From Emma's Main Lesson Book

Emma's beautiful main lesson book page from today. xo

A New Block

This week both girls each began a new lesson block (the final one of this lesson year)! Grace will be doing a botany block (which is sure to be a favorite), and Emma is doing her human and animal block. She kicked it off with these three gorgeous pages in her main lesson book! xo 

A Little Of This, A Little Of That

 Wrapping up our Colonial America/Revolutionary War block with some Revolutionary women main lesson book pages. 

Sybil Ludington in Emma's. 

 And Judith Sargent Murray in Grace's. 

 A pretty new leo for Emma. 

And Dave in dance team dad mode, made for quite a day! xo 

In Honor Of Dr. King

Today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the girls each chose one of his quotes to put in their main lesson books. We also listened to part of his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, as well as watched part of  David Letterman's new Netflix show "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction". If you have not seen it I highly recommend it. The part I showed the girls focused on Congressman John Lewis and the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.Getting to see footage from that day in Selma Alabama helped them to have a better understanding of what was going on in our country at that time. We talked about how hard people worked to bring about change and equal rights, and noticed how now, in 2017/2018, it seems that many steps have been taken backward and those battles are, sadly, being fought once again. Had we been alive when Dr. King was there's no doubt we would have been marching hand-in-hand and lending our voices and support during the Civil Rights Era. We speak out now, and march now, because we truly believe what Dr. King said: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter". There's still much work to be done, friends, and we hope one day that we won't need to speak up or march or protest anymore but until then we shall. xo

Wisdom

A very fitting main lesson book page (complete with drawing of Ghandi) to end Grace's block on India.  xo

Wordless Wednesday::Inside Emma's Main Lesson Book

Emma's Compass Rose

Today she began a maps/mapping block for main lesson. First up: the compass rose!

Em asked me to take this picture of her. Originally I wasn't planning to share it, but once I noticed Gretchen in the background I couldn't resist! xo 

Today's Main Lesson Book Page

One of the last entries that will be in Grace's grade four main lesson book. And quite possibly one of her best pages yet! Only a few more days of morning lessons this week before we call them done for the summer. xo

Today In Emma's Main Lesson Book

Five Little Flowers 

Five little flowers, growing in a row.
The first one said, "I'm purple you know."
The second one said, "I'm pink as pink can be." 

The third one said, "I'm blue like the sea."
The fourth one said, "I'm a very red fellow."
The fifth one said, "My color is yellow,"
Then out came the sum, big and bright, 

And five little flowers, smiled in delight.

Emma has been working so hard to improve her cursive writing and all her hard work has really paid off! This is truly some of the most beautiful cursive I have seen from her! xo

One Month To Go

The last lesson block of the year for Grace began with a study of Hermit Crabs. She'll spend the next month studying a variety of animals, and if these pages (especially that diagram) are any indication this will be an absolutely perfect ending  to another fabulous year of morning lessons! xo

On Candlemas Day

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another flight.
If on Candlemas Day be shower and rain,
Winter is gone, and will not come again.

Wishing you a blessed Candlemas, friends! xo

On Saint Lucia Day

Wishing you a God Jul from our family to yours! xo

Journals And Lesson Books

Since the girls had nature school today (which means that I had five hours to myself and therefor nothing really worth documenting for a blogpost) it felt like the perfect time to finally share some pictures from the their journals and main lesson books that I've over the last few weeks.

While main lesson books have been a usual thing for us, journal writing is new. The journal initially came about as a way for Grace to practice her cursive.

However, as the weeks wore on they both expressed wanting to be ale to write and spell better without copying things that they had dictated to me. With the knowledge of what they wanted I pondered for a bit about how to best/most naturally help them achieve this goal. It was during that pondering that "Friday Journals" were born. 

Each Friday we gather and discuss what they liked best about the week. On a piece of scrap paper they write their thoughts, being sure to take their time with the spelling (and asking for help when they get stuck). Once the sentence is to their liking they then copy it into their journals and add a picture to go with it. 

As they get better the number of sentences they write will increase, but for now we are sticking with one. They love Friday Journals, and since we've been doing this we have seen a major improvement in their confidence and their independent writing! 

Their main lesson books continue to have wonderful entries, too. Curly g's and y's are favorites of both girls (and their mama)! 

I love seeing how much they grow from the first book of each year to the last. Grace used the stars this time since it added to the charm of her page, whereas Emma is still using them to help with her spacing between words. I have no doubt that come springtime she will no longer need those stars though. We've also noticed a major improvement in Emma's drawing in recent weeks, as well. She's applying the "scrap paper technique" to her drawings and it has really helped her become much more confident and happy with how her creations are turning out. As she is only a handful of months away from turning eight we are seeing her writing and drawing become that of an older kid. It's a bit bittersweet if I'm being honest, but it's super exciting too!  xo

Last Page Day!

Yesterday brought the arrival of "last page day" also known as the last day of morning lessons before we head in to our summer rhythm. 

For Grace's last page she chose to write about what she was most looking forward to this summer. 

Emma's last page was actually completed the week before with a verse about the elements of fire, water, earth and air. Yesterday capped off a week of review for both girls. 

 Once their lesson books were finished all of the lesson books from this year (each girl completed three) were brought out. It's always fun to look back and see how much they did and how much they grew from September to May. The improvement in their handwriting alone is remarkable! 

 As you can see Grace still needed stars to help with her spacing between words in the autumn/early winter. By late winter/spring those stars where but a memory! 

This year to celebrate Last Page Day we asked the girls what they would like to do. After a little bit of thought they decided upon a celebratory ice cream with Dairy Queen being their destination of choice. Vanilla cones dipped in chocolate were chosen to kick off our summer on a classic note! 

We're looking forward to moving into our summer rhythm- Of days spent primarily outside (in and around the garden and at the lake). Of reading and knitting, and maybe even a little bit of German. Of visits to the library, the farm and the summer concerts on the green. Of walks to get ice cream and adventures yet to be determined. xo

Six

Emma's beautiful main lesson book page from yesterday. It's quite possibly my most favorite page of hers thus far. xo

Yesterday

Yesterday was an exciting day for Emma. It was the day she copied her first sentence into her main lesson book! Up until then she had been dictating them to me and I had been writing them for her. Yesterday, I decided to see how she'd do with copying it in and wouldn't you know she did an amazing job! With her love of writing in blank books it seemed like now was the perfect time to start giving her sentences to copy into her lesson book. I think her smile speaks volumes of how pleased she was with her first entry! While Emma was working on her sentence Grace was working on form drawing. Both girls love form drawing and Grace particularly loved this one! Well done, girls! xo