Writing:

• Emily writes occasional letters to penpals, emails, stories and comic book dialogue, is learning cursive by her own choice, to use the word processing and email programs on the computer and beginning to dabble with story boarding. She's also writing and dictating in a private journal and beginning a nature journal.
• Julia is exploring phonetics with Bob's Books and loves to write the names of all her favorite characters in journal. She has become quite adept at email, her favorite method of communication.
• Sam is starting to learn his letters and has learned to type his name on the computer as well as to read many computer prompts for his games.
  

• Punctuation: comma, period, semi-colon, colon, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, parentheses--naturally encountered in reading.
• Parts of speech: noun, verb, pronoun, adverb, adjective--MadLibs, Magnetic Poetry.
• Paragraphs; quotations; questions who, what, where, when and why.
  
• Resources: reading, Punctuation Takes a Vacation by Robin Pulver, School House Rock

Poetry:

We continue learning meter, rhyme, alliteration, consonance and vocabulary through language play and exposure to poetry and music. Emily, especially, loves listening to poetry, making up her own poems and playing with sounds and has become quite proficient at extemporaneous rhyming song lyrics. Jules, too, enjoys making up rhymes, and the whole family periodically improvs very silly limericks.

• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
• Falling Up by Shel Silverstein
• Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake
• A Visit to William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard is a wonderful, intertextual tribute to the Songs of Innocence and Experience
• Bone Poems by Jeff Moss (published by the American Museum of Natural History—a fun book!)
• Just about everything written by Dr. Seuss
  
• George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandra is a fun historical account written in poetic form.
• "The Panther" by Rilke
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, excerpts
• Song of Myself by Walt Whitman, excerpts

French:

We had been learning some conversational French in preparation for a trip to France. Unfortunately, we were unable to accompany Jim to Paris, but we continue to have fun with French occasionally through Madeline books, movies, computer games and toys.

• L'Alphabet by Passport Books
• First French At Home Usborne Books
• Clothes/ Les Vetements Barron's Bilingual First Books
• Family/ La Famille Barron's Bilingual First Books
  
• Transportation/ Le Transport Barron's Bilingual First Books
• Une Nouvelle Maison Pour la Famille Souris by Kazuo Iwamura
• Madeleine by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Viens Jouer Avec Moi, Petit Souris! by Robert Kraus, et. al.
• Picture Dictionary English/French and French/English Larousse

Spanish:

We are continuing to learn counting and basic vocabulary through exposure to Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer and follow up play.

• This House is Made of Mud/ Esta Casa Esta Hecha de Lodo by Ken Buchanan
• Uno, Dos, Tres; One, Two, Three by Pat Mora
• Dora the Explorer on Nickelodeon
• Go, Diego Go! on Nickelodeon
• Maya and Miguel on PBS

American Sign Language:

We began learning American Sign Language (ASL) to prepare for a theatrical presentation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Then a local homeschooler, who used to be an interpreter, offered a class. We learned quite a bit in this fun, relaxed environment—lots of basic vocabulary and sentences, as well as numbers and letters.

• My First Book of Sign by Pamela J. Baker
• A Basic Course in American Sign Language by Tom Humphries, Carol Padden and TJ O'Rourke