September 29, 2008

Happy Anniversary to me and Adam!

School only went OK today. J Seemed detached. And C drove me CRAZY.

FIAR: J & P - read The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills

I almost broke out in tears about 8 times during this 20+ page book. I'm not sure how I will get through reading it every day this week!

FIAR - Social Studies: J

Geography - Found the Appalachian mountains on US map. Story doesn't specifically state it takes place in PA, but we put tag on PA since it has coal mines and gets cold around the same time the book stated.

Talked a lot about coal mining. It scared J a bit, he said he is glad Daddy is not a coal miner because he doesn't want him to die. That led us to a whole other conversation which tied in with the story, death of a parent. Talked briefly about it but didn't get too heavy.

Relationships - discussed relationship between Minna and her father, Minna and the Quilting Mothers and Minna and her classmates. Talked about aspects of each relationship and discussed how these things show up in J's life.

Funerals - talked further about death and dying. Asked J if he had any questions but he really didn't have any.

This all took a LONG time. Mostly when I asked J a question he would say "I don't know" and not really try until I coaxed him into remembering aspects of the story. Not sure why the detachment today. He said he thought the story was very good.

Math: J

SSM Workbook pgs 31-33 - measuring w/ rulers; horizontal and vertical subtraction problems; word problems, writing out subtraction problems.

Clocks - matching clocks with time sentence

Coloring: J

Finished coloring his September picture.

General: P

BPW - writing letters J & K