Nose

We just removed a small nut (you know, the kind that goes with a bolt) from Rosemarie's nostril. It required me holding her down, and Bob operating the flashlight and tweezers. Rosie was giggling the entire time.

Rosie's drawing

Rosie scribbled on a piece of paper with crayon then brought it to me, saying, "Look at this picture of a dog named 'Fenja' and a really cool girl named 'me'!"

Rosie's new haircut

Self administered.

Stuff

So I'm going to be applying for a state "Emergency Substitute Teacher" license, so I can hopefully pick up some work while Bob is on a shortened work week.

I'm not sure how much good it will do. It will cost money to get the license, and it could take as long as 6 weeks. I'm not sure how long it takes on average. Since I don't know how long Bob will be on shortened work weeks, I could pay for the license, order it and not actually do any teaching before I get it and apply at an actual school district. However, once I do it, it is done. I would have to renew it, but I wouldn't have to go through the application process again. This could be handy in case of a possible strike in 2010 when Bob's union will be negotiating with his company for the new contract.

So that's the news.

School Update

School has been going pretty well. It does help our day go better to have a more definite schedule.

Yesterday Pauly did his first "retelling." This is pretty similar to the Charlotte Mason idea of "narration." The idea is that you read the story, or passage, or whatever, to the child, then they tell it back to you. The idea is to check understanding, work on listening well the first time, and develop verbal skills that will be helpful in later writing. The MODG syllabus broke this up into a few different steps, which helped us make it successful. We'd tried this last year with no luck at all, he refused to do anything.

So, we read one of Aesop's Fables. I chose the Tortoise and the Hare, because I figured it would be easier for Pauly if he was already familiar with the story, and I wasn't sure how cooperative he'd be. After I read it to him, he copied the title onto a page in his blank book, then drew an illustration. Considering the fact that he does not draw at all in his free time, he did well and surprisingly there were no complaints. Then he retold the story to me, dictating it while I wrote in down on the page opposite to his illustration. By the end of the year, he'll have a book Aesop's Fables, with his own retellings and illustrations.

I was quite pleased with this. It was a fair amount of work for Pauly, seeing as handwriting and drawing are difficult for him and are not favorite activities. However, it wasn't overwhelmingly difficult, just some work. He is proud of having done it as well. The syllabus calls for us to do something similar with lives of the saints throughout the year as well, so I'm glad it will be doable!

Fenja fought the swing

and the swing won.

School

So, the plan is to start our new school year Monday. We'll be following a four day week, and will probably only "do school" for an hour or so at the most. I'm hoping that this helps me get some order back in my days as well. With all the morning/all day sickness I've gotten very lazy and we have no schedule to speak of.