Not again . . .

Everybody woke up this morning ready to go. No more sickness in the Strickland household! WooHoo! The kids all wanted something different for breakfast. Normally, this would be a no go in my house. You eat whatever I cook. Period. However, the request were cereal and oatmeal. I figured I could do both of those. After breakfast, teeth brushing, and bed making, it was time to start school. We start (usually) around 9:00 with Bible and History (which usually entails some geography). After we finish these, we move to the school room (i.e. dining room) where the bigger kids do their phonics (we use Explode the Code), D.O.L. (Daily Oral Language), math patterns, and journal. While they are doing this, I work with Hayden on his math and Explode the Code. Our day was going really well. We worked hard this morning, took a nice long lunch break, and got started on our afternoon work. Here are some pictures of our day!

This is Hayden doing his Explode the Code workbook. He loves it and can do most of it by himself!

Dalton is doing his Explode the Code. I mark with the blue post it where to start and the yellow one tells them where to stop. This (in theory) lets me work with Hayden with the least amount of interruption as possible!

Hayden loves to play with the geoboards and it keeps him busy while I work with Drew and Dalton!


Drew is using the Uno cards to find the two addends that equal whatever number I specify. Today we were reviewing our 10 facts. I call the addends partners, so Drew was finding all the partners that equal 10. When we first started learning our facts, we would use regular playing cards so that the kids could count the spades, hearts, etc. to make sure that they had the correct partners. At this point, I expect D & D to be pretty quick with their facts, so we just use Uno cards. The kids really enjoy this game and it helps them to visually see the number partners. I wish I could take credit for this fun game, but I got it off the internet. . . somewhere.


Dalton and his geoboard. Shortly after this, he shot his brother with a rubber band. I have three sons . . . just a typical moment in my house!

Drew with his clipboard and D.O.L. work. Smiling and happy - for now. Later in the afternoon, while I was working with D & D on grammar, I noticed that Drew's hands were ice cold and he looked kinda funny. Sure enough, this is what he looked like by the end of the day . . .

Bless him! So now I have another sick one. This week has seriously not been our week. It could be worse so I will be grateful for the little things like . . . 1) Dalton is not sick anymore 2) Hayden hasn't gotten this bug 3) Drew has not thrown up. He is just having a fever and a headache. 4) We did get to do at least one day of school this week. 5) Jason is back home.

There are a lot more things to be grateful for and that is what I will do my best to focus on!