Week 13, day 2

Bible (Catechism, Bible story, memory verse): We reviewed about 10 of the most recent catechism questions and the memory verse, and read about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.

Calendar (Update day of week and date of month, record weather and temperature): Today, the kids didn't argue that it was cold, and were satisfied with recording it as cool and cloudy with a bit of rain. The time was 11:55, and I showed P how we could figure that out on the clock, but I think I confused her.

Handwriting: Mom and Dad, expect adorable Christmas cards in the mail, the one from P with several sentences and the one from E with his own tracing of his name. P started making her lowercase "a" in a strange way, so I nipped it in the bud by having her do "wet-dry-try" on the chalkboard.

Language Arts: I asked P to write yesterday's copywork from dictation, which she did well when she was trying. I became frustrated with her when I reminded her to leave a space between words, and she started the second word at the very end of the line (leaving most of the line as a space). I made her erase it and do it sensibly - I think she just wanted to get a rise out of me. She read the reader beautifully. The "creative expression" activity for today was for the child to make up words to a tune they know already, but P can't carry a tune yet. I helped her and we sang the list of her favourite colours (from most to least beloved) to the approximate tune of "Mary Had A Little Lamb": "Pink and purple, blue and green, yellow, orange and red" twice.

Math (5-a-day, other activities): Before Titmouse Club, I let the kids watch the math video, covering addition, subtraction, and comparisons. Later in the day, P compared all the braid bracelets she's made, deciding which pairs were the same, similar, and different.

I put a clock reading 8:05 on P's 5-a-day, but it took a lot of prompting and eventually telling her before she figured it out, so that was premature. I'll keep reviewing hour and half hour, and work on more direct instruction for the next few days to try and help her grasp it. I showed her how to tell time to the nearest minute after she was done with the 5-a-day, and she seemed to grasp it again, like yesterday, but it's clear I need to let her keep practicing with lots of input from me before she can do it by herself.

E's "school": We did the "shadow play" activity today. It was cloudy anyway, so we closed the curtains and turned off the lights, and saw what kinds of shadows various toys cast when they were between a flashlight and the wall. I showed them how the shadow got bigger when the toy was closer to the flashlight, because it was blocking more of the light. If it's sunny enough later in the week, we'll look at the sizes of our shadows outside at various times of day.

We read "The Gingerbread Man" from The Tall Book of Nursery Tales and a few more poems. P was amused by the poem "Brooms", which described trees on a windy day as brooms sweeping the sky until it's blue again.

Geography and/or science: Titmouse Club today featured birds, the various things they eat, and the places they live. The kids spread peanut butter on pine cones and rolled them in seeds to make bird feeders. We haven't hung those up yet.