A good day

We had a good day on Monday. We started our studies later than I wanted. This is the second time in a row, but at least we did start! The only problem with starting late is that it's harder to rein in the kids. They start to think that they're getting out of it, and then I come along and tell them that it's time. I still need to get organized. I want to do unit studies with each of the children. Cars with ds and horses with dd. I've never planned a unite study before so, I'm just learning how get the research together and present it in a way that's interesting and not overwhelming. It's funny because I was reading the homeschool yahoo group about how one of the ladies’ children organized a whole unit study on frogs for her siblings. Then there is me who struggling with the research of it all. I'm probably bogging myself down with too many details. It's my perfectionism lurking again! It just shows me once more how much we can learn from children.

Okay, so back to our day. I teach them Math and Language Arts at home. I've decided this year to focus on one subject per day. We did math on Monday. We did start with journals, however. A note about journals: I have to remember to keep my nose out. I'll help them when they ask, but other wise I don't think journals are the place for me to be correcting them on the formations of their letters and so forth. Ds is getting so independent. He read the instructions on his sheets and answered the questions. And he did it quite cheerfully. Dd, of course, needed me more. One challenge has emerged. Ds likes quiet while he works. I've just learned that this year! There are many times, however, that I have to explain things to dd. What makes it more difficult is that ds doesn't like to be alone so, I can't send him off to his room. I'll have to give it some thought.

After we get the book work completed (which I try not to make very long) we do an activity. We only had time for dd's yesterday, but ds was happy to participate. Ds was learning about comparing sets with a one-to-one correspondence. We used candies for this activity.

We met a friend for lunch afterwards. I had to pick up the shop vacuum from my parents' house. They're lending it to me so that I can clean out the pool. We visited my friend with the appendicitis at her mother's home. Then we went to the library. I had books and tapes waiting to be picked up. The grocery store was next, and finally home. At home, I began the work on the pool. We can't put it away wet so I used the vacuum to suck up the water. I got it about half way completed and had plans to finish it off today, and then...it rained last night!! Sigh. I'm starting over today. This incidentally is what I’m avoiding doing right now.