Snow Day

Schools were closed all around us today. Our school was not.

Thomas and I spent a good portion of the morning listening to Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History But Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis. We are really enjoying this. We did not download this to the Zen, rather we're just listening through our Audible manager. What's really fun is Thomas will ask me a question, we'll stop the audio and discuss. Sometimes I Google something that we're listening to. For instance, today the audiobook was discussing the Freemasons and symbols. (Interesting, as there was just a thread about that at TWTM boards.) I Googled that so Thomas could see the symbols.

We really enjoy doing history this way. We don't test, we don't do much but listen and discuss. I often assign extra reading, but that is changing as Thomas ages. He's too big for "little kid books" and not fast enough of a reader to read a lot of extra "big kid books."

I have him reading all our Cornerstone of Freedom books as we touch each subject area, but he has proclaimed them little kid books. They are. Mom's just holding to that little kid thing. What used to take him an hour, now takes him five minutes. I can't believe he's growing up so fast.

We did our math today. We touched on fractions, yet again, and I acted as a drill sergeant. I'm trying to teach him to not lose focus and to work more quickly. We did two easy worksheets with lots of problems, and as soon as he finished writing the answer, I barked out the next problem. I explained what I was doing and why, to teach him to pace himself. It worked well. I think we'll do an easy worksheet with lots of problems to help him learn to pace every day for awhile, in addition to our regularly schedule program.

The morning was beautiful, with tons of big, white, fluffy flakes floating through the air. After lunch, the wind picked up. As we were working on Analytical Grammar, which we are still really loving, we had periods of white out. It was nice to be sheltered while looking out at the cold, gray, snowy day.

Later in the afternoon I made a big bowl of popcorn and hot chocolate. Not the best combination, but we enjoyed it.

Thomas didn't mind not taking a snow day. We usually follow what the area schools do, but we have too much to do.

Thomas made a cheesy-chicken dish which is in the oven. It's nice to have a hot, comfortable dish on a cold night. It's even better when I don't have to cook it!

It was a good day.