Writing Tales!

While we never stop schooling, Bug & I started up full-time homeschooling 2 weeks ago. We are using a new (to us) writing program called Writing Tales. I hadn't heard of it until I saw it mentioned on a homeschooling message board. I did a bit of research and realized that it would be perfect for the girl. I went back to the homeschool board and did a quick search in the 'for sale' section and found a copy at a great price. Yay!

The way this work is, we read a fable, learn some grammar, then Bug writes the fable in her own words. The second week, we keep working on grammar, Bug writes a rough draft where she is allowed to get creative...give characters names, change what animal they are, etc. At the end of the week she writes her final draft. At the end of the school year, she will have 15 fables that she's written that we can bind into a book.

With Bug's permission, here is her retelling of the fable, The Crow and The Pitcher, followed by her rough draft (where she got to be creative). If you click on the page and it will open up a bigger version. It didn't scan clearly, I suspect because it was written in pencil, so I'll type each version here, as well.


Retelling:

A crow was strolling around on an island, looking for water to drink. Suddenly, something caught his eye. He looked over to his left.......and he saw a Pitcher! Overjoyed, he bounded over and stuck his beak in, but something was wrong. There was very little water in it! To solve it, he took 20 pebbles and dropped them in, one by one. Finally, the water was high enough so that he could drink from the Pitcher.






Rough draft:



Once, in the jungles of Africa, there was a baby panther crying under a boabab tree. She was thirsty and her name was Sniffy. Her mommy was killed and she needed someone to take care of her. She got up and set off to find some water. Suddenly, she tripped on something and fell right on her sensitive, little pink nose! She got up and turned around to see what she had tripped on. It was a large, tall, hollow rock, and it didn't have a lot of water in it! Sniffy saw a big piece of meat lying nearby. She picked it up with her mouth, put it in the water, and the water level rose. Then she drank the water.

More sock creatures.

I've been busy with my latest obsession....sock creatures. This first one is one of my favorites. It also took the most work, of course.


Bug has claimed this pink cat for herself.

I made the tie-dyed frog for my friend, Donna, of Southwind Treasures. Be sure to check out their site. All of the tie-dye that you see on us comes from them.

Cute, but I don't think I'll do any others without feet. I don't like how the bottoms turn out.

This guy is LONG. The neck is a bit weak, too.

Milwaukee

We took a quick visit to Milwaukee over the weekend. I got to meet an "internet friend" after nearly 9 years of online chatting/telephone calls. I wish we'd had more time.

We went to Discovery World and had some fun.



Bug was brave enough to touch some fish this time.
This sound/light table is so incredibly cool.

She was having fun, I swear!

Just before we left, Uncle Scott called from Germany. It was hard to hear, as it was pretty noisy in the building, but Bug managed. Look how happy she was!

It's always fun to see Cousin E.

They even got S to sit for a pic.


Just before we left, we realized that we'd taken no pics of Bug with her grandma.

She's excited that she's nearly as tall as Grandma, now.