Mark left early for work, so he couldn’t manage kids for me, so no shower for me this morning. I dressed nicely to make up for it.
He did make the coffee for me, though. I went downstairs with MJ and Milo, put MJ in her high chair with a toy, reloaded the dishwasher, and started making breakfast (two eggs fried in coconut oil for me, toast with butter and jam for the boys. I told Milo to go wake up Oscar. He returned a few minutes later: "He won’t listen to me!"
I head back up to get him. "We’re going to Melissa’s this morning, so we need to get part of our schoolwork done right away." He stumbles down the stairs. I put the toast on plates, and I put two clean, damp cloth napkins next to the plates. The boys eat at the counter, and I eat at the table with MJ, who’s happy in her chair. Our family always eats dinner together at the table, but breakfast and lunch are simple and quick meals, often self-serve. (Bedtime snack is more elaborate.) I’ll be honest: the boys eat at the counter because it’s easy to clean.
I send Oscar to get dressed and then we head into the schoolroom. "I have a new kind of schoolwork for you to do today. It’s called ‘spelling study.’" I’m hoping to use the Spelling Power method of test-study-test, although not its pre-provided word lists, and I want to try it out on something easy to see how Oscar responds to it. I give him a test sheet and show him where to write, then begin our list: "On the first line, write a capital ‘A’ and a small ‘a.’ That’s correct. Now write a capital ‘B’ and a small ‘b.’"
"On the ‘b’ does the circle come first or the stick?" he asks. I tell him to try hard to remember and write what he thinks is correct. He writes a ”d first, then erases it and writes a ‘b.’ "Is that right?" I tell him yes. We continue up through ‘F.’ He makes two mistakes: the ‘f’ is backwards and the ‘e’ is as tall as the ‘E.’ I give him the study sheet and we go through the spelling-study steps, except that we’re not studying spelling, but rather the proper letter form. I can tell he likes it because he checks off each step with a nice big X. When we’re done he says, "Can we do it again? That is fun! I want to do lots!" I promise him we can do more tomorrow, smiling (even though I know from experience that the newness will wear off this activity in a few weeks).
Then it’s time for Spanish, which we started doing only a few weeks ago. That’s why it’s happening first-thing-in-the-morning, along with spelling: when we’re trying to establish a new habit, I try hard to do it right away each day. He likes this one too: we listen to the tape and practice saying one new phrase every day while he colors the picture that goes with it. Today it is "Hago bolas de nieve." I make snowballs. We might be able to practice that one outside today, if it doesn’t get so warm that what’s left of the snow melts.
I sent Oscar up to make his bed and put the books away in the bookcase, then to fetch clothes for Milo. Then I said they could have a break while I used the computer for a few minutes and finished my coffee and nursed the baby.
Almost half an hour later it’s time to get ready to go.
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