Merry Christmas

Just home from Midnight Mass.

It was the first time trying to take the kids to midnight mass. To prepare we had everyone take a nap after supper. Wander snored on the sofa. Glitter asked to snuggle with me on the floor, and Sparkle soon joined us.

Wander likes being early, but the parking lot was empty when we arrived, so we drove around a bit looking at Christmas lights. A neighborhood next to church does a great display.

We got to church early and sat way in front. We got to see the procession bring in baby Jesus and lay him in the manger. I loved that moment.

The girls were tired but made it through. At the end the pastor said that it would be his last Christmas mass with us. I felt sad when I heard that, although I wasn't surprised.

Santa visited our house while we were at mass. Suddenly the girls had tons of energy. Glitter the camera phone that she'd been wanting. Sparkle got a Nutcracker snow globe.

Glitter is writing a thank you note to Santa as I type.

Miquon Math

I *love* how Miquon introduces dividing fractions.

Math is one of Sparkle's weakest subjects. Yet she was able to figure out these problems in the Miquon Yellow Book:

(1/2) / (1/4)
(10/5) / (2/5)
(6/3) / (2/3)
(6/3) * (1/3)
(2+1/2) * 4

These problems are so carefully crafted, sequenced, and presented that even my math hating 8 year old could understand them.

I doubt that she could do them without the accompanying number lines, manipulatives and verbiage. She probably would even need me to keep her company. However I find it amazing that she was able to comprehend the concepts at all. The explanation in Miquon is beautiful in its simplicity.

Glitter Writes

Glitter likes to write. She does far more writing than her sister did at this age, although her spelling is far worse.

********************************************
One day Glitter wrote some of her co-op science memory work on the white board. She made three columns. I didn't get a picture, so I don't remember her misspellings. The first column listed the classfication of living things: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. The second column listed types of mammals: fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds. The third column listed the stages of metamorphosis: egg, larva, pupa, adult.

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Here is a story that Glitter wrote. Glitter wrote it a few days ago in her free time and showed it to me. Then it disappeared. Today I discovered it again when straightening the sofa cushions. It is in a little blank booklet that I make for the kids to play with. She also drew a picture to go with it. (Her pictures also lag far behind what Sparkle was doing at this age.)

Oh, and the only reason "Once upon a time" is spelled correctly is because I got tired of seeing her misspell it over and over again, so I broke down and taught it to her a few weeks ago.
***
A Big dog

Once UPon a
time thar
wer a litll
Blo brd. It
waS siting on
a brach of
a tre.
then one day.
A men dog
cam up. And
omost got
the berd.
The End

***

Translation:

A Big Dog

Once upon a time there was a little blue bird. It was sitting on a branch of a tree. Then one day a mean dog came up and almost got the bird.

The End.

******

When my last watch died I tried going without a watch and just using my phone to tell time. That's what lots of other people do. I tried for several months. It didn't work. I bought myself a watch today.