The Rag Coat

Our FIAR book for this week was The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills. It's a beautiful little book about a little girl whose coal miner father dies. She can't go to school because she doesn't have a coat to wear during the cold winter months, so her mother's quilting friends make her a quilted "rag" coat. When she finally walks into school proudly wearing her new coat, her classmates tease her into tears. She runs away but thinks better of it, returning to school to forgive them. She tells them the stories about each of the rags - they are rags from her classmates! It's a great opportunity to talk about the power of forgiveness, the bond between a father & daughter (even after death), and death. We also used this book as a starting point to make up stories using props (like Minna did with the rags in her coat). Jimmy & Caleb had a blast making up stories about Buzz Lightyear and Woody. LOL! We also talked a little about quilts, making our own out of paper (no stitching, just enough to get an idea of putting pieces together to make something different). We'll be visiting a fabric store later today to see all the different types of fabric that could be used to make a quilt.

In math this week, we reviewed the March calendar (great opportunity to practice reading, since March is our first short-named month). Jimmy had a test early in the week. He had to graph pattern blocks. We hadn't used a graph in a long time, so he was a little rusty. We'll review this assessment during our next test just to be sure. For our practical lessons, we measured strips of contruction paper (unit of measure - linking cubes), made an ABC pattern using pattern blocks, and went through a few counting bear stories (to start addition & subtraction skills). The big math highlight this week was from Caleb - he told a counting bear story of his own! He's definitely ready for some sort of math next year.

Our letter for the week was S. Jimmy memorized our Bible verse very quickly, so we had time to read the accompanying story twice this week. I think I'd like to do that more often - once at the beginning of the week and once later in the week to reinforce what we've just memorized. His handwriting is getting better. S was a little difficult with the extra curvy bit, but his letters were definitely readable. I had him write a few sound-it-out words, too - "can", "Bob", and "skate" (his choice). I pulled out a stage 1 reader for Jimmy to read to us one naptime as well. It's a short little book but there were some challenging sections. Jimmy did very well on the easy stuff, and he patiently plowed through the harder stuff. I did have him run a lap (it's the best way to get him over a mental block), but he was just so thrilled to be reading! I think he's finally ready, but I also think that any formal lessons just won't work for him. He's a tough cookie.