The Three Rs
For reading this week, Bug continued working through Frog and Toad Together with a break to read My First Book of Girl Power (a board book about female superheroes). Monkey also read the Girl Power book as well as Fancy Nancy Goes to the Museum. Goose has now completed through lesson 4 in her textbook.
For writing this week, I had the girls write a sentence or two and draw a picture of something from our trip to Philadelphia (Goose just dictated, but the big girls did their own writing). They also wrote letters to Grandma, dictated journal entries about the snow, and the big girls practiced a little cursive writing (I know it's early for that skill, but they both requested that we start). As part of Goose's reading lessons she also practices writing the letters that she's learned so far (s, m, and a).
We started a new thing for big girls for math this week: timed drills for addition (right now they're adding 0, 1, 2, or 3 to other single digits). It had become clear to me recently that before we can easily move on to new math concepts, they needed to have a better grasp of the math facts. Both girls have shown marked improvement just over the course of a week--halving the time it takes them to complete 25 problems. Monkey has been struggling with this activity, less for the math skills required and more for the focus required (moving straight from one problem to the next instead of pausing to twirl her hair, stare out the window, compose a tune, etc.). It's frustrating for both of us, but we're working on it. For Bug this is an easy if somewhat boring activity that has the attraction of being a race against her own previous times. (She tried convincing Monkey that if you don't want to do something, it's best to just get it done quickly and move on. Hopefully, one of these days that lesson will sink in.)
The big girls also worked on fractions, counting money, adding doubles, and telling time this week. Goose practiced putting flashcards of numbers 1-20 in order (1-10 are a piece of cake; the teens are a lot more challenging for some reason).
More Snow!
Snow is still a novelty for the entourage, so when we woke up to a couple of inches one morning and the locals barely noticed, I declared it a "two-hour delay" and sent them out to play in all their snow gear. They requested we read The Snow Day first, and I was happy to oblige. They loved comparing their own experiences to Peter's (they made a snowman and snowballs, they drew with sticks and whacked trees, and it even snowed again later in the week).
Swimming Lessons
Bug and I were a bit frustrated with their formal swimming lessons this week. Neither of the big girls are being challenged to the point of improving their skills (neither of them have been asked to practice swimming on their own yet, and the teacher is still holding their hands when they jump in), and Bug's attempt to talk to her teacher about modifying a particular activity didn't get a response (Bug needed less help than she was being given in jumping in, but wasn't quite ready to jump in and swim back without assistance in reorienting, and she had a very specific request that would have helped bridge the gap.) It's not just us though! Apparently, this teacher is a new one this session, and other moms on the sidelines were also dissatisfied with the lack of challenge and with the ratio of time spent sitting on the wall and actually practicing swimming. Goose's challenge during swimming lessons was that it was unusually cold in the water! The poor girls spent most of the class near tears, but she still did everything required of her without complaint. I was really impressed with her perseverance.
Swimming lessons are only one day a week here though, so on Thursday after doing my own workout we took advantage of a nearly empty (and much warmer) pool to do my own swimming lessons with them. Bug had a list of skills she wanted to practice to keep up with her class back in California (front stroke with side breathing, back float, treading water, and streamline gliding). I also worked with her on jumping in then swimming back to the wall by herself, so she's ready to try that in class next time and doesn't have to worry about working out modifications with her teacher. In the month or so since we've done lessons, Monkey has somehow reverted back to being afraid to put her head in the water or to be in the water without an adult holding her. We worked on both skills and by the end of our family sessions she was dunking herself repeatedly (not happily but at least without panicking) and cheerfully kicking around with a kickboard solo. She was even willing to glide a yard or so by herself to get to it from the steps. This week I didn't work on much intentionally with Goose, but the lifeguard gave her a floaty and she rediscovered the joys of jumping in and kicking around all by herself (particularly if in pursuit of a rubber duck).
Games
I'm not an avid game player myself (I don't have a competitive bone in my body), but for kids card and board games are a great learning experience--for the practice of academic knowledge, for the development of logic and strategy skills, and for emotional maturity. Mostly for that last reason, I've decided to make playing games a regular part of our life. Recent game-playing experiences revealed I had a couple of very sore losers on my hands. This week we played a math board game (kind of a race involving adding doubles), and I taught Monkey and Bug how to play checkers. Both girls did very well and had a good time, but both experiences also required apologies for inappropriate behavior. Watching their distinct personalities at work is always interesting: Monkey took a broad view and just started moving all her pieces as soon as an opportunity arose, gradually gaining more strategy in evading capture and capturing Bug's pieces. Bug on the other hand had a strategy from her very first move, but she tended to focus only on a few pieces and was really thrown off her groove when Monkey successfully completed countermoves that disrupted her strategy. (I don't even know how many times I said, "Take a deep breath. It's your move: look at your options and change the situation.")
Soup's on!
On a particularly chilly day faced with a mostly empty fridge, I pulled the entourage into the kitchen for a casual cooking lesson: soup without a recipe. We started with a simple decision--cream or broth? They went with broth, so we put chicken broth on to boil while we scavenged the fridge, freezer, and cabinets for additional ingredients. We came up with a dash of garlic and ground savory (we smelled a few spices and went from there), chopped summer sausage, leftover rice, and a healthy serving of frozen mixed vegetables, then we dropped an egg in to make it a little heartier. Yum! (After her second helping, Monkey has requested that next time we "make one of those soups where the pieces don't move around so much." Me: "You mean a chowder?" Monkey: "Sure, that kind.")
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