3

Today went pretty well, I thought. First she did a narration on "The Vain Jackdaw", then I read The Atlantic Ocean by Anne Ylvisaker and wrote down in her notebook what she could remember after. Then I read the first half of the Asia book again, and gave her an outline map and a list of 13 things to label on it. She did all of them and even found the Gobi Desert on her own. She also drew in and labeled the Equator. As she worked, we talked about the importance of some of them, like that the Dead Sea was the lowest point and Mt. Everest the highest and so forth. I found I did need to be there with her to make her do it--she liked looking things up on the map and globe and would have done that for hours on her own, but she didn't like labeling things. But I think it helps make stuff stick when you have to write it down. She is very concerned with spelling, even though I tell her not to sweat it. I don't know if that is self-imposed or something she picked up in kindergarten.

After that I offered her a break and she played with T for about 20 minutes, then we did the next bit in the math book. Again with trying to get out of doing the last exercise. I told her she could do it after lunch, but the longer she puts things off, the less time she has for playing.

After lunch and math, we were all getting a bit worn. It really is like pushing water uphill sometimes to make her do work. She is interested (very!) in learning about things but hates any kind of paperwork. She doesn't (usually) outright rebel, but she has definitely mastered the "slow down strike". But we forged on, this time moving on to grammar. I reread some pertinent passages from _Merry-Go-Round_ by Ruth Heller and had her write matching Proper Nouns for common nouns I gave her and vice versa. Then she listed 3 concrete nouns, and 3 abstract nouns. At first she wanted to list air as an abstract since you can't see it, but I pointed out that you can feel it in the wind. (Later this year we'll do an experiment to prove it has weight).

Then she was really running out of steam, and she was sick these past few days, so I just read to her: In My Own Backyard by Judi Kurjian, and The Ice Age by Darlene R. Stille. Then I let her hang out for an hour until it was time for dance/tumbling classes.

T was great today--I had some things Jen gave me and some play-doh ready to deploy but didn't need them--he played very nicely all by himself. Both kids really enjoyed their dance/tumbling classes today, and Weird Homeschool Mom wasn't as weird as she seemed last week. All in all a good day.