Week 12, day 3

Bible (Catechism, Bible story, memory verse): We reviewed the most recent catechsim questions, because the kids had some trouble with these yesterday. We also read the second half of the story of Esther.

Calendar (Update day of week and date of month, record weather and temperature): It was definitely not cold by the time we checked the temperature, but the kids disagreed with me. However, tomorrow it is supposed to snow (yes, snow, in Houston), so perhaps this will give them some needed perspective. :-)

Handwriting: I had the kids use the dry-erase letter cards again today. I gave P all 10 letters we've covered in the language arts curriculum, and I gave E 4 of them. He was upset over not being given as many as P, so while she did her language arts worksheets I gave him the other 6 to trace. He got through 4 1/2 of those before becoming sidetracked.

Language Arts: Not much of interest here, there were worksheets and copywork, and P re-read the 2nd and 3rd readers. She is gaining fluency, and reads all the words accurately and with some measure of understanding. It seems like she enjoys re-reading the readers while she's doing it, even though she protests beforehand.

Math (5-a-day, other activities): I'm really in love with Math On The Level. P says that math is her favourite subject, and I use the promise of her 5-a-day to motivate her to finish her language arts. She complained at the fact that, when a problem is written in vertical format, the equal sign consists of a single long horizontal line beneath the problem instead of 2 short horizontal lines next to the problem. She placed a normal equal sign next to her answer for one of the problems, and added a long horizontal line beneath the original to make it look more like an equal sign on another problem. Sorry, kid, notation can be nonsensical at every level of math.

E's "school": E played with 2 puzzles while P was doing her seatwork, and I can see him making progress in his ability to put them together. His 15-piece Bob the Builder puzzle he completed without help, and I only gave him a few suggestions for his 25-piece Nemo puzzle.

We read "The City Mouse and the Country Mouse" from the Tall Book of Nursery Tales, and a few poems.

Geography and/or science: We didn't do any of this, unless you count starting to bake a Christmas fruitcake (note to all you Americans out there: you only groaned because your excuse for fruitcake is not worthy of the name. You need to try my great-grandmother's recipe before you get to make another comment on the subject of fruitcake: it is exquisite). We added baking soda to a pot full of boiled raisins, currants, sultanas, and butter, and watched it fizz. Now it gets to sit overnight, and we'll bake it tomorrow. Ari also built a fire with them, so they got to see how you need to light the smaller bits of wood before there's enough energy to get the bigger logs to light.

Other: Nothing else academic happened. Not having had Monday to get things rolling, this entire week has felt like catch-up and only the "3 R's" and Bible have happened consistently.