January 10th-January 16th

January 10th- The kids spent the morning playing board games together. They played Memory, Don't Break the Ice and Hi Ho Cherry-O. Mom and dad didn't help at all. They set up the games, took turns and helped each other stick to the rules. Even small accomplishments like that make me proud of them.
Michael spent time with the girls doing math problems and reading. Throughout the day he quized Amara on the order of her numbers 11-20 and had Ava answer questions by doing math (adding and subtracting without carrying over) in her head.
We of course played on the foam mats (the best $100 I ever spent. The girls did cartwheels and hand stands and chased each other around. It is a great outlet for 3 VERY hyper children. I would reccomend anyone who has the space to make a "workout" area for their hyper children.
January 11th- School starts for Michael and I today so I am sure this week will be spent figuring out the best way to complete our school work while making sure the children are learning through life experiences. In their playroom, we made a wall of melanite boarding so we can use dry erase markers on it. This too was a wonderful investment. The children draw on it almost everyday. Michael and I use it for math and reading activities for them. Today we did math problems for the girls. Simple adding and subtracting for Amara and large adding for Ava. She can now add three digit numbers (including carrying over). She is flying through math!!! I am so proud of her. Amara played reading games on the computer for about 45 mintues. We then played the Wii together. The girls bowled, golfed, did baseball and tennis. I think the creator of the Wii should get a noble prize for creating a video game that can help you stay physically active!!!
January 12th- Today Michael did math and reading with them in the morning. He worked with Ava on number placing (ones through millions). Amara worked on counting my tens, twos and counting 11-30.
We went to the community center and played in the gym. We played basketball, soccer and raced. Amara played "fetch" with a boy where he threw a football and she ran after it. It's nice to see older kids playing nice with younger ones (the boy was about 10). We then went to the library. Ava and Amara picked out books to read. Corbin but together puzzles and was able to identify all his shapes and colors. They spent about a half hour each playing educational games on the library computers. The kids played board games together including "Don't break the ice" and "connect 4".
January 13th- Today the girls wrote letters to their grandma. Amara read a board book about animals and then read about 15 words off her slight word cards. I read a book called "Cheech, the bus driver" by none other than Cheech Marin. It was a cute book. We watched the movie "Pride and Prejudice" and discussed the differences in our era and the era in which the book was based on (i.e. Women's rights to own property, the style of speaking) etc. We discussed other books by Jane Austen and am going to look for them at the library.

January 14th-Well, we have some sick kids so we are taking it easy today. Ava is upset that she missed gymnastics.

January 15th- Today Michael had the girls practice their writing. They also read the words they were writing to help their vocabulary. Michael also had Ava work on telling time. The girls played educational games on their v-smile.
**On a side note. Almost everyday our kids spend hours in free play using their imaginations. They play everything from Superhereos to Harry Potter to Princesses and firefighter and everything in between. They seem to be feeling a little better.

January 16th- All three of the kids are feeling terrible again so we spent the day watching movies and relaxing in the living room.