...occupying the preschooler part II

Other days, the preschooler makes things really difficult. Like today!

In phonics, we're studying nursery rhymes about kings and queens. DD3 became enthralled with Humpty Dumpty & made loud demands for it to be said over & over & over again. I repeated it, said we were done, & went on to phonics. Well, she's holding the BJUP visual for Humpty Dumpty & going on & on about it, while I'm trying to introduce DD5 to Mrs and Mr Short and Uncle Short (vowel-consonant-consonant in words that make the vowel sound short). DD5 was completely NOT interested in the lives of Mrs and Mr Short, and Uncle Short, so holding her attn while constantly shushing the preschooler was a little tricky.

In math, I realized that I didn't get the apples manipulatives ready the night before, so had the genius idea of having the kids do it for me. I let the kids use watercolor paints because marker and crayon takes so long to color with, and they had 14 apples to color. Well, DD3 painted a hole into the soggy page of apples. Then she waded up the paper & stuck it in the dish of water for the watercolors. Ok, so we'll need 7 more apples, and I print off another page. While I'm cleaning up the watercolor mess, she gets my new sheet of apples, rolls it up and puts it into someone's water cup. Ugh. I finally got some apples made: I will cut them myself later & do math when I feel I've recovered from watercolor painting.

A lot of homeschooling is finding what works. Having the kids make the manipulatives did not work for me today, LOL.