E is for…Eyebright fairy and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.  After reading Serendipity’s Flower Fairy story, Joseph and William colored pictures of the Eyebright fairy.  Joseph also did some copywork from the poem that is in the Flower Fairy book (which he did while listening to the Flower Fairy CD).  Then we looked up the actual wildflower in our field guide.  We read about Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in our Alphabet of Catholic Saints.  Joseph did some copywork.  We also used the picture from the book to practice the letter E formation. 

E is for…the letter E.  We practiced letter formation using the Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book, Do A Dot, Salt Dough letters, and Pin Punch letters. 

E is for…the short vowel e sound.  For phonics review (and phonics introduction for William!) and for our word box, we focused on the short vowel e sound.  We did some Explode the Code, added some short e words to our word boxes, and made words with play-doh. 

E is for…earnings.  We started Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Jr. University this week.  Joseph listened to Junior’s first adventure and we talked about earning commission.  Unfortunately Joseph was more enamored with the idea of doing wrong and being fined, so we shelved the commission chart for now.  We’ll revisit a little later.

 E is for…envelopes.  Joseph practiced writing letters and addressing envelopes this week.  He chose to write a letter to his friend Belle and to Grandpa Gary.  Both were pleased to receive his letter.

E is for…electricity.  I had great plans to read Switch On, Switch Off and The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip, but we never got around to it.  We have a few weeks later on that don’t have a science theme, so we’ll fill in those weeks with these plans.   

E is for…Albert Einstein.  We read The Odd Boy Out, which Joseph and William had absolutely no interest in.  In hindsight Amelia Earhart probably would have been a better choice here.  On the positive side, I did learn a new tidbit of information that I was able to share with Daxson.  Did you know that the man who performed Einstein’s autopsy put Einstein’s brain in a jar and traveled across the United States with it?  He even wrote a book about it called Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across the United States with Einstein’s Brain.

E is for…eat nicely.  We’re still using these great coloring pages and we’re including one each week along with a virtue story. 

In our book baskets this week (I’m choosing one book from each basket to have Joseph do a narration and illustration of):

History (Albert Einstein): Odd Boy Out  

Science (electricity): Switch On, Switch Off; The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip

Favorite E Books:  Every Friday; Emily’s First 100 Days of School; Even Firefighters Go to the Potty; Every Autumn Comes the Bear; Each Peach Pear Plum

D is for…Daisy fairy, St. Dominic, and King David.  After reading Serendipity’s Flower Fairy story, Joseph and William colored pictures of the Daisy fairy.  Joseph also did some copywork from the poem that is in the Flower Fairy book (which he did while listening to the Flower Fairy CD).  Then we looked up the actual wildflower in our field guide.  We read about Saint Dominic in our Alphabet of Catholic Saints.  Joseph did some copywork.  We also used the picture from the book to practice the letter D formation.  We read about King David in Letters from Heaven, which naturally lead into telling the story of David and Goliath, which we did through The Children’s Book of Heroes and Tomie dePaola’s Bible Stories.  We used our dinosaurs to act out the story. 

D is for…the letter D.  We practiced letter formation using the Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book, Do A Dot, Salt Dough letters, and Pin Punch letters. 

D is for…dinosaurs.  We read about them, played with them, made pictures of them, and used their feet to make fossils in playdough.  How delightful! 

D is for…Davy Crockett.   We learned about Davy Crockett in A Picture Book of Davy Crockett and then Joseph wore his own version of a ‘coon hat.

D is for…desert life.  We watched Reading Rainbow: Desert Life and then Joseph did a drawing narrative about life in the desert.

D is for…doctor and dentist.  We read lots about doctors and dentists and germs and bacteria in books like Germs are Not for Sharing, Keeping Clean, Take Care of Your Teeth, Just Going to the Dentist and Usborne’s books Going to the Dentist and Going to the Doctor.  My sister passed on a great idea where the kids got to “clean” a plaque covered tooth.  I simply drew a tooth on a yellow piece of paper and they used white paint to clean the teeth.  We also got to practice our germ etiquette since everyone caught a cold…you can see William practicing coughing into his arm. 

D is for…duty.  We’re still using these great coloring pages and we’re including one each week along with a virtue story.  We also read about doing our duty in God’s Alphabet.

In our book baskets this week (I’m choosing one book from each basket to have Joseph do a narration and illustration of):

History (Davy Crockett): A Picture Book of Davy Crockett

Science (dinosaurs): Digging up Dinosaurs; Archaeologists Dig for Clues; The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs; The Dinosaur; First Picture Dinosaurs; Dinosaurs A to Z; Usborne First Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life

Favorite D Books:  The Duchess Bakes a Cake; The Dog who Loved Red; The Deer in the Wood; The Doorbell Rang; Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?;  Duck for President

C is for…Columbine fairy and St. Cecelia.  After reading Serendipity’s Flower Fairy story, Joseph and William colored pictures of the Columbine fairy.  Joseph also did some copywork from the poem that is in the Flower Fairy book (which he did while listening to the Flower Fairy CD).  Then we looked up the actual wildflower in our field guide.  We read about Saint Cecelia in our Alphabet of Catholic Saints.  Joseph did some copywork and both boys colored a picture of Saint Cecelia.  We also used the picture from the book to practice the letter C formation.  We read about cherubims in Letters from Heaven. 

C is for…the letter C.  We practiced letter formation using the Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book, Do A Dot, Salt Dough letters, and Pin Punch letters. 

C is for…Castles.  We read about life in a castle and then used our wooden castle to act out the story.

C is for…The Constitution.  We used Betsy Maestro’s book A More Perfect Union to learn the history of the Constitution.  We’ve added the Preamble to our morning routine, right after we say the Pledge of Allegiance.  We also watched The Preamble on Schoolhouse Rock (the song is so catchy that we usually end up singing the Preamble rather than reciting it!). 

C is for…St. Christopher.  We read Tomie dePaola’s book Christopher: The Holy Giant, after which Joseph did a narration and illustration. 

C is for…colors.  We had lots of fun with colors!  We did some color clothespin matching and some color mixing. 

C is for…creeks. After reading Box Turtle at Long Pond, we visited a nearby creek and saw lots of turtles. 

C is for…cat.  We studied Joseph Interpreting the Dreams of His Fellow Prisoners and then did a narration and illustration.

C is for…compassion and cookies.  I found these great coloring pages and we’re including one each week along with a virtue story.  This week the theme was Compassion.  To supplement our virtue studies, we read the book Cookies: Bite Size Life Lessons …one of my absolute favorites (and the kids’ too!) 

C is for…candles and cake.  We baked a cake in honor of Auntie Leslie’s birthday and then even blew out candles. 

C is for…Connect Four and chase!

In our book baskets this week (I’m choosing one book from each basket to have Joseph do a narration and illustration of):

History (The Constitution): A More Perfect Union;  If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution 

Science (creeks): Box Turtle at Long Pond; Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean

Favorite C Books:  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom; Chicka Chicka 123; The Carrot Seed; Cowboy’s Secret Life; Curious George books; Clifford books; Chrysanthemum; Corduroy; Charlie Needs a Cloak; A Child’s Rule of Life