Daily Roundup

Today we started off with a visit from good friends. The kids spent the morning playing well together for the most part with a few normal squabbles and the mom and I shared stories and suggestions with one another. They left shortly before lunch. Then the kids played together in their rooms for over an hour playing paper dolls, cars, and various imaginary games. Then it was naptime - how blessed that time is and how I will miss it!

After naps we finally got down to school work. Rhia did some fun pages from Miquon working on all the various addition equations that can add up to a certain number. She worked on 5 and 4 today - using cuisenaire rods to demonstrate all the different equations and then writing out the numbers for each equation. It was a nicely timed lesson as she was very unhappy with patterns and getting frustrated with math - however she really enjoys both addition and working with the rods so this was a nice lesson to work with her on. It also introduced adding more than two numbers together and helped her think about the essence of each number.

She worked on the letter D for copywork today and we learned our new Bible verse today and kept applying it throughout the day Phillipians 2:14. She read Hop on Pop and a good portion of "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr Suess. It is great to see how well her reading skills are coming along. She has started saying that some books are easy that she refused to even try reading just a few weeks ago like "Hop on Pop". I attribute much of this to the fact that she has been working (very slowly but steadily) through the Growing Reader's Bible. The stories in there seem very long and difficult to her and there are more sight words and words that are unfamiliar and not purely phonetical. Yet she has been plowing through it and now books like "hop on Pop" seem easy to her and she is less scared to read books other than Bob and Primary Phonics. I have started picking up easy readers at the library with her as well.

Ciaran and I worked on the letter D today. We put up his new board for the week:
Letter: D
Theme: Ducks
Number:3
Shape: Diamond
Color: Brown
Bible Story: David and Goliath
Vocabulary Word: Deciduous tree

Today we talked only about the letter D and briefly of the story of David and Goliath. We painted our letter D for our collage - he chose yellow. We read "My D soundbox" by Jane Belk Moncure and then worked on filling our own D box. Some items include: doll, deer, dolphin, dog, dress, dori (fish from nemo), dwarf (snow white), dragonfly, dinosaur, delivery truck, and diamonds.

Ciaran memorized Humpty Dumpty - his first poem or nursery rhyme memorized and he picked it out. He also tried to "read" his star wars and frog book to me. He went through the board a few times with me telling me what the different items were. The rest of his day was spent in free playtime.

Sirah was just a busy bee roaming all around while we were involved and climbing on anything she could find. I read a few books to her and played peek-a-boo for awhile with her. She learned how to walk up the stairs today on two feet instead of crawl up and she wants no part with crawling up now. She was very cute at the library tonight - collecting and carrying a wide assortment of animals to me and anyone who would take them and choosing books and sitting on my lap for me to read them. She also enjoyed playing with the puzzles and climbing up on top of the tables. We are done with her highchair and she is sitting in a booster at the table with us and is much happier now. She was almost all smiles today except when Ciaran and Rhiannon did not want to include her when they were playing with their little people things. Then her red headed Irish temper came out flaring. She was thankfully easily distracted by doing a wooden puzzle with me instead. Later I had the kids include her in another Little People activity they were doing. They are struggling to learn how to include her and how to still do things without her. We are working through it.

We finished the evening up with a trip to the library for storytime. The kids enjoyed listening to books, learning new rhymes and dancing to silly songs. Sirah even joined in for the musical parts and roamed around during the other times. Together we found some books for E week next week and for some followup to some work we did with elections and our homeschool coop getting books on Egypt and Israel. Of course we managed to find a few frog books we have not yet read - I did not know there were anymore. I also put in a request for them to order this appropriate book It's Hard to Be Five. Though honestly I may buy it if I can find a good deal on it as it is very fitting for Rhia right now. While I am usually not a fan of books in this style - Jamie Lee Curtis seems to have a knack for expressing what young kids are feeling inside in a way that helps them express it outwardly and can help parents and kids communicate better. Our hs support group did a whole lesson around her other book I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self Esteem and my kids both love Today I Feel Silly. So I have to give a thumbs up to her books. The kids finished their library time with their favorite Clifford computer game - they had to share one computer and did an amazing job taking turns and compromising on what to do when.

Coop tomorrow so will be late blogging again.

Peace,
Tenn