Another Monday

YESTERDAY ONCE MORE: We started the day by revisiting the calendars the kids had created on October 1. We really need to do this first thing every day. Today, my goal was to get the kids to be able to figure out what the date (Monday, Oct. 5) is based on their calendar. We started with "What day is it?" Then, it was, "What month is it?" And lastly, it was, "What's the date?" It didn't come easy, and I doubt that it stuck, but it's a process. I also have a few ideas about how we'll make the concepts of "tomorrow," "yesterday," "later," etc. more concrete. Stay tuned. ; )

SUNSHINE ON MY SHOULDERS: One of the things I had the kids do was add a weather icon to today's date. They both chose to draw a sunshine because it is still very sunny round here. We were heading into working on some basic math worksheets, so I thought it would be nice to play some background music that continued that "sunny" theme. I started off with the lovely Sunshine on My Shoulders. After it concluded, CJ said, "I want to hear it again!" Nice. Next up, the very bubblegum, "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows." Bee liked this one. Third up was a contemporary sun song, "Raining Sunshine," from the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." While the music had served to enhance their math work up until this point, when he heard this song - and he knew it was from YouTube and there was a video with footage from the movie accompanying - CJ said, "I can't focus on my math with this song playing. I need to watch it afterward." I thought that was pretty astute of him. So, I switched to a simple little ditty from Rick and Ken's early teens: "Steal My Sunshine." CJ soon finished his math and watched "Raining Sunshine" twice. : )

APPLE AFICIONADOS: I love it that since our crash course on apples, the kids now frequently ask (or guess) what kind of apple they're being served. Today I sliced up a Gala, handed it to CJ and he said, warily, "That's not a Golden Delicious, is it?" The Goldens are not his favorites. He was happy to hear it was a Gala.

SAY CH-CH-CHEESE!: We are still working on our consonant blends, of course, and so at snack time this morning, I thought I'd offer some cheese and Cheez-Its and make them tell me which consonant blend the snack represented before they could chow down. They both chimed in, "CH!" immediately.

MORE OR LESS:
This evening, we read "More or Less." I hastily grabbed it while at the library last week thinking, "Looks like it might be about estimating. Math = good." Sold. And it was good. The storyline was that an elementary aged boy was running a booth at the school carnival where he guessed peoples ages. He used estimating, his knowledge of the concepts of more and less, logic and deducing to guess patrons' ages. (If he used too many guesses, he wound up in a dunk tank, so the suspense factor was there, helping keep CeeJ and Bee interested.) After we finished the book, I had the kids each get a Magnadoodle and we wrote the numbers 1-15 on one, and on the other, they took turns choosing a number that the other two of us tried to guess. It took them a couple of rounds to "get it," but before long, they were becoming pretty good guessers. As it turns out, the book is one in a series that helps teach math concepts, so I'm going to try to run a few more titles down.

WE'RE TALKING BASEBALL: This afternoon, CJ and Bee were playing Mario Super Sluggers on the Wii. "I love baseball!" CJ declared at the game's start. It was fun listening to them use their vast-and-expanding baseball terminology. Among other gems, I heard Bee ask CJ, "How do you bunt?" and I heard CJ say, " Can you hit my fastball?" That's our kids! : )