Day Eight - Thursday

Day Eight. Actually, I guess it is day nine. I guess I should include the Montessori day in there from last week. Oh, but the Snow day yesterday. Okay. Day Eight.

We read Good Luck Bear by Greg Foley for circle time. It was pretty cute. The illustrations were better than the story.

Calendar and weather, day of the week and month of the year. I quizzed them on the clock for Lifeskills. We started late, so we watched Daniel Tiger and had gummy vitamins after circle time. Then we went outside.

Lots of running around. I was eager to get them outside today, since it has been cloudy since morning, and I knew it was going to start raining any minute. About 35 minutes into recess it started raining, so we went inside. It was Hour of Power time.

Because we read a book about finding a four leaf clover I decided we would add Fibonacci numbers for math. This led to a discussion about adding using the number on top of a number syntax. I got to explain number places again, and we carried a '1.'

Today's  word was 'good' so we explored the double 'o' sound with a few real words and a few made up words.

Same old same old for Social Studies. I quizzed them today pretty well until they got it.

Our modified conversation for Spanish. I am actually amazed at this. The boys are actually retaining some Spanish. I thought it would be a lot harder than it is. It is still hard, but they are actually picking it up.

We finished the chapter from before that we had to cut short due to listening issues. I realize I forgot to get a picture of their lunch. They had cheese sticks, banana, a carrot, goldfish, and a few fish-sticks.

Since it is rainy and stormy I decided to let the boys rest on the couch instead of make them go to sleep. I think there is a pretty good chance that they will fall asleep due to the storm. Oh, yeah. Good thing I took them out earlier, it has rained non-stop since we came in. You have to take advantage of the opportunities presented to you!

We only did a few centers, and I could tell they were worn out, so we were done for the day. I know Hour of Power is the most important, and we got it covered pretty well. This has been a hard week...

Snow Day

I am calling a snow day today. Sure, maybe there's no snow on the ground. Sure, maybe we are only a week and a half into the home-school experiment. But I am exhausted. The last two days have drained me physically, emotionally, mentally, cosmically, etc...

The last two days:

I wake up between 6 and 7 in the morning, the boys are already up, jumping around. We do home-school, and then they are jumping around all afternoon until dinner. Then I get to get them ready for bed by myself, and lay them down between 7 and 8 at night. Even after the kids are down I can only barely pay attention to anything because they take turns getting up every 15 minutes. So by about 10 they have passed out and I get to work on my homework for the fast-track class I am taking right now. It is a full class in 3 weeks, so there is a 1 hour video to watch every other day, and a 1 hour assignment due every other day, and a 30 minute discussion board post due every other day, and an entire book to read within the three weeks with a 6 page report due at the end, plus a comprehensive final. So that's what I get to do from 10 until after midnight. Then I pass out on the couch while trying to watch a TV show.

With no help for two and a half straight days. I am tired. So I can pretty much say that if I was an only parent I would not home-school. It is too much. I am not good enough to do it all by myself, all of the time.

So I am calling a snow day today. We'll try again tomorrow after my wife gets home and I can rest a little and take a shower and eat some real food. What a rough week...

Day Seven - Tuesday

Day Seven. Tuesday. Wife is still gone. For some reason the kids take this to mean they can be crazy. In spite of their behavior I am determined to have a good learning day. Oh, it's storming outside, so we can't go outside and run off any energy? Great and wonderful.

Circle time went well. We read My Robot by Eve Bunting. We sang a song. We talked about the weather being all stormy, and how there will probably be no more tornadoes (at least not today).

For Lifeskills we are still working on telling time. Today we went around the clock in 5 minute increments.

We used some of our daily words for reading.

Our number of the day is 6, so we added 6 to a few numbers (I tried to pick the hardest problems).

See? Number of the day is 6.

C was complaining that the math was too easy so I made it hard for him. Wrote out the problem as a sentence and made him read it, only writing the equation as he read each part.

Social Studies we went over the same stuff again. President, Governor, Mayor, Country, State, City. I quizzed them pretty hard, they almost have it down.

Our Spanish conversation for Language time. I added in Hasta luego today. Little by little we'll get there. I acted out the whole conversation with two stuffed animals to help keep their interest. (obviously I can't take a picture of myself holding a bunny in each hand).

For science we talked about buoyancy and density. I got the last two pieces of foil in the house for them to ball up and test if they float.

 Yup, they float.

Then I pounded them flat and let the kids test if they would sink. Yup. Change in density equals a change in buoyancy. Fun and quick science.

They watched Daniel Tiger and ate a snack of gummy vitamins and apple slices.

It has been storming all day, so no recess (sad face). I let them do 15 minute centers, and start with computer time to make up for it.

Shapes center. C tried hard at tangrams, but still doesn't really get it yet.

S was excited about something. Probably not this reading center, since he ditched it pretty quick. I didn't chase him down. He's only 4. I let him play.

D wanted to play shapes, and built a wonderful tower.

C at the reading center. Doing well once he quit whining and started trying.

After centers we had lunch. Caesar salad with onions, cucumber, banana, and dino nuggets.

Proof that my kids eat salad. They like it too!

Chapter 12 in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was read for lunch. We didn't finish the chapter, due to listening issues.

They were so grumpy by this point that I made them lay down and sleep for nap time. No Signing Time on PBS today! They have been pretty difficult all morning. When they are difficult it slows everything down, because I will not demand that they obey me, sit down, shut up and listen. I think if I do that then they will learn nothing, and resent being home-schooled. So when they act up I have to stop everything and talk to them until they understand that we are working together so that they can learn a lot. It works, and it is worth it to do it this way, but MAN does it take a lot of time.

I guess I favor this approach because my personal goal is for them to learn a lot, faster than they would in public school, and to have more fun than they would in public school. If my goal was to get through the day's material, then sure I might just force them to sit still and quiet, while I recite material to their glazed over eyes and walled off minds. That would be easier...

Wow, they were nice and tired, and slept until 2pm today, for a good hour and a half. I should have woken them up sooner, but I'm tired with no wife here to help out, and rowdy kids from dawn until dusk.

Well, we tried expanded subject time today, we really did. But not going outside today has really affected the kids. They wouldn't listen at all. I would rather be constructive than yell, so I had them do extra chores to burn off that energy and we called it a day at about 3.

Considering that when C was at school he said they would go to lunch (at 10:30am), then have rest time, then watch TV until the end of the day, I think we are doing pretty well. I am so ready for the wife to come home tomorrow!

Day Six - Monday

Day Six. This was a weird day. My wife is out of town from 4am this morning until Wednesday evening, so the kids are kind of sad and sensitive. For some reason little D got sick in her bed last night, so I got to spend the morning cleaning her, her bed, washing sheets and stuffies and pillows and blankets, and then cuddling and making everyone calm and happy. 

This means that we didn't start the day until Daniel Tiger. Even then, it was stormy this morning, so no recess, and then the kids were all sleepy from a long day outside yesterday, plus the pressure is all weird today, so I think it was affecting their moods as well.

After Daniel Tiger we did an extended Hour of Power (Hour-and-a-Half of Power). 

We read letters from Mommy first, and then did letter 'E' connect the dots and maze sheets.

For Social Studies we looked at the globe to see where Mommy went for her business trip, and then we went over President, Governor, Mayor, Country, State, City.

Then we did Spanish, and added a bit to our conversation from last time. (Note that today's number is 5, because we did not do circle time on Friday, and I am not going to skip a number)

We looked at the globe to find Mexico, and talked about sombreros, pulled up some pictures of them on my phone to show them.

Then we did math. We counted to 20 again, and S got it spot on first try. He can identify all those numbers when written as well.

C then wanted to lead us in counting backwards from 20 to 1.

This is how D spent all day. Trying to climb me. I don't think she slept well last night.

To finish up math we played Mancala with goldfish. S won, and then they got to eat their goldfish for a quick snack.

 We went back and did a little circle time stuff, like calendar, and signing in, and telling time on the 10 minutes.

We kind of skipped centers, so I let them play pbskids and redfish and starfall for 15 minutes while I made lunch.

Toast, bananas, pickles, tomatoes, turkey and cheese. I figured this would be an easy meal if D's tummy was still feeling bad.

Chapter 11 in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. C is listening intently.

At rest time they all fell asleep! I let the boys watch Signing Time on PBS, but they were both out in the first 15 minutes.

Once they got up the sun was out, so we went outside. They ate popscicles and ran around. I pushed them around in their cars, and they played Star Wars with some sticks.

Clouds were forming, so we came inside after about 45 minutes. It was looking green so I turned on the TV, and yup! Tornadoes! C diligently watched the news for me to keep us all safe. I let the kids all get a toy to take into the hallway, which helped calm them down a bit.

I let C help me change a light fixture in the dining room, which he thought was pretty fun.

So it was a weird day. Puke and tornadoes and wacky schedule and grumpy kids. I'm worn out.