Lots of words, no pictures

This week in review

This week felt off, all week.  It started with a wicked migraine for me on Sunday and carried over until Wednesday.  In addition, Adam and Laura have been running around like they have had coffee every half hour.  Its exhausting and destructive and loud and messy.  The worst part?  They haven't been napping well either.  Emma and I both failed a test this week.  Hers was math, mine was patience.  We both have room to improve.  Until I improve, Howard is taking over teaching math to Emma.
Annie is still stumped by her math.  Howard and I are no help, so she is starting her book over.  It worked with Algebra I, so it should work for Algebra II.  I am also encouraging her to attend the tutoring provided by the school, but so far she is not liking the prospect.

Annie aced her second science test.  There was much rejoicing. We also had an awesome atmospheric experiment, in which Annie crushed a soda can with water.  She had to repeat it several times because it was so cool.  They even took video, but they don't want me posting pictures or video that they take, so it may end up on their blog someday, or not.

Sarah, Laura and Adam did an experiment on floating vs sinking.  Blocks float, Bobba Fett sinks, but stands in the water.  Eggs sink.  Also, if you reach your hand into the cauldron (its October, after all) when you are not supposed to, you will get water all over your coloring pages.

 I started a preschool course with Laura and Adam.  This week we covered ovals, the color black, the letter E and bats.  Adam enjoyed looking at bats on the computer and yelling at them.  Laura colored a bat lacing card and laced it all up, insisting it is easier without tape on the end of the yarn.  Laura also earned a treat for doing all 5 days of preschool.  Sadly, her wanting that treat makes sure I remember to have preschool time.  We are using our baseball rug for circle time.  We are counting down days until Annie's birthday (4 days until we have a teenager!) and counting to 31.

Emma and Sarah are almost finished learning about seals, sea lions, walruses, and manatees.  Barbara Manatee is their favorite manatee :)   Sarah finished her Kindergarten math book on Wednesday.  She is thrilled, especially since her 1st grade book has a killer whale on the front, which is her favorite marine mammal.  (The story behind her Kindergarten book is this:  we started a different math program, which wasn't working, and we switched to Horizons math in late February or March, I can't remember.  Anyhow, she has been plugging away at those 160 Kindergarten lessons)

  Annie and Emma are both doing well in their writing class.  Their writing is improving greatly.  Annie is using what she has learned to help her research and write a report for her at home language arts.  She is researching both Charlemagne and the plague.  Fun stuff.   Emma is beginning her research on California and its history, missions, gold rush, etc.  I think I need to make up a plan for it, like I did for Annie's history, except the final report will count for Emma's language arts also.

In non-school news, we took a quick trip to Oregon to visit with Katie from For Whom The Bell Told.  We explored an old cemetary, chased the chickens, went garage sale-ing, picnicked at a sweet park, I got my butt kicked pretty good at Mario Cart, we learned to play Ticket to Ride and I learned that pears are ridiculously inexpensive in Medford.  Whew.  All from Thursday to Saturday night.  You would think that Annie would have asked Katie's husband, who is a math genius, for help, but she is intimidated by him.  maybe next time.  It was so good to see Katie again.  She is always a source of inspiration.  My kids remembered that they enjoy jumping on a trampoline while we were there, and they are acting as if ours is a brand new toy.  Also, they are asking for chickens.

In non-Katie news, we bought David and Heather's old minivan.  I kind of took out the side of my car on a fence (yes, laugh away) the same week that the transmission went out on Howard's truck.  Insurance paid for my car but we decided to wait to fix the gas hog truck.  Instead, we are new owners of a 2000 Honda Odyssey, which gets much better mpgs and can fit the whole family, in case another fence attacks me.  Its a bonus that my brother took good care of his car.  heck, he just replaced the brakes and put new tires on this summer.

There you go, lots and lots of words, no pictures.