Day 158

N has been watching a lot of documentaries on tornadoes recently (she and S love a good documentary). Since today was a little gloomy and rainy, she decided to conduct “tornado drills” with the younger kids. It added a little excitement to a gray day and kept them all too busy to argue and bicker with each other, which is their wont on gray days.

N (age 11):

• Math: N warmed up with mental math and a worksheet on simplifying fractions.  Her lesson was on addition of algebraic integers. It was basically a new application of concepts she’s already learned (e.g. adding a positive to a negative), so it was a pretty easy lesson for her. Paying attention was more difficult, but we powered through and she went on to work on her lesson review.
• Spelling: N practiced her words with the vowel digraphs “oi,” “oy,” “ou,” and “ow.”
• Reading: N read a chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. She’s got one chapter left and is desperate to read it, so I’m holding her book hostage until she finishes her independent work. I told her I would let her watch the movie as soon as she’s done reading the book, which added even more incentive.
• Bible: N and C reviewed their memory verses and recited the books of the Bible. We sang the song about the twelve tribes of Israel. Today, we finished up our study of the book of Genesis with Jacob settling into Goshen and blessing his children before he died and was buried in Canaan.
• Science: N and C copied definitions pertaining to igneous rocks, along with their Latin and Greek roots.
• History: N and C learned about Asoka and the Mauryan Empire of India. They read one of the Jakata Tales. They located the Mauryan Empire on a map of India. N did supplemental reading on ancient India and took notes.
• Music: The usual.

C (age 9):

• Math: C warmed up with mental math and a worksheet on subtraction. Her lesson was on reading various kinds of scales (e.g., thermometers, spedometers, etc.). C has already learned how to read number lines, so this practical application went smoothly. She completed a lesson review.
• Spelling: C practiced her words with the different spellings of long “o” and long “u.”
• Reading: C read Goddess Girls: Pheme the Gossip for 20 minutes.
• Bible: Combined class with N.
• Science: Combined class with N.
• History: Combined class with N. C didn’t do the supplemental reading or notes.
• Music: C practiced reading music while playing the A note and various chords.

S (age 6):

• Math: S counted to 100 by 1s and 10s using the 100-number chart for number recognition. She counted backwards from 10 to 1. She had an assessment today to check her graphing skills. She made a real graph using pattern blocks and then interpreted the graph for me.
• Reading: S reviewed lowercase “a” with a printout from The Measured Mom. We sang the alphabet song and S located “b” on the lowercase alphabet chart. I read three poems to S, being sure to point out all the words that began with the “b” sound. S colored a picture of a lowercase “b” with a bat sleeping in a tree. We played “Which Word is Longer.” I said word pairs of differing lengths, and S told me which word in each pair was longer. I began reading Yankee Doodle Boy to her.
• Writing: S copied lowercase “b” on a custom worksheet.