced some fill in the blank number sequences (i.e., 1 2 _ or 7 _ 9), and Bug continued working on subtraction. We decided to introduce both girls to a simplified version of Sudoku that involves only numbers 1-4. They loved it, so I'll definitely be looking up more of for them play with.

Beginning last week, the girls restarted an intense interest in puzzles (as in mazes, word searches, etc., not the wooden ones you piece together). All three girls were digging up old issues of Clubhouse, Jr. and Puzzle Buzz to pore over, and we acquired a new set of Brain Quest cards that they've been really into. We even remembered that we have a set for 2-3 year olds that Goose is just old enough to start enjoying. These usually require a parent's assistant to figure out the question or activity, but I've seen Bug helping Goose go through hers, and Monkey seems to just enjoy studying the cards all by herself. These cards involve every subject appropriate to the age group, so I can't even begin to tell you all the learning that's happening here!