Daley Ponderings

Three-fifths of our family has been sick this week and we are all finally feeling better today.  (Thank you to all who prayed for us.)  We only did about half our chores on this day of recovery, but I decided to go ahead and have school.  I'm glad I did!

Grandma had sent Noah an activity sheet where he had to match the picture of a relative to the capital letter of that person's first name.  He started out with "Dad-o" and did not immediately recognize the D even though I said it was the same as "Daley" which he has been practicing writing.  He went through each letter which I pronounced for him until he got to the D.  (And now that I think of it, maybe he did it on purpose because he saved the D for last!)  Then after that, he matched up every single one correctly without me having to repeat any sounds!

Jonathan has had ups and downs with writing/handwriting before.  Recently it has been down.  I saw this post by my friend Heather and got the book, Games for Writing, from the library.  First thing this morning, Jonathan complained about his logic page because he had to write two words.  Two words!  This is from the boy who wrote a complete summary of the Star Wars Episode IV movie!  But I had been reading the Games for Writing book and I had an idea, so I made a deal with him.  I'd write down his answers to the logic if he'd play a writing game with me and if he won the game, he'd get a treat.  Sounded good to him.  So he answered the logic problems rapidly (before I could even finish the writing - some had more than two word answers) and then we played "Silence is Golden".  For a set time, no talking is allowed, you have to write everything.  There are certain exeptions, such as pointing to a word to have it pronounced - and we added our own rules, tapping on the paper if you have a word you'd like Mom to spell for you (he couldn't stand spelling it wrong if he knew it was wrong), and Mommy can talk to Faith if she needs to.  Our first session was five minutes (I was doubtful if he could stand it much longer) but he was thrilled and asked if we could play it again, this time for ten minutes!  In the second session, he wrote that he wished we could play this game every day.  Whoda thunk?  Not this Mommy.  But boy, am I thankful!

Noah has also had fun playing some of the games with Daddy (they have pre-writing games as well), so this is a good resource.

Before I sign off, a pocket note from Noah (10/25) who got a gallon of milk out of the fridge, "Mom, I got the blue percent."