Tiger Badge and a Cowboy Hat

Just a quick post today to share photo and some cub scout news. Last Saturday, our pack celebrated the Blue & Gold birthday of Boy Scouting with a western-themed party. Here is cowhand, Cullen, and his scout buddy, Dylan, preparing to go round up some bad guys.

Cullen received the Tiger badge he'd earned along with a few belt loop awards. He was so incredibly excited about that little orange square of fabric!

Not-Quite Wordless Wednesday Night

A pair of rubber gloves and a little imagination make amazingly realistic chicken feet. :oD

Super Sentences

We've been working this week on writing sentences with plenty of detail. We begin with a short, plain and truly boring little sentence like "A pig ate." Then we brainstorm lists of possible adjectives, alternate nouns and verbs, as well as phrases telling where and when. (These exercises are from a resource book by Evan-Moor called Write a Super Sentence.) Cullen then will write a "super" sentence, either using our lists or whatever else he thinks of.

Of course, silliness is allowed and even encouraged here, so he has been enjoying this. Here are two of his sentences from this week:

A stinky girl burped in the toy box when a spider was in her nostril.

A stinky sow snorted in Daddy's shirt when I used the potty.

Can you tell the writer of these sentences is a little boy? But he does seem to be getting the point that details can make boring writing much more interesting, if possibly a little gross at the same time.

Gymnastics

Just thought I'd post a couple of photos (sorry they aren't better quality - I was at some distance!) Cullen's really been excited about gymnastics and wanted to share these.

I can read his mind in this first one - he wants nothing more than to throw himself into the pit of foam!

He's learned that even though something looks really simple, it sometimes requires more strength than expected.

All in all, this is the perfect sport/activity for my little monkey child!

Weekly Report - Okay, two weeks really.

This is a catch up post. You get TWO weeks for the price of one!

I'll try not to be too long-winded, though.

MATH is moving along well, but that's not a huge surprise because Cullen will tell you himself that he has a "math-brain." He loves thinking through problems and quantifying things in conversation. We've been learning how to borrow in subtraction while reviewing everything else. I've just started adding in an exercise from Miquon Math Red again most days, just to add an element of fun and to emphasise mathematical thinking as opposed to just rote learning.

READING has really changed around here lately. Cullen wants to read more than ever, so I'm a little challenged to keep up. I try to offer a good mix of easy readers and those with a little bit of challenge for him. Here are the books he's read himself over the past two weeks:

We've been doing a better job of daily WRITING, using a journal whenever we aren't doing a specific assignment. Here is a sample from Cullen's journal pages, where he gets to write whatever he likes:

SPELLING is a favorite subject. We usually do any spelling work early in the day, often in our pajamas. Here Cullen is practicing the week's words with letter cards:

HISTORY has been light this week. The Tapestry of Grace schedule we are following suggests some readings on Biblical history during the era of Samuel, David, etc., but we actually just covered much of that during recent reading for Bible study and Sunday School. I am reading aloud a book about the Trojan War, and we'll be picking up Ancient Greece within the next two weeks.

SCIENCE has settled to about 2 days a week, sometimes only one. Cullen had a blast testing various things to see if they were acid or base, then mixing them together to see how they neutralized each other. Anything that makes a mess is usually a big hit around here! I still want us outdoors more, and I'm hoping that the warm weather forecast for this coming week will help!

We did go to Stone Mountain's Snow Mountain yesterday afternoon with Dad for some wintery outdoor fun. The park filtered lake water and made snow to cover an enormous hill that is usually a prime grassy picnic area. It was warm and sunny enough yesterday that the snow was really more crunchy ice but that actually made the tube run a little more fun! Cullen worked on a snowman while a little girl watched carefully in the play area. We also played a round of miniature golf before leaving the park.







For MUSIC, we listened to Peter and the Wolf with the orchestra on cd together. Cullen has children's choir on Wednesday evenings, too. They are just beginning to learn a new mucical called "The Pirates of I-Don't-Care-abean" or something like that!

Gymnastics and baseball practice have been making Cullen a very happy kid. He loves to move!

I feel like I did a better job with music this past week, but art is the challenge for next week! I'll let you know how it goes.

Before I sign off, I wanted to share with you a song that Cullen wrote for me! Of course, I'll never be able to hum the tune from this, but it was lovely when Cullen sang it for me.