Monday – We all had a case of Monday-itis today but we all pushed through.  We set out to achieve a full lesson day.  We started with a new Character study:  Availability.  This involved the kids watching the video, which introduced the trait.  The kids then taught me the actions to the memory work.  Their notebooking today was to copy-draw the animal connected to Availability, which is the giraffe.  Daniel traced his, which is the first time I have let him do this, but for him there was some valuable skill (which surprised me!) so I may let that be for a while.

Joshua was studying History today though he has a lot of notebooking to “catch up” on.  Today he started to make a clay model of a Viking.    Josh also worked on his Math and Latin.

Jess worked on her computer unit as well as Math and Latin. 

Nomi worked on her Narnia unit – mainly filling in some word puzzles.  She also re-started her typing lessons.

Daniel and I worked with his OT activities, his speech words, and his Math.  We started a new FIAR title, “Finest Horse in Town” which is a new book for our family so I invited Nomi to join us for the reading.  Jess picked it up on her own and read it later in the day.

It rained again today bringing the first “Storm” to our house.  So the kids all piled outside onto the veranda’s to enjoy the storm.  The rain did bring some relief to the mugginess that had been building up.

Nomi and Jess worked with Femo later in the afternoon.  Nomi completed a project of a cat playing with a ball of string on a mat.  Daniel has been playing with cars again (after us seeing the movie “Cars”)  It was interesting to hear him say that it was seeing the movie that has made him interested again in cars.

Tuesday – Daniel was up all last night – SICK!  So today was go slow, take it as it comes.

Jessica and Josh picked 100 mangoes – they still have so much more to do but 100 is a good start.

We all sat down to Character though I didn’t expect much from Daniel.   We discussed the concept of putting other people first – the slogan for the day was “It’s not about me”.  

Josh and Jess continued with their independent studies.

I re-started a chapter book read aloud to Daniel, a story of William Tell.  He seemed to connect with it a lot better than when we first started earlier in the year.

Jess got started on her sewing project. 

Nomi wasn’t 100% either so she spent a lot of time reading today.

Wednesday – How this week is flying by!

Josh, Jess and Nomi picked another 100 mangoes.  We worked at trying to flick off the stem without the sap marking the skin.  We aren’t very good at it!  Good conversation about marketing and people’s perception on quality.

My intention was for us to get to Character but I think today is the day that I start to feel the effects of missing one night’s sleep!  So I pottered in the office.  Daniel still sick.  Nomi worked on typing and her Narnia assignments.  Jess did sewing, a little on her computer unit and worked on a powerpoint presentation.  Josh worked on his Latin and science.   His science came to a halt, as we need to buy some chewing gum for an experiment.  Josh is working diligently on a very creative Christmas present.   It has been great to see him respond to having the hobby room as a place where he can work on projects.

They watched a little of the ABC Education programmes today.  First a math programme that is aimed at Daniel’s age, revision for Nomi and total blob out for the others!  Then they watched “Behind the News” which they all seem to enjoy and discuss afterwards.  Then Josh and Daniel watched a show on developing weapons.  It was nice to hear Daniel refer to Josh when he didn’t understand something.

Daniel obviously started to feel better as he headed to the family room wanting to create a robot.  He used a plank of wood, stuck a 20Q on as a robotic head but wanted wheels.  We worked together to find a way to make the wheels free spinning by putting the axles through a block and sticking the block to the base (not the wheels as he was initially trying to do.)