Good Monday

Everyone is well again.  Dad went to work this morning and we got right to work on our schoolwork before we had to leave for Tae Kwon Do.

Today, Andrew had a substitute teacher - Master Matt.  He was fantastic.  He was very precise and really stepped up the expectations.  Andrew liked him too especially since he kept redirecting the 2 boys that mess around the ENTIRE class.  I learned a lot today to help Andrew improve and we found out that he can test for his yellow belt on March 1st.  Andrew is super excited!!

We returned home to the ice man working on our street.

The most amazing part was I had called at 8 AM this morning and they were already here.  It was so nice to see our street cleared of the ice and snow.  We have such a bad time when there is storm after storm after storm - our street just can't keep up.

For school, Cairn is working on her last unit in her Gamma book (multiplication), next she moves too Delta (division).  Andrew is working on adding +0 and +1.  He has 90% of them memorized.  Skylar is working on subtracting 8's and 9's.  She is working on memorizing them but she has a clear understanding of how to subtract.  All the kids started a new vocabulary/spelling book today called Word Ladders.  They start with a word at the bottom then they are given clues and how many letters to subtract or change.  The littles started with cow, then the clue - a small bed that is foldable - change one letter...cot.  Cairn started with vegetable, then the clue - a place where you eat - subtract 4 letters....table.  The littles had 5 words to change, while Cairn had 10.

One of the other new changes I instituted with the kids is everyone must practice the piano for 30 minutes.  We set a timer and I sit with them and work through each piece of music.  The timer helps them concentrate on their music and not on the time.  They know they will hear it when they are finished.  They are also more relaxed and practice a piece several times because they know they have to sit the entire 30 minutes and work so mine as well practice.  Skylar has already memorized her new song and is even doing the extra credit songs.  She has a lot of confidence right now because she knows her songs so well.  Andrew has also showed a lot of improvement with naming his notes on the staff and has memorized 2 new songs.  He will be ready for his solo on Thursday.  I told him today I won't be able to help him count for his solo and he said, "that's okay, I can count by myself. Watch!"  He did it and was very proud of himself.

Cairn and I went to the music store on Sunday and picked up a few new books for her.  She got 2 Disney music books, a Classical book and Tchaikovsky.  I also picked up an adult piano course to help me improve and also to model for the kids how to sit, study and learn something.  Cairn sees me doing it with my Spanish but the other 2 don't that.  I would really like to sit down and play a piece of music like Cairn, hopefully this course will help me do that.

The kids finished up their schoolwork by 3 PM and played until 5 PM, when we did a quick clean-up.  Then I gave them an art project to work on while I cooked dinner.

Tomorrow, we are heading to a museum with some friends.