Week 11, day 4

Bible (Catechism, Bible story, memory verse): In CBS, the kids learned about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace. P commented on how long and funny all the names were. We reviewed the memory verse and most recent catechism questions, and read about the healing of Naaman the leper.

Calendar (Update day of week and date of month, record weather and temperature): P is slowly learning to tell time to the minute. She sometimes forgets that the number the minute hand is pointing to is not the number of minutes (for example, 1:10 is not 1:2). Since she's still working on skip-counting by 5s, I'm going to just keep informally teaching her by showing her the time each day, knowing she'll pick it up eventually.

Handwriting: P did 2 pages of the phonics workbook, one of which involved writing "Bb" under only the pictures of items starting with the B sound, so she got lots of practice writing that letter. This was good for her, as she sometimes forgets how to make a lowercase b, and I could see improvement between the beginning and the end of the worksheet.

Language Arts: P rewrote yesterday's copywork from dictation, and identified the name (starts with a capital) and the word that rhymed with "fib". We thought up and wrote on the board several words ending in "it": bit, kit, pit, hit, fit, mitt, grit, sit. E wanted to participate, and read some of them but struggled with remembering the "i" sound. P's fluency in reading 3-letter CVC words has really increased, and she read most of them with hardly any hesitation. I asked E if he wanted to read one of the readers, and he gave the second one a very good try, needing help with less than half of the words. P read it through almost perfectly, only hesitating once or twice.

Math (5-a-day, other activities): I had a midwife appointment (for my glucose test) this afternoon, so math waited until we got back. I actually hadn't prepared P's 5-a-day yet, so she and E hung out in my room while I was doing that. I had her rewrite one of the problems from horizontal format into vertical format, and she wasn't quite sure what I meant (though she's done it herself before; I think how I phrased it on the 5-a-day wasn't clear enough for her). I'm giving her another similar problem tomorrow just to see how she does; I think doing it today should have cleared it up for her.

I had her make 23 cents using dimes and pennies, and then add a dime to see how much she had, and then remove the dime and add a penny to see how much she had. I demonstrated "23+10=33" and "23+1=24" on the board, in vertical format so she could see how the ones and tens lined up.

E's "school": We read the story of Cinderella in A First Book of Fairy Tales, and reread some of the poems.

Geography and/or science: We read a book about Ireland. I was interested to learn that St. Patrick, who brought Christianity to Ireland in the 400s AD, used the shamrock to give some insight into the Trinity. God, in the 3 persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is one God much as the shamrock, with 3 leaves, is still one plant. I mentioned this at dinner, and P said, "Even though the book explained it, I still don't really understand" (the Trinity). Join the club... No-one fully understands the Trinity. However, Ari pointed out that if we fully understood God, there would be no point in going to him for help. He gave the example of E's favourite doll, Pearl Diver. Since P and E watched me knit and stuff him, they understand him pretty well. However, when they're in trouble, they don't cry, "Pearl Diver! Help me!" They cry, "Mommy! Daddy! Help me!" because they know we're able to do things they don't understand, and the fact that they don't understand us fully just means they also expect us to be able to help them solve problems they can't.

Other: This has nothing to do with "school", but you get to hear about it anyway. P and E came downstairs to kiss me goodnight as I was writing this, and then P said to E, "When we're in bed, can you tell me a story about Friend Lion?" E is quite a storyteller, and I'm pleased that P is asking her younger brother to amuse her with made-up stories after bedtime. I'm sure it's good for him to exercise his imagination like that.