Week 15, day 2

We didn't do school yesterday. Partly, getting back into the swing of things is tough after a break, but partly it was a busy day anyway. We had CBS in the morning, and it may have been the abundance of "You're still around? No baby?" comments, but after lunch I was having fairly uncomfortable contractions every 15 minutes or so. Since I'm still only 36 weeks along, I decided to lie down on the couch to try to make them stop. After 45 minutes of laziness, I was feeling better, and realized that the living room was a disaster area that needed serious tidying before we did any school work. When I was almost done straightening up the room, my inlaws got back from their week-long trip to Fredricksburg. By the time the excitement of their return had subsided and I was starting to think about maybe doing a little school, my mother-in-law had enlisted the kids in removing Christmas ornaments from the tree, and she suggested that I take a proper nap. This turned out to be an excellent idea, but precluded any school. I did better today - no baby seems imminent, which is good. He'll be full-term on Wednesday, and then he can come whenever he wants (if I went into labour before 37 weeks, I'd have to go to a hospital, which would stink - I'm really looking forward to a home birth).

Bible (Catechism, Bible story, memory verse): We reviewed all the catechism questions, and read about Jesus' baptism and temptation. I emphasized the concept that we learn memory verses so that we'll know God's word and be able to resist temptation the way Jesus did.

Calendar (Update day of week and date of month, record weather and temperature): Houston is having a major cold snap! The high today was predicted to be 36 degrees, and when we measured it we got 35 degrees. It was down in the 20s last night and is supposed to be that cold again tonight. Our thermometer's sensor is right next to the house, and we suspect the temperatures it gives of being elevated, but it was 28 when we woke up this morning. P misread it as 58, not being used to the first digit being a 2.

Handwriting: I had P write last time's copywork from dictation. She wrote the first 2 words half the size of the line, and complained bitterly when I asked her to make them larger, but eventually complied. Is she taking after me in this? (I remember a high school teacher, squinting at my assignment held at arm's length, saying, "You'll write a beautiful essay on the AP Biology exam, and no-one will be able to read it without a microscope!"). I insisted on the size mainly to help her get the proportions correct, a skill she has not yet mastered.

Language Arts: P has a tendency, when reading a reader she's seen before, to try to remember what the word was instead of sounding it out. Thus, "Sid Hits" (the title) became "Sid has a bat." (the first sentence). I didn't let her get away with it, and she became frustrated at me, but eventually she did sound out all the words in the book. Some words are becoming sight words for her as she gets more familiar with them, but she needs practice paying attention to the details that separate words that she knows by sight from words that are slightly different.

P was to describe "our busiest day ever" while I wrote down her description, and she chose yesterday. She kept wanting to skip to the most interesting part (taking down the Christmas ornaments), and I insisted on her including details from earlier in the day by asking leading questions. The final product was a combination of her wording and mine - getting things properly in chronological order is a challenge for her.

Math (5-a-day, other activities): We practiced measuring lines I drew on the chalkboard using the "inches" side of the ruler (again, E wanted to use centimeters. He'll be easy to brainwash into cgs units, mwa-ha-ha). Both kids did this really well.

P became frustrated with her 5-a-day, because the first problem I gave her was too hard for her. I walked her through it, and she did the rest of it just fine. Note to self: If something is likely to be hard for P, put it towards the end instead of the beginning, because she's easily discouraged. Challenges don't invigorate her the same way they do me - it's a personality thing.

E's "school": Didn't happen today. I prepared a SSGMR activity, but it fell out of my mind.

Geography and/or science: Perhaps watching Ari light and tend a fire, and dropping dry paper and then a wet paper towel in and observing the differences in how they burned, counts as science. We didn't get around to finishing the book on Denmark, but I may suggest we do it tomorrow. E has been banned from touching, let alone using, crayons until after the baby is born, because he meticulously transformed a box containing 21 intact crayons into a box containing 4 intact crayons and 34 halves. Perhaps the envy value of seeing P draw with the crayons while being denied the same privilege will cause him to respect property better.