Halloween Fun and Multiplication Stress

Today Luke, Isabel and Sylvia made Haunted Houses from Paper bags while trying to guess the answers to these Halloween jokes.  In Luke's opinion, only the "plumpkin" one was funny. Questions 1.  Why didn't the skeleton cross the road? 2.  What do ghosts serve for dessert? 3.  Why do witches fly on brooms? 4.  When is it bad luck to meet a black cat? 5.  What was the witch's favorite subject in school? 6.  What do you call a friendly dead Egyptian? 7.  What do you call a skeleton who won't work? 8.  What do you call a fat Jack-O-Lantern? 9.  Why don't skeletons like parties? 10. What do witches put on their hair? 11. What was the favorite game at the ghosts' birthday party? 12. Why are there fences around cemeteries?

Answers 1.  He didn't have the guts 2.  Ice Scream 3.  Vacuum cords aren't long enough 4.  When you're a mouse 5.  Spelling 6.  A chummy mummy 7.  Lazy bones 8.  A plumpkin 9.  They have no body to dance with 10. Scare Spray 11. Hide and Shriek 12. Because People are Dying to get in.

I also had a Halloween crossword puzzle for them to do but never got to it so, maybe Friday.  Other than that, we did bare minimum today.  Journals, math, clean room, practice instruments, and NT.

The last few weeks I have been using flash cards to help Luke memorize his multiplication facts.  I could really tell that I needed to try something different because it just wasn't working with him.  He is very bright and usually pretty good at memorizing, but I think the flash cards made him feel stressed and discouraged.  Today a friend of mine that used to teach third grade gave me a few suggestions.  One that I tried today was to lay out the flash cards on the floor, give him pieces of paper with answers on them and let him match them up.  I could tell that he felt encouraged and even asked me if he could do his flash cards like that all of the time.  If anyone has other suggestions about memorizing multiplication facts, let me know.

Look What We Grew!

Joey and I were just discussing the fact that I use the word "me" when I am selfishly trying to take credit for something that is really "we" and then I use the word "we"  when most of the time it was just all Joey and I selfishly try to take credit for as well.  Hey, I feel like it is a cute endearing quality of mine, I am sure Joey doesn't quite feel the same.  SOOOOOO it should be, "Look what Joey grew!"  He is our master landscaper and is always so good help the kids plant new fruits and vegetables in our garden!  Who knew such a great watermelon could grow in Las Vegas?!  Good job Joey!

We had a really busy school day today.  After Sylvia's dance class Luke and Isabel had a science class with other homeschooled kids at a fellow homeschooler's house.  They learned about classification of animals and had a really good time in the group.  After lunch they worked on their school lists and then had their running class at 3:45.

Tonight for Family Home Evening, Joey had Luke and Isabel pick out a parable to read and talk about from this lovely book, Parables: And Other Teaching Stories by Robert L. Millet and James C. Christensen.  James C. Christensen is usually known for his fantasy paintings and so the pictures in this book are certainly more down to earth compared with his other work, but still have his colorful and graceful style.  After a page of the actual parable from the Bible, Robert L. Millet breaks down the story and clearly describes the meaning.

Sequence

This morning all three had early dentist appointments. Afterward was Isabel's ukulele class, so by the time we got settled back home it was lunch. I taught Luke and Isabel how to play the game Sequence together which turned out to be a little bit of a disaster since all they ever do is try to upset each other. Isabel would say, "I saw your cards Luke!" When Isabel would put a chip down near his he would say, "I wasn't going to go there anyway!" Needless to say, they never quite finished the game. Luke finished his Math and worksheets but Isabel was pretty resistant so I told her to go take a nap and that she could finish school with dad tonight. So tonight Joey will help her finish what she needs to do and he will also do a science experiment with them! Hey he did say he wants to be more involved right?