Quick Monday Blog

Ack- more overtime for Zorak. He's such a good dragon-slayer, but we sure do miss him when he's out slaying those dragons for us.

Found a few neat links to share- thought y'all might find them interesting, too.

For those in the MD/DC/VA/NJ/PA/DE... (how many states are there in this little junction???) vicinity, who happen to be studying the Ancients (or just get a kick out of re-enactments) there is a local group. (Think Roman Empire flavored SCA, I think. We haven't made it to one yet.)

Need Thanksgiving specific poetry? Try this lovely site. (Thanks to the posters at the WTM forums!)

What to read next? What will challenge the kids? What level books to pick? Well, Lexile has its own system. Pretty neat. Think of it as yet another great booklist! You can type in a title your wee one has enjoyed recently and get a Lexile number for that book- then do a book search for titles according to that level (little higher, little lower, maybe- have fun with it!)

Thank you all for sharing your favorite authors, fiction titles, and for those of you who admitted to being fiction-deficient, bless you. I don't feel like quite the alien now.

Staci, don't run. It's ok.
Patrica Cornwell.
Neal Stephenson.
Louis L'Amour.
Michael Crighton.
John Grisham.
See? Five authors I enjoy, right off the top of my head (and I didn't have to resort to listing the ones I'm reading right now, either. *grin*) I like fiction! Really, I do. I just evidently don't buy any of it for the house.

I will admit, though, that a good biography or a great historical analysis just gets me feeling all warm inside.

Speaking of warm fuzzies- today's school update:

It is a great feeling when your child, who has expressed on occasion that he doesn't think he has a very good brain, turns to you and says, "I love math, Mom!" Thank you, Math-U-See!

John has mastered place value and is moving into the "weaning from the green" (learning to identify the other colored blocks and getting comfortable substituting them. It is nice to use one long brown eight unit block rather than try to keep up with eight little green blocks. Less for the baby to spread around, too!)

James is reviewing multiplication facts. He'll be doing a chapter a day in Gamma until we come to the new material. Sometimes life sifts things in at a different pace, and he's spent a lot of time lately on other math concepts, as well. Fun.

(It is nice to be able to cruise ahead, hover, or go back according to the needs of each child.)

Latin is going well- we did it during lunch today. Nothing like a mouthful of pizza for improving inflection. I need to do non-speaking projects during lunch, I do believe.

Free reading today was the Just So Stories revisited. James is reading them to himself and to us. The stories are becoming much like old friends we enjoy seeing again. My plan is working... Muuuahhhhaaahaaahaaaa!

Science today: Speedy's respiration. Snails do just about everything in or under the mantle. Fascinating. Speedy seems, well, fine. He's a slug. It's not like he can wag his tail or tell us how he's feeling. Bodily functions are a "go", though, so I guess that's good for a slug.

The woolly slug (AKA "Spike") is not dead, but it was traumatized this morning when we dumped it out on the lawn. Oops. It was a little too cold. He has eaten most of the leaf, though, and seems to be recovering well. He's not much on personality, really.

*Side note to Mom- get rid of the 1001 things to know about human anatomy book. James informed Jacob today that he was not, in fact, a test tube baby, but rather came from an egg fertilized right inside Mom. ACK! Crud. Not... ready... for... AAAIIGGHHH!*

In the course of one week our tree has gone from a vibrant green to a brilliant yellow. We watch the tree daily and still it feels as though it happened while we slept. So beautiful. Seasons are for savoring, you know.

Kiss those babies, and enjoy the season you're in.
~Dy