We have had a very eventful week. The ant farm turned into a disaster. Mike had some trouble getting the ants into the farm, and so we got all freaked out trying to catch the "escaper ants". Oh boy. Yes, we did stomp on a few of them in our desperation to contain them all. Luckily, the kids were already asleep and didn't witness this. The next day, we all got a huge kick out of watching the ants in their new home. Lily asked me how come we put aliens in there. I explained to her that they were ants, not aliens. She then called them spiders. Goofball! ;-) Unfortunately they didn't live very long. Not even a week went by before they all died. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it may be temperature-related. We had placed the ant farm in front of our window, and even though it's winter, it still gets pretty warm in that front room.
Mike insisted on purchasing another family membership to a gym. The nice thing about this place is that it is far more humble than our previous gym, and this one is family-owned, not a huge national chain. We like that better. Oh, and it's much closer to our home. On Saturdays they offer special aerobics classes for kids. How fun! We checked them out last Saturday, and the kids had a blast. Mostly the girls, since Christopher got pretty tired towards the end. I checked out the gym's childcare facility, and briefly talked to the woman in charge there. When I mentioned to her that we home school, she smiled and said that their childcare will surely fulfill my children's need for socialization. That had to have been the dumbest comment I've heard from a person so far re: homeschooling. I would certainly not send my children to a gym's childcare and consider them properly socialized from then on! What a joke! I smiled back, and let her know that we get plenty of socialization already.
On Sunday I took the children back to the UU church. It was a dreary day, cold and rainy, and I was under dressed, so did not feel very comfortable. After the service, we had to wait for Mike to come and get the kids. I stayed behind, to take that 3-week membership class. It was fun, in a way, and I got paired with an older man named John to talk about our religious histories. John has been involved in developing and setting up ESL (English as second language) programs at international schools, and I'm a former ESL student myself! We have both done extensive travelling, so we felt we had some things in common. Still, I have to say that I'm doing this more for the kids, and not so much for myself. They LOVE attending Sunday school, and I think it would be helpful to belong to a bigger community, not just the hs and LLL communities in Arizona. Who knows where this will take us. :-) I'm thinking of signing up Annika for the church choir. She loves to sing, and it's FREE! I'll ask Christopher if he's interested, but I know Annika will want to join it.
I had my last iron treatment at the hospital on Tuesday. Mike stayed home with the kids so I could go by myself. It's a bit odd knowing I won't go back, since these hospital visits have been a weekly part of my life for nearly 3 months. And the nursing staff was so friendly and accommodating when I had to bring my kids with me. I'm on my own now with making sure my hemoglobin levels stay within a normal range. I don't know what they are now that my treatment is done, so I will need one more blood test to find out. I will make an appt. today.
The kids had their Aikido class last night. Christopher seems to be doing rather well. Still, I sat there with my notepad and pencil to jot down notes about the different exercises he will need to know for the test in February. He doesn't know the Japanese terms, and so I scribbled down short explanations so that I can help him practise more efficiently at home. His sensei doesn't require an understanding of Japanese, but still.... It's the perfectionist in me, and I really want to help Christopher succeed. He will be so proud of himself for earning the orange belt.
After Aikido we went to an ice cream parlor to celebrate our friends' youngest son Asher's 2nd birthday. We ate a late dinner at home afterwards, and consequently (I'm sure) overslept this morning by a good hour! The children's hs program Casa Vida begins at 8:30am, and when I sleepily turned my head to look at my clock it was 8:25. Oops! I figured there was no rush at that point, so I calmly went to wake the kids. I explained the situation, and even though they were bummed out at being so late, they got themselves ready. I helped Lily get ready, and we left the house without eating breakfast. I stopped by an Einstein Bagel's to get a couple of cream cheese bagels for the older 2 kids, and a cookie for Lily. The older 2 also got to each pick a chocolate milk. I had considered just going to McDonald's for their breakfast, which would have been more convenient and quicker since we wouldn't have needed to even get out of the car. But just thinking about the extremely unhealthy ingredients in their food made me change my mind. We had gone through the McDonald's drive-through the previous week, and I strive to keep those visits few and far between. So on to Einstein Bagel's we went, and the kids had a far more nutritious breakfast that way. I let them have their breakfast in the car to save on time, and Annika spilled her chocolate milk all over her jeans and shirt! Yikes. So I turned the car around and drove back home so she could get some clean clothes on. I figured there was no point in stressing out about it, and I had called Julie (the program director) letting her know that we were late. I had to sign them in at Casa Vida and got to say Hi to the teachers, which is always nice. I love the laid-back atmosphere at Casa Vida! The children are happy there, and there is no pressure on either the teachers or the students. Being that it's a program for home schooled children, every child is at a different level and that is perfectly acceptable. Lily and I walked past the library on our way out, and there was a teacher with her class (Casa Vida shares its space with a local public school) talking about her expectations regarding book reports. She stood in front of them like a drill sergeant, and the kids were still so LITTLE! I'm happy my kids don't have to experience that. We do book reports at home, also, of course. But not "drill-sergeant-style".
I went to my allergy clinic for my shots after Casa Vida. Lily busied herself with a phone book that kept her attention focused for at least 10 minutes. Amazing. She likes to page through books. She does the same thing at church, during the early part of the service when children are still with their parents. I wished I would have brought my latest knitting project with me. I will next time. I should start going twice a week, so I can get put on the monthly schedule faster. Now that I don't have to go to the hospital anymore, I should be able to do that. I started a new dilution today, and didn't have much of a reaction. No itchy injection sites for me today! That's always a good thing. I just have to remember to take my allergy meds before the shots, and then I'm fine.
I'm a knitting fiend these days! There are so many patterns I want to try, and new yarn I want to work with. I ordered some really good-quality wool to make a wrap for myself, with some of my birthday money. I can't wait for it to get here. I also just started a very simple project making place mats for our family. The colors are beautiful and don't really match, but that's part of the beauty. I saw them featured in a catalogue and just had to have them for our home. I will also crochet napkin rings to match the individual place mats. That will be hard for me, since I don't really crochet. But I can always ask my friend, who crochets for a living.
We are also working on completing our altered books, and need to get started making valentines for our valentines exchange list.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
January 16, 2007
I am sitting here in my computer chair, and all kids are supposed to be asleep. I can still hear C and A chatting in their rooms. They are getting along really well these days, it seems.
Hmm, and where is Lillian? Interesting question, that is. She has lately fallen into the habit of falling asleep on my back! Yes! She waits until I sit in my computer chair, and then climbs between my back and the chair's back. She plays with my hair for a short while, and then zonks out. Her feet are dangling at either side of me, and I can both hear and feel her rhythmic breathing. I kind of like it, but I'm also kind of stuck in my chair and I'd really like to get a drink. Oh well. I will finish the post, and then gently transfer her to the couch. I might even put her in the bed. It doesn't really matter.
We got a late start to our day today. Mike stayed home in the morning, so that I could go to the hospital by myself for my iron treatments at ATU (ambulatory treatment unit). The girls are still coughing, and I'm nervous about one of the nurses saying something, since "pre-op" is adjacent to the ATU, and they can be finicky about germs, understandably.
I made sure to drink 3 glasses of water before going to the hospital. But apparently I was dehydrated yet again. I must drink more water. Ugh. I thought I was good to go, but I wasn't. I had to have 3 people working on me to find a good vein. I got poked 4 times, and that was painful. The 3rd nurse, Mike, got an IV started in no time, without much effort. I wish he would have been the first one to try one! My usual "IV vein" is becoming more difficult, and Jan, one of the other nurses, says it now has scar tissue on it. What a bummer! Maybe scar tissue on veins eventually disappear? I don't know. I hope so, because I'd hate for the vein to be permanently "done in for". Oh well.
I got home and Mike rushed off to work.
The kids and I started on our math. Christopher learned how to multiply by 9 today, and he complained that it was much harder to multiply by 9 than 0, 1, 5, and 10. Well, yes! But 9 isn't so difficult once you notice the pattern with the digits (as the 10s place increases by 1, the units place decreases by 1). I pointed out the pattern to Christopher to hopefully make it easier for him. He'll be fine with it. Or, I told him you can just multiply the other number by 10 instead of nine, and then subtract just that one number. He'll just need to practise this.
He worked on his spelling again today, and also on writing cursive.
He added a drawing of South Mountain in his social studies notebook. I think that was it. We didn't get to do very much, because we had that late start.
Annika practised her handwriting with "Draw, Write, Now". She did the page on pigs today. Very cute.
We reviewed the rhymes for the letters A and B today. The A one talks about a taming a lame crane. The other one is a tongue twister about Betty Botter who accidentally bought bitter butter, and then she doesn't want to put it in her batter for fear of making the whole thing bitter, so in the end she goes back to the market to get better butter and is happy. Well, good for her!!! I can say this rhyme really fast without making a mistake. Annika still makes several of them, but that's okay.
We talked about the seasons again today. I mentioned the date, and talked about how it's still winter and that January is the first month of the year. The kids know this, but they have a tendency to forget, so I like to repeat it a lot.
We searched for the moon again tonight, and couldn't find the darn thing! Annika reminded me of this when it was almost time for bed, and so we quickly "snuck" out of the house in our pajamas, got in the car, and took a slow ride through the neighborhood. Sometimes the moon "hides" behind someone's house. We made up songs like "Moon! Moon! Where are you? We would like to find you!" But alas, we had to end our expedition soon after it started without any luck. Oh well. Annika already knows about the different moon phases. But she does enjoy looking at it and drawing it on her calendar.
I spent a little bit of time working with Annika on her knitting. She is learning to knit in order to improve her eye-hand coordination. She is getting somewhat better at it, but still holds her fingers very stiffly, drops over half of all attempted stitches. She is also interested in knitting for the fun of it, since she sees me have so much fun with it. I want to keep her from feeling frustrated, so I let her dictate when she wants to stop. I am extremely patient with her, and encourage her gently to keep trying. She will be able to master it, and she already knows how to hold the yarn very well on her own, without me telling her how. That's a step in the right direction.
I read her a fairy tale called "The Golden Key". The story was about a beautiful maiden named Sabrina who wanted to live by herself in a tower after a man broke her heart and married someone else. Lot's of men try to win her love, but she won't have any of them. Eventually this guy named Devon rides by her tower, and is deeply moved by her poetry which she reads aloud each day. And without ever seeing her, he decides to fall in love with her. A wise woman tells him he must find the golden key in order to gain access to the tower. So he goes on this mission to find the golden key and it's of course incredibly difficult but he eventually gets it, and when he meets Sabrina at last, they fall in love and live happily ever after.
Annika liked it, and Christopher wanted to listen to it as well. Tomorrow I will ask Annika to re-tell the fairy tale to see how much she remembers. It's a deliberate exercise in memory, but she doesn't really know she's doing it for a particular purpose. That's good. :-)
Both girls are really into this kids' Yoga DVD I rented through Netflix. It's called "Animal Yoga", I think. It's weird, and goofy, and silly. But they LOVE it. Annika mvoes my yoga mat in front of the TV, and makes sure both she and Lily have enough room to practise their stretches and movements. She is definitely the big, caring sister, and takes charge of the experience for Lily. She will say things like "Ok, Lil, let's get started. Can you stretch like a giraffe in the movie??" Or "Ok, girl, you did that so well. Get on your hands and knees now and stretch just like a cat. Like Geroge, Lily!" Or "Lil, do you need some water now?" Annika also provides her little sister with physical assistance, and will hold Lillian's leg high up in the air to copy the leg stretch on the DVD, until Lillian complains of leg pain. Lol. This is sooooooo funny to watch. Lily takes her Yoga very seriously, and tries to copy every single stretch and exercise. Annika does, too. And Annika is so sweet and caring towards Lily and helps her with suggestions and stuff. And Lily acts very compliant and completely serious the whole time. It's really funny. Today they worked through the DVD 3 times in a row. I am not kidding. However, they lost interest during the third time.
Christopher enjoys watching the DVD, but does not want to practise any Yoga himself. It's too bad, but his choice. There's a small part on the DVD that shows you step-by-step how to breakdance. Christopher likes that part, and wishes he could breakdance. But he hasn't practised it yet, so I don't think he will. It's up to him.
Hmmm, I think that's all the interesting stuff we did today.
Hah! I nearly forgot! The ants I ordered months ago finally arrived today! We bought an ant farm on sale at Target at least one year ago, and then in november I finally decided we should order those ants! They arrived in a box today. 3 little test tubes full of these black ants. I really wanted Mike to put them into the ant farm with the kids watching when he came home. But he worked late again tonight, and the kids are in bed already. He will need to transfer those ants into their habitat when he comes home so they can get all settled in. It wouldn't be fair to leave them in their test tubes another day just so the kids can see. I thought about just doing it myself, but I think I'd just be way too freaked out. I mean, they're ANTS! Living, breathing, crawling ANTS! I haven't read all the instructions yet, but I do know they need to be refrigerated for 15 min. before we can transfer them. It will make them sleepy and less active so they don't escape. I guess it's like inducing hypothermia! Wow, that sucks big time for them, huh? I'd hate to be one of those ants, suffering from hypothermia...... But I also don't want them to escape, so hypothermia it is!
Mike is home! I need to stop writing, get this baby off my back, and get that drink I've been craving! Oh, and also I need to eat something, since I didn't have dinner with the kids. I cleaned dishes while the kids had theirs.
Hmm, and where is Lillian? Interesting question, that is. She has lately fallen into the habit of falling asleep on my back! Yes! She waits until I sit in my computer chair, and then climbs between my back and the chair's back. She plays with my hair for a short while, and then zonks out. Her feet are dangling at either side of me, and I can both hear and feel her rhythmic breathing. I kind of like it, but I'm also kind of stuck in my chair and I'd really like to get a drink. Oh well. I will finish the post, and then gently transfer her to the couch. I might even put her in the bed. It doesn't really matter.
We got a late start to our day today. Mike stayed home in the morning, so that I could go to the hospital by myself for my iron treatments at ATU (ambulatory treatment unit). The girls are still coughing, and I'm nervous about one of the nurses saying something, since "pre-op" is adjacent to the ATU, and they can be finicky about germs, understandably.
I made sure to drink 3 glasses of water before going to the hospital. But apparently I was dehydrated yet again. I must drink more water. Ugh. I thought I was good to go, but I wasn't. I had to have 3 people working on me to find a good vein. I got poked 4 times, and that was painful. The 3rd nurse, Mike, got an IV started in no time, without much effort. I wish he would have been the first one to try one! My usual "IV vein" is becoming more difficult, and Jan, one of the other nurses, says it now has scar tissue on it. What a bummer! Maybe scar tissue on veins eventually disappear? I don't know. I hope so, because I'd hate for the vein to be permanently "done in for". Oh well.
I got home and Mike rushed off to work.
The kids and I started on our math. Christopher learned how to multiply by 9 today, and he complained that it was much harder to multiply by 9 than 0, 1, 5, and 10. Well, yes! But 9 isn't so difficult once you notice the pattern with the digits (as the 10s place increases by 1, the units place decreases by 1). I pointed out the pattern to Christopher to hopefully make it easier for him. He'll be fine with it. Or, I told him you can just multiply the other number by 10 instead of nine, and then subtract just that one number. He'll just need to practise this.
He worked on his spelling again today, and also on writing cursive.
He added a drawing of South Mountain in his social studies notebook. I think that was it. We didn't get to do very much, because we had that late start.
Annika practised her handwriting with "Draw, Write, Now". She did the page on pigs today. Very cute.
We reviewed the rhymes for the letters A and B today. The A one talks about a taming a lame crane. The other one is a tongue twister about Betty Botter who accidentally bought bitter butter, and then she doesn't want to put it in her batter for fear of making the whole thing bitter, so in the end she goes back to the market to get better butter and is happy. Well, good for her!!! I can say this rhyme really fast without making a mistake. Annika still makes several of them, but that's okay.
We talked about the seasons again today. I mentioned the date, and talked about how it's still winter and that January is the first month of the year. The kids know this, but they have a tendency to forget, so I like to repeat it a lot.
We searched for the moon again tonight, and couldn't find the darn thing! Annika reminded me of this when it was almost time for bed, and so we quickly "snuck" out of the house in our pajamas, got in the car, and took a slow ride through the neighborhood. Sometimes the moon "hides" behind someone's house. We made up songs like "Moon! Moon! Where are you? We would like to find you!" But alas, we had to end our expedition soon after it started without any luck. Oh well. Annika already knows about the different moon phases. But she does enjoy looking at it and drawing it on her calendar.
I spent a little bit of time working with Annika on her knitting. She is learning to knit in order to improve her eye-hand coordination. She is getting somewhat better at it, but still holds her fingers very stiffly, drops over half of all attempted stitches. She is also interested in knitting for the fun of it, since she sees me have so much fun with it. I want to keep her from feeling frustrated, so I let her dictate when she wants to stop. I am extremely patient with her, and encourage her gently to keep trying. She will be able to master it, and she already knows how to hold the yarn very well on her own, without me telling her how. That's a step in the right direction.
I read her a fairy tale called "The Golden Key". The story was about a beautiful maiden named Sabrina who wanted to live by herself in a tower after a man broke her heart and married someone else. Lot's of men try to win her love, but she won't have any of them. Eventually this guy named Devon rides by her tower, and is deeply moved by her poetry which she reads aloud each day. And without ever seeing her, he decides to fall in love with her. A wise woman tells him he must find the golden key in order to gain access to the tower. So he goes on this mission to find the golden key and it's of course incredibly difficult but he eventually gets it, and when he meets Sabrina at last, they fall in love and live happily ever after.
Annika liked it, and Christopher wanted to listen to it as well. Tomorrow I will ask Annika to re-tell the fairy tale to see how much she remembers. It's a deliberate exercise in memory, but she doesn't really know she's doing it for a particular purpose. That's good. :-)
Both girls are really into this kids' Yoga DVD I rented through Netflix. It's called "Animal Yoga", I think. It's weird, and goofy, and silly. But they LOVE it. Annika mvoes my yoga mat in front of the TV, and makes sure both she and Lily have enough room to practise their stretches and movements. She is definitely the big, caring sister, and takes charge of the experience for Lily. She will say things like "Ok, Lil, let's get started. Can you stretch like a giraffe in the movie??" Or "Ok, girl, you did that so well. Get on your hands and knees now and stretch just like a cat. Like Geroge, Lily!" Or "Lil, do you need some water now?" Annika also provides her little sister with physical assistance, and will hold Lillian's leg high up in the air to copy the leg stretch on the DVD, until Lillian complains of leg pain. Lol. This is sooooooo funny to watch. Lily takes her Yoga very seriously, and tries to copy every single stretch and exercise. Annika does, too. And Annika is so sweet and caring towards Lily and helps her with suggestions and stuff. And Lily acts very compliant and completely serious the whole time. It's really funny. Today they worked through the DVD 3 times in a row. I am not kidding. However, they lost interest during the third time.
Christopher enjoys watching the DVD, but does not want to practise any Yoga himself. It's too bad, but his choice. There's a small part on the DVD that shows you step-by-step how to breakdance. Christopher likes that part, and wishes he could breakdance. But he hasn't practised it yet, so I don't think he will. It's up to him.
Hmmm, I think that's all the interesting stuff we did today.
Hah! I nearly forgot! The ants I ordered months ago finally arrived today! We bought an ant farm on sale at Target at least one year ago, and then in november I finally decided we should order those ants! They arrived in a box today. 3 little test tubes full of these black ants. I really wanted Mike to put them into the ant farm with the kids watching when he came home. But he worked late again tonight, and the kids are in bed already. He will need to transfer those ants into their habitat when he comes home so they can get all settled in. It wouldn't be fair to leave them in their test tubes another day just so the kids can see. I thought about just doing it myself, but I think I'd just be way too freaked out. I mean, they're ANTS! Living, breathing, crawling ANTS! I haven't read all the instructions yet, but I do know they need to be refrigerated for 15 min. before we can transfer them. It will make them sleepy and less active so they don't escape. I guess it's like inducing hypothermia! Wow, that sucks big time for them, huh? I'd hate to be one of those ants, suffering from hypothermia...... But I also don't want them to escape, so hypothermia it is!
Mike is home! I need to stop writing, get this baby off my back, and get that drink I've been craving! Oh, and also I need to eat something, since I didn't have dinner with the kids. I cleaned dishes while the kids had theirs.
January 15, 2007
Lily, age 3 (nearly 4!) is doing better today. We had taken her to urgent care the day before, on sunday, because of an ear infection. She's doing much better on the antibiotics, but is still complaining about her ear making noises. Both girls, Annika (7) and Lily have a cough and stuffy noses. Even though they are technically sick, they are acting like their usual happy selves. No worries. :-)
We start most of our days working on math problems. Generally we do math about 6 days a week. This is our "strong" subject, and we really like our program, which is "Math U See". Each child completes about 3 pages per day, and I'm pleased with their progress. Especially since both kids seem to be doing their work easily enough without much help from me.
Christopher is focusing on single-digit multiplication right now. He is working through chapter 8 in Gamma. There are 30 chapters in all.
Annika is focusing on single-digit addition and subtraction. She is working through chapter 23 in Alpha. There are 30 chapters in Alpha as well.
No problems with either of them today. The mistakes they do make happen when they're distracted. Christopher has a special fondness for "distractions" and likes to create them, lol.
Annika and I worked on learning some rhymes. We focused on these 2:
"Over in the meadow in a nest built of sticks,
Lived an old mother crow with her little crows six.
"Caw," said the mother, "We caw," said the six,
So they cawed all day long in a nest built of sticks."
"Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John,
Went to bed with his breeches on,
One shoe off and one shoe on;
Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John."
I also asked Annika to draw a picture of a person with eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, a neck, trunk, arms, hands, legs, and feet. She loved doing this. I saved her picture by rubber cementing it in her language arts notebook.
Later, I asked her to lie down on butcher paper, and I traced her body's outline. She then was allowed to draw clothes on the figure and draw a face on. She totally had fun, and we liked the outcome so much we hung it up on the wall in the kitchen.
I started knitting her a scarf yesterday with soy wool. I was intrigued by the "soy" as an ingredient in the wool, and just had to work with it. :-) I finished the scarf today, and Annika wore it proudly all day long, and included it in today's drawings.
While I was working with the kids I also managed to put the finishing touches on a potholder I knit recently. I used 100% wool from Peace Fleece. It's very colorful and I just needed to weave the ends in. I love how it turned out. :-)
Annika and I tried to look for the moon outside, since she is recording moon phases in her calendar. Unfortunately we couldn't see the moon in the sky tonight. :-(
Annika also practised her writing independently with the book "Draw, Write, Now". She likes it and gets it out of its cubby whenever she's in the mood to work with it. This particular book has farm animals as the theme, and she worked on the hens/chicken page today. Very cute.
I played "Scrabble" with the 2 older kids today. Believe it or not, but it was my first time playing the game. I had to learn the rules first, and it wasn't a lot of fun. Mostly because my kids are both poor spellers and I had to basically play for all of us!
Speaking of spelling, Christopher and I worked on his spelling today. He is still misspelling words like "away", "little", "make", "funny", etc. I'm hoping to make vast improvements in this area for him in the coming months. We go through about 5 words a day, and are loosely following the "Spelling Power" program/philosophy on teaching spelling.
Christopher spent most of his "school" time on his social studies today. He is to study our local topography. He is supposed to keep a record of his observations and sketches. This is incredibly difficult for him, the writing part. He can draw easily enough. But he hates to write. I wrote part of it out for him, and had him copy my words. He contributed the last sentence on his own. He needs so much guidance, too much, in my opinion. But if I didn't guide him through the writing part, the exercise would take him hours and he would only hate it more and more.
He pasted a picture he had drawn of a saguaro cactus with rubber cement in his social studies notebook . Then he wrote:
"This is a saguaro cactus. It grows in the sonoran desert. I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to learn more about the desert I live in. I have seen saguaro cactuses and other cactuses and cactuses can survive with little water for a long time."
Note: We did not go to the DBG today.
Christopher spent a little bit of time practising his cursive writing, which Annika was very jealous of, lol. She really likes to write. What a relief!
All 3 kids played a game on the PC. It's a "Dora the Explorer" one that Mike had bought especially for Lily the day before. She spent the most time playing with it, while I was teaching the others. It's educational, so why not. The funny thing is that when a character in the game asks a question, Lily will loudly answer it! She really thinks the game is talking specifically to her! That's hilarious, I think. She does the same with TV shows like "Dora the Explorer" and "Blue's Clues".
We start most of our days working on math problems. Generally we do math about 6 days a week. This is our "strong" subject, and we really like our program, which is "Math U See". Each child completes about 3 pages per day, and I'm pleased with their progress. Especially since both kids seem to be doing their work easily enough without much help from me.
Christopher is focusing on single-digit multiplication right now. He is working through chapter 8 in Gamma. There are 30 chapters in all.
Annika is focusing on single-digit addition and subtraction. She is working through chapter 23 in Alpha. There are 30 chapters in Alpha as well.
No problems with either of them today. The mistakes they do make happen when they're distracted. Christopher has a special fondness for "distractions" and likes to create them, lol.
Annika and I worked on learning some rhymes. We focused on these 2:
"Over in the meadow in a nest built of sticks,
Lived an old mother crow with her little crows six.
"Caw," said the mother, "We caw," said the six,
So they cawed all day long in a nest built of sticks."
"Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John,
Went to bed with his breeches on,
One shoe off and one shoe on;
Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John."
I also asked Annika to draw a picture of a person with eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, a neck, trunk, arms, hands, legs, and feet. She loved doing this. I saved her picture by rubber cementing it in her language arts notebook.
Later, I asked her to lie down on butcher paper, and I traced her body's outline. She then was allowed to draw clothes on the figure and draw a face on. She totally had fun, and we liked the outcome so much we hung it up on the wall in the kitchen.
I started knitting her a scarf yesterday with soy wool. I was intrigued by the "soy" as an ingredient in the wool, and just had to work with it. :-) I finished the scarf today, and Annika wore it proudly all day long, and included it in today's drawings.
While I was working with the kids I also managed to put the finishing touches on a potholder I knit recently. I used 100% wool from Peace Fleece. It's very colorful and I just needed to weave the ends in. I love how it turned out. :-)
Annika and I tried to look for the moon outside, since she is recording moon phases in her calendar. Unfortunately we couldn't see the moon in the sky tonight. :-(
Annika also practised her writing independently with the book "Draw, Write, Now". She likes it and gets it out of its cubby whenever she's in the mood to work with it. This particular book has farm animals as the theme, and she worked on the hens/chicken page today. Very cute.
I played "Scrabble" with the 2 older kids today. Believe it or not, but it was my first time playing the game. I had to learn the rules first, and it wasn't a lot of fun. Mostly because my kids are both poor spellers and I had to basically play for all of us!
Speaking of spelling, Christopher and I worked on his spelling today. He is still misspelling words like "away", "little", "make", "funny", etc. I'm hoping to make vast improvements in this area for him in the coming months. We go through about 5 words a day, and are loosely following the "Spelling Power" program/philosophy on teaching spelling.
Christopher spent most of his "school" time on his social studies today. He is to study our local topography. He is supposed to keep a record of his observations and sketches. This is incredibly difficult for him, the writing part. He can draw easily enough. But he hates to write. I wrote part of it out for him, and had him copy my words. He contributed the last sentence on his own. He needs so much guidance, too much, in my opinion. But if I didn't guide him through the writing part, the exercise would take him hours and he would only hate it more and more.
He pasted a picture he had drawn of a saguaro cactus with rubber cement in his social studies notebook . Then he wrote:
"This is a saguaro cactus. It grows in the sonoran desert. I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to learn more about the desert I live in. I have seen saguaro cactuses and other cactuses and cactuses can survive with little water for a long time."
Note: We did not go to the DBG today.
Christopher spent a little bit of time practising his cursive writing, which Annika was very jealous of, lol. She really likes to write. What a relief!
All 3 kids played a game on the PC. It's a "Dora the Explorer" one that Mike had bought especially for Lily the day before. She spent the most time playing with it, while I was teaching the others. It's educational, so why not. The funny thing is that when a character in the game asks a question, Lily will loudly answer it! She really thinks the game is talking specifically to her! That's hilarious, I think. She does the same with TV shows like "Dora the Explorer" and "Blue's Clues".
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