Magic and Mayhem

…we’ve learned, done or read the past few days:

1.  Jack and I have started reading The Berenstain Bears’ Science and Nature Super Treasury from the library.  It’s a nice intro to some science topics for a 4 or 5 year old, though it’s out of print and not worth the price people are charging for used copies in my opinion.  Just the same, we enjoyed snuggling on the lawn swing out front and reading about the months and seasons today.  We read the first third (it’s a very thick book that combines 3 BB books) and it kept Jack’s attention the whole time.

 2.  I’ve been reading Story of the World to all of the kids, especially the girls.  I read it once or twice a day, a couple of chapters at a time.  In the past I got hung up on doing all of the activities from the activity book so I’d get stalled out.  There are some days you really don’t want to go to the bother of mummifying a chicken!  I finally let go of perfectionism and I just read.  If we get to an activity, so much the better, but it’s not crucial.

3.  Victoria and Anna have been doing math pages from workbooks.  Anna happily does them and talks the whole time about it to Daddy, while Victoria wails and gnashes teeth.

4.  Jack and I walked to the library and checked out a pile of books, just the two of us.  It was such a lovely day and he talked the whole time.  At one point I told him he really makes me happy.  He can make me crazy but he is such a sweet little boy and I try to focus on that.  I’ll miss his kindergarten self someday.

5.  Victoria is reading Painless Algebra.  Willingly.  She apparently likes it.

6.  Anna is keeping up her guitar lessons with Daddy and Victoria is keeping up her dulcimer lessons.  Daryl has been printing out lots of sheet music for fun old songs and they sometimes play together.

7.  The girls have been blogging and emailing friends.

8.  Anna started writing a short story to submit to a science fiction contest next year.  She’s already hand written 2 1/2 pages and is not finished yet.

9.  Jack, Anna and Victoria have been using blocks to construct elaborate towns and use a big bag of my pennies for currency to run businesses in them.   Alex destroys the towns so they wait until he goes to sleep and then happily take over the living room floor.

10. The kids have been watching a Magic School Bus DVD all about bugs.   We love Netflix!  Next in the queue are DVDs about sign language, math, meerkats and Weird Al.  Okay, that last one is as much for me and Daryl as the kids, but I was intrigued to see that Weird Al had a children’s series for a while!

I have to blog about the great science & nature center we hit in Sioux Falls sometime soon, too.  But my kids are still awake so I have to go bore them to sleep or something now!