Week 10 - A math review

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

From the teacher's corner.....
This week CC is on a two week break from math so I am taking this opportunity to evaluate some mathy things.  I read Kitchen Table Math 1 and 2 this week.  They aren't exactly what I was expecting (a pick up and go math supplement), but they are terrific.   Having failed at teaching math on many levels,  I finally came to understand what Liping Ma described as related topics or web of information in math.  What I have been missing is something that breaks down math topics into those pieces so I can figure out what my kids need to understand and what things are related.  These books do that.  They give an explanation of each of the many, tiny steps that are involved in teaching math, usually including an activity that reinforces it and a sample of a problem demonstrating it.  The topics are also linked with a note as to what needs to be learned prior to starting the topic.  I am adding sticky notes and highlights and planning to demo some mini-lessons with the girls next week.

Now back to our week.  No migraines this week.  I'm pretty good at controlling my triggers (wheat, soy, corn, cinnamon, tree nuts, and MSG), but sometimes I get accidental exposure.

Monday - CC went to the office with her dad.  She knitted him a cap, read more of Giants, Monsters, and Dragons,  went to a few meetings, read The Story of Salt, Sneeze and a new Asterix, then went fencing and wrote in her journal.
LB played with play dough.  I read her Cinderella and from the Big Book of Tell Me Why.  She did her ETC.

Tuesday - CC did Perplexors, grammar, wrote in her journal, read from her Monsters book, and rode her bike with her dad to pottery. 
LB went to school.

Wednesday - I tortured the kids with some School House Rock, took them on a nature walk, read Listen to the Wind, and took them for a run to begin a 5k training program.
CC Did grammar and spelling.  We looked up the rules for her words in The ABC's and All Their Tricks then had a little spelling bee.  She also read from her monsters book and did perplexors.
LB did her ETC, played on pbskids.org, read some books about mammals, and went to ballet.

Thursday - CC went to school. 
LB did her ETC, watched Bambi, drew characters from the movie, played hide-and-seek, went for a bike ride and a nature walk. We also started reading fairy tales from Hans Christian Anderson, again.

Friday - I am super busy trying to get done with work early so I can go to the park this afternoon, and I think the kids' day might consist of playing ping-pong in the kitchen until we go to the park.  Either that or wandering around begging me to play with them because there is nothing to do.  I really want Rosetta Stone accomplished and grammar - right now CC is helping LB with her RS - I keep hearing things like "Try egg" and "I think it means dog".   There are advantanges to having them do different languages - cross polination is a big one. 
I am, of course, leaving out the fact that they watched way too much Beakman's World on Netflix all week.



I need to start a loaf of bread and figure out what's for dinner. I need to go to the teacher store and order CC's next math book and the next ETC for LB.

I was on call last weekend and part of this week - it seems like I spent so much time handling calls the first two days of the week that I can't get anything else done all week. I'm on call next week from Monday to Friday, and my mom is going to stay with my sister for a month. I don't have high expectations for next week. This week seemed like a jumbled mess to me, but in the end, we accomplished much. Did you notice I started grammar again and spelling? Hooray!