Three Days Down...One Hundred Seventy Seven to Go

Yesterday was rough.  Jaelyn was rude and short tempered.  We made it through her school work, but it was a fight.  She finished with me wondering what in the world I had been thinking.  Today was the polar opposite, even though she challenged me on a few things.   I have no idea what she has against commas, but apparently she doesn't like them.  She didn't like it, but she added commas to the story she was writing. She also didn't want to answer her reading comprehension questions in complete sentences.  I corrected her and sat quietly for about 30 seconds while she thought about it and then erased and fixed her answer.  The rest of her questions had complete sentences for answers without a fight.  We were interrupted a lot this morning with a handyman at the house (the shutter - and everything else - is fixed YAY!), but we finished the bulk of her work by about 12:30 including a lunch break.  After that, it was science time.  I really like the curriculum I picked, especially science.  Every page is filled with "try this" experiments so she can grasp the concept.  Today we learned about density and buoyancy.

Pretty, huh? 

 

We added honey, agave (I didn't have corn syrup), maple syrup, milk, dawn, water, oil and alcohol to a vase.  We gathered up several small objects and made predictions about which layer the objects would stop in.  I was surprised by some of the results.

 

Next up was buoyancy.  We made boats out of aluminum foil and floated pennies in them.  Jaelyn won.  Her boa held 38 pennies before it sunk...mine 33.  Encase you are wondering, she died the water red with left over Kool-Aid from dying a layer in the density experiment.

 

 

I finished today thinking "why didn't we do this sooner?"  Dan says I better remember today because there will be lots of yesterdays in my future.  He's probably right, but today, I'm happy.

Allie and Caden seem to like school.  They are slowly making friends and figuring their new school and teachers out.  Allie wants to sing in the choir (Caden would too, but it's only 4th and 5th grades).  There's also a beginning strings orchestra she wants to participate in.  We couldn't find a hip hop class, so she'll start taking Jazz lessons next week.  Caden has tried out two Jujitsu classes and is trying out gymnastics tonight.  Jaelyn starts gymnastics tonight and piano next Wednesday.  There's also the Tae Kwon Do club at school on Monday night starting in a few weeks.  I normally shy away from over scheduling us, but I think it's just what we need for this single year.  We need to get involved and connect quickly :).