It's the first day of March Break for the public school kids and I didn't want my children to feel completely left out of the 'fun', even though they are not getting a 'break'.
We drove into a the city as a family (I read two chapters of A Child's History of the World aloud in the car) and saw the movie The Grinch, put out in 2018 I believe. It was a good film and had different depths from previous grinch movies where the green guy is just crabby and then gets less crabby. Then we all crowded in a photo booth for a crazy family picture, had lunch at a taco chain restaurant, tried all the free teas at a tea store, checked out (and did not buy) anything at the chain bookstore, and sprayed air fresheners all over a Bath and Body Works. We also saw someone feeding masses and MASSES of ducks in the parking lot. Maybe a hundred? Crazy.
After this we went to the big public library in town, each kid got a free book at the library book store and we played mini-putt. They read their books in the car home. This is what the 8yo picked:
I love it! It's so...odd! Essentially arithmetic but with weird drawings of monsters or something and visual 'math webs'...it's hard to explain and I can't find a picture of the inside. I think it just has to be a book your visual math kid loves, or doesn't. We came home and finished the family puzzle we had started Sunday night.
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Tuesday
Started the day with math and spelling. The 8yo finished 1/2 a math review lesson and almost all of a spelling lesson. The 6yo finished two math lessons and 1 spelling lesson and then finished reading this:
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I had to go to the church so took the 8yo with me and he practiced the piano for 30 minutes.
Then all three went to the library with their father and checked out books, including this series which the librarian special ordered for them:
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We had a 15 minute quiet time once we got home. The girls read books and the boy did puzzles until it was time to go to our neighbour's for supper. I read the children a chapter of The Moffats before bed.
Wednesday
We woke up to a sleety day and worked on our new puzzle and read and looked at Google Earth. Then we went out to breakfast at the diner and then walked up to the grocery store so it was almost 10am by the time we got home. I pulled out some books on weather and we read about sleet and rain and then looked at snowflakes and discussed symmetry. Here are the books we used:
The girls decided to make houses out of cards while the boy set the stove timer and did his 30 minutes of silent reading. Then the 6 yo did her silent reading. Finally I sent them with their math, spelling and the Planet Earth dvds over to the church where their father was working so I could have the house to myself for a bit. While they were there the 8yo finished the math and spelling lessons he had partially completed yesterday, and also started reading the bookmarked sections in his science research books re: his science project. The 6yo did a full math and a full spelling lesson. They all watched Planet Earth Ep. 1 - From Pole to Pole and then Ep. 11 - Ocean Deep.
After lunch we listened to Mozart's Magic Fantasy (sort of a children's retelling of Mozart's Magic Flute), worked on our next puzzle and then went for a walk. We managed to pick up enough leaves and pinecones and such to be able to finish our birdhouse.
We finished our puzzle in the afternoon. At supper the discussion was the whale sharks and vampire squid they saw in the Ocean Deep episode - apparently vampire squid have their bio luminescence located on areas that can withstand a bite by a predator. Huh. Who knew? Before bed I read a chapter of The Moffats.
Thursday
Everyone wanted to play games on the computer this morning. They used the website tvokids.com and took turns doing that for an hour or so. It was raining fairly heavily off and on all day but that didn't stop them from rushing through breakfast and heading outside to burn off energy.
I hadn't slept well the previous night so I was dragging myself through the day. In fact as the day progressed I just got floppier and tireder and was eventually just sitting in a chair waving my hands at the children. Fortunately they all deal with instructions pretty well. The 4yo coloured and practiced writing letters, the 8yo did a spelling lesson and then they both pulled out all the Lego and built stuff with it together. The 6yo did two spelling lessons and finished Spelling Workout A.
And then they all went outside again and played for hours in the wet snow.
It wasn't an impressive, exciting or even particularly productive school day, but these sorts of days are one of the reasons I work on school year round, up to six days a week. Because not all of those days do we manage to accomplish much. It's important to remember that 1) Life is school, too and 2) We're playing the long game, here.
I read a chapter of The Moffats aloud before bed.
Friday
Usually Friday morning is the time I take the 4yo to a play group but today my husband had a meeting and then a doctor's appointment and wasn't going to get home until lunchtime.
Instead we made churros and then I took all three children up to the library where there was a children's St. Patrick's Day party going on.
After this we had errands to run all afternoon and into the evening. I read a chapter of A Child's History of The World in the car while we were stopped at a store for my husband to run in. We're up to Alexander the Great.
Saturday
The 6yo decided to sew this morning and made a little blanket for a doll's house bed on the sewing machine, which she is learning how to use this year. The 8yo went to the church to practice the piano. Then all three children went outside to work on their latest fort. When they came in it was lunchtime.
After lunch we buckled down a bit more. The 6yo played Uno with the 4yo to practice her colours and numbers. She's got these down well, but constant repetition is key. The 8yo did his math, which today involved adding the eleven times tables to his graph book. This turned into a discussion about perfect squares, which turned into watching a Doodling In Math Class video about the Pythagorean Theorem. Before we ran down too many rabbit trails I put him on a video call with a friend of mine who teaches high school math - she had agreed to explain the concept of area for him better than I could. Both older children set the stove timer and did their 30 minutes of silent reading.
The 4yo's reading lessons had fallen by the wayside quite a bit this week, but when we sat down today to look them over she had remembered all of her sounds (s, t, m, a, e, r) and we did a lesson and a half in our reading book.
Then I heard the book narration from the 8yo about the book he got from the library on Tuesday. He is on chapter 11 so far.
We had a family game night today with Skip-bo (I wanted to see how that number review had worked out earlier for the youngest), and then I read two chapters of The Moffats before bed.
Wednesday
We woke up to a sleety day and worked on our new puzzle and read and looked at Google Earth. Then we went out to breakfast at the diner and then walked up to the grocery store so it was almost 10am by the time we got home. I pulled out some books on weather and we read about sleet and rain and then looked at snowflakes and discussed symmetry. Here are the books we used:
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| Link |
The girls decided to make houses out of cards while the boy set the stove timer and did his 30 minutes of silent reading. Then the 6 yo did her silent reading. Finally I sent them with their math, spelling and the Planet Earth dvds over to the church where their father was working so I could have the house to myself for a bit. While they were there the 8yo finished the math and spelling lessons he had partially completed yesterday, and also started reading the bookmarked sections in his science research books re: his science project. The 6yo did a full math and a full spelling lesson. They all watched Planet Earth Ep. 1 - From Pole to Pole and then Ep. 11 - Ocean Deep.
After lunch we listened to Mozart's Magic Fantasy (sort of a children's retelling of Mozart's Magic Flute), worked on our next puzzle and then went for a walk. We managed to pick up enough leaves and pinecones and such to be able to finish our birdhouse.
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| Link |
Thursday
Everyone wanted to play games on the computer this morning. They used the website tvokids.com and took turns doing that for an hour or so. It was raining fairly heavily off and on all day but that didn't stop them from rushing through breakfast and heading outside to burn off energy.
I hadn't slept well the previous night so I was dragging myself through the day. In fact as the day progressed I just got floppier and tireder and was eventually just sitting in a chair waving my hands at the children. Fortunately they all deal with instructions pretty well. The 4yo coloured and practiced writing letters, the 8yo did a spelling lesson and then they both pulled out all the Lego and built stuff with it together. The 6yo did two spelling lessons and finished Spelling Workout A.
And then they all went outside again and played for hours in the wet snow.
It wasn't an impressive, exciting or even particularly productive school day, but these sorts of days are one of the reasons I work on school year round, up to six days a week. Because not all of those days do we manage to accomplish much. It's important to remember that 1) Life is school, too and 2) We're playing the long game, here.
I read a chapter of The Moffats aloud before bed.
Friday
Usually Friday morning is the time I take the 4yo to a play group but today my husband had a meeting and then a doctor's appointment and wasn't going to get home until lunchtime.
Instead we made churros and then I took all three children up to the library where there was a children's St. Patrick's Day party going on.
After this we had errands to run all afternoon and into the evening. I read a chapter of A Child's History of The World in the car while we were stopped at a store for my husband to run in. We're up to Alexander the Great.
Saturday
The 6yo decided to sew this morning and made a little blanket for a doll's house bed on the sewing machine, which she is learning how to use this year. The 8yo went to the church to practice the piano. Then all three children went outside to work on their latest fort. When they came in it was lunchtime.
After lunch we buckled down a bit more. The 6yo played Uno with the 4yo to practice her colours and numbers. She's got these down well, but constant repetition is key. The 8yo did his math, which today involved adding the eleven times tables to his graph book. This turned into a discussion about perfect squares, which turned into watching a Doodling In Math Class video about the Pythagorean Theorem. Before we ran down too many rabbit trails I put him on a video call with a friend of mine who teaches high school math - she had agreed to explain the concept of area for him better than I could. Both older children set the stove timer and did their 30 minutes of silent reading.
The 4yo's reading lessons had fallen by the wayside quite a bit this week, but when we sat down today to look them over she had remembered all of her sounds (s, t, m, a, e, r) and we did a lesson and a half in our reading book.
Then I heard the book narration from the 8yo about the book he got from the library on Tuesday. He is on chapter 11 so far.
We had a family game night today with Skip-bo (I wanted to see how that number review had worked out earlier for the youngest), and then I read two chapters of The Moffats before bed.
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