Monday – 

Pete spent time with the kids going through a book on training dogs.  Since we’ve had Domino we have realised that she is deaf.  All our training hopes got a little shook up there for a while then Pete searched the internet and found an amazing amount of information on training deaf dogs.  We are now able to transfer that pertinent information with the dog-training book we own.  The first thing that the kids need to work on is that they are the boss – it is a bit hard for the younger two but Josh and Jess can work on it.  We are working on come, sit, and stay in particular.  We are going to have to put Dog Training into our routine morning and night for the next 3 weeks.

The kids then all played Monopoly until they started getting loud and silly and obviously had too much energy so off they all went for a bike ride – dog included!

Once they came back, caught their breath etc we started with some Table time. 

Josh and Jess alternated with each other and worked on letter writing on the computer and a notebook page on a honeycomb Josh found over the weekend.  Jess used the Loupe and asked herself some analogy thinking questions.  Josh drew and wrote a paragraph about the honeycomb.

Nomi and Daniel did FIAR – Storm in the Night.  After reading the story Nomi read a page in a non-fiction book regarding storms.  She then read that aloud to me.  She is reading very fluently.  We brainstormed words we think of when we think of a storm.  Daniel’s first one was “gas” – after some discussion we realised he was talking about “evaporation”.  Thank-you Magic School Bus!!  So we then checked out that very book and started on our “Weather Recipe Book” – first ingredient; air.   Later in the day Nomi worked on the cover sheet for her “Storm in the Night” Notebook, which she approached from a creative perspective (not just “lets get it done!”)  This then led to her being upset about it not looking right so we had another lesson on being able to change things if they don’t go as we first imagined.  Nomi also did some copywork as she recorded the words she thought of in our brainstorming session.

We had the G.family visit us in the afternoon – this was another opportunity for Daniel to learn self-control especially when things don’t go his way – this time his feelings were hurt when somebody laughed at his misfortune.  It is a hard lesson to learn – not to be offended at other people’s responses. 

We made a last minute decision to go out for dinner (a rare event!) so we raced around finding our glad rags.  Actually when we announced our plans Nomi said, “Oooo, a chance to dress up!”  Everyone laughed as it sounded so feminine; something we aren’t particularly used to with Nomi!  Going out together like that was a good time to start our “manners” focus.  We gathered the kids around in the car park and gave them some basic instruction – like talking quietly, and boys looking after girls.  By the time we were all seated Nomi said, “Why are the girls getting all this extra treatment?”  She didn’t quite understand my answer that that was a way of the boys / men showing that they respected and honoured us ladies!