Another good day

Today Jeff opened up our school day with a prayer. It was a nice change of pace. Usually I open the school day and JD says the lunchtime blessing. I think this is the third time Jeff has been at home during a normal school day. (But I didn’t hear him volunteer to tag out with me to teach anything. Bummer...just joking Jeff.)

Today is “Old Stuff Day” according to JD’s devotional book. It talked about old valuables and treasured old things they’ve toted around since they were little. Then it transitioned into carrying around old habits, attitudes, and sins. Jesus offers us a chance to get rid if the old and become totally new.

I did not do the Purpose Driven Life reading today. I was expecting JD to finish “A Boy No More” in February so he could do another book “report.” But he hasn’t finished the book yet. So I had him read independently again today. He’s about 5 pages from being done with that book.

The math lesson today was an introduction into the metric system. Seems complicated but once you do enough problems you would get the hang of it. It’s just trying to remember which one is bigger than the next. They had a chart for us to follow so that made it easier. Apparently to convert from kilogram to milligrams you have to make the number smaller. So what math process would you think you would do this with? If you said multiply you are correct. (What? Multiply? Yep. It’s all in where the decimal is.) When JD and I first started the lesson we looked like two monkeys trying to put a 100 piece puzzle together. But we finally found an “easier” way and tackled, no mastered the decimal system. Like I said it all in where the decimal place goes. (Funny picture huh?)

Today for social studies I had JD paste the capitals to each corresponding state. The states did not have their names labeled. He mentioned that in public school they were also doing this task, but he said, “It was too hard.” Today was not hard. We worked together and pasted about half of them. (How many do you think you could name? It’s tough believe me.) He did fairly well on this task but was upset when I stopped assisting him. I opened the atlas for him and asked him to complete the rest using an atlas. He said, “Aw, you’re not going to help me?” The frown on that adorable little face said all the nonverbals for him. I felt awful. I think sometimes he looks at me like a classmate or class partner. I said, “I’ll be back but in the meantime do what you can.” After he finished the pasting job I had him do flash cards. Looks like both of us still need better memorization skills on about ¼ of the states.

Today in language arts he did two lessons because they were for review and they were short enough to get through them both with time to spare. The first lesson he did was “Think Aloud level 1, part 4 (nonfiction).” That teaches him the concept of thinking aloud while he’s reading. He should be thinking of cause and possible effects or asking questions like who, what, when, where, and how. I had him do this independently while I busied myself in the house. He did well. Then he also did a “Think Aloud, level 2, part 2 (nonfiction)” independently. He scored a perfect 100% on that.

Science today was also a small review lesson before moving on to conducting research on an experiment. When he saw the lesson called “Design another experiment” he said, “No we already know how to do that. Can’t we do something else?” So we flipped through the lesson and took a chapter quiz. He scored a 90%. Then we moved onto “Experimental research.” This teaches future scientist to explore if anyone else had done that experiment already. If they have then the student should compare his data and conclusions to see if they are different. Today we looked up information about Daniel Bernoulli and “Bernoulli’s principle.” He was a line of bright family members. His dad eventually banished him and stole some of Daniel’s ideas and plagiarized them. (That whole blood is thinker than water does NOT fit here. We tried to understand his “principle” but it was WAY above our heads. He was a mathematician after all. I guess he did experiments with fluid and air pressure mechanics. (I’m not real sure.)

The last thing JD did today was email/snail mail. I had him write two letters of birthday thanks and one “thinking of you card” for my grandmother. I guess the last time she received a piece of mail from JD just made her month. She won’t stop talking about it. So why not add a smile for this month too. JD took way to long to hand write the dictated letters. He finally got them done when his daddy came home with the proper Wii cable so we don’t have to play in black and white anymore. Reuben got JD a Wii for his birthday present. Thanks Reuben.

I would also like to take a minute more of your time to say "Thank You" followers. I know some of you aren't allowed to respond to blogs at work but you do manage to follow this one. I know I'm taking you away from your work for our mundane school life but your telephone messages, email messages, and followers comments give me strength and encouragement just when I need it. So...