Week 23, days 3 and 4

Wednesday: Math. After finishing our daily review, I went over 2-digit subtraction with P again, with manipulatives (beans in groups of 10 glued to popsicle sticks, and individual beans). We then worked several problems on the board, and she made up a few by herself. I told her to make each digit in the second number smaller than its corresponding digit in the first number, and as a result she was able to solve all the problems she came up with. She then worked several pages of a Kumon workbook with dot-to-dots and colour-by-numbers. The dot-to-dots went from 1 to 70, and she enjoyed the challenge. Meanwhile, E did a few pages of his Kumon mazes workbook, which he did fairly well.

Thursday: Bible and Music. Today was packed full of activity. We went to CBS in the morning (I reviewed our hymns on the way), and the kids learned about Jesus' resurrection. Their craft involved a piece of card shaped like a cross, which they folded into a cube to represent a tomb containing only a piece of paper with the words, "Hallelujah! He is risen!". I intend to read the Crucifixion story with them tomorrow when we eat hot cross buns. In the afternoon, Ari and I had an appointment we couldn't bring the kids along for, and then we went to a friend's house for tea. She's a British lady from our church who lived in Dubai in the 1980s, and we really enjoy her and have a lot in common with her. When we got home at about 5pm, the kids played in the sprinklers for a while before getting cold and coming inside. I decided to skip our calendar update, and to just have P do her copywork and math worksheet. She has now grasped the two-digit subtraction, but it confused her that I also asked her to solve 12-8 (she got 6, by answering 8-2 instead). I explained why that didn't work, and she solved it using manipulatives instead. This will take practice, I think.