Week 10, day 5

I was flakey this morning and we didn't get started until almost noon. However, part of my flakiness consisted of making waffles for breakfast (I wanted to use up a mysterious carton of buttermilk and half a can of crushed pineapple, and we were out of cereal - still are, flakey me). I included the kids in this, and P was able to read most of the ingredients. She needed no help with "3 eggs" or "1/2 cup sugar", but doesn't yet know how to read numbers greater than 100, and I helped her with abbreviations like ml and g. We weighed out 400g of flour together after I'd explained the importance of zeroing the scale before starting.

Bible (Catechism, Bible story, memory verse): We reviewed the most recent verse and most recent 3 catechism questions, and read about how Solomon built the temple.

Calendar (Update day of week and date of month, record weather and temperature): It was certainly back to being cool today. It was also 12:35 by the time we got around to doing calendar, so P got extra practice on whether it was 12:35 or 1:35. I re-explained the reasoning, but again am not sure she grasped it.

Handwriting: P did another vast number of the pages in her numbers workbook, but when she realized that there were no more dot-to-dots in the book she no longer wished to do any more. Next week we may be back to the phonics book or letter cards.

Language Arts: We played letter bingo, with each of the 3 of us taking turns reading out letters for the other 2 to find on their bingo cards. E knows quite a few of his letters, more than have been officially taught, and P knows all of them pretty well but struggles with finding them on a bingo card where they're in no kind of order. I think I must just have more efficient search algorithms than she does.

Math (5-a-day, other activities): P was stumped, at first, on whether 46 or 64 was greater (she needed to put a "<" sign between them), so I hauled out the bean sticks. These are popsicle sticks on which I glued 10 beans each. I asked P to make 46 beans (4 10-sticks and 6 beans) and 64 beans (6 10-sticks and 4 beans), whereupon she was able to see that 64 was greater.

It isn't every day that your 3-year-old asks a math question that you can't even estimate the answer to in a reasonable amount of time, but at dinner E asked, "How many ways can you make a million dollars?" Ari and I winced, shuddered, and decided that if any of you reading this blog want to take on the challenge, you're more than welcome to, but we'd rather not spend our time that way.

E's "school": We read "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel" and "Maybelle the Cable Car" from Mike Mulligan and More.

Geography and/or science: P wrote a book about South America featuring a map, potatoes, Angel Falls, the Atacama Desert, a blue-footed booby (a bird from the Galapagos Islands), Lake Titicaca, and llamas.

Other: P performed her ballet routine for me from memory. She can do it accurately, but not completely smoothly. I'm going to insist that she do it daily until it's smooth - her performance is on the 14th.