The Long Day is Over

Feeling tired
By the fire
The long day is over
The wind is gone
Asleep at dawn
The embers burn on
With no reprise
The sun will rise
The long day is over...

~Nora Jones

The end of our first day of academic focus is over. It was both good and bad. We had fun, and we had tears. It's amazing how living can be so hard on one's soul.

We began the day with a few workbook pages. Sweetheart did pages of a number book to learn to read, recognize and use her numbers. She was anxious to do them and was disappointed when it was time to move on to the KONOS stuff.

Monet started off with a workbook on multiplication and immediately deemed it "too easy." I assured him that what he was doing was only an introductory review and that it would, indeed, get harder. :-)

Edison started the day with a game of pizza math, something I picked up in the clearance aisle at Wal*Mart. It's a game that helps to understand fractions and division.

While they worked on their notebooks, I served up toast and gave The Baby some cottage cheese (her current favorite). After I finished with that, we moved right on to the KONOS obedience character study. We started with a game of Mother May I/ Simon Says where the three of them had to line up facing me. I would call out an instruction saying, "Mother says," or "Father Says, " or God Says," and they had to decide if they were to obey or not. The object was to get to me, so I would say something like, Mother says take three baby steps forward," and then they would decide if they should obey Mother, and if they should, they would. Then I would say something like, "A stranger says take one step backwards," and they would decide whether they should obey or not. The last instruction was, "Mother says give Mama a hug," so I got three big hugs. :-)

We discussed authority, helping 5 YO Sweetheart understand what the word "authority" means. We listed the different people who are in positions of authority over us, and we discussed what the Bible says about our obedience to God, to parents and to others. Later, in the car, Edison asked why it's so important that everyone vote, so we discussed what it means to have someone be in a position of authority over you, and how our founding fathers came from a monarchy where they weren't given any control over who would be in authority over them, and how hard they fought to have independence and a democratic government, or a government run by the people. If we don't vote, I explained, we can't complain about who has authority over us in the government.

We played another game where I let the children choose a room in the house, anywhere they wanted, and they had to listen for the dinner bell. As soon as it was rung, they were to come as quickly as they could and I would time their results. They were able to hone their skills down to eight minutes! I plan to give these drills daily.

We played another game where I would call out an instruction. The people who obeyed each received a point, and the one who obeyed the quickest received an extra point.

I assigned them to read the story of Abraham and Isaac and to dramatize the story in some way. Edison and Monet had a falling out over it and eventually I separated them and assigned them to each dramatize the story in their own way. Monet chose to make popsicle stick puppets while Edison chose shadow puppets. They'll put on their productions tomorrow.

Monet and I practiced counting by tens from any number, adding double digits, dividing and multiplying. We also discussed percentages as they relate to fractions.

Sweetheart and I did a reading lesson...she's still doing well. She practiced writing the letter "d" on paper and then in jello powder in a pie pan.

This evening, Edison and Monet had choir practice and then we stopped to pick up some old school lockers that I got from FreeCycle, and then we stopped for pizza, where Monet and I tried this trick on Bohemian:

Explain to a friend that you can predict a mathematical outcome based on the number of their choosing. Write down your prediction on a piece of paper, fold it in half and put in their hand, instructing them to place it in their pocket or some other safe place. Have them choose a number, any number, but suggest that it's one that will be easy with which to work because they will be adding, subtracting and dividing using the number. After they've chosen a number and written it down without telling you what it is, have them do each of the following steps:

Add your number to the next higher number. For example, if your number is six, add seven to it to get 13. If your number is 42, add 43 to it to get 85, and so on.

Add nine to the sum.

Divide that sum by two.

Subtract your original number from the quotient.

After they've done their math, checked it for accuracy and then checked it again, let them take the slip of paper out of their pocket and read it. They'll be amazed that you predicted right!

The reason? No matter what number they choose, the answer will always be five!

Lessons I learned today:

Do all of the workbooks and copying first.
Have finger snacks that don't cause stickyness. Toast is probably not the best choice for a worksheet table breakfast. :-)
Have Edison and Monet work seperately from the beginning.
Be flexible.

That's all for tonight. We'll see what tomorrow brings.