We took a little break before getting back to school work. It was however full of learning experiences of course! We flew down to Los Angeles to visit family. We drove to Point Reyes and checked out a lighthouse. We went to the CAL botanical gardens. We had a picnic in the Oakland rose garden. We visited the Academy of Sciences. We attended a painting and ice cream making activity day at the Jr. Art and Science center. We watched a bunch of things, like Muppets, Little Bear and the BBC show Britain in Bloom. We laid in the grass and read books and played and cooked. It all felt glorious and refreshing and then we were ready to get back to work.

I picked up about 30 Bob books from the library and we started going through them one at a time until all of a sudden Clover was reading. She sounded out every letter and remembered some of the words. She could not memorize them though and had to actually read which was exactly what she needed. They have been great resources and we are ready for our next pile of Bob books.

We finished the rest of the Kindergarten phonics book and started on math again. I had picked up some base ten foam pieces from the school resource center and we have started to experiment with those. I feel like the material we have covered as of late is first grade level stuff like long vowels and number place values. We will continue chipping away it through the next month or so.

It feels good to work year round, taking a couple weeks off here and there. This summer Emma will try out Capoeira at the YMCA and we will continue to swim. We have firm plans to attend every concert that the Oakland municipal band performs and probably eat a lot of watermelon and strawberries. We will continue with our read aloud chapter books like Betsy Tacy and the Children of Noisy Village and Emma practicing with those Bob books. I think she will be so excited and ready for first grade.