Week 12, day 4

It did snow! This influenced our choices for the day, our ability to focus, etc.

Bible (Catechism, Bible story, memory verse): We reviewed a couple of memory verses, and read about Isaiah. This story wasn't as coherently a story as most of the ones in our Bible storybook, but P seemed to grasp quite a bit of it (E sat on the floor in a box / with a box on his head, so he was probably listening intently but it didn't look like it).

Calendar (Update day of week and date of month, record weather and temperature): Cold! Yes! It spat a bit of snow before we went out and recorded the temperature, but then turned to big fat flakes for most of the rest of the day, and they even stuck a little. This morning, the shaded spaces still have little bits of white left. Huzzah! This morning, the kids enjoyed running outside and finding ice in the bird feeder and finding that the drips on their jungle gym were ice, not water.

What do public school teachers do when white stuff comes out of the sky? It was hard enough getting ONE child to focus occasionally - what about 30 children? (I let P get up and look out the window, at least, between each activity we did, on condition that she eventually sit down and do the next thing).

Handwriting: I remembered that I had a booklet of handwriting practice pages. They don't go with our handwriting curriculum, but they're close enough that we can use them to good effect. P chose to do an "I" page instead of dry-erase letter cards.

Language Arts: We finished the week's letter review worksheets and dictation, and P read the 3rd reader. E wanted to read too, and got through the first 2 pages before his atention span expired. I told him, "You're 3, you really don't have to be able to read yet." He threw himself to the floor and sobbed, "But I WAAAAANT to!" "Okay, then, we'll keep working on it." We also played a "replace the letter" game - given a word like "pit", have one kid read it, then replace the i with an a and have the other kid read it. E did pretty well with this, though he still struggles to remember what sound "i" makes, and P did perfectly.

Math (5-a-day, other activities): P finished this up as quickly as she could, in order to be able to go outside and play. She did it accurately, but her neatness suffered toward the end. That was basically it for school.

E's "school": He and P learned all about white frozen bits of H2O falling out of the sky. Any suggestion of anything else would have earned me disdain.

Geography and/or science: Water freezes. This is awesome. We talked about the difference between TX and PA, and how there was no reason to hope that the snow would reach above E's head (something he kept suggesting).

Other: We went and bought a Christmas tree, and decorated it. I let the kids cut out snowflakes from paper, which they taped up in the windows. Ever since I learned how to fold paper into sixths instead of just quarters, my and my kids' snowflakes have looked awesome.