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Yesterday we all took a break and after Alan and I voted, we went out for lunch and then to the art museum. Last night I got E out of bed so she could watch our first black president elect deliver his victory speech.

Today we read The Apple Pie That Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson, and Autumn: an Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur. Then we wrote some of our own acrostics (Nemo and Sheila are the names of our dogs):

She is a dog;
Her friend is Nemo.
Every morning she jumps
Into E's bed for
Love
And a scratch.

Not as small as he thinks he is
Every time someone is on the floor he jumps on them.
Mushy, lovey dog
On my lap.

Doorknob rattles
And
Daddy is home!
Delight!
Young monkeys jump on his head!

I've asked E to write two more on her own before Friday. Then I read some more of If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon by Ellen Levine, and The Josefina Story Quilt by Eleanor Coerr. After a break we had spelling, lunch, and math, then read Look What Came from China by Miles Harvey (what came from China? A whole lot more than you think!) Also The Cloudmakers by James Rumsford and A Song of Stars by Tom Birdseye (this is an Asian legend about the stars Vega and Altair and the Milky Way between them--we looked the stars up on Stellarium, an amazing free planetarium for your computer). And finally, we started learning about electricity with Melvin Berger's Switch On, Switch Off! (My copy a little out of date, so I had to explain how CF bulbs work, but still a very good intro).