Week 6, day 3

Unlike most Wednesdays, my mother-in-law was busy today so "Oma Day" was cancelled. I also had a midwife appointment at 9am, so the kids came along for that and we did school once it was over.

Bible (Catechism, Bible story, memory verse): Both kids have good memories for catechism, and both were able to repeat this week's verse. We read the story of God providing manna and quail for the Israelites in the wilderness.

Calendar (Update day of week and date of month, record weather and temperature)

Handwriting: P finished an entire page of "magic C letters". Lowercase a, c, d, g, o, and q all start with the c shape, so she was to trace the c, wait at the bottom for me to tell her which letter to turn it into, and complete the letter. Apart from occasionally making a small capital q instead of a lowercase one, she did this well.

Language Arts: P wrote from dictation "at, fat, rat, mat". E was able to sound out "at", "rat", and, with some help, "mat". I informed him that this means he can read. Yikes... I didn't exactly set out to teach my 3-year-old to read, but I'm not going to stop him...

Math (5-a-day, other activities): On today's 5-a-day, I included a clock reading 3:00, and she wanted to read it as quarter past 12. I reminded her of which hand was the short one, and she figured it out. She's a bright kid, and will probably have no trouble tomorrow (I've prepared her 5-a-day and put a 1:00 clock on it). Everything else, she breezed through. After E's "school", we played the coin memory matching game, but even with E partnering with me he didn't have the emotional resilience to cope with not making a match every single turn. He swept the cards off the table in anger, and I sent him downstairs until P and I were done playing the game. She counts the coins on the current cards with no trouble at all, so in my spare time I'm making harder ones. After P and I were done, I had to soothe E's wounded spirit. I do want him to learn to respond appropriately, even when he's angry. Playing in the rain after lunch helped his mood significantly.

E's "school": He felt much more confident about the numbers from 1 to 7. He will demand that I add more numbers tomorrow. I might get tricky and add 0.

Geography and/or science: After P's ballet lesson, I pointed out Central America on the world map and read her a book on Panama. E was still fishing with Ari, and caught 11 fish.

Other: P happily practiced the 2nd of her old piano pieces and a new one. She is unwilling to play them through more than once or twice, which means she isn't learning them well. I ought to (note to self) remember to chat with her, at some neutral time (when she isn't busy practicing), about the need for playing pieces many times in order to learn them properly.