MFW 1st - Day 2

Well, since we had plans this afternoon and needed to be done early, we skipped our morning bike ride and got started by 9:00am.

We still began with Prudence and the Millers. The story was kind of sad, so that put a sadness over the kids. Then we talked about Proverbs and the purpose of it - Proverbs 1:2-4. Those were some big words for the boys. They really didn't get the idea very well, so I guided them through it. We looked up several of the words in that passage in the dictionary and I tried to explain to them that God wants us to learn these Proverbs so we can live the right way.

For reading, I started with Tigger again. He did the lesson quite easily, but he writes slower than Pooh, because he's trying to write so neatly. He did the blending exercise just fine and finally said, "Mom, can we just be done now." I had a dry-erase book that had mazes in it that Pooh did while I was working with Tigger, which Pooh really loved. Then we switched. I reviewed /a/, /b/, and /c/ from yesterday with Pooh before starting with /d/, /e/, and /f/. Everything went well. Pooh writes faster (not necessarily neater, just faster), so that part of the lesson didn't take as long as it did with Tigger. When we got to the blending, he mixed up /b/ and /d/ a few times, but then he started trying really hard not to mix them up. We practiced the blends a lot and he really tried hard for the lesson.

By the time we finished all that, it was about 10:15 and well past time for a snack. So, we stopped for about 15 minutes while they ate their snack. I got Rabbit going on her computer drills, and then I did math with the boys. Pooh decided to go first for Math, so Tigger played with the Pattern Blocks. I think it's a good thing to do it separately until I'm sure they understand the Calendar and number of the day stuff really well. When I asked Pooh what month was after December, he said, "Nothing." So, I had to explain how that worked. After Tigger finished Math, I had him finish the first scroll page. That went much better having him do it separately from Pooh. When he finished writing his letters, I sent him to his desk to color the pictures and had Pooh finish writing his letters and then color the pictures.

While they were coloring the pictures on their scroll papers, I made the clay from the recipe in the T.M. I doubled it, figuring Rabbit would want to do a jar, too. I added food coloring to the water, following the recipe on the box to make it brown, and then added a few more drops of red to try to get it to be more of a terracotta color. Here are our jars drying on wax paper:

They look more like pots than jars, and they're more pink than terracotta, but the kids loved doing this activity - even Rabbit. I even have some left over.

After lunch, I went over the idea of art class and needing quiet so we can focus and learn how to draw. Then I read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. That was very much enjoyed. Finally, we did the next Spanish lesson.

So, I figure this all took 3.5 hours again today - but remember, I'm teaching 2 separately for Reading and Math. That's not going to work very well when we start Rome to the Reformation with Rabbit. For sure I'm going to have to drop Prudence and the Millers, even though it doesn't take that long. Spanish may have to be combined with Rabbit's Spanish, somehow. Mostly at this point I just want exposure to the language, so it may not be a big deal, anyway. When we have read alouds in Rome to the Reformation, the boys will listen in on those, and that will count towards reading aloud.