It's Wild Here

bathing and singing

Kellen after a bath. He was very smiley in the water, but didn't care for the getting-out cold-air part.  His hair poofed up sweetly when it was so clean; he is the curliest infant we've had.

Ryan is quite a singer these days. He sings LOUDLY and deeply, and we all have to hold back our glee at how cute it sounds, otherwise he'd stop.

We started some book work yesterday. Jamie's doing ancient history, some algebra, and lots of writing.  In a few weeks we may start doing the exercises on Brave Writer . I really like the attitude she has about writing. He'll also work through some geography, and he's reading Swiss Family Robinson. He and I are both finding that novel tiresome, so far. Lots of good new vocabulary to talk about, though.

Jeremiah is reading Harry Potter and studying the human skeleton. Singapore Math 4 is his new book. We'll probably continue with A Child's History of the World and work on a good amount of writing and spelling. 

A lot of old friends are going back to school this year. It's a funny feeling. Learning at home is still working well for us, so we will carry on. I'm hopeful, though, that we'll find a good mother's helper to visit a few times a week. It will be good for Ryan to have someone else to run around with when I'm focused on the big boys and their work.

more later about knitting, soccer and martial arts.

Powers of Ten, Art History, early Americans, Frog and Toad

The boys and I watched "Powers of Ten" this morning on VHS.  From the website:
"Powers of Ten", the film made by Charles and Ray Eames in 1977, takes the viewer from the core of an atom to the edge of the universe, moving 10 times further every 10 seconds. The film and all of our Powers of Ten products are about scale and how we view the universe and our place in it.

Jamie is studying the first Americans and their migration during the Ice Age. He's enjoying studying and creating maps. He's starting a new art history book and read a chapter about cave art in prehistoric people. He drew a mammoth and was impressed by the results, having convinced himself he could only draw anime well. Today he did a blind contour drawing of our phone. He's started Shiloh but finds the dialect very irritating. It's the first fiction book he's ever read that wasn't his selection, and he's not pleased.

Jeremiah is working in Singapore Math 3 and finding it a bit too easy. We're going to keep skipping ahead until he's challenged. He's reading a Frog and Toad chapter book, and listening in on Jamie's history work.  I was bragging a bit to Katie on the phone within earshot, about his math and reading progress. He said, afterward, "I guess I'm pretty smart."  :-(   That wasn't already obvious to you, J?  Really, I don't like to involve myself in every snotty comment made between siblings, but I think Jeremiah takes some of this criticism much too seriously. I'm on a mission now, to clarify for him what's obvious to the rest of us.

Ryan is trying to shake this cold, and in the meantime is experimenting with snot-face-painting, loud sudden cries of agony, fits of frustration and short useless naps.    You can see the snotty situation, his cute belly, and his listless truck play here.

math

Yesterday Jamie covered mean, median, mode, range.
Jeremiah learned exponents, and square/cube roots.
More Latin/Greek, more ancient Egypt study, vocabulary and cursive.

Jamie weekly list

Key to Fractions, long division practice
Hakim's History of Science
superstringtheory.com
iknowthat.com math game
Greek/Latin - English from the Roots Up
Daily Vocabulary word
reading Eldest, by Paolini