N is for Numbers - 7/25/11

We had a fairly quiet day today. Dill showed up not feeling well. I thought he was just tired at first, and then I thought he just was bummed about having to do his summer school. But then he said he felt sick, and when the tears welled up I believed him :(  He went and laid down on the couch and fell asleep, Poor Dill!

So guess who turned into a reader over the weekend?? 

After he finished all of his phonics books, Jem was all excited that he had become a reader now!  While I was gone to the homeschool conventio this weekend, he and Scout and Dad went to the library, and he came home with Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney - a great first chapter book, but I would have thought still too hard for Jem who had only just finished his first year phonics books. Well, he proceeded to read me the first line, and then the second, and then the next! It was a little slow going, and he had to ask a word or two here and there, but by the end of the evening he had read two pages - ALL BY HIMSELF!!  No WAY!!  He even took the book to bed with him and then next morning brought it out and started reading it again!  Woo Hoo!!  Go Jem!!

So once Scout was off to theater camp and Dill was fast asleep on the couch, it was just the preschoolers and Jem for school. Very quiet morning!  Jem had finished his phonics books, so he and I reviewed his states and then he tool his states test. He got 100%!  Then all he really needed to do was some reading ( no problem there  :)  ) and his math.  While the "babies" were busily doing free play I helped him finish a few math exercises and then he was off to video game land like every other red-blooded kid on summer break. Finally!!  

Once Jem was off, I had time to work with Freddie one-on-one. I had Flossie get her workbox out, which she was happy to do, and that kept her busy while Freddie and I worked on numbers and math. I introduced the numbers 11-15 to him and we talked about how they are made up of a group of 10 plus some extras. We will keep revisiting this idea until it makes sense. After he did the number cards and laid them out, we left them up because I knew those numbers would be coming up in his math book and he would need to refer to them to write them down. 

 After helping him with his math, he wanted to write a "book."  This was all his idea, so I just let him run with it. He spent about 20 minutes working on it. All he needed me for was figuring out how to connect the papers together.

While he was busy, I was able to catch a few shots of Flossie doing her work. She made some patterns with the color tiles, made a farm with the blocks and animals, practiced writing her letter N's, and then went on the computer to do Starfall for awhile.

After Freddie was done he wanted a turn on the computer so I got some one-one one time with Flossie. I had been wanting to check her on her numbers, and this was a great time to do it. Guess what?? She knows most of them now!! The only ones she didn't know were 6, and 8, 9.  Big progress! Way to go Flossie! Glad to know something is sinking in :) 

Somewhere during all of that we took Bella to work, got gas, came home, ate lunch, took naps, picked Bella up, got more gas, dropped Bella off at a friends, and picked up Scout from camp. Whew! Another day done :)