Day 137: Sight words

It was a sparkly winter day today.

Boy got up early, early and read a book before the rest of us were even awake. But then the kids quickly had toast and I had a cup of coffee, and then we all got dressed and went outside first thing around 8am to play. A lot of the kids’ warm things were wet from the wash, so I had to get a little creative, but we managed. It was a little cold, but beautiful.

 

I stayed outside and played with the dog and just hung out for an hour or so. The fairy house is still going strong, as you can see.

Fairy house.

Girl dug out this little cat from the snow and made a snow friend for her.

Yard cat and snow friend.

I went in at 9:30 to make pancakes and the kids stayed outside until 10, then came in and ate. I found the dog sitting and looking sadly at Girl’s sunny daybed, which was covered in doll clothes from the night before. I cleared them off (with Girl’s permission) so Dog could take a little after-play nap in her favorite spot.

After breakfast, the kids played until 11. Girl asked if we could get out her Calico Critters, and she dressed them and set up a house on the floor. She said this about her Hedgehog family:

“Every day they celebrate Day of the Dead. Every day they put water, salt, and masa together in a bowl, and they pray. And they don’t have a TV, because they’re having lots of fun without a TV, like we do. And you know who decided that? The kids did. And they’re having lots of fun in a little, but very cozy house. And they’re fine with their little house, because they have lots of stuff to do in their little house.”

At 11 I sat down with Boy and did some math (addition with renaming), which he had no problem with. Then we had a snack before practicing violin at 1pm (per yesterday’s agreement). Boy started to freak out a little mid-lesson, but pulled himself together and played great throughout. After violin Boy did his forensics homework with no problems while Girl made a birthday card for her friend, and wrote all the words herself. Then I jumped in the shower while they ate.

After this late lunch the kids got warm things on again and went outside to play for another hour and a half, then came in for baths and dinner. While I was making dinner I heard Boy reading to Girl: he’d found an easy reader that had the word ‘he’ in it a lot. ‘He’ is Girl’s second sight word. Whenever they came to a ‘he’ Girl would shout it out excitedly, and Boy read the rest of the words to her.

And so I think to myself, we are so far from perfect (and it will always be that way) but some things are very good.