Today Gavin started writing capital cursive letter 'A'.  We also practiced reading.  I'm trying to get him to read a little faster.  If I give him words to practice he takes forever to read them, but if I count to 'three' for each word he can read them in before I get to three so I know he can read faster, it's just getting him to do it!

In math we practiced showing numbers 1-10 in different ways.  So I would say a number and Gavin would show me the place value card and dot card and then he would show me on the abacus and with tally marks.  Then we divided numbers into parts: 5 = 4 and 1, 2 and 3, 3 and 2, etc.

Then we played a game called Animal Logic.  Gavin got it for Christmas.  It teaches logic skills.  Here is a description of the game:

"Lions, hippos, giraffes and camels are all waiting to get to the other side of the river. The animals know they may only cross the river bridge one at a time and they must travel in the proper order to safely arrive at the other side. With sixty puzzles and five levels of difficulty (beginner to advanced), these logic puzzles have players solving the correct sequence to remove the sixteen wooden animals from the game board."

We tried the first two puzzles today and Gavin seemed to like it.  The nice thing is that he can play it by himself if he wants to as well.

Here is Gavin during math.

And playing Animal Logic.

Last week in science we learned about the weather in general and about the sun and it's effect on weather.  (Side note - our grapes are getting brown and wrinkly having been in the sun for a few days.  Not exactly raisons but Gavin recorded his observations and drew a picture in his science journal.  We will contine to monitor them for a few more days.) 

This week we are learning about air and wind and how air effects the weather.  After reading a book about air and a book about wind, we tried this experiment to help us 'see' air.  First we put a paper towel in the bottom of a glass and filled the sink with water.  Then Gavin carefully placed the glass in the water until it touched the bottom (making sure the glass was perfectly straight and not crooked).  Finally, he slowly lifted the glass out of the water, again keeping it straight.  We learned that the paper towel would stay dry because the air at the top of the glass kept the water out.  He did this several times but started rushing and tipping the glass.  When he did this we saw the air bubbles escaping and realized that the air was leaving the glass and sure enough, the paper towel was wet!

We read this book about weather last week.

Today we read these books.

We are still working on Washington at meal times.  We have not gotten too far on it for some reason but we are trying.  Getting back into a routine after a few weeks off is not easy.

We have been reading Ivanhoe at bed time.  We have just a few chapters left.  Gavin is loving this book!