No school today

I was going to try to attempt school today but decided better of that idea.  So JD played outside for most of the day while I tried my best to relearn adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing those pesky fractions.  I even talked with one of my teacher friends and she also converts the fractions into decimals.  She tried her best to talk me through the tough questions but apparently I didn't get it. 

It was a beautiful day here today and I just let JD have a good day with out the three R's.

A good day

We had a good day today. It was stretched out a bit because of long breaks but it was good nonetheless. It's now 10:00pm and Suri is up "working" with me while I blog.

The devotion today was about the pencil sharpener. It was invented in 1897 as works great for keeping your pencil sharp. But if you need a life-skills sharpener you need the bible. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is full of power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.”

I combined reading with language arts today to assist JD with his AWANA book. Today he wrote four facts about the rapture. Then, he answered three questions about the tribulation. He read Revelation 20:1-6 about the tribulation. The last thing we did was write what God says about our homes and families, why we should go to church, how we can help others, and what we need to know about Satan, angels, and the future. I had him highlight on a pre-typed paper two backup verses for each of those topics. He will have to recite these verses to his AWANA teacher or me this week. He’s so good at memorizing verses. (I wished my memory worked as well as his.)

After yesterdays math fiasco I didn’t even want to re-attempt the lesson again, for fear of shell shock. I started to but quickly snapped out of it until I talk with one of my teacher friends. Jeff did describe to me how to convert the fractions into a decimal and work the problem that way, but I didn’t see it like he did, so it was only a fleeting moment where we bonded while he tried to describe the process to me. (I guess my wall of “do I look like I care anymore” went up and I shut down my thinking.)

I had to run to the store today in order to accomplish two science experiments. One was writing a secret message on white paper using a q-tip and some lemon juice as “ink.” JD and I could not read what he wrote when we held it up to light as instructed. We tried again on different paper but it still didn’t work. Then we took steel wool and baptized it in vinegar. It was suppose to rust. It did slightly. We did two other samples as well. We washed the blue soap off of the pad and baptized it in water. It did not rust as fast. Then we took another steel wool with soap on it and baptized it in lemon juice. This also rusted.

We began our preliminary research today on Argentina. Of the nine regions or popular destinations recommended on a travel guide we visited, JD and I decided we want to go to Patagonia. The travel guide enticed us with this message, “Patagonia, the land of wonders, is a very big region taking up most of Southern Argentina. The region features a glacier-dotted mountainous interior, unique coastal wildlife and amazing Andean national parks. The mountains and lakes in Patagonia are also some of the most beautiful of all found in the world.” We also found out their seasons are completely opposite ours because they are in the southern hemisphere. And there’s a one time entrance fee of $131.00, because this is equivalent to what Argentines pay to get their visa to travel to our country. We had a lot of fun looking all around Argentina today.

A great day except for MATH!

It was tough to get started with school today but we got though all 6 scheduled lessons. Math proved to be a HUGE thorn in our sides. I may lose sleep over it tonight if Jeff or Daniel can’t help us learn multiplying fractions with a variable. (Ok, maybe not, because as far as I know I’ve never needed to know that for shopping or baking.)

The devotion today told us about the Morse code distress signal “SOS” that was adopted in 1906. The three dots, three dashes, three dots either stood for Save Our Ship or Save Our Souls in hopes that someone somewhere would respond and come to a ship's rescue. Thankfully, we don’t need any special code to send out a distress signal to Jesus. He is however, in the business of Saving Our Souls. And he does so when anyone is ready to call on his name and seek him. All it takes is prayer that can be said at anytime, and Jesus will respond.

Reading time today was dedicated to helping JD complete his AWANA book. The teacher thought he completed the book yesterday, but after flipping through the pages she noticed he memorized all the verses he could, but still had other activities to complete. JD will soon be moving onto a third AWANA book. Not many children do that. (I'm smiling wide.) So today we completed seven discoveries. They were things like: deciphering secret codes, reading verses and answering questions, reading pages, and unscrambling words.

Today in math I wanted to rip my hair out. We learned about adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions with variables (missing numbers.) JD and I both completely understood and were able to correctly answer everything except multiplying fractions with variables. We even went through the lesson twice to try to understand it, but to no avail. Jeff has promised to help us try to understand the “process” when he gets home and settles down for the night.

We did a review of sorts for science.  We did page 273 (Changes in the states of matter. Like boiling, evaporation, liquefaction, and vaporization etc.), page 274 (physical and chemical changes. We got 20 out of 23 correct.)and page 275 (a crossword puzzle of physical properties of matter like: boiling point, crystals, gas, and condensation etc.) in his science workbook. 

We started our rough draft of the South America brochure. We wrote down all 12 countries on pieces of paper and scrambled them on the floor. JD closed his eyes and picked Argentina. So we looked at the various folds of the brochures we had and decided what format to use. Then, we opened two of them to see how they had them formatted as far as information went. We have the following information marked for our brochure: recommended places to visit, facts, a map, transportation and trade, annual events, natural resources, agriculture, animals, vegetation, culture, history, cultural highlights, and lots of room for pictures.

I had JD complete an AWANA teacher appreciation card for language arts so he could get that page signed off in his AWANA book.  He did it like a scroll.  I may just have to hang it up in the Sunday school hallway.  He's so creative.