While we didn't do a load of school today, we did do a few hit and miss things. The kids worked in their journals first thing this morning and then we read a book about Dandelions. It was Axle's choice today and it was a refreshing remember that despite all this cold, warmer weather will be here in a matter of weeks.
It's been unreal cold here lately and we are going a bit stir crazy. I'm hoping for a trip to a bit warmer climate in the very near future!
After our book the kids located themselves in different rooms in front of a mirror. I chose to separate them for this activity because I was hoping it would help them concentrate better on what they were doing. We studied a bit about Van Gogh a few days ago and Axle showed an interest in Self Portraits. Since he's not usually into "artsy" type things I thought I'd grab any chance I could to expose him to something he seemed somewhat interested in. The kids were given their art bags (crayons, markers, etc) and told to look in the mirror and create their self portrait. I was actually pretty impressed with their creations.
Axle chose his head only. What you see that resembles a beard is actually his jaw. Apparently he thinks he has long jaws! He did great work though and even better, he enjoyed it. He actually said he thought he'd start drawing self portraits of people. This mom's heart was happy!
We spent our evening at my parent's house eating and socializing. They had a good Anniversary I think. Mom made us all cabbage rolls for dinner because we are firm believers that you have to eat cabbage on the 1st day of January. They were delicious.
Since we didn't get home until late, we finished up the rest of our school work as soon as we got here. It's the part I'll call their core work. It's subjects and things I want to expose them to daily. It's brief however it seems to be working well.
For core today Axle practiced writing his first and last name. He just recently learned to spell his last name. He also discovered today that he had another part to his name. He seemed shocked. It was cute! We reviewed his five sight words for the week and he read 3 pages in his Reading book to me. We finished up his core with his Remedial Reading program we are working on. He struggles with his reading so we make sure we do his program daily. I'm not pushing him too hard though, it will come with time.
For Annalee's core, she started by practicing identifying her alphabet. We know A-N now and are well on our way to mastering all uppercase letters. I'm quite proud of her. She also watched an online counting video and worked on writing her B's and 2's.
We will finish our night off with Tea Time- just a fancy name for Reading out of our Chapter Book and having a snack before bed!
Even though "planned" school was brief today there was still lots of learning going on. The kids both learned what an Anniversary was because we were celebrating Nan and Pa's. Lee questioned why their was icecicles hanging from the rocks on our drive today and we explained that it was from water runoff and how cold it has been. Axle watched "Wrestling" on television and although I've not figured out what he's learning from that, I'm sure there is something. Oh and Annalee watched Real Baby Doctor Video's on Youtube. She wants to be a doctor and loves watching them give shots!
My head is pounding tonight and I wish it wasn't. It's a New Year and I want to get busy planning some tasks and goals. Instead I think I'll call it an early night and go to bed!
I'll leave you with my word for the year. I chose this word because it's what I hope our year brings and what I plan to center my goals & life around.
My 2018 Word is "Peace"
Hope you all have a peaceful 1st week of January! I'll be back with an update soon!
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