October 28,2008

Today we had a good day. The kids worked on cleaning their room, then they went outside to play while I played with Colette and picked up the kitchen. Colette has a new favorite book, Won't You be my Kissarroo. First book she will actually sit through.

After lunch, Colette watched Winnie the Pooh, and eventually fell asleep in her sisters bed. She would rather sleep there then the crib. Then the girls had a chance to work on their math 'problem of the day'. Rachel is learning pre-algebra/adding/subtracting. What I do is give her four problems of: 45+__=97. She understands it's her job to subtract, and line up the numbers correctly. Then I ask her to 'check' the problem, to make sure it makes sense. She is also learning multiplication.

Gracie also had her 'math problem of the day'. She has a 9 digit addition problem, a 9 digit subtraction problem and a few multiplication problems (1's and 0's). She chooses only one problem to finish each day. They like it better like this, and it's a lot less stress! We also played a card game of 'War'. It's like the regulary card game, but instead they are dealt 2 cards. First game they add them togteher, second game they subtract and on the third game they multiply (we have a cheater mat for multiplying;). They really enjoy this!

Later on they picked out a book to read to me. I read to them a section out of Abeka's history reader. Rachel read, Are you an Ant, from 'Backyard Books'. I was surprised when she read that ants had two stomaches, the second called a 'crop'. She stated that birds have those too. When I asked her how she knew that, she said she learned that from a science video I had gotten from the library. I have them play them while they're cleaning the room, I had no idea they actually listened! Gracie read, Read with Dick and Jane, Jump and Run. The first story. She enjoys those books, and a lot of them are available at the library. I also get her other books to choose from.

Rachel emailed both her penpals. She's getting good at being able to spell without help! Gracie has two e-pals, one of them also writes letters and they send coloring pictures back and forth.

Classical-Unschooling, as I like to call it, is so much more relaxed the kids have begun to 'enjoy' learning and no longer see it as a burden. I correct their grammar when they write e-mails (for the most part) and that has been a great way to learn.