Daily Roundup

Ciaran worked on handwriting today and actually enjoyed it. He used a wipe and erase board to pracitce writing his letters - doing several rows of tracing and then a few rows on his own - he did capitol letters A-H. He also has been playing starfall on the computer lately. He is working through their preschool A-Z letter game and seems to enjoy it. For the last 15-20 minutes of schooltime he usually gets to play his Vsmile video game system.

I will say I was hesitant at first, but it really does have an educational focus. It is not a replacement for teaching your child but it does enhance it and let him feel he is playing a videogame. The games seem relatively harmless to me and he is learning number and letter recognition and simple math, matching and colors. I really think this has helped him learn his letters and definately his numbers. While it will never replace teaching a child I will give it more credit than I intially did in the beginning as another tool to use in small doses.

Rhiannon worked through math (mulitplication), history (first farmers and villages), literature (Ambleside readings), grammar (proper nouns), copywork (days of the week), bible study (cain and abel), memory verse, and free reading time. She even managed to last through the fighting and loudness of her siblings during this time.

Sirah in particular was a challenge today - her temper was in rare form today. She could not be pleased. I sat and played with her and read to her and tried a variety of things but she would not be pleased. Wonder whether she will get sick tonight or tommorrow or if it was just an off day.

We were supposed to go on a field trip today, to an apple orchard. However, it was cold, rainy and just not good weather. So we rescheduled it for next week. The kids were disappointed, but it worked out better since Rhiannon is sick.

When she is sick she loves to read, she is rereading the American Girl Kirsten books today. She burns through them laying on the couch while she is sick. Even Ciaran and Sirah are starting to want to be read to more again. That is the part I love about the cool of fall and the winter here in Minnesota - it is just perfect for curling up under a blanket and reading many good books.

Peace,
Tenn