design fundamentals. Gracyn is currently working on a new project to show the use of mixed medium. She started a creation of a snail with various forms of texture.

Gracyn and I finished her 'Just Grace' book today. We were pleased by the solution to the problem and Gracyn readily pointed out the lesson learned. She read a 'Piggy' book for independent reading and we visited the library to select new books. Our word study was a review of closed syllables and introduction to open syllables.

We continued our reading of 'Still Just Grace' and learned how the girls attempted to solve their name problem by creating a class project. Their actions and the pending solution have disproved our previous predictions. Gracyn read a Raz-Kids story at level H with strong fluency and 100% comprehension. We sorted words with beginning blends and practiced marking vowels in two syllable words.

Gracyn went on a nature scavenger hunt, taking pictures of her finds. She found flowers, leaves, bugs, birds, berries, and other items.

Today, Gracyn and I reviewed a few concepts. First, she solved subtraction problems and searched for the addends and difference within a number puzzle, much like a word search. Fact families and the part-part whole was also reviewed. We picked two numbers and calculated the third number before writing the complete fact family. Finally, Gracyn practiced subtracting multiples of 10 in the range 10 - 90.

Today we went to the park to draw and color "the family" we learned the immediate family vocabulary and will work on the oral presentation of the picture.

Today Gracyn and I made a batch of Chocolate Chip Brownie Tarts. We started with mixing up some chocolate chip cookie dough to make the tart shell. While the dough was firming up in the refrigerator we made the brownie filling. We started with melting butter and whisking in sugar, cocoa, vanilla and flour. Next, we divided the cookie dough into 12 even portions and pressed them into the prepared muffin tin to form the tart shell. We then poured the brownie filling into each shell and baked them for 12 minutes. Gracyn loved how they turned out just perfect with a firm shell and a gooey brownie center.

We played some academic games dealing with addition and subtraction. I want her to get used to working with more mental math (adding to the tens) so that subtraction can be easier as well.

We began with my playing Chopin's Nocturne in E minor for Gracyn. This led to a discussion of the composer, the romantic period in classical music, and the term "Nocturne." Next we covered notes A-B-C-D-E in middle C position, in preparation for playing the piece "Batter Up" in the Alfred method primer. We then worked on the piece. We also played through Gracyn's favorites, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "The Knuckle Song."

Gracyn continued her animal report on snow leopards today. We read another book on snow leopards and she wrote down facts such as where they live, what they eat, how big they get, how long they live, and what their predators are. We also watched a short video on snow leopards and their habitat. We looked on the globe to find the Himalayas and Central Asia to see where they live.