Winter is on its way! Gone are the warmer days of fall. We're homeschooling in front of a roaring fire in pajamas today.

Dd-almost 5 has been catching on the tens and ones thing. After we skipped ahead and did some addition (she loves adding), we went backwards in the book and did 20s, and 30s. Instead of demonstrating outside of the workbook and using manipulatives, we just worked on the questions together in the workbook. After a few days, she seemed to pick up on the concept. She says she loves her math workbook and always picks math to do first. She is also working through HWT K, and has just finished all of the capital letters. She prefers to write in capitals, so I'm not sure if we'll continue in HWT or take a break. She has read through the first 4 books of Bob Books and really likes those. She gets tired of sounding out words, so I'm not sure if she'll work on any more Bob Books for awhile.

Dd 7 has watched me writing my novel for NanoWriMo, and has even listened to some of it. She has been typing her own version of the story in an effort to help me reach my 50,000 word goal. She has typed 35 words so far. We've had quite a bit of discussion about characters and plot. She has been drawing her own characters in un-written stories and listing whether they are boys or "grills". I've let copywork go by the wayside in favor of these new creative endeavors. For Math, we have been working through Developmental Math Level 2 (adding to 9). We have another 2-3 weeks left in the book before we move on to Level 3 (subtracting within 9). We've also been applying math to everyday life. She had 26 Reece's Pieces, and I covered up all the yellows and asked how many would 26 take away 6 be? Just for kicks, we calculated dinner calories if we wanted a second helping (260 + 260), which then fuels a discussion on healthy food choices and balanced portions (and a great intro on regrouping in addition). Great grandma stayed with us, so for breakfast I asked, "how many people do we have eating breakfast? (5) "if everyone wants 2 eggs, how many eggs do we need to cook?" and we came up with different ways to come up with the number 10. For reading, Dd7 likes to pick picture books with word bubbles coming out of people's mouths. She's completely head over heels for word bubbles. Hence, Martha the Talking Dog series are our favorites, and the Help Me Be Good books ("Reading about Annie can help you understand and deal with disobeying." LOL). I had hoped she would like Level 2 readers like Frog and Toad, or Amelia Bedelia, but so far she just does not like these.

Our current read-aloud is My Father's Dragon. Dd7 picked out a horse-and-teenage girl novel from the library, but has had no interest in me actually reading it. Thank God. I hate horse-and-teenage girl novels! But I guess I would read them if all the other books in the world fell off of the planet and only the horse books were left. Or, if a really sweet, loving 7yo looked up at me with big blue eyes and said, "please." Then, I guess I would read a horse-and-teenage girl novel. But I wouldn't like it.