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Friday I read some more of Platt's Castle Diary and If You Lived in the Days of the Knights by Ann McGovern, E did math and had basketball practice. Saturday we went to the Chinese New Year Festival downtown, and E had a basketball game.

Today dawned grey and rainy and we didn't feel like school. E did her theory page for piano and some math, then we went to the IMAX and saw Blue Planet, which was pretty good and covered lots of earth science.

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Tuesday: read A Medieval Feast by Aliki and "Beowulf" from Osborne's Favorite Medieval Tales, and a few entries in Platt's Castle Diary. Did math and Spanish.
Wednesday: E had piano and dance lessons, and did math
Thursday: E had math and spelling, and they watched A History of the Middle Ages on DVD. We read a story from Osborne's Favorite Medieval Tales ("The Island of Lost Children") and a little bit of Castle Diary by Richard Platt, as well as playing around with Knights in Armor by Sally Hewitt (for T) and learning more about forces and friction with Energy in Motion by Melissa Stewart and The Magic School Bus Plays Ball by Nancy E. Krulik. (I really don't like the TV adaptations of the MSB series as much as the original books, but you try to find an engaging book about friction for gradeschoolers!)
Friday: we attended a performance by Complexions Dance Company and E has basketball practice tonight and a game tomorrow. She is doing a math lesson and then we will watch Social Structure in the Middle Ages and probably do a Spanish lesson.

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I was at the dentist again today. Grandpa read several books including Winter: An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur, and Adventures in Ancient China by Linda Bailey. E had a really long math lesson and the kids watched "Building the Transcontinental Railroad" on the DVD This is America, Charlie Brown.

Last Friday I read a few more pages of Beijing Through Time by Richard Platt, and Striking it Rich: The Story of the California Gold Rush by Stephen Krensky. E had math and spelling, and on her own she read California Gold Rush: A Guide to California in the 1850s by Julie Ferris. She also had a basketball practice and a game on Saturday.

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School keeps getting interrupted this time of year, with all the holiday stuff going on. This week we managed to go to a piano lesson, do some math and spelling, attend the service of Lessons and Carols at the cathedral downtown, and E had her first basketball practice of the season. We also read Cells Are Us by Dr. Fran Balkwill, Kites by Demi, and Ma Jiang and the Orange Ants by Barbara Ann Porte. E and T both worked on ornaments to give for Christmas presents.

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Wouldn't you know it, no sooner do I get my computer fixed than a storm brings down our utility pole and we have no power/phone service! Here's a wrap-up of the last week or so. Thursday 2/14: Native American festival and Valentine's party with Grandma and Grandpa. Friday: sick day (me), Monday: Presidents' Day--holiday/play day with their cousin and half the neighborhood kids. Tuesday-Friday we learned about the ancient Maya. We read The Maya by Robert Nicholson, You Wouldn't Want to Be a Mayan Soothsayer! by Rupert Matthews, Secrets in Stone: All About Maya Hieroglyphs by Laurie Coulter, and Technology in the Time of the Maya by Judith Crosher. E learned about and copied out a Senryu from A Kick in the Head by Paul B. Janeczko, and did math every (school) day. She can now add 3 digit numbers with carrying over in her head!
E had 2 basketball practices and 2 games. Sadly, basketball is over now. Yesterday we saw Cirque-Works Birdhouse Factory, an amazing show, and went to a first, organizational meeting for Earth Scouts. Today E and I went to the planetarium to see "Ancient Skywatchers of Mexico" which just happened to be showing as we are studying the Meso-American Indians. Too cool! She also did some easy Mayan math worksheets--I'm too lazy to link to them; just Google "Mayan math worksheet" and a bunch of stuff pops up.

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Since it's A. A. Milne's birthday, I read A. A. Milne: Author of Winnie the Pooh by Marlene Toby. Then E worked on writing another copy of her poem (with SO much bellyaching! Why does the girl hate handwriting so much?). Then it was time to get her dressed up and take her to the portrait studio for her school picture. She had so many good ones it was hard to pick! I can't wait to get them. Then we ran errands. She has basketball practice tonight.

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Well, today I decided to bail on my friend Jennifer, who wanted us to go with them to Park Day. But, we got a lot done, so it was good. E read Blizzard! The 1888 Whiteout by Jacqueline A. Ball, I read Terrible Storm by Carol Otis Hurst, and T wanted me to read Kevin Henke's Sheila Rae the Brave and Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. Then we read the Cherokee legend "Grandmother Spider Steals the Sun" in From Sea to Shining Sea by Amy L. Cohn, and Mounds of Earth and Shell from Bonnie Shemie's Native Dwellings series. We made "birch" baskets (out of paper), a craft I found in Laurie Carlson's More Than Mocassins. Then E did her math. After some Peep, and some lunch, we got back to work with What is the World Made Of? All About Solids, Liquids and Gases by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, and we did a demonstration from 365 Simple Science Experiments by E. Richard Churchill et al, which used a box and some marbles to show how molecules move in solids, liquids and gases. We went to the library and got some books, and E made a birthday card for her basketball coach. Tonight she has basketball practice.

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Today is Louis Braille's birthday, so we read about him in A Picture Book of Louis Braille by David A. Adler, which has a page with a tactile Braille alphabet in the back. I read Caves by Larry Dane Brimner, which was much better than the Gail Gibbons book. E did her math and an extra page of work on her addition facts. She's having some trouble with her numbers, so I made up a handwriting page to practice them at this neat site which allows you to design your own handwriting worksheets. She labeled a blank outline map of North America, and read on her own Mae Jemison: Astronaut by Garnet Nelson Jackson. She also had basketball practice today and we practiced with her note flashcards for piano.

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Ok well it's been a very long time since I blogged but I've just been struggling with the blues, a cold, T being 3 1/2 (that was the worst), and all the busy Christmas season stuff. We did do school every day, so I'm going to just write it all in no particular order. E did math most days and has finished level 1B. She'll start the 2A book next semester. E went to see the Nutcracker with Grandma and Grandpa. We did several Christmas-y things. I finished reading Galen by Marissa Moss and read all of Julius Caesar by Richard Platt. E and T went to Dance and Tumbling class. E went to piano class and had a piano recital (she was great!). She also went to basketball practice and had a basketball game. We watched a lot of Peep. In honor of Beethoven's birthday last Sunday we read Ludwig van Beethoven by Mike Venezia and listened to the 9th Symphony. We made igneous rock out of melted chocolate, ate sedimentary Snickers bars, and made metamorphic rock (rice crispie bars--heat and pressure, don't you know). We did scratch tests and streak tests on our minerals, and also tested them for magnetism and put several of them into vinegar (calcite bubbles). All these activities are from the great book How the Earth Works by Michelle O'Brien-Palmer. I read Growing Crystals by Ann O. Squire and we looked at crystals of calcite, iron pyrite, quartz and amethyst. We also looked at crystals of salt, sugar and ice, and saw how a single line viewed through a piece of calcite seems to split into two lines. We made borax snowflakes. I read Comets and Meteor Showers by Paul P. Sipiera and we looked at some animations of comets. E answered several questions about Neptune in her notebook. Tomorrow E has her final piano lesson of the year and then we'll add Neptune's main moon Titan to our solar system wall and call it done! Vacation here we come!

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What a busy day today. I'm exhausted, and it's only 7:30. This morning E read Fox in Socks to T, then I read from Galen by Marissa Moss and Spend the Day in Ancient Rome by Linda Honan. We started on volcanoes today with Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld's How Mountains Are Made and Hill of Fire by Thomas P. Lewis. Then E did math and everybody watched Peep. After lunch E barely had time to begin a Draw Write Now page before we had to go to Dance and Tumbling, and when we got home from that we barely had time for Kid Cuisines before she had to go to basketball tryouts. And she got 3 baskets! Yay E! That's one more basket than she got all last year! I think she may do really well this year.