December 10, 2003

Yesterday we did our lessons in the morning and went in the afternoon for a play date in the snow with friends. I loved trying to drive back. The city was a winter wonderland, and it's freeways a parking lot. What would be a 20-30 minute drive in good weather took me 2 1/2 hours! And the car kept slipping. I can honestly say that your prayer life develops a certain depth when you're praying not to kill yourself and your children! But we got home safely and in time to take care of the sick husband and the housework.

Today we split lessons to before and after lunch. Before lunch we did our Religious Ed., Language Arts, Spelling (sentences today), and Reading. After lunch we worked on Math for a while. Taking a cue from the Math Curriculum I'd really like to have (ALAbacus) I set up M&Ms as counters, arranged like on an abacus. I gave him 5 yellow and 5 brown. I want him to see that two 5's equal 10. Then we went through his subtraction flashcards and I had him use the counters to find the answers. After that we did a new lesson involving the connections between fact families. I used blocks on two sides of a sheet of paper. One side would have, say, 5 blocks and the other 6. We would add up the blocks to find the sum. Then I turned the paper around to show that either order would have the same sum. Then I would cover up one set of blocks and ask how many were hidden. In the end he learned that if he knew one addition fact, he knew four equations. By the end of the lesson he really had it. I was very proud of both of us!

We skipped the Science today as it was making up songs. He does so much of that, I didn't think it was necessary to do during class. Then we did Geography. He definitely knows where Minnesota is, and California.

We made cookies this afternoon, and another batch of play-doh. I think today was the first day that he realized if you mix colors, you can't unmix them. A good lesson! Tonight the kids and I sat and read a lot. We must have gone through 6 or 7 good books. It was so much fun. I love that Piper will sit and listen. Then we watched a Veggie Tales video and Piper pulled out the book of the same story. She was so excited that one of her favorite books was on TV. I tucked the kids in, said prayers, and felt extra warm and fuzzy. This was actually a good Mommy day. I was a little cranky this morning, and I did have to ask Reagan to turn off the bathroom light about 6 times, but we did really well.

I managed to do some laundry and clean the kitchen! I know so many of my generation was not at all prepared for the life of a stay-at-home mom. We were taught how to go into the workforce. But the job of keeping house and kids is real work also! And I often feel that I did not know enough about how to do it. But today was one of those days that gives me hope that one day I will be a master. Although I'd settle for raising kids who think I did an okay job.