A Tired Monday

My two were at a sleepover Saturday night and did NOT get to bed as early as they should have yesterday (we had supper issues--first miscalculations involving when to put the chicken in the oven but then we became quite convinced that the chicken was bad as it smelled strange which led us to ordering food and not finishing supper until almost 8!). And I had them get up a little earlier than usual. I want dd and I to get into a good habit of doing a few exercises in the morning and have time for writers workshop (her desire!). We also spent a little over 2 hours at a bowling alley this morning. After having woken up around 4:15 this morning myself, I'm just so pooped!!

We still managed to get a little bit done this morning, but our morning didn't even start as it should have because dd had to take a shower this morning due to our screwy schedule last night and not getting her shower then. We still did a few stretches and our writing--I've started a short story about a homeschooled girl who goes on vacation and has to deal with the reaction of a couple of kids she meets there who have prejudices towards homeschoolers. We have done no math. Dd did work in her French workbook, which probably wasn't a great idea because when she's tired, she can NOT handle not knowing stuff so she ended up having a mini-meltdown. (Ended up having a larger one at the bowling alley when she came in with the lowest score after the second game.) These kids MUST get to bed by 7:30 tonight!!

Oh, I also did some writing/syllable work with ds. We got through na ne ni no nu. Then he was tired of doing it. So I've put something together for tomorrow which is kind of like the Reading Reflex/Making Words approach. I used a cursivey font and have little squares with letters on them. Then I have a short list of words to make with those letters (sounds). Simple things like lac, sac, bol... Then I'll write the words down and he can trace over them in a different colour. He needs more practice with this, but he's really past the point of being interested in the sandpaper letters (although he does like playing Sandpaper Letters hide-and-seek with them, but it kind of kills the purpose of feeling the letters in the proper writing direction because he doesn't always want to trace them after he's found them). Ooh, just had a thought--perhaps he'd be interested in a different approach to the sp letters: I get a second box and ask him if he'd be interested in tracking the letters/sounds he learns to write. The ones he can do go into the second box, these ones being reviewed (at least a few) each time we do a writing session. It would be a visual way for him to see his own progress.

What else have we done? While they were eating a snack, I did some geography work with them with the globe. I have an old globe that I painted over to have the continents stick out (like the Montessori continent globes). I pointed to North America, told ds it was North America, then spun the globe and told him to find North America for me. He did and even said it was North America, which I was pretty happy about. ("Amérique du Nord" is a mouthful!) I goofed and gave him another continent with an A--Afrique. But anyhow, I did the same thing as I did with North America. I then had him find me both continents and then I added a third (Océanie). This is where it broke down because there were two continents starting with the /a/ sound and finishing with the /k/ (Amérique, Afrique) and I hadn't played around enough for it to be well stuck in his head which was which. After the third continent had been added, I asked him to show me Afrique and he pointed to Amérique du Nord. I didn't make a big deal about it. I told him it was North America and I wanted him to find Africa. He went, "OH!" and proceeded to find Africa quickly.

Then dd wanted in on it and was able to find me all the continents--although was surprisingly a little shaky on South America. I then went over the oceans with her. This was really shaky! She can tell me where the Arctic and Antarctic are, but beyond that... That's fine, we haven't done this in a long time. But I have to remember to come back to it in a couple of days!!! That's one of my problems--I introduce something or come back to something after a long hiatus but then don't do the follow-up that's needed. I think dd is probably ready for the 3rd period (Montessori 3-part lessons) for the continents after a brief. Oh, more tired realizations: I need to spend a little more time in the 1st period (presenting the information to them) so that they take notice of things, details.

I have no more thoughts. I'm so tired and more and more congested that I just can't think anymore. I'm glad the kids didn't want to go to park day!