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Das Chaos Blog


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WINGS: Real Life Learning

First, Stormy got all 100 multiplication problems in less than 4 minutes today. She finished seconds before Khy did. And with a 57 (addition facts), Nicky had his best score by a long shot today as well.

We painted our volcanoes today (the actual erupting will take place tomorrow, even though technically we're done with school after today.) Nicky named his "Mt. Blue Dragon Knight Castle Volcano" and painted it blue (of course), with a little red, black and white. Khy painted his in the more realistic brown and green with some black and red at the top to suggest lava. He named his "Mt. Not Worth Mentioning." He assured me it was just to be silly. Stormy painted her volcano gray with red surrounding it, and then added a little green around the middle and white at the top. She named hers "Mt. Shoe." Can't wait to make them erupt tomorrow. Meanwhile, we cleaned out cubbies and called it a year.

Khy reached 100 on his timed tests again today. Stormy reached 97 which was fabulous and exciting, but she was understandbly frustrated to be so close and not quite make it. Nicky was in lala land today - I watched him during the test and he was staring at the ceiling, looking out the window, and occasionally remembering he was supposed to be taking a test. It was funny.

Today we mixed the dough for our volcanoes, and shaped them around the pop bottles. The dough was pretty icky at certain stages, but everyone hung in there and got it done. Well, I helped a little. But they did most of it. And despite the worry that a 40 lb. bag of flour might go flying through my kitchen at any moment, it was pretty fun.

Khy scored 100 on his multiplication timed test today. Stormy felt a little stung by it, but she's really close, herself. I told her that the only thing holding her back was that she writes too neatly. :P

Today we were supposed to start making our model volcanoes. But the teacher (ahem) was supposed to have all kinds of things prepped for it beforehand, most notably have cardboard cut down to fit inside the disposable cookie sheets, as a base for the volcanoes. So the first part of the day was spent digging through a junk drawer looking for a box knife. The second part was spent trying to use this old, dull box knife on thick cardboard without losing a finger. (I guess they should learn first aid, but there are better ways I'm sure.) Finally I gave up any ambition to get started today and sent them off to watch a movie about Pompeii while I finished with the cardboard. It was a really interesting movie, too.

No school. I sort of forgot to plan anything for it. I got used to Mondays being goal meetings for the coming week that I left it that way on this week's schedule, even though we don't have goals this week.

Warm-ups led by Nicky, journals. Ten minutes of pratice with flashcards followed by 4:00 timed math tests. Everyone scored their personal best today, which was very exciting. Nicky and I worked through his goals with only minor sidetrips to help Stormy and Khy on various assignments. Everyone stayed on task for the most part. Nicky was pretty flighty for a lot of the day, but after a while got into what we were doing and focused. From his goal sheet he did a scissor practice sheet, a drawing sheet and a letter sheet. Then we worked on an alphabet book together, where he made a page and drew a picture for each letter. Turned out great.

Since Khy had to miss school yesterday, and since it's the last "regular" week of school this year, I decided that individual days would primarily be spent working on goals. Today we did the usual warms ups and journals, followed by flashcard practice and timed math tests. I spent some time reviewing long division with Khy, and then Stormy and I worked together. I asked her to choose what, from her goals, she wanted my help with, and she chose long division and the creative writing assignment. So we worked on creating a character for a story together, which was fun. Then I sat and watched her do long division perfectly.

Khy is sick today, so school is mostly canceled.

Well, despite the bad ending of last week, we all came through it okay. This week started well. We made breakfast together, with Stormy and Nicky doing the batter mixing and Khy getting his first shot at the waffle iron. Then we did the baby check for Jacqui, and listened to a CD of Peter and the Wolf. We discussed putting together a skit based on it later in the week. Then we had individual meetings, going over their work from last week and making new goals for this week. Everything went well, so we'll see how it goes.

Today was pretty wretched. Because it was the last day of the week, Khy and Stormy suddenly realized that they had put off too much work earlier in the week, and were facing Hurculean stacks of work on their goal sheets which made them both feel overwhelmed. And Nicky was very flighty today, so it was hard to get him to stay focused. The multiplication worksheets that Shane made to help out turned out to be just awful. The font was too small and didn't leave enough space to work, plus it was 4 digit by 4 digit multiplication, which the kids can do, but already stressed by not enough room to work - well, it was a total meltdown. Aside from that, Khy and Stormy were constant in their interuptions, Nicky was trying to stay on task but not really succeeding, and I was having to go back and re-do Shane's worksheets before I had a complete mutiny on my hands.

Ultimately, Nicky and I worked on his own calendar, we read a book together, and then he made an "All About Me" book that's really cool. Stormy finished most of her goal work. But Khy spent over an hour in meltdown mode, and still has most of the multiplication sheet and a current events task to finish before the end of the day. He finally ate some lunch and seems to be feeling better. But all in all, not such a great day for any of us.