You melt my heart

It's cold outside!  School all over DFW is cancelled, but not at the Smithey Science Academy!  We were going strong today.  It was a good day to snuggle by the fire and read Charlotte's Web.  Today was the escape with the goose egging Wilbur on but Wilbur eventually falling for the delicious smell of the bucket of warm slop.  Can't we all relate?

We did lots of reading, math, and spelling. Lucy was able to count to 100 almost with no help using the 100's chart!  Yea!  We had a TOUGH math day with Zoe though.  I asked Zoe to count to 100 with the abacus - something I have modeled but never had her do.  She got stuck a few times. She used the chart for a reference, but just couldn't get the rhythm going once she stopped.  She started crying at one point - it was frustrating for her and I felt so sorry for her.  I'm trying to help her by suggesting strategies but not spoon feeding so much to her.  I doubted myself today.  But she was very proud of herself when she finally finished and I made a big deal of the effort she put into not giving up and how much she learned by doing it.  Sigh.  After all that, they wanted to go play in the "snow" (actually ice - for about 3 minutes) and have some hot chocolate!

While Zoe worked on her journal, Lucy and I made some words.  We took turns stumping each other with hard words.  She spelled wet, Lucy, Mom, Dad, Zoe, box, top, and hat.  I spelled volcano.

After lunch (and a tv break - hey, it was a snow day!) we decided to make a valentine's craft.  We grated crayons - I'm still not sure how the cheese grater will recover.

We put the shavings in wax paper and ironed them until they melted.  

We had lots to say about heat and melting and how crayons were the same and different from water.

We took a long rest while the melted crayons cooled.

Then we cut out hearts and strung them up.  The picture doesn't do justice to the stained glass look.  

Of course, now that we have decorations, they want to have a party.  We should write our own "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" book!

The math lesson was also hard today, so we stopped before we got frustrated a second time and saved it for Dad.  After supper, Zoe snuggled up in bed, read him a story, and then worked on math for a bit.  Thanks Dad!