Dardi was here on Tuesday and Wednesday. The kids really enjoyed visiting with her. Here she is with her favorite Yellow Springs treat - Peanut Butter Bumpers.

Wednesday afternoon, we went to the pool and ran into Kira, Joe and Audrey. I had a chance to talk to Becky for a while about homeschooling and plans for fall. She's going to be joining Aullwood and doing some study of birds, and recommended a bird guide that allows the user to find books based first on color before any other feature. It's called Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds : Eastern Region.  She also mentioned doing a lot of reading about string theory, which is something Jamie wants to study.

After the pool, Jeremiah went to taekwondo. Jamie really hates to go along to taekwondo. He does enjoy watching and is generally a very supportive fan of Jeremiah's efforts, but the classes are in the late afternoon, which is a tiring time to get in the car for a 30 minute drive each way, class in between...

Finally it seems like we're back to having a decent read aloud time in the evenings. Right now we're finishing up The Great Glass Elevator, just starting A Bear Named Trouble which is wonderful so far, and The Prince and the Pauper.  I'm reading some poems each night as well, from A Writing Kind of Day- Poems for Young Poets. Last night we talked about metaphor.

Jamie is plugging away on his Einstein book. Jeremiah is reading a book himself about early humans, and continues working through Explode the Code. We also just started the Highlights Top Secret Adventures Club, so Jeremiah will get a kit every 5 weeks with this mystery to solve, based in a different country. We are starting with Australia.