This week we rowed My Blue Boat by Chris L. Demarest. A child’s imagination takes his sailboat on an adventure from his bathtub to sailing through channels, past sleepy villages, into busy harbors, dancing with whales, steering through storms and much more.
We read Psalms 107 and brainstormed our own list of the Lord’s wondrous works. We couldn’t quite get off of the sea theme, but that’s ok as there is plenty of wonder in the sea alone.
Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep. Palms 107:23-24
We observed how the illustrator showed movement in the picture and found similarities in Van Gogh paintings. Benny said that it looked like the “eye of the storm” which happens to be the title of his favorite song at the moment and was quite fitting since several major hurricanes were brewing at the time.
We danced like whales, played tag like dolphins and watched Raffi’s Baby Beluga. We were all singing that song for weeks! We made our own blue boats and had our own bath time adventure. 
We ate sailboats for lunch.
We read a story called Boats Float. It’s about all different kinds of boats used around the world; one of which was a sea plane as it becomes a boat when it lands on water. After reading this Benny immediately ran off to construct his own sea plane. Pretty darn good I thought.
We rowed our own boat out to sea, passing harbors and fishing fleets. (Don’t mind the junky table in the background. It’s mostly toys to donate, but donating is impossible in Italy…so there it sits).
Clara liked this for a bit. Benny wanted like it, but I could see the wheels in his mind turning. He finally jumped out of the boat and got busy building a bridge over the sea. This kept them busy for quiet a long time.
We enjoyed making origami boats.
One day I could see Clara eyeing my bed and said: “this looks like a great sea” and it certainly was! We spent at least two hours pretending to be whales, dolphins, and sharks; we waited to be rescued by Benny’s seaplane, searched for the beacon, and before I knew it I was getting lost in giant swells.
We sailed little blue ice boats outside in the sea. Benny built a dock for the boats.
I was inspired by Julie Bogart, creator of Bravewriter, to introduce Poetry Teatime into our homeschool week. I absolutely love the idea and hope to stay consistent with it. The idea is that you set aside a special time each week to eat a snack, sip tea, and simply read poetry.
For our first teatime, we munched on little cakes and savored fruit punch. Shel Silverstein has been their favorite thus far. 
In other events, Benny learned how to make egg-toast. I had ordered some books from Thriftbook.com and they sent the wrong order. One of the books they happened to send was a Betty Crocker children’s cookbook from the 50’s. They told me to keep the books and they would send the correct order. Benny flipped over the egg toast and was so proud to make it for himself.
