Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Another Fabulous Day

Though we didn't get school started until almost 11 again, closer to 10:30 actually, we did finish before 12:30 which was my goal! WooHooo! I made a goal and reached it!! LOL.

We started with Spelling and Cameron finished up the workbook exercises for the Lesson 11 words. One of the exercises was finding the list words that rhymed with some pictures and Cam said, "Oh, I love these!" Really? I don't remember him loving Spelling, but OK. I'm actually debating whether or not to give a real test on Friday or not. They really seemed to stress him out last year when he didn't get 100% on them. I may just try something like, write the word however you think it should be spelled then write it three times the right way, without calling it a test. He'll hate having to write all the words three times though, so maybe I will make it a "real test" and have him only write the incorrect ones three times.

Next I wanted to do phonics but he wanted to do math. We went back and forth for a minute but I finally agreed if he promised not to whine when it was time to do phonics. Math was another two pages on triple digit addition with carrying. No big deal.

While he did his math, I actually planned ahead and started putting dinner in the crock pot. He finished before I did so while I finished chopping carrots we reviewed the poem The Caterpillar and Cameron and Cassia both shocked me by having it pretty much memorized already!! FLL wants you to review it practically every day for two or three weeks. I don't think that will be necessary! I see what everyone is saying about the repetition being over the top. When we moved on to the rest of the Grammar lesson, it was also super repetitive. I mean, how many times do you need to go over what a common noun is? And I'm sorry, but I would be pretty shocked (and saddened) to find a first-grader who didn't already know what brothers, sisters, mother, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins were. That's not grammar. That's family. So, maybe I need to spend some time each night prereading the next lesson, rather than blindly doing one after another, to see which ones we actually want to do.

So then it was time for phonics and we did a lesson on the long /a/ sound in "eigh." There was a little whining, but nothing serious.

Finally we came to History and read Chapter 5 in SOTW about the Sumerian dictator, Sargon. I pulled out the coloring pages and Cameron asked what color he should color it. When I told him that he could color it any way he wanted, he said, but don't we get maps? I showed him the maps and he cheered. Yes, you read right, the boy cheered over map work. What have I done to these children? ;)

So we finished up by 12:15 leaving me plenty of time to notice that although I had turned the crock pot on I had forgotten to plug it in. I also had time to blog and look up the myriad of overdue library books on Egypt before heading to said library and then Park Day. And I must get on with the latter part of that last sentence before we are late to the park. :) Happy Wednesday everyone.

1 comment:

~Mary~ 4boys4me said...

My kids like maps too. What's not to like? ;)
LOL at not turning the crockpot on - sounds like something I would do!