Wrapping Up Swim Classes

The kids are done with swim classes as of today! The Transformer was recommended to register for the next level up (Minnows)! The Kitty Cat is progressing very slowly. We will begin frequenting the public pools, as well as the YMCA pool, for recreational swim times when we can all go together as a family. I am thinking that I will again register the children for swim classes around February or so of next year. That will warm them up for next year's swimming season, and perhaps the Kitty Cat will be more ready to learn to swim. The Transformer would register as a Minnow and perhaps be in the advanced level (don't remember the name) by summer next year, making him eligible to participate in swim clubs, if he so desires. :)

So now we have only Cub Scouts and soccer that the kids are actively participating in. They are enrolled for VBS at two different churches together, while the Kitty Cat is additionally registered at yet another for a third VBS while the Transformer is in Cub Scout Day Camp. At the YMCA, I am planning to enroll the Transformer for summer basketball, while the Kitty Cat participates in Rookie Leaguers, which is an introductory class for young 'uns to basketball, soccer, and t-ball.

Then I plan to allow them enough time to get bored over the summer so that they will be eager to get started with the new school year at the beginning of August. Also, we may have to move in July so I need to plan around that as well.

In May, the local AHG is having an ice-cream social that the public is invited to in order to learn more about AHG. I am planning on going to that with the Kitty Cat. If we can't get a new AHG troop started that can run concurrently with Cub Scouts, I am planning to register the Kitty Cat at the local one where I will also volunteer as a leader. I am also thinking of volunteering to head up the Wolf Cub rank in our den. Lots to consider and pray over.

Austin's Park

Today was a pretty quiet yet productive school day. We finally got to some American history readings that I had been wanting to do. We've been holding off on a lot of written work while the Transformer's hand heals more. The gash is still quite visible, although it doesn't hurt him.

After some waffling, due to the soggy weather, we went ahead and went to Austin's Park up in Pflugerville for the afternoon and evening. Although it was not spectacular, we ended up having a good time. Upon first impression, my husband and I were ready to be disappointed (and were for short while), but things started looking up when we got into the bumper boats. Whee! Got nice and wet and had a great time.

We also rode Go Karts, as you can see here, as well as playing miniature golf, climbing a rock wall, playing Lazer Tag, and playing lots of video games. The kids also rode the little train and a ride called Little Shot of which a video is shown below.



On the downside, the soles of my feet were hurting pretty bad by the time we left. On the upside, we all agreed that it was a pretty good birthday celebration for the Transformer. :)

Blue Monday

Actually, it's not so blue. It's dark out due to the wonderful thunderstorm we've been having for the last few hours. Here's a brief video of it. Listen towards the end for the thunder. The lightning and thunder have been pretty dramatic. I didn't manage to capture much drama on camera though. My husband was up at 3:15am and said he counted over one hundred lightning strikes in one hour at that time. We were apparently on tornado watch while I was slumbering peacefully. No thunder at that time, he said.



Our hike/cleanup of Bull Creek with Cub Scouts was cancelled, as was the Transformer's soccer practice. We've still got swimming this afternoon though, so we will be venturing out into the wet. I'm glad this Monday isn't crazy like last week!

Leading Up To and Including the Pack Campout

Wow. I haven't posted since last Tuesday. Well, let me try to catch you up here.

Wednesday was uneventful. The Kitty Cat had her swim lesson, but the Transformer had to stay out of the water because of his wound. Thursday was very busy. First, it was the Transformer's 7th birthday! Unfortunately for him, many other activities had been planned for that date, two of which were really out of our control.

We started out by taking the Transformer in to see the doctor for his annual well-child checkup. He was prepared to get vaccinations, but it turned out that he only needed a chicken pox booster. Yay! We saw a physician's assistant that morning, who checked his hand and said that it looked like it was healing great. We talked about his postnasal drip and decided on giving him Claritin every morning. Seems to be working fine so far. We came home for lunch and a brief present opening from Aunt Kay, then headed back out to check out the archaeological dig at Zilker Park. We stared in the hole for about 30 minutes. They weren't doing much in the way of excavating. The recent rains had caused a small mudslide that needed to be scooped out.

After going to Zilker, we went to KXAN for a tour with the other Tiger Cubs (for Achievement #4G). That was pretty cool. The cubs liked the chromakey (green screen) best. From the TV station, we went back home for a hurried dinner, a quick Happy Birthday song and cake eating, and then back out to go to the Pack meeting. A very busy day, indeed.

Friday, we took pretty easy. We did a little bit of school, but I felt bad that the Transformer didn't get to do much of what he wanted on the previous day, so I let him just play most of the day, along with his sister. That evening, we went out so that Kirk and I could play volleyball (had been over a month for me!).

Saturday was rushed as well. Both of the kids had soccer games with pictures beforehand. Then Kirk took off with the Transformer to go to the Pack Campout, while I took the Kitty Cat to her game.

Once we had split up for the weekend, things calmed down a bit. For us anyway. Kirk and the boy, of course, participated in all things camping. Apparently it rained a bit on them. The pictures in this entry are all from their campout. They apparently had a good time and discovered that the Transformer has a bit of marksman in him!

To the right is a picture of the Kitty Cat's friend, RW. She was the reason that I had considered going as a whole family, since the girls could hang out together. I'm not sure if any other girls had gone. To the left is RW's brother, JW. He is a Webelos II now (just graduated into that rank).

The Alamo

We went to see a presentation by The Daughters of the American Revolution today at The Alamo in San Antonio. Although we got in a few minutes late, we enjoyed the presentation. Following are some pictures.

To the left is a "Buffalo Soldier" talking about Buffalo soldiers from America's past--originally cavalry from the northern regions who wore buffalo hides as a cheaper alternative to the more expensive wool coats that were promised to be issued upon further service commitments.

To the right is a gentleman showing a variety of weapons used back then, including rifles, pistols, ammunition, and the like. Here, he is holding up the famed Bowie knife. It looks a lot bigger in real life!

There was a "creek" that ran through the middle of the compound, which apparently used to be an irrigation system. Anyway, there were giant koi in the water. The one pictured here was massive! He was so amazingly big that I had to get a picture of him. Unfortunately, you have nothing to compare him to in the photo. I would estimate him to have been about 2 feet long, no lie.

Here is the famed facade depicted in millions of postcards of the Alamo. It is in fact the facade to the Shrine where the Texans who perished are honored. Inside were plaques with each fallen hero's name and place of origin. There were funeral-type flower arrangements everywhere.

After our tour of the Alamo, we went to eat lunch at a little ice-cream shop (where they served a short menu of sandwiches) and then headed toward the Riverwalk to see what that was all about. It turned out to be a very cute, subterranean "city" of sorts. Restaurants lined the murky, green water on both sides. The river is shaped like a T. Boat rides are offered, and many were employed. The kids begged for rides, but I wasn't willing to shell out the bucks today. I told them we could come back and spend money with Daddy. ;) Little bridges allow one to cross the river conveniently and in many places. We didn't see anyplace that the water ended.

We ended our trip to San Antonio by driving to the Witte Museum, just to get a sense of its location. We didn't have time to go in, but my interest in visiting it has solidified upon seeing its exterior. Since we are members of the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, we would enter the Witte free via its partnership program. I think it might be worth the 1.5-hour drive there. A friend suggested combining it with a trip to the San Antonio Zoo. Feels like another field trip in the making!

Monday, Monday

Today took a little turn on the word "crazy." We started out with the usual craziness: school, Cub Scouts, swim class for the Transformer, swim class for the Kitty Cat, soccer practice for the Transformer.... erk! Drop everything. The Transformer has sliced his hand! Repeat, the Transformer has sliced his hand!

Okay, back up. What happened here? Well, in short, he was beginning to climb up a chainlink fence by the soccer field in order to get a soccer ball back from the other side. His right hand got caught in some metal that then lacerated his hand.

I had dropped him off for practice and had gone back inside to get the Kitty Cat out of the water and dressed. The soccer coach brought the Transformer in to me and told me what had happened. The poor child was crying his heart out. We got him bandaged up at the YMCA, then Kirk met us, and we all drove over to the ER together. His laceration was cleaned and glued and bandaged. Prognosis is good, and all is well. Until the hospital bill comes. :(

Before all of this, I had gotten him to put his shinguards on while waiting on his sister in class. Then I handed him the soccer ball as I turned to get the water bottle, saying, "Let's get you out to practice." He yelled back, "Mom!" My reply, "What?" "You hit my mouth with the ball and hurt my tooth!" I looked and, sure enough, that baby tooth that had been hanging on for weeks had gotten knocked out of the gum! I told him to pull it out! Yay! That tooth had been driving me and my husband nuts for weeks.

Tomorrow we are going to see the ALAMO. That should be fun. A nice long drive to San Antonio. I'm not all that prepared for it, so I will go do that now.

Wed and Thu Recap

Yesterday was a relatively uneventful day. School, then swimming. The kids got to go to a babysitting facility for a few hours while hubby and I went to an appointment. They seemed to enjoy it and said they wanted to go again.

Today, we started out with a nature walk. Pictures below of mostly flowers and children...




















We started school late, but got to enjoy a morning together as a family (including the dogs!). We started school at noon, took a break for lunch, then resumed until about 4:30-ish. Had to run an errand. When we got back, I attempted to finish up some things for school, but when my son protested, I relented and gave the kids the rest of the day off.

Tuesday Slowdown

Today was much better than yesterday. We got a lot of school done. My Transformer graduated from The Reading Lesson today! I awarded him a certificate that officially deemed him a Reader for Life. He was pretty proud, I think. He read the last two passages in the book to his Dad to demonstrate where his reading level is now. Tomorrow he will move onto primers and readers. After those (about three of them), he will start on library books like Frog and Toad. :D

My little girl is doing wonderfully with her blend ladder activities. She does not complain as much as she used to. Also, her writing of the lowercase letters is great, but she doesn't reproduce them on her own. When she writes her own words out, she still uses uppercase primarily. She uses lowercase for letters that she does not know how to write in uppercase.

For math, they are loving doing Living Math. Basically that means that we are using literature for math (the term literature being used loosely since most of the books are not literary). The books make math fun and put it into context, such as storylines that require calculations. They could be mysteries, adventures, or other themes. We've been working on patterns lately to work on the fundamental aspects of math for the Kitty Cat. Since the Transformer is working on addition, subtraction, and multiplication in his Miquon Orange Book, the patterns provide more foundation exercises for him. I had put away Ray's Arithmetic for him when he was struggling with place value and transposing the numbers in the teens; however, I think maybe over the next few months, I will reintroduce him to Ray's, since I believe that his brain will have developed enough by then to comprehend those concepts better. He is starting to understand those things via his continuing work in Miquon, so Ray's should help to solidify that understanding. The Kitty Cat may pick up on some of those things, but I don't plan to implement any formal math for her until she is about 6yo.

On another note, I am really loving the CM Organizer. Other than finishing out the weekly themes that I have set up for the remainder of this school year, I think I will be able to fully rely on the organizer to implement our daily school activities. It so nicely lines up resources to be used one after another with no implied rush to complete anything. Any resource not accomplished that day is left alone until the next weekday that it is scheduled for. What flexibility! :)

Is it the end of the week yet?

I'm tired. Very very tired. We had school this morning, at which we got a lot of stuff done (thanks to the CM Organizer!). Then lunch, Cub Scouts, the Transformer's swim class, the Kitty Cat's swim class, the Transformer's soccer practice, back home for a hurried dinner while I sat in my virtual class... I was starting to fall asleep during my class! I'm looking forward to tomorrow when the pace will be much slower. I guess we get the crazy day out of the week early though...

Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum

Friday was spent at the museum. We joined as members and got a $10 discount + free parking for that day (worth $8)! Additionally, we get unlimited entry for one full year, 4 tickets to the regular shows at the 3-D IMAX theater, 4 tickets to the 4-D theater, and 6 free parking tickets. We also get $1 off each ticket we purchase to either theater. All for a total of $50! (That includes that $10 discount, btw.)

The museum was great. Despite the fact that it is a history museum of a limited geographic area, we really enjoyed it. The kids had a great time as well since the museum has many little theaters to present the history of Texas in addition to the traditional installations.




This month, we missed the 1st Saturday event TEXplorations Family Storytime. We will hope to make it next month. Maybe we can also go to the IMAX theater then. Saturdays may be tough to get in!
Before heading to the museum, we had hoped to check out the dig at Zilker Park. We drove through both parking lots and couldn't find anywhere to park. Too many cars and nobody leaving. The kids were also upset because we were supposed to get cotton candy at the Zilker Food Stand too. We will try again next week or so.

We unfortunately ended the day with me having a headache. I had to plow through the evening study session anyway because I was behind in getting all of my assignments completed in time. Finally turned in around midnight. Will spend a good portion of today getting the rest of my schoolwork for copyediting done for this week.

Spring Planning

Spring is all about planning for the new school year. Well, at least it is for me. I spent HOURS adding resources into the CM Organizer that I am hoping we will use over the next few months to year. The resources are pulled from the unofficial AO Year 0.5; Sonlight's Core K, Science K, and Readers 1 and 2; and additional resources for language arts, math, and science.

It's so exciting to be planning for 2nd grade and kindergarten! I know CM would shake her head at me doing a kindergarten year for my Kitty Cat, but she is ready, and I don't believe that she should be held back because she is not 6. She is already blending sounds and will soon be reading Bob Books. She likes hearing the "stories" that we read, and I don't make her do much anyway. Her brother is the one that gets mad because he's been homeschooling since he was 4yo and wants me to give her more work. Anyway.

Tomorrow we are going to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. We are planning on getting a membership, so I hope that the museum is a fun place to visit!

Very Very Sick Day and a Very Very Normal Day

Tuesday was a very out of the ordinary day. The Kitty Cat woke up at 3am early Tuesday crying that her ear hurt. Long story short, the doctor confirmed an ear infection, so Kitty Cat is now on antibiotics. She was the saddest little girl all day. She threw up regularly all day (tummy-fulls of mucus) and was unable to eat anything except dry Cheerios for breakfast.

Well, thanks to some prayers and 2 rounds of antibiotics, she woke up at 7:30am today full of energy and volume, chatting with the dogs and just ready to tackle life. She did get cranky when she realized how hungry she was, but that was taken care of in short order. Although I was nervous about allowing her to eat too much out of the gate, my husband let her eat a whole lot. And she did eat a whole lot! Her appetite has been great all day.

Although we cancelled school yesterday, we were back in session today. The kids were also back to their usual bickering and such.

While his sister was taken ill, the Transformer decided that he was going to set up shop out on the sidewalk in front of the house. He set up these colored teeny shells that he had, as well as some paper boats, in an effort to make some money (to feed his Transformers action figures habit). Well, other than his sister buying a pink paper boat, he didn't get any customers. I think only one person walked by on the sidewalk during the 2 hours or so that he was out there. It was really interesting to watch him from inside too. He started shouting out,"Shell and Paper Boat Stand! Shell and Paper Boat Stand!" rhythmically, while walking up and down the sidewalk. After tiring of that, he started calling out the prices for his wares. It was the cutest darn thing! I kept trying to think of what examples he might have seen or heard for doing that, and I just couldn't come up with anything. I think he'll do great in popcorn sales for Cub Scouts next school year. :)

Because of my daughter's illness, we were unable to go to First Tuesday service for Austin Stone. I was disappointed, I admit. We will try again next month.

Today, the kids had swim classes, and then we went to the library for movie night to watch "Bee Movie." We got there about 12 minutes late so missed the opening of it. It was a cute movie. I'm not sure if Jerry Seinfeld should do any more lead roles in animation, however. I'll have to ponder that more before I can commit to that statement.

The Transformer's birthday is coming up. I want to do something wonderful for him, but I'm not sure what that will be. I had told him no party. Mostly because we (my husband and I) hate inviting people to have them bring presents. We would rather he shared an experience with some friends. I'll have to think harder on what we can do.

CM Organizer

Today went well. We finished up the day with the kids having their swim classes and the Transformer having soccer practice.

I'm using a trial of CM Organizer from the SimplyCharlotteMason.com site. I had tried it last year or so, and it wasn't right for me at that time. However, I decided to give it another shot and have really been enjoying using it. I started using it last week to keep track of what my children had covered but really didn't have it set up with enough resources to fully rely on it until today. I'm still referring to my Excel printout but should be able to wean myself onto completely relying on the online organizer soon.

As for what we did today, we started our last worksheet for the Bible Study Guide for All Ages (Unit 2). After we complete it this week, we will move onto reading from Bible story books from the unofficial Ambleside Online Year 0.5 booklist. It will be a nice change of pace, I think. I had thought we would try to follow the KidStuff curriculum that the kids do on Sundays, and we will try that too, I think.

The Transformer is doing great with his reading! He is on the next to last lesson in The Reading Lesson, so I imagine he will be done with the whole book in two weeks or so. He's doing some remedial work in a language arts workbook just to review some things and to give him some easy work. We'll move onto some other stuff as we continue to finish up some other items in this year's curriculum plan.

He is continuing to work on Miquon's Orange Book (Level 1). He was starting to get a bit lazy and lost in his work (high percentage of wrong answers), so I am having him use the Cuisenaire rods for each problem he does. He will actually use them, kind of, guessing at what other rod should be making up the answer; I am therefore having him actually pick out the missing rod so that he has physical evidence of the correct answer.

The Kitty Cat has been working on blend ladder activities from My Father's World. She is doing really well! Each set of blend ladder activities ends in writing out 3-4 words. I have her build those words on the blend ladder with her crepe letters and printed ladder. Then I have her copy them, making sure to form her letters correctly. At this stage, she writes on unlined paper because she becomes overwhelmed with lined paper.

I am hoping that I can get more structured and intentional about the subjects that we cover, incorporating more subjects regularly, such as handicrafts, foreign language, and artist and composer study.

I still have a lot to learn about CM methods, that's for sure.

I have to admit, Sonlight's new catalogue arrived, and I couldn't help myself. I just started dreaming about using one of their IGs and their booklists, etc. I felt so committed this time to stop flirting with using it and finally just do it. But in about a day's time, I had come back full circle to embracing CM philosophy. That doesn't mean that I won't use Sonlight's booklist. I am probably going to use their science curriculum since I really need some structure and guidance in that area.

Well, we'll see how things shape up for next school year soon...

YMCA Easter Egg Hunt

was fun except for the Easter Egg Hunt part. That was a resounding failure.

We got there about midway through the festivities, and the children immediately wanted to go into the petting zoo. Almost all of the pictures on here are from the the petting zoo.

Then the organizers called for the last Easter egg hunt for the day. Apparently there had been several earlier that we had missed, which had been for different ages. This last one was for "everybody." Well, at the sound of "GO!" the kids swarmed onto the field like a cloud of locusts devouring crops in Egypt.

At the end of the swarm, little children here and there were crying because they had found ZERO eggs. Older kids were about to cry because they had found only THREE eggs. And the older kids didn't feel any better that the younger children had found ZERO eggs. I couldn't believe that they 1) wouldn't have had more eggs, 2) wouldn't have limited the hunt to those children that had not participated in previous hunts, 3) did not have the younger children begin 30 seconds earlier with the older children following, 4) or... I don't know--something! After a bit of crying, the children decided to go into the moonwalk.

They jumped for about 30 minutes or so and wanted to go back into the petting zoo. So we (and others) closed out the petting zoo. The saddest thing happened at the end of that time. I don't know if any children noticed, but one of the little bunnies was dragging its hindquarters, and the owners picked it up to take it back to the "barn," otherwise known as a trailer. Kirk figured that someone must have stepped on it and broken its back. I'm so upset and sad for that bunny.



All in all, the children had fun. I just so terribly wish that the bad parts had not happened. We came home and finished up the day's Easter festivities with some egg dyeing.

Saturday Soccer

Today was soccer day, as will all Saturdays (minus next week) be for awhile. First we started with the Kitty Cat's KinderSoccer at 10am. Here's a picture of her below during practice just before the game. To the right is the Transformer posing before his game at noon.

Although he is wearing a blue jersey here, as his team was scheduled to wear, he ended up playing for the other team since they were short by a lot of players. Specifically, the Transformer's team had 9 players with the other team had 4. Yep.





You can see him here wearing the white jersey and playing goalie for the other team. I waited a long time to get a picture of the ball in play near him, but by the time that happened, my camera shut off due to inactivity. I couldn't get it going fast enough to capture anything. So this is what you get--a picture of a little guy waiting to do his job.



Below is a movie of the ball in play during the Transformer's game. This time he is on the field chasing after that ball.

Sick Little Girl

Today was Handbook day, meaning that instead of our usual school subjects, we spent today working on outstanding scouting projects and badges. Although we got started late (again, what's new?), we made some progress. I, in my bathrobe and pajamas, and my son, dressed and ready to go for the day, finished up his Texas Badge that he had started about a month ago. I learned a lot about Texas in the process. Oh, as did he. I think. Won't really know until I ask him something and receive a blank stare in response.

After the Texas Badge, which he earned also for Contenders, we worked on his Rocks and Minerals Badge for Contenders. He got through 2 questions, both based on Scripture. It was pretty painful for him because it entailed lots of writing (copying) which he is just not accustomed to yet. He did alright though. I can't say that I behaved very well. I was getting crabby and impatient with his lack of attention and having to repeat everything 5 times.

My daughter worked on writing out the whole alphabet, capitals and lowercases, in order to finish up her ABCs Badge. She cried a lot doing that. Mostly because I was working with her brother on the Texas Badge and left her to copy the letters I had written down for her, but also because she was extremely congested and has been sick for a few days. Oh, and I had given her ruled paper to write on. So I told her to not work on it until after I was done with the Transformer and his TX Badge, and then I gave her unlined paper to write on while I coached her on forming her letters correctly. Then everything went swimmingly.

Let's see. After that, I just let the kids run wild while I finally got into the shower at 4pm. Well, actually a bit after 4pm. I know, it's just shameful. But the good thing is that I can just roll out of bed tomorrow and change clothes and be ready for the day. :)

Because of my little girl's cold, I elected to stay home with the kids (and since the Transformer wanted to watch Monster House for the third time); Kirk went to play volleyball without me.

We look forward to spending tomorrow as a family (unlike last Saturday) going to both of the kids' soccer games--the Kitty Cat's at 10am and the Transformer's at 12pm.

Thursday Lights Out

The power went out today from about 12:30pm to about 6pm. The wind gusts were so strong that somewhere power lines were interfered with and 4000 homes lost power here. Life is initially so very very boring when the electricity goes out, but after some necessary diversions, one is led to the conclusion that it was a blessing in disguise.

In lieu of being glued to the computer all day, as has been my practice lately, I was forced to do something with the children. Therefore, I decided to pull out all of our painting supplies to fulfill my daughter's long-ignored wishes of "painting, Mom, please!"

Here are the results of our artistic abandon. (If you want to see more detail, click on the picture, and you should get a larger image.)










To the left above is a butterfly by the Kitty Cat. To the right above are two paintings by the Transformer. As you can see from the top picture, his first choice in art is depicting Transformers. After his sister produced a butterfly, he decided to paint his own.










Being uninspired to be inspired, I decided to find my inspiration within the covers of an art book we recently purchased, The Story of Painting by Sister Wendy Beckett. Above is my rendition of a detail from Kirchner's Berlin Street Scene. You can see how my painting is almost indistinguishable from the book's image pictured on the right. Well, except for the curl of the cheap paper on the bottom left.

Here is a pic of the entire artwork:

Uh... ignore Hitler on the right side of that image.













I actually painted the following art before the one shown above. This is from another detail, but this time the image is from Paul Klee's work called The Golden Fish. Note my amazing attention to detail and my own twist on the fishes' personalities.










Below, you can see the entire piece depicted in the book. The two little guys from above are in the bottom right of the larger work. Note how they stand out and seem to command the viewer's attention, despite the magnificent golden fish that is obviously hogging the shot.


Despite my newfound status as an artist extraordinaire, as evidenced by my children's amazement at what I had produced, I am yet quite humble about my abilities. Despite that, I would not be embarrassed by any accolades that you might want to post in the comments section.

After our artistic adventure, my little girl wanted to cash in on her earned 1-on-1 time with me (from her behavior incentive map), so we went on a hike. There is a greenbelt just a block away from our house, so we walked through there, mysteriously ending up at the playground about 20 minutes later. I had never figured that letting my 4.5yo daughter lead was going to do anything other than have us go in circles or get lost. Apparently she knows the trails.

Here is the beginning of our "hike."









This is where we ended up.


All in all, not too bad of a day for losing our beloved electricity. I just hope it never happens again.

Another Lazy Schoolday

Today was uneventful. We had school this morning, then out for an appointment, and back to the house to watch Monster House. The kids were so excited to watch it, but I was a bit worried about it being too scary for the Kitty Cat. She did alright although she needed to have her dad sit by her for a few scenes.

I should note that my dear son, the Transformer, elected to read Genesis 22 by himself without any prompting from me. We had just been studying from Gen 22-23 for Bible study this week, and Genesis 22 tells the story of Abraham being tested by God. Anyway, he read from verse 1 all the way through verse 17 before tiring! I helped him out with some individual words, but he just kept going. I thought he would stop after a few verses. Amazing.

The children are playing in the backyard now. Although it is Wednesday, swim classes for April don't begin until next Monday so we have a day off from activities. In about 20 minutes, I will attend a webinar on "Bringing Joy to Your Homeschool Math and Science Lessons." Maureen Whitman will present how to use literature to teach your children math and science. Should be interesting!