Multi-tasking

It's been a wild day!!!  We had a lot of things to cover in school this morning and somehow we managed to get to them all, but I wasn't sure we were going to make it!!
Ford did a great job with writing the letter E and drawing on the chalkboard and writing words.  Then he did some counting for math.  When we got to his train book, though, that has little preschool and kindergarten-type activities, I didn't know if he'd ever stop!!  He's become obsessed with dot-to-dots, but he can't quite get them done all by himself.  So, every minute or so, he'd call out, "Where's number 19?" and I'd have to leave Rachel or Ruby and help him find the next number.  Some of his final pictures are hysterical, but he's getting there.  He must have done 20 of them today!
Ruby couldn't quite get herself together today.  She wasn't bad, but she just needed a lot of help.  She'd say she wanted to do one thing, then get started and I'd move on to help Rachel and then as soon as we got started, Ruby would call to say she needed something or wanted to do something different.  I finally told Rachel just to do her handwriting and math sheet (since she can do those with very little, if any, help) and then we'd wait on everything else until Ford and Rachel were settled (as in, not doing dot-to-dots for Ford and finding something that would finally keep Ruby's attention!).
So, finally, Rachel and I were able to talk about the difference between fiction and nonfiction.  She read an entire nonfiction book about weather to me that she'd never seen before.  We talked about weather, precipitation, clouds, and temperature.  We started a weather chart for the week.  We looked at mountains on maps and the globe.  We added mountains to a map of our state with a key at the bottom as well as a compass showing NSEW.  We practiced all of her bow patterns on her violin and then we finished up by reading Max Found Two Sticks and going back to our music discussion of rhythm.  Everyone joined in by getting two Kapla blocks and we did a rhythm parade.  It was pretty fun and these kids have more rhythm than I thought!!  I made them a special lunch of pigs in a blanket (something they never get, but love!) and now everyone is sleeping or resting.
Sometimes it amazes me how quickly the time can go by!!!