Snow, snow, snow!

Four days later and I'm still at home with the kids. So many neighbors and people I know have griped and complained about being stranded at home or having all the snow. So, I won't say a word (bad) about our situation. We are just trying to make the best of it.

Katie hasn't returned to school this whole week. I let her have Monday and part of Tuesday off, playing and acting silly. Yesterday and today, I set up a classroom on our Dining Room table. We went over her sight words and I tried to help her in pronouncing her "wh" "th" "ou" and "sh" words. I've noticed in the past, she wants to sound them out individually. As you know, doing this makes the word sound nothing like it is spelled. I know it will come in time, but I'm just trying to help her in the long run. I know that Mrs. M wanted to introduce addition to the class this month. I thought it would keep Katie busy to write out a sheet full of math problems. I had her exercise how to read the problem and then figure it out by counting on her fingers. She was doing fabulous until I made my answers go past 11. Ugh! I think I have some hair left from this morning. Have you ever tried teaching your child to continue counting on their fingers past 10? I guess they figure, well I don't have any more fingers so the answer is 10. Ugh! Once I got Katie to start all over on the first hand, in order to count to 13. She got that down pat, but when it came to finding out the total. All she could see was 8 fingers in front of her face, so she would answer 8 instead of 13. I feel sorry for Mrs. M. Surely, she's got a better way of teaching a 5 year old to add past 10 than I do. Saying all this, Katie did good overall in her addition. She just has to practice. I had her read her new school books, which have harder words. Another hurdle to jump over, but she doesn't see it that way. She gets very frustrated if she gets stuck on a word.

We still have snow and ice on the ground. We are at the point where what snow the sun melts, it freezes overnight with temps in the lower to mid teens. We've got salt on our driveway, but there is still one large section of ice that stretches across our driveway. I stepped on it this morning, taking mail to the mailbox, and yeah slipped there a little bit. Thankfully, I recovered my balance and made it over to the hard icy snow. If Katie does go outside for a little bit, I remind her to stay off the sidewalk and driveway. Basically, I try to keep the kids inside. Colton's developed a cold from all of this, so I don't let him out at all.

We haven't developed cabin fever yet, but we are driving each other a little batty. Katie and I are keeping each other occupied by playing Wii. I try to do a little more effort, in hopes to keep my body moving. Katie has found a new love other than Swordplay, she has discovered Cycling. She loves it! This is good because she is jumping around and moving her arms and legs. It really wears her out and me too. I thought that if she liked cycling so well, maybe she would like boxing as well. I love boxing! Nope, I was wrong. Actually, she doesn't like being knocked out. Good Sportsmenship is another thing I have to teach Katie. She doesn't like losing to any game. When we first starting the Wii, sure I let her win. Later, I got to thinking that I might be doing the wrong thing. If she loses at a game with someone else, how would she react? Plus, I hope it challenges her to try better and harder. I've explained to her that I'm older and know how to do some things a lot better than she. She doesn't like it, but she's got to learn. I know I sound like such a bully. I hate it because I want her to win and yeah there are times where I decrease my effort, just so she might win.

Until then, I'll be here watching my chickficks and playing games. See ya!