Sayer worked on her ETC book again this morning. Then I brought out a math workbook that claims to be for 1st grade. She opened it up and asked if I'd made a mistake because it looked 'too easy!' So I told her if it was that easy she could easily do 10 pages. She said that was too many, so I suggested 8 and off she went. Eight pages later she'd made only one mistake. :)
While she was working I sat with Duncan and we went through the sand alphabet cards I made for him. So far I've only got the upper case alphabet, but eventually I'll sit down and do the lower case alphabet, and numbers 0 through 9. He traced the letters with his finger, identifying them as we went. He had problems remembering H and N ... and W, I think. But we traced them all, with me showing him where to start. The idea is to incorporate muscle memory with the repetition of finger tracing the letters, with the texture adding interest.
After math we got out the map and coloring pages for our SotW lesson on the New Kingdom of Egypt. Then we went through the questions in the activity book about the lesson. Which pharaohs did we read about? What did they do? What is polytheism? Sayer launched into the full story of Akhenaten forcing the Egyptians to worship only Aten, and how they hated it, and how they were glad when Tutankhamen became pharaoh and destroyed the temples to Aten and gave them back their gods.
And after she told me that story we pulled out one of the suggested reading books from the library, Casting the Gods Adrift, which is told from the point of view of a boy living in the time of Akhenaten who comes to believe in Aten though his father is appalled by the pharaoh's monotheism. We read 2 chapters before taking a break that somehow stretched to last all day ...
We're still reading Percy Jackson before bed. We're almost through with book 2, Sea of Monsters. I don't think Sayer knows that there's a book 3 (or 4, or 5), so I can't wait to ask her if she's ready for the next adventure when we do finish. :)
The Sounds of Senna covesii
2 weeks ago
It's wonderful that Sayer is enjoying Percy Jackson. Aren't the books awesome? It's been a while since I've gotten so excited about books for young adults. Not since Harry Potter and the Benedict Society two-some :)
ReplyDeleteHave fun!
We are enjoying it, muchly! :) We finished book 2 and have started book 3. I've now told her that there are 5 books total and that we have the first 4. We'll have to get The Last Olympian from the library when we're ready.
ReplyDeleteHave you read the Garth Nix 'Sabriel' series? I did not read them to Sayer, but I enjoyed them more than the Percy Jackson books. If you haven't read them, go get them! Or check out the audio books - it was awesome to listen to Tim Curry read it!