What a day!!

Okay, yesterday was pretty fun! The kids dressed up in Viking and Saxon costumes in honor of our last day of "The Dragon and the Raven." I will post a picture of how they looked--it was pretty sweet. Geneva was "Freda," Dane was King Alfred, Kat was a knight, and Beau was Egbert. The book ended with the Saxons recovering Freda from the hands of the northmen (off the coast of Sicily). Edmund began to fight with Sweyn, but Seigbert threw a javelin that went right through Sweyn and killed him. Seemed a fitting end, since Sweyn had kidnapped Seigbert's daughter.

We got to read about Mercury and learned many interesting facts about that planet. I really like how Apologia presents the information for the kids.

Today was a more difficult day...Geneva was up at 3:20am with a bad dream, so that interrupted sleep for all but Beau. We were all dragging a bit this morning. Then, I gave the kids their Grammar tests, but they immediately informed me that I had given them the answer keys instead of the tests! Ha! Good thing they are such sweet, honest kids. I had to photocopy their tests and deal with the guy who stopped by to make adjustments to our cable. Then Ansley wasn't sleeping her normal time, so I ended up feeding her before my workout, which delayed my lunch a bit. It ended up working out, though...I actually liked some aspects of that schedule, but the little interruptions always throw us behind a little.

We studied Haiti today for Geography. That country has such a tragic history. We only saw one toy in the picture of the Haitian family featured. And that toy was broken. When asked what their most prized possession was, both parents of the family stated that they had NOTHING of value. Not one thing. The kids and I talked about how very blessed and fortunate we are here and how easy it is for us to get an education in this country (especially compared with some of the countries we are studying). I also pointed out to them that the kids in Haiti have less access to TV and audio CD's, etc., but that they also don't have many resources for growing their minds and bodies through games and outdoor play, like our kids have. I want to encourage our kids to USE their minds and bodies...to build things and make-believe...to investigate and discover all the nature we have around our house.

We did not do History today, since we will be working on our History notebooks tomorrow. The younger kids will be gone to play group at church, so that will give us a good chance to really focus on the time period we just studied.

For Science, we did a salt-dough replica of the planet, Mercury. The kids used pebbles and a pencil eraser and tip to make little "craters" in the ball of dough. We are drying it now and will take a picture for the Astronomy notebooks. It worked out okay, except that the kids kept smoothing it out and re-cratering it (haha), so it looks a little....bumpy. :) But it was fun!

Our reading in Robin Hood was REALLY funny today. We got to hear Friar Tuck singing a song with himself, playing the part of both the girl and the boy in the song. He also had some very funny interaction with Robin, and the old English and the wit of it all is just a blast to read through.

I have completed Day 3 of my Slim in 6 program...I am intensely sore. I could barely make it through all the lunges and squats in my program. And I almost collapsed on my last push-up. But I DID it ALL, and I know I will only feel better for having done it. I need to get my "before" picture taken...bleh.

Connor is over to play, and I've got stuff to get ready before the Community Group comes over for dessert later. It's pizza night, so that makes dinner easy.

I LOVE OUR HOME SCHOOL!!!!!