Week 10, day 2

Bible (Catechism, Bible story, memory verse): We reviewed all the memory verses to date and the most recent catechism question, and read the story of Saul's jealousy of David.

Calendar (Update day of week and date of month, record weather and temperature): It took a lot of prompting, but P was eventually able to tell me that the time was 11:40 am instead of pm. I don't think she was focused at all - I've had problems with them hauling out toys while I'm trying to move us from one activity to the next, and then if I don't take time to make them put them all away, they'll play with the toys and not hear a word I say. I need to establish a solid "no toys during school unless I specifically authorize them" rule.

Handwriting: P did 2 pages of the phonics workbook, which involved no handwriting but much more reading than she can do independently. However, she sounded out each word that could be sounded out using basic phonics rules, and I told her the sight words and sounds she hadn't learned yet (laugh, walk, etc). The exercise was to identify certain letters in the sentences, but the instructions assumed the child could already read the sentences, so I'm not sure what whoever designed the book was thinking. For handwriting practice, I had her write her full name (first and last) at the top of each page, which she's getting better at.

Language Arts: P was to talk about "when I grow up". She wants to be a ballet dancer and marry a nice man and have about 2 kids (she isn't entirely sure about the number) and paint her kitchen with pink, red, white, and green stripes and her children's room with purple and white stripes. E wanted to get involved with this activity too, so I took down a dictation from him on the same page as P's. He wants to be a fisherman and to build houses for people whose houses get broken in hurricanes (and maybe a house for P), and apart from that imitated P's story fairly closely.

We were also to discuss ingredients in common grocery items such as bread and juice. Since I prefer to bake our own bread, the kids are already fairly familiar with those ingredients. However, for juice, we spent some time in the grocery store comparing our favourite brand of orange juice with orange-coloured fruit punch. The kids now know why Sunny D is never on our shopping list.

Math (5-a-day, other activities): I again gave P a pair of math facts, 3+6 and 9-6, and we hauled out the Cuisenaire rods to get a better sense of how closely they are related. I asked her to make 27 cents using 3 coins, and she did that instantly. She was also able, with only a bit of trial and error, to make 27 cents a different way: a dime, 2 nickels, and 7 pennies.

E's "school": I talked some about tastes in foods: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. We also read some poems from the same book as yesterday, and the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We discussed the value of obedience (if Little Red had obeyed her mother by staying on the path and not talking to strangers, the wolf wouldn't have known where she was going).

Geography and/or science: We went to Titmouse Club this morning, and the theme was trees. The kids learned about how the tree makes its own food from sunlight, water, and air, about counting rings to tell the age of a tree (once it's already dead), and about some of the animals that live in trees. They saw a tree with a large hole in it where a raccoon lives, and a bird's nest in a tree near the cabin where the club is held. Each child was given a piece of paper and a crayon as we went on our nature walk, and they took rubbings of different tree trunks. They were encouraged to avoid any trees that had vines growing on them, as those vines might be poison ivy. I had a nasty experience with poison ivy vines 10 years ago where my arms both swelled up to twice their normal size, so I was eager to keep the kids from touching any vines that could be suspicious.

Other: P is pretty confident about her ballet routine, but she didn't feel like doing it from memory for me today.