3 out of 5 isn't too bad!

Our week started off well but it fell apart toward the end. We "did school" three days and played the last two. I have no excuse other than that it was my husband's birthday, we started Swimming lessons, and I was just a tad bit lazy perhaps.

Monday we did listen to what I thought was the last two chapters of our Story of the World, there ended up being three and then a sort of sum up mini chapter too. Oh well. Maybe we will start off talking more about these early settlements in the Americas when we start the next Story of the World book in the Fall. I just have hit the wall with History and Science lately and need a change.
We also did some Math, Phonics, writing and Ian read his first book to me. We had been reading passages from our McGuffy's Reader but I decided it was time to try an actual book. I chose Bears on Wheels. I could tell he was looking a the pictures for help but when I pointed to the words on the page he would be able to give me the exact sentence rather than just what he could see in the picture.
We also listened to all our Shakespeare books and audio books in the afternoon. My kids couldn't seem to get enough Shakespeare.

Tuesday was about the same as Monday. We did history related reading about maps and Sophie decided to draw a map of our house. It looked great until she started to put too many details in and it got a bit cluttered but it was a good exercise. The kids then spent some time drawing maps of their made up land, Bardarland. They put in all the symbols and things to show where the waterfalls were and where the bardar lived. I love it that my kids have an active imagination!
In the mail, on Tuesday, I got a book via Paperback swap, Annos Math games II. The boys insisted we look through it right then so we all sat down on the couch and we went through the whole book doing the different activities and puzzles. When it was done they didn't feel like they had had enough so they went to the shelf and found our copy of Anno's Math Games, which was also a book I recieved via Paperbackswap. The boys again sat through this whole book too. So I guess we did Math with Anno on Tuesday.
The kids started their swim lessons Tuesday afternoon. They are each in a different class but they all happen at the same time. I get a half hour of quiet in the lobby, twice a week, while they swim.

Wednesday was the day things really started to fall apart. I just couldn't get the kids away from their Knex Wednesday morning so they listened to audio books again. I believe this time it was a CD about Queen Elizabeth and her Pirate Sir Frances Drake called The Queen's Pirate. I think we listened to it at least 3 times during the week. It certainly fit well with the Story of the World chapter about the Spanish/English war so at least that was some History for the day.

While outside playing in the yard the kids made an exciting discovery. In our birch trees there are all sorts of ladybug eggs and larvae. I still haven't replaced my camera so I am using my gimpy camera with the screen that doesn't work so I never know what I am going to get. This is the only picture that didn't turn out fuzzy. but there were all sorts of different pupa and even some of the larvae crawling around on the leaves. It was pretty exciting to see them on our tree.
We went to the park as usual in the afternoon to meet our park day group and that was about it for Wednesday. Not a whole lot accomplished but at least we did a little.

Thursday is our usual library day. I have given up going to story time. My kids don't go to story time so we just go when we want to. Henry always thinks he has to play some of the computer games that are available and Ian usually coaches him along. Sophie heads to her favorite sections and looks at books. I actually didn't have to go in search of books because all the ones that I wanted were already on my hold shelf so they were already found for me. I love it when that happens. I was able to scan the audio books in the children's section for awhile and found the Tale of Desperaeux. It is one I had thought I should get for the kids to listen to since the movie came out on DVD recently. They also loved The Rescuers which was one of the Audio book we have listened to recently. So I knew they would enjoy this one as well. On the way home the kids wanted to listen to it. So I put it on for our 5 min drive home. They immediately put it on in the house and listened to the first two CD's without stopping while they built extensive train tracks that went through a zoo and castle. They had every toy out all over the front room. They were having a great time and were more or less playing without fighting so I just enjoyed the story along with them as I cleaned my room and folded laundry.
At swim lessons on Thursday Ian was able to swim without a float. I knew he could swim he just needed a little confidence. He was swimming back and forth between the wall and his swim teacher. He was even jumping in off the side and then swimming to his teacher by the end of the lesson. I was very happy to see him swim on his own finally. Sophie is having a great time swimming and is getting better at her strokes. This is Henry's first lessons so he is giving his teacher a bit of a run around. He has no fear and she has to keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn't just let go of the wall and think he can do it on his own.

By the time Friday rolled around we had already skipped a day of school so I felt like we really should do more but.... we didn't really. We just finished Despereaux and played. We read a few fun books and played some games but mostly the kids just did what they wanted more or less. They had the little legos out and were all about building ships for their Star wars Lego men. Ian had received his Lego magazine the day before and was all excited again about legos. I spent the time cleaning out my closet a bit more. My walk in closet is supposed to be where the Baby will be sleeping when she comes. I have to clear out a bit more stuff and find new homes for it in the next two months so she will have a "room" of her own, half of which will still have our clothes hanging in it.

Sophie had yet another doctor's appointment in the afternoon. This time with the ENT. Her last hearing test didn't go so well so the ENT needed to check her ears for fluid. He couldn't see anything but his simple test of her ears with the telephone showed that her hearing in one ear is fuzzy. She may need tubes again. Wow... if it isn't one thing it is another, poor girl.

Today, Saturday, Sophie had her Ballet recital. She was very excited and she had so much fun with her classmates while they watched the other dancers. I am sad that this is the last recital. The community center where we have been doing ballet classes only does classes up to age 8 and then they switch to hip hop dancing and I am not excited about hip hop. So we are going to either find something different for her to go or some other dance studio to take classes.


That was our week. We were busy but I can't claim that a lot of formal schooling went on. I am looking forward to our Horse Unit Study, which we will start next week. Hopefully a change of pace will be good for us.