Week 17 resumed (day 2)

I started today with very few expectations of what we'd get through, but B is still at the "paperweight stage" - when you put him down somewhere, he stays there - which makes it easier to work with P and E than it will be once he's mobile. I was pleasantly surprised at how much we got done today.

Bible (Catechism, Bible story, memory verse): We reviewed the first 12 catechism questions and the most recent 4 memory verses, and read the story of Jesus calming the storm. B sat happily on my lap during this time.

Calendar (Update day of week and date of month, record weather and temperature): The weather was quite chilly today (low 40s Fahrenheit), but the kids described it as "cool" rather than "cold" because the sun was out (which it wasn't a few days ago). It's interesting to see how the degree of sunlight affects one's perception of the temperature. B took a nap at this time, so I didn't take him out in the cold.

Handwriting: P wrote the words she'd traced last time we did school as a dictation exercise. I reminded her about how to make "d" and "b", and she still mixed them up. It'll come, I know. She recognizes them better than she used to, it's mainly forming them when she's writing that she struggles with.

Language Arts: Today's activity involved choosing a character from a story and describing what it would be like to be that character. P chose Cinderella and did a fairly good job of putting herself into Cinderella's shoes, but needed a lot of help putting together a coherent description. That's okay - she'll get better with practice. Her reading demonstrates this - she read the reader for the week with very little trouble.

E's "school": We read a large number of poems from a book called "Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young". The SSGMR activity for several weeks ago (which I decided to do today) involved giving E instructions using various prepositions - crawling under the table, walking around a stuffed animal, standing between 2 pieces of furniture. He rather enjoyed this, and P asked me to do the same for her, which I did. Then P offered to hold B (who was awake by this stage) and gave me similar instructions, but I became nervous about how she was holding him and curtailed the activity.

Math (5-a-day, other activities): P did her 5-a-day smoothly and quickly, having forgotten less than I would have thought during the almost 3-week break. She needed a few reminders, which I gave her.

Geography and/or science: After lunch, we went for a walk by the bayou. B fussed but didn't cry for much of the walk, which made me more eager than P and E to get home. It may be that he was mildly uncomfortable in the baby carrier. P and E both pulled pieces of fungus off a fallen tree, and E discovered that his piece floated. P found a long palm branch, and it stayed with us (at least in part) during the entire walk. At the end, what was left of the palm branch was turned into a "hot rod" which the children rode on as fast as they could run (this week's reader features a hot rod being stopped by a cop).

Other: I reviewed finding C on the piano with both P and E. E struggled a lot, so I'll keep reviewing it with him. I may move on with P, but haven't decided yet.