Sean kept saying that today as according to the USPS website his birthday X Box football game is still stuck in Richmond CA. Sigh….
Last night:
- Clare listened to Les Miserables.
- The little ones played with letter puzzles for a very long time.
- I read lots of stories to Paddy including Irish Legends for Children.
- Kieron has read the Irish Legends several times now and finds How to Eat Fried Worms (a gift from old friends) and narrates to me while I’m making dinner.
Today:
7:30 am
- I woke up at the same time as Paddy and he asked me to read him a story. “Where’s Molly?” a medium length tale of a little dog that gets lost on New Years Eve. His attention span is most definitely longer.
8 am
- Downstairs to make breakfast — Tuesday is sausages and pancakes. I call my parents while I’m making the pancakes. The fire takes a long time to start and finally Clare has to do it.
- I got to the computer to help look up tracking information for Sean. The little ones wanted to do something on there. I loaded up Starfall and we sat there for about 20 minutes doing phonics together. Then Aidan played Count Your CHickens but it is getting too easy for him and he was making mistakes on purpose.
- Sean did Latin Quia.
9 am
- Kieron read a bit on the Bionicle web page and then did Latin (I think).
- Spelling test for the boys after they ate using Ayers-McCall. They like spelling tests. We try to do them about monthly.
- While I still had Kieron next to me I told him we should do math. He was a bit reluctant — “I thought it was up to ME to tell you”. But I told him that was only if I didn’t get around to it first. So we went ahead and worked on rounding off numbers, still extremely easy. I set him to do arithmetic problems and he struggled a little, perhaps because the noise level was a bit much around him. I had to help him through a bit more than usual.
- Sean still stressed about the undelivered game. He didn’t ask to do math as is his normal habit, and brought out his Bionicles to the table.
10am
- The little ones want to go outside. It takes me a long time to gather their stuff because I am trying to do little household things in between, like hang up laundry and organize school books.
- I give Brendan the Navigator to Kieron and also Jotham’s Journey — we didn’t finish reading it during Advent and so he wanted to finish reading it himself.
- Sean and Paddy playing basketball.
- I get out Kindergarten HWT for Aidan and he is so thrilled. Poor little kid. He is hungry to learn and do everything we do. We do several pages.
- So since he still has some learning energy I get out the sight reading cards. He is amused that I have added the words “cheese” and “crackers” and we go through them many many times. He now has about six sight words and can do the third period, ie answer when someone says “What does this say?”
- Sean picks up Brendan the Navigator and reads it.
11 am
- The guys are playing basketball. Sean read a bit of Outcast by Rosemary Sutcliff.
- I bring out Parent Child masterpieces for the little ones but they are only mildly interested so I put them away so they won’t scatter them.
- I give the Veritas Press cards to Kieron and he reads the backs of a couple of them.
- I get a call from a friend’s grown daughter saying that #9 child is born to her family — his name is Brendan by the way!
- I come upstairs and find Kieron reading Jotham’s Journey and Sean reading Incredible Comparisons which I strewed yesterday.
- Sean decides to do math and we work on it.
- Kieron is still reading. Aidan is still trying to get ready to go outside and Paddy is playing an imaginary game on the couch.
noon
- Paddy and Sean are swordfighting,
- Aidan is eating lunch.
- Clare comes out and asks a math question.
- Fed Ex comes with Brendan’s back ordered comforter.
- I go upstairs to hang laundry and vacuum.
- Kieron gives me a narration of Jotham’s Journey and keeps reading. I notice that his spontaneous narrations are topical. That is, he makes a general statement and then proceeds to support it from the reading. THis time he says: “This story is sort of predictable but it has some real surprises in it too” and then goes from there. I wonder if this is a right-brained trait — big picture then details rather than sequential — or something to do with his age, getting to the logical age.
- Paddy sits on my lap as I type this.
- Kieron comes in to say he has finished Jotham’s Journey. This one starts: I feel sorry for Decha (the bad guy). Then he proceeds to tell of the villain’s fate in detail.
We’re basically done with formal work for today. We still have left: Bible History and Story of the Romans for Kieron, and Story of the Church and maybe Book of Insects for Sean. I wanted to start having some sort of Morning Time where I read about a saint and do something like Faith’s breakfast-school but it isn’t happening today. Kevin is taking SEan and Aidan out to play catch and then they will walk to the Post Office. I’m going to go outside with Paddy and Aidan.
Update:
- I took Paddy and Aidan to the Pine Cone Place as they have dubbed it, and we saw a couple of crows winging their way over us, and the wind stirring our giant sugar pines and incense cedars — an impressive sight.
- Aidan and Paddy played a game where they lay down in the snow and pretended to go to sleep. I realize how much I am going to miss these little-one moments when they are past and all the kids are older.
- Paddy and I played football, soccer and some real-life version of Marble Blast, with pine cones as accessories. Aidanrolled his stroller wheel around on the street — Kevin has duct-taped a stick to it so he can push it like one of those popper toys for toddlers.
- When we got back the people who had gone to the post office were back; Sean and Kevin de-iced part of the driveway. Brendan is up and around.
- Clare says she has finished the movie script she was writing.
- Kieron was bored having finished Brendan the Navigator and Jotham’s Journey both, so I gave him “King of Ireland’s Son” by Padraic Colum and also read him Bible HIstory (Sodom and Gomorrha) and Story of the Romans (Dido and the story of the founding of Carthage). Instead of a regular narration we discussed them and Kieron answered the Bible History questions. Sean and Kieron and I all discussed how to cut an ox-hide in thin enough strips to circumference a city’s area. If I was one of those hands-on moms I would bring out the scissors and cloth but since I’m not — we just talked ;-).
- The football game DIDn’T come so lots of life experience moments and discussion. Sean is resigned.
