Done for this day!

On Wednesdays, Don leaves for school with Gabi at around 8:30.  They commute together, because his job is just down the road from her college campus.  We try to get our day started by 8:00.

Michael checks his planner to see what he has to work on today.

Michelle recites her vocabulary.  We are learning Greek words that are common roots for English words this year, using English from the Roots Up. It is a simple and straight-forward exercise, through every-day repetition by recitation, she learns a word a week, plus several derivatives of each word.  There is some historical background to the words in the textbook, and we go through that.  For example, we learned the the word 'biblos' means 'book' and comes from the name of a Phoenician town in antiquity named 'Biblos.'  The papyrus from Biblos was used to make scrolls (Biblos).  And thus we get the word 'Bible' which originally was written on scrolls (biblos). 

Each new word has an index card with the word written on one side and six to eight derivatives and their definitions on the other.  On Fridays, we do a review of all the words we have studied so far.

Right after this we go through our Bible verse for the week, repeating it together (chanting) for memorization.  This too is tested on Fridays.

Michael works on his science experiment.  He usually has two experiments a week to do for his Physical Science class.  I think this is his favorite school activity. 

In this experiment, he was learning about electricity and chemical reactions.  The bubbles coming off the battery were oxygen on one side and hydrogen on the other.  To prove that, he had to trap the bubbles to see that there was twice as much of one as the of the other, proving that it was the gas from H2O - twice as much hydrogen as oxygen. 

He then had to write a lab report explaining everything using the steps of the scientific method.

Michelle did all her morning lessons, then she had her reading time just before lunch.  She chose to read a book of fairy tales.  Reading has a calming effect on her, and this is a great thing considering how worried I was a couple of years ago about how she would do in school due to her difficult time at the orphanage in China.  Her favorite things to do now are reading and making jewelry with beads.  Her reward at the end of the day is to go to her room and play with beads.

Michael had piano after lunch, so I packed up the kids and went off to our wonderful piano teacher who lives about twenty minutes away. 

Part of my difficulty today was that Emily is sick with the flu.  We tried to make her as comfortable as possible for the ride.  I was glad she didn't get sick in the car, and she went back to bed when we got home.  I'll be making some congee for dinner tonight - a Chinese chicken and rice soup, or porridge, they fed to the babies in the orphanage.  Both girls associate it with comfort food, as I continued to make it for them when they came home from China. 

When we came back home, Michelle did the dishes while I went outside and did  gardening and collected eggs from our chickens.

Michael got back to work doing his math lesson and reading for King's Meadow. 

Michelle finished writing in her nature journal, more on that soon...

Chores and dinner await.  The day was over at around 3:30.

Read-a-loud for tonight is: The Secret Garden



 Linking with Simple Lives Thursday!