Hairy Onions

Clank, clank, clank, clank....It's what we heard at 9:30 this morning. Libby was beating her empty water bottle on the edge of the computer desk, waiting for someone to acknowledge her presence. She had let us work, without interruption, for an hour. It was cold this morning, so she spent most of her time curled up on the couch with a blankie and cartoons. Probably "Jessie." It's her favorite. At any rate, we had lunch at 11am and were done with everything by 1pm. Often times, we have had to save a subject or two for evening. But, it's nice to know we don't have anything else to do today (except our read aloud which is bedtime). And that doesn't seem like schoolwork anyway.

Last night we finished the first book in the Pirate School series. It was good. The girls actually said they liked it better than Junie B. Jones. I could tell because when It came time to break the night before last they wanted me to read one more chapter. Maybe they liked Captain Stinky Feet, or maybe it was the fact that "Aaron" fell into the rotten pool of fish guts as he tried to walk the plank.... Either way, I am excited to start a new one tonight! The best part about these books is that they are read in two days. We can quickly move onto another one.

Teagan moved on to writing her word web today for her personal narrative. We talked about all the exciting things that she has experienced and she chose the one she wanted to write about it. She chose Disney World! It's my favorite too! Talk about being magical, there is no vactation like it. And if it weren't for the sweetest maw-in-law in the world, we would have not been able to go. She's in love with Disney World as well! Once she started remembering all the fun things we did, filling in her writing web was easy peasy.

After math and writing and history for both, Neely and I worked on phonics. We are still using A Beka's A Handbook for Reading. Still love it with one complaint; the font for the letters is not good for kids learning to read. It's similar to the font I use to type these blogs. The 'a' and 't' is confusing to her.

While we did phonics, Teagan did some independent reading. I have really got to get some bean bags. Donations, anyone? =)

One of our favorite games is Bingo at my house. We use it for color words, number words, sight words, 3-D shapes, etc. Really, anything we can think of! Today we added some more to Neely's sight word Bingo list. She knows them. Now that she is learning how to make new words with word families, I think I'll throw in some she hasn't learned yet. Shake it up a little!

Now to something a little extra, not on the lesson plan but a lesson indeed. Chef Neely, hard at work, cooking up some onions for our hamburger steak. Daddy cut them, but she poured them in and kept watch. It's a little step, but she is eager to learn. And she's so darn cute in her custom made apron from Devin Rubenstein!

One thing I learned while reading blogs is that when you let your kids help to make dinner, give them the "money job". Not the dish clean up or pan picking, but the stirring and pouring and mixing. I am really bad about saying, "All right find me the frying pan." Or half-way through their really bad stirring job I'll say, "Ok, that's great, let me do it now." Teagan has even called me out by asking if her stirring wasn't good enough and if it was, why do I always stir it again. =)

I've said before that I like to do things myself because I get it done faster, but I am really trying to take it easy. So what if the gravy has lumps? So what if the sugar wasn't completely stirred into the tea? So what if there is a minor (or major) spill in the floor that dripped off the counter into the drawer? So what if an onion slice fell on the floor and Neely picked it up and put it back into the pan before I could say anything? I did check for hair, and we are still alive. It'll be OK because it was our little secret. *wink* And the pigs at my house just shovel it in without a second glance.