Halloween Fun and Multiplication Stress

Today Luke, Isabel and Sylvia made Haunted Houses from Paper bags while trying to guess the answers to these Halloween jokes.  In Luke's opinion, only the "plumpkin" one was funny. Questions 1.  Why didn't the skeleton cross the road? 2.  What do ghosts serve for dessert? 3.  Why do witches fly on brooms? 4.  When is it bad luck to meet a black cat? 5.  What was the witch's favorite subject in school? 6.  What do you call a friendly dead Egyptian? 7.  What do you call a skeleton who won't work? 8.  What do you call a fat Jack-O-Lantern? 9.  Why don't skeletons like parties? 10. What do witches put on their hair? 11. What was the favorite game at the ghosts' birthday party? 12. Why are there fences around cemeteries?

Answers 1.  He didn't have the guts 2.  Ice Scream 3.  Vacuum cords aren't long enough 4.  When you're a mouse 5.  Spelling 6.  A chummy mummy 7.  Lazy bones 8.  A plumpkin 9.  They have no body to dance with 10. Scare Spray 11. Hide and Shriek 12. Because People are Dying to get in.

I also had a Halloween crossword puzzle for them to do but never got to it so, maybe Friday.  Other than that, we did bare minimum today.  Journals, math, clean room, practice instruments, and NT.

The last few weeks I have been using flash cards to help Luke memorize his multiplication facts.  I could really tell that I needed to try something different because it just wasn't working with him.  He is very bright and usually pretty good at memorizing, but I think the flash cards made him feel stressed and discouraged.  Today a friend of mine that used to teach third grade gave me a few suggestions.  One that I tried today was to lay out the flash cards on the floor, give him pieces of paper with answers on them and let him match them up.  I could tell that he felt encouraged and even asked me if he could do his flash cards like that all of the time.  If anyone has other suggestions about memorizing multiplication facts, let me know.

Something Funny to Make Your Kids Do

Two Half Days

Yesterday was supposed to be a school day and today was supposed to be a day off.  Yesterday morning I had a doctor's appointment and then a couple of my friends and their kids invited us to go to lunch to which I caved.  (Well, it's not really my fault, my unborn child wanted some sweet onion spicy enchiladas and I would have been a bad mom if I told her no...right?!) By the time we got home it was afternoon.  I told Luke and Isabel to pick half of the things on their list to do today and that the next morning we would finish up the rest.  All went well with that plan (at least this time around) and this morning they finished up before 10:30 so that Isabel and Sylvia could go play at their friend's house and Luke could play Roller Coaster Tycoon while I took a nap.  (Once again, my unborn child's fault.)