A perfect day
Nov. 11th, 2010 04:56 pmI had an incredibly great day.
Because of the federal holiday, traffic to Karl's school this morning was without delays -- it's always a pleasant surprise, since I tend to forget about the holidays until I'm already on the road.
School with Erika was particularly smooth and loving today -- she did all her work efficiently, and gave me extra snuggles when we were reading in bed. We managed to get all of the following done:
* Erika wrote 2 thank-you notes to friends she was going to see this afternoon, and drew pictures on the backs.
* I read 2 books out loud, Tapenum's Day, about life as a Wampanoag boy around the time of the settlement of Plymouth Colony, and Arctic Foxes, a lovely little book about one of Erika's favorite animals.
* Erika did a math lesson on subtraction, and zipped through her addition speed drill faster than ever.
* We watched part of an episode of Life (the nature special) while having a snack.
* Erika did some handwriting practice in her German workbook.
(Just to round out the list of her schoolwork for the day, she's also going to read out loud from an Amelia Bedelia book at bedtime, and listen to me read out loud from a German book. She may also have a piano lesson this evening with John, depending on how the evening goes.)
After our session of "school", we headed back to Potomac to pick up Karl and three of the kids' friends from school. Erika did her Anki memorization work on the iPod Touch in the car. Getting all five kids into the car was trouble-free, and the drive back here uneventful.
John comes home for lunch on Thursdays, so he had cooked lunch for the kids by the time we got here. They all liked it, nobody spilled anything, and there was no fighting at the table. After lunch, the kids all played together in the playroom for about half an hour while I packed some snacks, and then we took advantage of the lovely weather (high of 60 degrees F, sunny, no wind) to head to the playground.
It's about 3/4 of a mile to this particular playground, but the walk is lovely, so we went on foot. It takes about half an hour for three six-year-olds and two three-year-olds to walk this distance, especially on a path next to a creek, but we eventually made it to the playground, where we played and had snacks for about an hour before we headed back to meet the guest children's ride back home.
Really, a spectacularly great day. If only they could all be so easy and so much fun!
Because of the federal holiday, traffic to Karl's school this morning was without delays -- it's always a pleasant surprise, since I tend to forget about the holidays until I'm already on the road.
School with Erika was particularly smooth and loving today -- she did all her work efficiently, and gave me extra snuggles when we were reading in bed. We managed to get all of the following done:
* Erika wrote 2 thank-you notes to friends she was going to see this afternoon, and drew pictures on the backs.
* I read 2 books out loud, Tapenum's Day, about life as a Wampanoag boy around the time of the settlement of Plymouth Colony, and Arctic Foxes, a lovely little book about one of Erika's favorite animals.
* Erika did a math lesson on subtraction, and zipped through her addition speed drill faster than ever.
* We watched part of an episode of Life (the nature special) while having a snack.
* Erika did some handwriting practice in her German workbook.
(Just to round out the list of her schoolwork for the day, she's also going to read out loud from an Amelia Bedelia book at bedtime, and listen to me read out loud from a German book. She may also have a piano lesson this evening with John, depending on how the evening goes.)
After our session of "school", we headed back to Potomac to pick up Karl and three of the kids' friends from school. Erika did her Anki memorization work on the iPod Touch in the car. Getting all five kids into the car was trouble-free, and the drive back here uneventful.
John comes home for lunch on Thursdays, so he had cooked lunch for the kids by the time we got here. They all liked it, nobody spilled anything, and there was no fighting at the table. After lunch, the kids all played together in the playroom for about half an hour while I packed some snacks, and then we took advantage of the lovely weather (high of 60 degrees F, sunny, no wind) to head to the playground.
It's about 3/4 of a mile to this particular playground, but the walk is lovely, so we went on foot. It takes about half an hour for three six-year-olds and two three-year-olds to walk this distance, especially on a path next to a creek, but we eventually made it to the playground, where we played and had snacks for about an hour before we headed back to meet the guest children's ride back home.
Really, a spectacularly great day. If only they could all be so easy and so much fun!