Nothing much going on

Just all the usual. I could tell the kids just wanted to play a lot this week. So I let them. Sophie and Ian have actually been playing nicely together. They have been building zoos and playing vet with just about every toy they have in the closet. The little people have been out, along with the play mobile pirates and knights. They all take care of the plastic animals and move them about from place to place. The only one that hasn't been playing too well is Henry. He doesn't really play he just drifts about causing mayhem where ever he goes.

We have been listening to a lot of stories on CD too. Sophie really loved Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant by Jack Prelutsky. She listened to it three times in a row one afternoon. We also picked up a few CD's with stories read by Jim Weiss. The kids all recognized his voice from the Story of the World CD's. Our library has a bunch of these story CD's so we will work our way through them all eventually I am sure.

We did start a new afternoon read aloud. I have read the first two chapters of The Enchanted Castle by Edith Nesbit.
Sophie didn't want me to stop, but dinner had to be made. I am glad she likes it. It has sat here on the shelf a long time waiting to be read.

In other academics.......

Math - Sophie did an exercise every day. She doesn't fight it at all now unless I ask her to do two exercises in one day. She even woke up last Saturday morning and did one just for fun. We got to look at money this week. We broke out real bills and took a good look at them and who is on each one. As usual the math isn't much of a challenge. Sophie just takes a long time with each problem because she get distracted by other things going on around her.

I have done a few lessons with Ian as well. I don't push him to do it but when Sophie does hers he usually grabs his book and wants to do one too. His lessons are really way too easy for him. We are almost finished with Earlybird Kindergarden 1A already. I have a feeling we may fly through these kindergarden math books quickly and jump into first grade math with him. He can't read but he knows his numbers, can write them and often answers Sophie's math problems so I guess we will go with his strengths.

Science - Our focus for the week has been Volcanos and Earthquakes. We have read many books on these subjects. The boys seem especially interested in the exploding volcanos. Henry likes to point out that we live in the "Ring of Fire". The kids requested that we make a volcano. So we broke out the baking soda, red food coloring and vinegar. The kids loved watching the pink foam bubble up and over the bottle but were disappointed that there wasn't a big boom or something to start it off.

Since we live just about on top of a fault line we discussed what we should do when there is an earthquake. We talked about where they should go when there is an earthquake and also made sure they all knew where the 72 hour kits and other emergency supplies are kept. (I need to go through these and replace a few things!). If the ground starts shaking I think my kids will remember to hide under the kitchen table unless they are too fascinated by the swaying objects in the room like they were last time.

Grammar - We actually did 2 good Language lessons this week. We need to do more of these lessons but we are going to ease into it.

History - We listened to the Story of the world Chapter about the Byzantine empire. We looked at pictures of Petra and the mosaics found there. We also made mosaics again using little square papers and contact paper. The kids sat for a long time putting the squares in rows on their sticky sheets.
Sophie loved learning about the Hagia Sophia. And when we have looked at other books about the middle ages or the Byzantines, she recognizes it.
While at the library I picked up some DVD's that give a overview of the middle ages as well as some that talk about specific people or jobs in the middle ages.
Sophie has really enjoyed these and my husband makes us watch them again because he doesn't want to miss them.

Art - I have caught Sophie reading and rereading the biography of Picasso. She really likes to look at his pictures. We haven't done a whole lot more than this with him this week.

Music - We didn't read a chapter of Fredrick Chopin: Son of Poland book. I have been doing one chapter a week (they are rather long chapters) But instead we listened to the Classics for Kids episodes about Chopin. We also listened to our Chopin and Champaign

Spanish - We have been listening to (in the car) and watching Muzzy a few times this week. I am so surprised when I hear even Henry say things in Spanish. I don't know if he actually knows what he is saying or if he is just repeating the line from the show but they are getting more an more from it each time. They even decided to build Muzzy's space ship with K'nex. I find it so funny that they choose Muzzy for their afternoon movie. They are choosing to watch a cartoon in a foreign language for fun?! But then again. When have my kids been "normal".

That about wraps up our week. We also spent a bunch of time playing with friends at the park and riding bikes in the driveway. We have 2 birthday parties to go to today. So we are having a rather busy week end.