Week 11, day 1

Bible (Catechism, Bible story, memory verse): This week, we're learning Mark 10:14. We also reviewed the most recent catechism questions, and read about God's provision of food for Elijah during the drought.

Calendar (Update day of week and date of month, record weather and temperature): This morning was cloudy, after it rained last night. It seems to be clearing up, which means that E was advocating that Ari set up his telescope tonight, but Ari decided against it.

Handwriting: P did one page of the numbers workbook, practicing writing the numbers from 21 to 30 twice. She keeps wanting to call 21 "twelve".

Language Arts: We did a new letter sheet today, and couldn't find any items in any of our catalogs that began with that letter, so we went online and googled images. We got to hear Ari ranting against the U.S. copyright website. He struggled with it all day and made no headway in submitting a copyright request for his book (it's already copyrighted, but not in its final form).

P traced her copywork today (I'll ask her to do it from dictation tomorrow) and correctly identified the vowels. The kids read the second Sonlight K reader, with E reading several of the 2-word sentences the first time through. He started a 3-word sentence, and it was too much for him, so I asked P to complete it, and he yelled out the final word before she'd started sounding it out. Heh. I had P read the whole reader after they were done taking turns the first time through, and she did quite well. I'll have her do it a few more times this week to gain fluency.

Math (5-a-day, other activities): I asked P to make 24 cents and 42 cents using just dimes and pennies. She struggled a bit with the 42 cents, so I'll continue to give her this kind of problem for practice. E asked to play the "trading up" game (week 9, day 5), which we did - again, we all won during the same round.

E's "school": I forgot to do the Slow & Steady activity (sorting silverware, and next week's, seeing which objects sink or float in water), but we read "Caps For Sale" and "Head to Toe" in the Harper Collins Treasury of Picture Book Classics, and some more of the poems.

Geography and/or science: We labelled the Atlantic Ocean, the United Kingdom, and Ireland on the Markable Map, and read a book about England. Since I've actually spent significant time visiting England, I was able to add anecdotes that the kids found interesting. Paul, I'm afraid the kids were delighted by the story of how Mom "pulled your arm off" in the Lake District.

Other: P was reluctant to practice her ballet routine, and I was prepared for another battle of wills (I'd been having battles of wills with both kids all day), but Ari showed his wisdom by talking with her about how she likes doing ballet and how if she doesn't enjoy it, she doesn't have to take lessons. Ah, but she does enjoy it and does want to keep taking lessons, and thus was more than happy to practice her routine. I could hardly believe it was the same kid.