A Bit Of Everything

Maddie's down with a cold.  She woke up Friday sounding congested and it wasn't long before we were carrying a box of tissues around the house with us.  Fortunately, it hasn't kept her from sleeping. We're laying the Vick's on pretty heavily to help clear her up.  But she's happy in spite of her sniffles.

Angie created her very first popsicle stick box.  She built it log cabin style with a solid floor and lid.  After the glue dries, she'll paint it and put some little toy set or another in it.  I have a felling we'll be seeing lots of these in the near future.

Mommy gave me a "number juggler" a while ago to do math with Angie.  It has weighted numbers that you hang on each of the juggler's outstretched arms.  When you hang numbers on each side that equal the same thing, he balances and you've got a correct equation.  I hadn't quite figured out how to use it with Angie until just now.  I gave her a page of simple addition problems.  As she figured each one out, she checked it by hanging the addends and the sum on opposite sides.  If it balanced, she was right if not, she had to go back and try again to get the right answer.  It's great because I don't have to check until the very end!

I've been trying to use workboxes to get our schoolwork organized, but I'm finding it to be overwhelming.  It takes a long time for me to get stuff in there and make sure it's interesting and teaches what I want to teach.  Also, most of it is stuff I have to do with her, so I have to find a way to entertain Maddie if she's awake while I work with Angie.  Maddie's naptime is usually spent in getting other things done.  Perhaps we'll have to look at our schedule a bit more closely. 

Midterm exams are over for the school kids, so my tutoring schedule should return to normal now.  That's good, because we need the money!