Our schedule has been messed up slightly with a trip to Nashville and then a series of library classes in the mornings. Although we have been busy learning (trips to the zoo, science center, TN state museum, historical sites), we have not completed any of our basic curriculum. So today, we sat back down at the dining table and proceeded to work. Nothing like doing school work in the pj’s.
Daughter with her workbooks worked diligently on spelling, math and reading comprehension. She was happy that I let her pick any page in the math workbook to complete. I was thrilled to see she had picked a page on converting decimals to fractions and fractions to decimals along with reading a bar graph.
Son was at the computer finishing up the remaining bubbles in ABC extension, ABC’s and 123’s. Everyone was content and working. Son did a great job reading his story today. Reading has been challenge for us. He doesn’t like to sit still for long and becomes frustrated. We have been doing little by little and he happens to be catching on to the process. I try not to compare him to his sister. She took to reading in leaps and bounds. He would rather analyze how things work and not worry about the need to read. My saving grace with him has been the frustration he encounters when playing games on the gaming devices and needing to know what things say. He doesn’t like to ask for help and he must do so to know what the game has said. This has definitely piqued his interest in learning to read.
First part of the school work was finished in an hour so we ran errands. Each child had some leftover money from our trip and they had found hula hoops. While on our trip we had eaten at the Wildhorse Saloon and one part of the entertainment was a hula hoop duo. The kids had been amazed at some of the tricks they had seen and wanted to get hula hoops to learn. Being the mom/teacher that I am, I see this two fold - exercise and learning experience. So, I let them use their remaining money and added a bit to it. It has been an afternoon of hip gyrating action!
After lunch and hula hooping, it was time for daughter to work on her book. (Daughter has been working on writing a book for her library class with Ms. Terri.) She has twelve pages of a rough draft. (These are pages for her children’s book.) We are now working on revising the rough draft. I have read the draft and make suggestions, then she has implemented the suggestions and added to it. Next week she should have her final draft ready and her pictures/drawings laid out.
The children played with their hula hoops later in the afternoon. Daughter turned her imagination back two centuries with her hoop. We have been listening to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Books. The children have been engrossed with the Ingalls way of life. Daughter and Son decided to turn their play into that of yesteryear when children used hoops and sticks to play. It has been wonderful to see them act out the things we study and do in their play. The neighborhood children are even beginning to ask to play these things when they come over.
The final part of our official school day was Aikido (martial art). Daughter participated in the youth class and the adult class tonight. Two hours and fifteen minutes of training four nights a week has greatly improved her skill set. She truly enjoys the time at the dojo and the skills she has learned. Son participated in the youth class. Although he was not as focused as his sister, he loves being around the other students and learning.
A semi-typical day!
