A good busy day

The devotion was about the Scrooge. He was tired of Christmas, carols, and presents. When I was a child Christmas used to be my favorite time of year. There was always an abundance of presents for both my brother and me. But I didn’t know the “true” meaning of Christmas. Now that I am a child of God’s I KNOW the true meaning of Christmas and the only present I’ll even need I unwrapped in the year 2000. (Wow ten years ago.) Christmas celebrates the greatest gift ever given - God himself in human flesh. The wise men presented gifts to baby Jesus. And for centuries Christians have exchanged gifts in his honor.

Today’s math lesson was fairly easy. It reviewed with us all about the graphs to use when we want to “group” data. First the lesson reviewed the Venn diagram. That’s the one with the overlapping circles. Then, it taught us about the line plot and asked us the questions of range, mode, and median. The last graph was the stem and leaf graph. One question during this lesson was “how many of the children have 8 or more letters in their first name?” JD responded with, “Oh I would be in this group.” It sounded like he missed being in a classroom setting for just this question. (Sad huh?)

We finally got a colored printer cartridge and we were able to print out more pictures for the “recommended places to visit” page of the Argentina brochure. Social studies was once again a fun time for JD and I as we talked more about going here or there. JD decided he would not go on “The train to the clouds.” Apparently it’s too high. We also worked on the “Annual events” and “types of transportation” pages.

We research the Friedrich Mohs mineral hardness scale in science today. JD labeled all ten minerals on the scale. Talc being the softest and a diamond being the hardest. We also learned to identify minerals by looking at the color, luster, hardness, specific gravity, and streak. Did you know all minerals are solid except water, mercury, and opal?

I was at my cleaning job when I had JD write five sentences about things he would do if he was on a snow day. (JD’s second cousin was on a snow day in Tennessee today.) So the language arts lesson wasn’t too painful because it was relevant. He ended up writing ten complete sentences with description in each. There‘s still room for significant improvement but I was proud of him for adding details. For example…he would make a huge snowman…why? Original answer, “To watch him melt.” Revised with details, “So I can cut his head off and watch him melt.” (Should I be afraid?)

JD is flip flopping around with his reading. He cannot locate the Star Wars book and has taken a liking to reading Grace for the Moment, by Max Lucado. He enjoyed his thirty minutes of reading while I cleaned.

We rushed from the cleaning job to the church so the kids could go caroling.  But the temperature dropped so much throughout the day that we just had a Happy Birthday Jesus party in the fellowship hall.  We left somewhat early because I felt the beginning stage of a migraine headache.