Monday
Cleaning day today. The kids helped me fold and put away laundry. It's so funny to see how they make a game out of everything.
Tuesday
Today we took a trip to the library. I've decided that nobody under the age of five should be allowed in the library. At least if their name is Katelyn. She ransacked the place in about five seconds. I just chased her around picking up books and movies. And then she ran out into the parking lot. Time to get a leash!
We came home and made some muddy buddies. That helped, a little.
We then worked on writing. The kids wrote about their adventures playing outside. There is a rock out front that they are convinced is an egg. Evan claims he felt it move. Smiley face.
We then worked on some math. The kids filled in an addition chart, and it didn't take long for them to see patters. I think it is so helpful to see patterns in math. I don't think I realized this until much later. Like college later. Pathetic, I know.
Wednesday
Good things that happened: we watched "Reading Rainbow: The day you were born." It was all about babies, and *yikes* included a real child birth. It didn't really show anything, but the kids covered their heads. haha.
Annabelle colored in a hundreds chart by 2's. She recognized the pattern very quickly. Evan worked on some of his language arts pages.
Thursday
I am so grateful for Steve and the kids. The kids kept saying nice things to me and writing sweet notes. They even said "Thanks for dinner", and "mmm...this is good" (this hardly ever happens unless dinner is pizza or pancakes).
So, for school we read some of our library books. I taught the kids that the paperback books are sometimes just lame, and they should "shop" in the hardback book section more. I am so tired of reading Barbie, Dora, Transformers (gasp), and strawberry shortcake. So every time we go to the library I try to pick out books that have more developed story lines. We read one book that was very interesting called, "Good Enough to Eat" by Brock Cole. It was about a poor orphan beggar girl, whom everyone shunned. When an ogre came to find a bride, of course they offered him the beggar. She came up with a clever trick to pay them all back for the way they'd treated her.
It snowed during the night, and Annabelle went out and played. She made a huge footprint picture in the snow of me, and above it "I <3 U" (that's a heart, btw).
Annabelle also did two different timed tests today. The first one was a 2 minute half page addition, which she finished with time to spare (improved from yesterday). The second was a 5 minute full page addition. She finished all but the last line. I'm just impressed she is so motivated to do timed tests. It's great!
We also talked today about when Annabelle and Evan were littler, and the funny things they'd do. Their favorite stories involve throw up, pee, and poo, of course! It's great that I can laugh about these things now. At the time they were not funny at all. The kids decided to draw and write in their journals about these awesome moments. Evan drew himself peeing on me when I changed his diaper (the picture is very anatomically correct), and Annabelle drew herself smearing poo all over the walls and carpet. Lovely.
Friday
Today we went over rules and consequences again and adjusted our schedule. Our new schedule is much more loose than the one I originally created at the beginning of the school year. I've had such a paradigm shift the last few months, but I think it's all been a change for the better. I've come to realize that things can't be perfect all the time, especially when I have two little ones running around. But learning can happen all day long whenever possible. So my new schedule is more of a checklist:
Wake up by 9:00
Eat breakfast, get dressed
Read together
free time until after lunch
Do the following in no particular order:
Spelling
Reading
Writing
Math & Logic
Science, S.S., art, music, PE, or computers (rotating depending on day and what is applicable that day)
Dinner
Bedtime 9:00
I know, very unstructured, but you know what...it's what works for us! And something funny, the kids have not been resisting as much because, half the time they don't even know we're doing "school." They're just playing. Like today, Annabelle decided she wanted to make "credit cards" for everyone. So she cut out little pieces of paper, drew pictures, colored, wrote names and numbers; and then I helped her laminate them. Little did she know that I'm counting that as art (and writing, and math). She was fascinated with the cold lamination we did and was excited that they looked just like real credit cards.
Another interesting phenomenon, Annabelle was resisting home-school and wishing she could go to public school at the beginning of this year. I made the decision that I would go and apply at several charter schools, as well as apply for a transfer to Jordan School District. And suddenly, she has done a total 180, and now wants to be home-schooled. I'm not sure why. When we were going to the Jordan school district to apply for the transfer I noticed that Annabelle acted very uncomfortable just being there at a public school. It could be just because she's so used to being home. Anyways, we'll soon find out if we got accepted to any of these schools, and then we'll decide where to go from there. Part of me thinks it would be good for the kids to have the structure, but the other part of me feels like they will start dreading school. We'll see. I haven't fully decided yet, and I want the kids to be involved in the decision making.
Annabelle lost another tooth today. I think that makes it 6 or something. The tooth fairy is getting tired, I'm sure.
