Nathan ended up with another flu last week, and missed horse riding on Friday. We studied some chemistry and both Nathan and Genevieve really liked it. I was using the first chapter of the elements: ingredients of the universe, it was a free download. I love this book, and I think I will buy the rest of the book, it is definitely worth it. Genevieve even liked it related chemistry to baking, something she could understand. Nathan and I worked a little longer together on this, and I had him balancing simple chemical equations. But of course he sucks at math right :)
http://store.ellenjmchenry.com/?product=the-elements-digital-download
We had a dress rehearsal for the lions club festival of music. Genevieve performed 2 piano songs and sang 3 songs. Nathan performed 2 piano songs. It was great for them to practice these pieces before playing in front of the adjudicator.
unfortunately the practice was in a small room and not on a stage, so it was hard for me to take good videos. But I was able to take some, which I was glad, as I am not allowed to video during the adjudication.
Saturday we had to wake up early for Genevieves cheer competition in Richmond. And Nathan had his last soccer game of the season. My dad came and picked up Nathan to take him to his game. I am so thankful for my parents and jeffs parents help.
Genevieve had a great time at her cheer competition and she had a little flying at the end of her youth routine, which just before, she got lost and stumbled and landed on the floor, just as the pyramid was closing, I have no idea how she managed to get on top of the pyramid in time for the ending ;)
Nathan spent the night at grandma and grandpas after soccer. Genevieve and I had some girl time together, but after spending all day at cheer I was exhausted, I had thought about getting a hotel, but I think I should have preplanned it because after the comp was done all I wanted to do was go home, not look for a hotel. So we went out for a nice dinner and came home to watch a movie in bed, we decided on jane austens emma. I so loved watching this with Gigi. I love how she can follow it and she seems to enjoy it as much as I do. Every once in a while I stop the movie and explain what is going on. The emma production we watched had 6 episodes, and was six hours long, so the next morning we woke up and had some breakfast in bed and cuddled and watched emma until about 12. All gigi really wanted to do was go to the pool with me. I even offered to take her shopping, and I would buy, but she really wanted to go to the pool. So we spent about 4 hours at the pool, and went out for a really nice dinner.
Monday, was Genevieves piano adjudication. She performed really well, and the adjudicator had great comments for her. I was also glad Nathan was first so he could see exactly what was expected of him. Genevieve also baked up a storm today. I helped her with her first choice which was a pumpkin apple crumble. Next she made some scones all on her own. Both were really good, we need to do more baking.
Tuesday - Nathans turn to play his music. The morning was not going so great, we did our moving beyond the page and Nathan was quite hyper, then we practiced pinao and he crashed, he was tired nad was falling asleep at the piano. I was a little concerned that piano was not going to go well. We packed up early and headed to the cultural centre as I was told that there was practice rooms available. It was such a great idea to do this as Nathan had a surge of adrenalin, and was able to make it through. He played wonderfully and was very happy with himself. I don't think I have ever seen him so proud of himself. He came off saying that is the best I have ever played before. And a shocking thing happened, the adjudicator was asking questions to the kids, and Nathan answered the questions - 2 of them!!! I don't think I have ever seen Nathan give an answer voluntarily. I am telling you this medicine is life changing for him...
Wednesday - you know those days that are so perfect and awesome in homeschooling? yeah well today was not one of them :) I started out the day at 8:45 by asking Nathan and genevieve to read chapter 17 in the sign of the beaver, while I make breakfast. Nathan puts up a big fuss, he does not want to read etc. 1st mistake I made was asking Nathan to do anything before he eats, but I was running late and anxious to get some work accomplished. So Nathan was sent to his room, for being rude and just disagreeable. Well this got Nathans blood pressure up and well nose spurting happened. So he is spewing blood everywhere in his room. I go in to help him, blood is all over as he barely has time to grab a new Kleenex and the one he has is soaked, and changing Kleenex, causes blood to spurt everywhere, he had gone to the bathroom, as this one was so bad that blood was going down his throat because there was so much even though he was leaning forward. So now my bathroom is covered in blood. I take him downstairs to try and sit him and calm him, so his BP will go down and control the bleeding. Bathroom number 2 is entered, and guess what happens blood everywhere again. Finally 40 minutes later bleeding is under control. I now have burnt breakfast and I have 2 bathrooms to clean, and we run out of peroxide as we are cleaning out the blood stains on the carpet. ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT THIS IS, I get to explain the chemical reaction that the peroxide is having with the blood. And Nathan likes creating this chemical reaction. Cleaning takes 20 minutes. We go downstairs, gigi has made us scrambled eggs, what a darling. I have a fire alarm going off though as my potatoes, are scorched in the oven, thankfully I had already removed the bacon. So we ate a few scorched potatoes, bacon and eggs. Then I send Nathan to finish reading and guess what, he did not do it, I caught him because he was giving me vague answers. I think he could have fooled his teacher but not his mother, he usually has pretty great discussions about the questions. Needless to say, I was very upset again. I sent gigi to her room, so she could work on dreambox, was going to do teaching textbooks, but I could not find the disk. Nathan and I had a pretty serious talk. He read the book, and then he started a new math program called redbird Math.
https://giftedandtalented.com/course-detail/-/course/redbird-mathematics-advanced-edition-144
I was a little amazed at how when Nathan does not think he is doing any math he is able to problem solve and do math, but as soon as they put up a regular problem is when he started to have trouble. I think this program may help him as they first give real world video's on what you would do with the material you are learning. In this video, he learned about production engineers. He then had to work as a production engineer, an figure out how to make more pizzas using multiplication.
I am not sure if this math is going to work for Nathan or not, but I though it was worth a shot, and he can use it on his ipad as well, so I think that will help as well, no typing or printing.
After this I was just plain exhausted, but I had to quickly make a lunch and get them out the door to hockey. After hockey we got a ride to abbotsford so we could pick up my car! Yeah it is finally ready, no more driving the hip dislocator truck. Jeffs parents watched the kids as I drove to childrens to go to a connective tissue support group. And home by 9 pm, whew, anyone tired listening to my day?
Exhausting schedule, but you got a lot packed in! I am very impressed to hear how well Nathan did at his performance.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear how the redbird math works for Nathan... He just has to get through some of the basics before he can use it for more interesting things.
Rachel