Jewel Counters

We're making the manipulatives to start Gnomes and Gnumbers soon (although we call in Numeria Island, which is not too far across the sea from Alphabet Island). They are glass gems to use as counters, and here is a square showing the size of 100 jewels. Dump trucks and flatbeds moved them around and brought them to the 100 square. Next, we will be making the rods of 10s. We all like the glass jewels a lot. We have them from our Mancala game, which I'm happy to say Govinda is old enough to play now. I have always liked this game. We discussed it's ancient roots from Africa and Asia and how it used to be played with holes in the ground and stones.

Bulldozer Book List

Surrendering to the children's great interest in bulldozers, here's a book list for the little engineers!



B is for bulldozer : a construction ABC by Sobel, June
Bulldozer by Funfax.
Bulldozers by Butterfield, Moira
Bulldozers by Williams, Linda D.
Bulldozers, loaders, and spreaders; a book about roadbuilding machines by Green Vale School. Ninth Grade English Class
Construction by Chantier
Construction giants by Olney, Ross Robert
Construction zone by Hoban, Tana.
Earthmovers by Stephen, R. J.
Earth moving machines by Stone, William
Giant bulldozers by Mezzanotte, Jim.
How roads are made by Williams, Owen
If I could drive a bulldozer! by Teitelbaum, Michael
I drive a bulldozer by Bridges, Sarah.
The roadbuilders by Kelly, James E

Australian Legends

Geography: This week we focused on Australian Legends. We read many stories from The Flying Emu by Sally Morgan. They are like animal fables with moral lessons. We all liked this book very much. Other stories we reread were Dreamtime: Aboriginal Stories, The Singing Snake, and Sun Mother wakes the world : an Australian creation story.

Noble N Endings

Devotional: We focused on the story of Sudama, a poor brahmana priest who gave a sincere and humble offering to Krishna, the king of Dvaraka, and was rewarded with great wealth. This went with the week's theme about the king and queen changing others.

Language Arts: This week we focused on ending blends with N. Noble N is the king of Alphabet Island and Lady L is the queen. The vowels often make different sounds around them in awe and reverence. This is why Innocent I says the long E sound in 'ing' and 'ink'. These were the word families that we practiced reading and writing this week. We tried our Explode the Code 4 workbook for extra practice, doing 4 pages of lesson 8. After a two month summer break, proper letter writing that was once mastered needs major review, so we'll slow down and go back to Handwriting Help For Kids next week.

Friends At The Ends and Australian Animals

Here's our completed Alphabet Island poster and card holder. I taped clear plastic pockets to hold the letter cards in alphabetical order for easy finding. Then on the other side is where they line up to make words. It has made reading and spelling more fun and even Navin is practicing making words with different combinations and groups of our letter friends.

I've made some changes with our Soul Adventure School. We've started reading something spiritual/transcendental every morning to start the kids with some good things to think about. I'm going to find ways to tie it in with whatever else we are learning about. I'm also starting to do month long blocks alternating language arts and math to really focus on them individually. The world geography study will continue until we have been to all of the continents and then go into only one subject at a time for 2-4 weeks, hopefully adding more science and nature studies in. Art (drawing and painting) will now be part of free time and not part of school to keep it fun and freed up for imagination. I think these new changes will work better for the boys to really immerse into learning.

Devotional: This week we focused on Bhagavad Gita verse 9.18, where Krishna says "I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge, and the most dear friend". We discussed how God is our most dear friend that we can always turn to when we're scared.



Language Arts: The first few weeks of Alphabet Island will be review, so we're moving fast with it. This week we read a story about how the letters on alphabet island get together to make words, and the last letter is always at the edge of a cliff. Some of the letters are scared and have a friend stand with them or take their place. They are Clever C and his pet Kangaroo K, Lady L, Farmhand F, Sloppy S, and Zany Z. Later we will learn more about the vowels, Veggie V (who always is with Everloving E, and she is also scared so she is speechless and silent), and Jolly J, who juggles and doesn't ever go near the cliffs and asks Goofy G to take his place. Govinda did a few of the workbook pages that go with it. Next, we practiced Clever C's and Goofy G's two sounds, which we will go into more next week. I'm finding much success with writing words on the white board for him to read and taking it easy on handwriting.

Reading: I'm so happy to say that Govinda read a Level 2 Step Into Reading Book from the library called Toad On The Road. Now that he's advancing with reading, he says that he likes library books better than the McRuffy readers (I think because they seem more like 'real books'). I'm just so happy that he read a level 2 book! Woohoo!



Geography: We read more stories about Australia and focused on the platypus and echidna, which are the only two marsupial mammals that lay eggs. Australia's animals are quite amazing. We also discussed how in Sanskrit, 'astra' means 'weapon' or 'powerful bomb' and 'alia/alaya' means 'land of', so Australia means 'land of the powerful bomb', which may explain the extreme desert. We discussed the astra used in the Mahabharata that was used to try to attack a child in the womb, which Sri Krishna stopped. Maybe it went to Astralaya and that is why there are so many marsupials whose babies leave the womb very early on for the safety of the pouch. I also read that some versions of the Ramayana say that Sri Rama sent an astra into the sea, which brought up the island of Australia, which makes sense because there is so much salt and shell fossils there. One dvd we saw said that when they brought in irrigation for farming, the salt in the ground rose and the water became more salty than the ocean!

Thank you to all of our supporters and well wishers. Take care and God Bless!

Summer's Cool

Here's some recent pictures from our latest adventures. Govinda made a kite all on his own and had fun taking pictures. Navin is having fun being cute. :)

Australia Book List

*About marsupials : a guide for children by Sill, Cathryn P
AUSTRALIAN LEGENDARY TALES by Parker, K. Langloh
Australian wildlife by Parish, Steve
Big rain coming by Germein, Katrina
Bright star by Crew, Gary
The biggest frog in Australia by Roth, Susan L.
*Dingoes At Dinnertime by Mary Pope Osborne
Dreamtime : aboriginal stories by Noonuccal, Oodgeroo
Down under, down under : diving adventures on the Great Barrier Reef by McGovern, Ann.
Ernie dances to the didgeridoo : for the children of Gunbalanya by Lester, Alison
Flood fish by Eversole, Robyn Harbert.
*The flying emu and other Australian stories by Morgan, Sally
*Found you, Little Wombat! by McAllister, Angela
*Grumble-rumble! by Dodds, Siobhan
Into wild Australia by Corwin, Jeff
Katy no-pocket by Payne, Emmy
*Koala Lou by Fox, Mem
Marsupial Sue by Lithgow, John
Marsupial Sue presents the Runaway Pancake by Lithgow, John
*McGillycuddy could! by Edwards, Pamela Duncan
*The singing snake by Czernecki, Stefan
The very boastful kangaroo by Most, Bernard
What shall we do, blue kangaroo? by Chichester Clark, Emma.
Where are you, blue kangaroo? by Chichester Clark, Emma.
Kangaroos and koalas : what they have in common by Swan, Erin Pembrey.
Possum magic by Fox, Mem, 1946-
The pumpkin runner by Arnold, Marsha Diane.
*Swim, little wombat, swim! by Fuge, Charles.
The Wiggles. Lights, camera, action! by Bufalo, Nicholas.
*Wombat goes walkabout by Morpurgo, Michael.
Wombats by Kras, Sara Louise.
*The old woman who loved to read by Winch, John
Snap! by Vaughan, Marcia K
*Sun Mother wakes the world : an Australian creation story by Wolkstein, Diane
Where the forest meets the sea by Baker, Jeannie

DVDs:
The crocodile hunter. Wildest home videos ; Big croc diaries by Stainton, John.
Wonders of the deep. Vol. 2 by Paulson, Doug.
Jacques Cousteau Pacific explorations. 3, Australia, continent of dreams by Cousteau, Jacques
Kookaburra song on youtube

Last Week of Summer Break!

Language Arts: We'll start back up with academics next week. We finished our Alphabet Island poster and added more to make it bigger. The island is above the school table, which becomes part of the island. Govinda also drew a bulldozer on the chalkboard and we checked out a bunch of books about earth movers because he is sooooo interested in them.

Geography: We started reading about Australia and all of the animals there, especially marsupials. We colored the map and flag of Australia.

African Animals

We had fun adding African animals to the world map. We're finishing up all of our Africa projects and moving on to Australia soon!

Dozing The Ten Trees

There was a bulldozer clearing an empty lot on our road for a whole month. We watched some big trees fall, including mango and coconut trees. It made a big impression on the boys, and everything in the house has become a dozer...chairs, tables, wooden blocks, and when some friends gave us a bunch of legos, they became very intricate dozers. So, while all the toys were being dozed, I added in some educational trees...cuisenaire math rods. I made them all into 10 cm trees and the boys had fun dozing them and having them grow back again and again. Soon after, the smaller units became cones to block the roads near the dozing sites. This is the most that these math rods have been used so far! While they're playing, they're seeing different ways of adding up to ten.