Posted in weekly class log

As we are studying Biblical history, we are taking a pit-stop between Noah's Ark / the Tower of Babel and the calling of Abraham and the Iraelities into Egypt.  We are studing early cultures including Sumer and ancinet Egypt.  One of the most interesting projects we are currently doing is mummifying a goose.  (Yes, most people do this with chickens, but my hunter-husband has our freezer stocked with waterfowl, so it seemed silly to go buy a chicken just to mummify it when we had other options on hand.) 

Big J and I have finally gotten the hang of Spelling Power and we are both enjoy daily spelling lessons - something I just couldn't get a handle on last year due to intimidation for the size of the teacher's book.  But now that we have it down, it really is simple and is making a lot of sence to both of us.  That's saying a lot coming from a spelling-hater, dyslexic Mommy!  And "Foil is way cooler than saber," is the verdic of this semester's fencing class. ;)

The switch seems to have clicked for R with basic reading skills this year too.  It's so fun to hear her sounding out words and putting together creative, but usually logical, spellings.  Her highlight right now (other than fascination over that salt-drying bird in the kitchen) is her "Words to Remember" book with badges representing every letter of the alphabet and what each can help us remember about our relationship with God.  Big J never got into that project, but being the crafty girl that she is, R can't get enough of the cutting, coloring and creating involved.  We'll have to find another project to replace badge-making with once we finish the alphabet!  We had to drop gymnastics at homeschool co-op because of the broken arm, but she's absolutely loving Richard Scary and her ballet classes.

Little J is making school days interesting right now.  Two days ago he dumped 4 full bottles of pain on the school room floor (and desk and...) as we were heading out the door to a doctor's appointment.  His hand's were brigh blue and he had blue, yellow and white pain squished between his toes when I found him.  His pants were streaked in white, yellow and red paints with red handprints all over his shirt.  The white desk had huge red splatters all up the face and the floor has yet to fully relinquish it's holdings, especially the red worked into crevices of the wood pattern.  Today he spent 2 hours at Nana's house while we attempted a more productive day!  Co-op "pee-school" and AWANA Cubbies are events he looks forward too all week.

I'll be having surgery mid-November and be out of commission for 2-6 weeks (2 weeks potentially down hard, 6 weeks to resume normal activies I'm told) so I'm trying to figure out how to work school schedule both in advance of this and for any expectation I might have while kids are with grandparents that first week or two.  We typically take off a nice chunck from about Thanksgiving through New Year's anyway, so maybe it won't throw us off too much.