Here's some of our highlights from homeschooling this November.

MsE seems to have suddenly gotten the hang of reading. She is a reluctant reader, but does just fine sounding out words with single sound letters. She will also put short sentences in order. She is suddenly a writer though.  She is writing things phonetically all over the house as she plays, and for the most part they're pretty readable.

MsC played around with language this month with Scrabble and Apples to Apples (a noun and synonyms matching game where the best match is chosen by that round's judge). MsC also made and wrote Christmas cards and letters. MsC is always found writing, stories, plays and documents to support playtime. She's particularly fond of creating Passports for all kinds of fictional characters, where she includes all sorts of character details, not just what you would normally find in a Passport.

MsE likes to create little storybooks through dictation and choosing from photographs or images online. She has developed quite a writer's voice and knows exactly what she wants to say.

We've been zipping through our nightly read alouds. I read the original Alice in Wonderland and also Through the Looking Glass with MsC. We take turns reading aloud. We also enjoy reading it by the pool. Jonathan and MsE have read through the whole Unicorn Rescue Society Series this month (4 chapter books).

We pulled out our Winter and Christmas Books this month and started to close the blinds, light candles on the table and read christmas books for tea time. We put up the Christmas Tree early this year (mid November) and the christmas lights are helping make this extra special.  

Prodigy, the computer math program of MsE's, says she is 55% through Grade 1 math, we're happy with her progress. She can count to 999; counts by 1s, 5s, 10s, 100s, 1000s; has her math facts families memorized, can do addition and subtraction with 2 digit numbers, loves making patterns, and sometimes seems to understand MsC's math instruction book, which reads as a story, better than the rest of us.

MsE also enjoyed being read Lauren Ipsum by her dad. Lauren Ipsum is a chapter book of "a whimsical journey through a land where logic and computer science come to life. Lauren, an adventurer lost in Userland who needs to find her way home by solving a series of puzzles. As she visits places, Lauren learns about computer science without even realizing it."

MsC is still working away on Beast Academy. She is starting at the beginning of the program (which is targeted for 8 to 9 year olds) to learn how to think about math a bit differently. The program is very problem solving based and we're finding lots of things to puzzle through. She's really enjoying the comic book lessons that go with it.

For Science, we've been watching our fishtanks closely, which surprisingly has been teaching us about reproduction. We found that the male Gourami fish were making bubble nests, which is the first step in their breeding process. The nest were interesting to watch be built. They are literally full of bubbles. Jonathan has now added females, so we may get some baby fish at some point.

We also had Damsel Flies hatch out from our tank. They look a bit like a dragon fly. The eggs must have come in on some of the aquatic plants that were added to the tank. We had a few weeks of daily watching Damsel Flies hatch, crawl out of the water, where they would then spend a few hours drying off on plants at the top of the tank before taking flight. Good thing the tank is beside the large sliding glass door. We keep the open all morning, so the damsel flies mostly had an easy exit once they took flight.

The girls have also been doing occasional water testing of their own fishtanks, although the tanks have stabilized so this happens less frequently now.

We did some Mass versus Weight testing with the kitchen scale. The kids predicted that the largest object would be the heaviest, but I had searched the whole fridge weighing things before our lesson to make sure that it wouldn't be so. MsE read out all the weights (including decimals) and I wrote them down for her. She also liked balancing everything all on the scale to see how much they weighed all together and then also putting all the objects in order by weight and then size.

We also played around with baking soda/baking powder - vinegar reactions. The little girls love to do this with their mini tea set.

We continued reading about Ancient India through Stories of India, participating in local Deepvali celebrations, and reading History Quest: Ancient Times. MsC attended a Deepvali Tea Party and got henna done and decorated a traditional lamp for this Festival of Lights. MsE got to join in the festivities to do Sparklers, see everyone dressed up in their India Festive wear, and hear about local traditions in India from our friends' mom. We also made Prata and Chana Masala for dinner to celebrate at MsE's request.

We were gifted a cupcake making kit, but we couldn't actually eat the cupcakes (because of butter and gluten allergies), so we decorated them and gave them away to our friends. MsE did eat hers! There was a lot of icing provided.

MsE seems to have discovered art. She has been cutting and gluing away. She's also started sketching, and is happily drawing her stuffies and family members. She likes to "teach" you how to draw and sits beside you giving instructions on portrait drawing. She keeps extending the activity by suggesting more and more additions to your drawing in a very gentle way. MsE sounds like, "Lets draw this bunny stuffy? Good job. Should we maybe add a bow? What clothes do you think your bunny is wearing? What about his shoes? Ok, now that your happy with your bunny turn him over and draw him from behind." Agreeing to draw a bunny with MsE takes a while. We also painted christmas styled picture frames with acrylic paint to hold some loose christmas photos we discovered in our house.

MsE tired out a Ballet class. She started out enthusiastically, but by the end was not impressed. She found the speed of the class too slow for her. And again, she pointed out that she both doesn't like to wear a mask in a class, but also isn't comfortable taking it off when they're told they can, because they are exercising. There were just 2 other girls in the class that day. MsE did love playing on the playground with the girls after though, as this class was hosted in our condo's clubhouse. She's become much friendlier on the playground since her worries about the monkeys have decreased a bit.

MsC finished rehearsals and performed in her Broadway Performance of Annie and our whole family watched it live. She had so much fun and is really proud of herself. She played 3 different roles, and learned a number of dance routines and songs where she sings both as part of the group and sections of songs alone. She mentioned that she put on one of her costumes too fast and came out for a dance number in the wrong clothes, but we didn't notice, and she just went with it. This is the link to the play if you want to watch it.

This next month (December) we'll take a break from formal studies: read lots, enjoy Christmas-y activities, and spend time with the local kids who will be on Christmas break. January is the beginning of a new grade and new school year for most kids here in Singapore.