Day 159

This is usually the day that the chore chart starts getting neglected and I have to pull teeth to get them to pick up after themselves. They start off each week with great resolve, but begin to peter out. This is also usually the day that schoolwork starts getting put off, to be made up on “Fun Friday.” Which makes it not quite as fun.

N (age 11):

• Math: Assessment today after a worksheet converting liquid measurements.
• Spelling: One of the perils of homeschooling is misplaced textbooks. So, looks like spelling is on hold until the book is located.
• Reading: I’m currently holding Harry Potter hostage. N has fallen behind in some of her independent work, so I’m not letting her read the last chapter until she’s all caught up. She listened to C read aloud to her for reading class today.
• Bible: N and C reviewed their memory verses, the books of the Old Testament, and the book of Genesis.
• Science: It was another week with no scientist to research, so the N and C caught up on copying any definitions they didn’t finish yesterday.
• Geography: N and C filled out their Middle East maps for review. They filled out all the countries they know so far on their Southeast Asia maps. They learned about Sri Lanka today, and we looked at pictures of the country and the people.
• Music: The usual. N finally got the hang of 16th notes, but she’s taking it slowly for mastery. She decided that she’s going to break the song into sections and practice each section for a week before putting the song together.

C (age 9):

• Math: C warmed up with mental math and a worksheet on subtraction. The lesson was on reading the time from an analog and digital clock, and on the different phrases used to tell tell (e.g. “quarter of nine,” “ten past two,” etc.). She struggles with the analog clock. Since she’s a right-brained learner, I used color coding to try to help her associate which hands on the clock read what. It’s slow going for my child who usually picks up on math concepts quickly. She completed a lesson review.
• Spelling: C practiced her words with different spellings of the long “o” and long “u” sounds.
• Writing: C described the external factors of her characters in the dialogue she is writing (e.g. time of day, weather, location of the conversation, etc.).
• Reading: C read Goddess Girls: Pheme the Gossip aloud to N for 20 minutes.
• Bible: Combined class with N.
• Science: Combined class with N.
• Geography: Combined class with N.
• Music: C practiced chord transitions on the ukulele.

S (age 6):

• Math: As usual, S warmed up by counting to 100 by 10s and 1s using the 100-number chart. She used linking cubes to measure length using non-standard units and to then order objects by length. She grasped the concept quickly.
• Reading: S reviewed “b” with a worksheet from The Measured Mom. We sang the alphabet song together, and S located lowercase “c” on the alphabet chart. I read her three poems, emphasizing the hard “c” sound in each of them. She colored a picture of a lowercase “c” and a cow. We played “Put It Together.” I said the beginning of a word, paused, and said the rest of the word, and then S told me the word (e.g. I said, “P… an” and S said, “Pan”). S wasn’t thrilled with Yankee Doodle Boy, so we switched to Anne of Green Gables.
• Writing: S practiced writing lowercase “c” on a custom worksheet.