Pyramids, Mummies and other things

We seemed to be immersed in ancient Egypt. Mane drew a picture of a mummy yesterday while I read to her about the pyramids from the Magic Tree House book. In the evening she looked for the pyramids on google earth with Mango. Oh the technology at our fingertips! She correctly identified Egypt, the Nile River, and the Nile River Delta on the map. This child totally loves maps.

Tomorrow we'll be finishing Word Group 1 from the 100 Words Kids Need to Read by 1st Grade book. I've been having Mane read the entire workbook, not just the target words. So, she's gaining proficiency. It's helping her handwriting, too. ...though I'm hoping to begin real handwriting instruction once our printer is fixed next week. I'm planning to teach her italic cursive using StartWrite by Draw Your World. I read that the second half of 1st grade is a good time to start formal handwriting instruction. So, that's my plan. StartWrite allows you to create your own worksheets. So, I'll be using words that Mane is learning to read or things she's working on memorizing.

Math has suddenly taken a nosedive. I'm thinking that Math U See is a pretty dry curriculum and Mane is bored. I'm troubleshooting with Mango to figure out how to keep up her interest. She's so kinesthetic and is too smart to go for many learning games (because she realizes they're trying to teach her something, and then it's not fun any more).