Day 9

What a morning! On the one hand we have Alexei who played nice today and got through his schoolwork with minimal complaints. He did a great job on his first 4th grade writing assignment of the year! This is the first year I have started keeping actual numerical grades for him and I think it is becoming a valuable tool and incentive for him to do well. That and the promise of $10 every 6 weeks if he gets all A's! On the other hand we have Ibis, who was my "star pupil" last year when it came to doing her work with enthusiasm and a good attitude. I don't know what happened. Getting her to sit and complete her assignments this year is like pulling teeth. I think she is stressing about the move, and that's a big part of it. It shouldn't take an hour to complete three spelling pages that I know she's not having any trouble comprehending. I had to remove her from the main school table to the small kitchen table, and then I had to take her chair away because she was scooting it all around the kitchen floor. We got through math and spelling and I have shelved it for the morning; we still have grammar and social studies. I wasn't in a frame of mind to be an effective teacher to her and had to step back and take a break myself. I'm still searching for the right solution.

Then of course we have the two little ones. Coral was raring to go with her pre-K activities and she really liked making the handprint wings for her bee craft. I personally *love* anything that details how small and cute they are so using handprints in a craft is right up my alley! She's also been ripping through the workbook, I foolishly thought we'd go through and do one page per day, in order, and that would be that. My OCDometer is going haywire as she flips through and picks out anywhere from 2-5 pages a day at random, but she's having fun and learning and I can just relax and go with the flow. Only the nervous twitch at the corner of my eye can give me away now! :D Hobie is still not 100% well, he has a bit of a runny nose and a slight cough. He's been super fussy and has been spending most of the school day in the Ergo carrier. I am SO glad I chose to buy that in addition to the ring sling I had, because it is truly hands-free and a real lifesaver.

Hobie in the Ergo, eating my camera strap (and sporting a lovely bruise)

Alexei, Grade 4
math p 56-59 : adding and subtracting in the millions
English p 64-65: writing sentences and underlining nouns
writing : edit draft and make final copy of character description
social studies p 32-37 and homework p 9 : renewable and nonrenewable resources
read book of choice for 15 minutes

Ibis, Grade 2
math p 8-10 : use addition charts to add doubles and doubles plus one
spelling p 6-8 : short vowel e, o, u words

we got this part finished up in the evening:
grammar p 5-8 : adding punctuation to statements and questions
read book of choice
social studies p 32-39 : discuss the voting process and make an election sign

Would you vote for her?

Coral, pre-K
trace handprints, color and glue bee craft and add handprint wings
color stars and find and color circles and squares (workbook)
read together The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy by Jane Thayer
create and play with a clay family

Coral makes clay people while Alexei works on math