Day 2

Today went much more smoothly even though we had yet another late start and some other slight issues.

I introduced a modified version of what our morning routine will look like. We started off with the Pledge of Allegiance. I had given each of the boys a little flag - I have tons left over from T's Olympic birthday party a couple of years ago. We had another brief discussion about the Pledge of Allegiance and the flag and what it represents. From the we go through a review of the alphabet and numbers. I intended to march to the numbers but that didn't really work out. So we just chanted them instead. Then T quickly reviewed counting by 10s, 5s and 2s.

We jumped into seat work. I am still reviewing with T. We did a review of time and money. We also reviewed some more phonics - oi, oy, er, ir, ur sounds. It was more puzzle work - a word find and crossword puzzle. So this was right up his alley. This year, I am going to have T work more on handwriting. I am still debating whether I'll start on script this year or wait until next. I am going to have T practice more printing and go from there.

Meanwhile L was working on his reading readiness skills. It was mostly colors, shapes and patterns but he seems to love it. I just let him work until he's had enough. This will be great laying out the foundation for when he starts to write.

We continued with our science unit on sharks. I read Sharks by Valerie Bodden. Then we read facts about Hammerhead sharks and colored a worksheet on them. T also did a shark alphabet activity where he put shark related terms in alphabetical order. I am pretty excited about the shark unit because last night I decided that I can do a shark lapbook with the boys. I think that T and L will love working on it and treasure the end result.

We took a quick break for lunch. We listened to a Dora CD while eating.

After lunch, T and I reviewed a few chapters in preparation for Chinese school on Saturday. He has forgotten a lot. We will just continue to review for the rest of the week and hope for the best.

Since T did so well today, he earned his computer time. He got half an hour to play Freddi Fish 5, the case of The Creature of Coral Cove.

While T was on the computer, L and I were making chocolate chip cookies. The plan is, and hopefully I'll be able to follow through, to make/cook/bake something with the boys each week. It will reinforce following directions. L matched pictures to the actual ingredients. And he had fun counting the cookies. He had even more fun eating the chocolate chip cookies at snack time.

We ended our school day with reading time. T read Amazing Egypt with Mrs Frizzle. L was looking through picture find books. I was finishing up Big Boned by Meg Cabot while Z was looking through pictures from my wallet and playing with a Bakugan toy.

I think a big reason that today went much more smoothly is that Z gave up on us pretty quickly. I think he soon realized that what we were doing was "boring" and went about playing and coloring on his own. He did draw on the laundry basket, but a wipe soon made things all better. In fact he had fun again, going around wiping anything and everything.