Yesterday afternoon Luke asked me who invented the piano. We found out that the first piano (harpsichord) is thought to have been invented by Bartolomeo Christofori in 1709 in Italy. We then looked at pictures of harpsichords (all of this with a little help from the internet.) Luke then brought up his piano books and we looked up information about Johann Sebastian Bach. Here is a fun site we found with his music on it. It was fun for Luke to hear Minuet in G major since that is a piece Luke has learned.
Today was game day. Last night I told Luke and Isabel that we would play games instead of school today. A little secret they don't know is that playing games is school. At least here at Sabrina School. Our first game was Vowel Bingo. I got a little nervous at first because when I was taking it out of the package I noticed that it had the vowels with the line or curved line above them (long or short vowels) and I somehow slipped through the system and passed elementary school without ever knowing what in the world those were...
BREAK IN THOUGHT HERE: Another little secret about Sabrina School is that it is not called Sabrina School because it is my school that I run and teach, it is called Sabrina School because it is the school that I go to right now. I'm gettin' schooled.
...Alright, where was I? So after a quick glance I got it that the line above (does any one know how to type the line and the curve? Nevermind I actually really don't even want to know) means the vowel makes the sound of it's name, like the word ABLE would have a strait line over the "A" and AFRO would have a curved line over the "A."
STRAIT LINE/CURVED LINE
Able/Afro
Evil/Elf
Icy/Itch
Oval/Oblong
Used/Underwear
Got it?! So I had a quick lesson with Isabel on what vowels are and we played. She caught on very quickly and didn't need my help. Oh here is a very stupid story to help your kids memorize the vowels...
STUPID STORY BREAK: A mother was making cookies and was out of sugar. She sent her four year old daughter to their neighbor's house to borrow some. The neighbor gave the little girl a cup of sugar. The little girl said, "A E" (supposed to sound like a little kid saying "lady") "I owe you a cup of sugar." A E I O U a cup of sugar.
...After I told it to Luke and Isabel they thought it was stupid and pointless. Stupid, yes, pointless, no. I had asked Isabel before the story if she remembered what the five vowels are and she didn't. Now after that stupid story she knows them and will never forget them.
They played Candy Land together and then I had cut out letters and parts of words they put together up on a flannel board to make words. Then chess. Luke's grandfather taught him how to play and Luke is so into it. I feel guilty about not playing with him enough. He is so cute trying to use strategy and giving me tips. He is a much better chess player than I am. Isabel was on my team and mostly liked "torturing the prisoners."
I bought this game at Target last week and tried it out yesterday. My kids loved it. Such a good school game. We played for a long time and Luke wondered when we were going to "do some school." It was nice to be able to tell him that Mad Libs is school. Luke loved his sentences that he made up so much that he wrote them all down. Bellybuttons Worship Cellphones was one of our favorite three word sentences. They learned very quickly that it is pretty much impossible to make a sentence if you are all out of nouns.