Las Vegas Martin Luther King Jr. Parade

We went with our friends the Marchants, to the Martin Luther King Day parade. Luke held up the sign for most of it and people walking in the parade would often make a comment, smile and wave.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies

We spent about an hour doing sit down school time this morning. An hour seems so short, but we got a lot done. They practiced their spelling. Luke has the planets so I taught them the "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies (or pizzas)" you know, for the planets in order from the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Okay okay, so technically Pluto got demoted. I briefly mentioned that to them. Maybe we will look it up for part of school tomorrow. Isabel then drew and wrote about "Super Isabel's" weaknesses. Since Luke had already done that part for his superhero, he drew and described some setting ideas. We also read Martin Luther King Jr: The Life of a Civil Rights Leader by Gary Jeffrey illustrated by Chris Forsey. What's great about this MLK book is that it is in comic book format, word bubbles and all!

Alright, so the reason why we only spent one hour doing sit down school was because it was a beautiful day outside. After school we got ourselves some Costco hot dogs and headed for the park. They (we) played for a couple hours there and then I let them ride their scooters in the front yard when we got home. When they came inside they played Webkinz while I rested and read my book for a half hour. They are now doing their Math.

Space Battle, Dr. King and a Frogs and Toads Diagram

While I was getting their spelling words together this morning, Luke sat down and started creating a board game. He first wrote instructions on "how to play" in his journal. He then drew a diagram of what the board and cards would look like. I gave him half of a poster board and some 3x5 cards and he created the "Space Battle" game. Today I read to them Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by David A. Adler and Illustrated by Colin Bootman. I think it is a great simple overview of MLK and his "dream." Luke knew about MLK having attended public school for two years, but it was Isabel's first time learning about racism, separate drinking fountains etc. It is wonderful how strange and silly that whole concept seems to children. I know this sounds so dramatic, but I kind of felt sad like I was taking away some of her innocence in just teaching her what racism is. Okay okay, back to school stuff, when I was looking for the link to this book I found another book by David A. Adler, A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. Illustrated by Robert Casilla. I'll have to get that one too.

Another wow-they-ARE-learning-things moment the other day. I have been reading to them out of a book called, What's Inside a Frog by Aimee Bakken. Luke writes down on a big piece of paper anything new that we learn about frogs. There is a section in the book that explains the differences and similarities between frogs and toads. I suggested to Luke that he could make two lists: frogs and toads. He said, "I'm going to do this." and he drew a VENN DIAGRAM!!!