Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Heh - It's actually the 29th already. Working late. But I didn't want to go to bed without journaling the day.

We accomplished quite a lot today, actually. We made up some of our desk work, going over letter review and making slow but steady process memorizing a short vowel sound poem. Isabel illustrated another page in The Five Vowels, the primer that she's making. When we finished our letter work, she asked for some index cards and my marker, and she made some letter cards of her own to teach to her imaginary friend, Richie. (Richie has been a staple in our family for close to two years now. Luckily, he is very small - he stands in the palm of Isabel's hand - and so it's not a real hardship to accommodate him.) She taught him P, M, N and a few others that I don't remember offhand. When she bored of teaching Richie, I brought out some handwriting paper and set Isabel up with copywork while I prepared lunch. I was still in the kitchen when she finished and so she decided to teach herself to write the number five. Which she did. One less thing I need to work on with her, I suppose.

After lunch, we made our way to the library. Isabel asked to search the computer and wanted to look up the keyword "kids." After the results (most definitely not the kids' books Isabel had expected!) came up, we brought our bag over to the childrens' section and Isabel selected her books. Since we're going to be out of town for most of next week, and we still have a few previously-borrowed straggler books at home that Isabel hasn't wanted to return yet, she only picked out three titles today. I had hoped to find a few specific books, but Isabel was anxious to go and was - loudly - practicing her Irish dancing in the middle of the library, so I plucked a couple selections out of my favorite sections and we got out of there.

From there, it wasn't far to go a local park and meet up with a playgroup we sometimes do things with. I didn't know the mothers there very well, but they were pleasant and the children all played nicely. Aidan finds the park frustrating because he wants to GO and DO but he is still too small and can't walk. I was able to occupy him with my keys and the baby swings for a while. Isabel is learning how to pump her legs on the swings. She's not quite getting it yet but I remember being six or so before I figured it out (I still remember the day I finally did it). We spent an hour playing and then it was time to go.

Leaving the park did not go well. Isabel did not want to leave. It wasn't pretty. Mommy moments like that are hard, especially when you have an audience. But we did ultimately get back to our car and then promptly returned home - do not stop for ice cream, do not pass GO.

There were time outs and tears and two long discussions (one that resulted in another time out, and then the discussion that finally cleared the air). Once we got through that, Isabel sat with her library books and flipped through them for a few minutes before we picked up Nick from work. From there, we all went out to see him play soccer. Isabel and Aidan and I were a small but eager cheering section. We clapped for goals, and for almost-goals, and for trying-real-hard. Aidan ate dandelions. Lots of dandelions, actually. Isabel counted airplanes coming from the nearby airport, and we discussed in great detail the various rules of soccer, as she will begin playing in a few weeks herself.