Today

We started with the Book of Mormon, sang 5 Little Monkeys and read a bunch of poems from Animal Crackers. That has to be one of the best books for quick poems that appeal to kids. They aren't sickly sweet (although they are sweet) and they aren't about how they hate their brothers. I just really like the book.

Harry had a spelling "test," which really is a spelling test. He writes the words from his lesson this week and if he gets any wrong, he writes them in the little spelling glossary section of his book. Today he got three wrong, which means that instead of moving on to a new lesson next week, we'll go over the concepts from this one again.

He also took a math test, which he aced. Skip counting is just plain fun. Oh yeah, we also did a quick grammar review in the form of "Simon Says." The kids just stand up and I'll say a word. If it is a verb, they do that, if it is something else they stand there and stare at me. Actually, Harry identifies the part of speech it is.

In between all of this learning and reviewing, Sam and Annika were making me delicacies with the new kitchen we got the other day.

I also read to Harry from 50 Famous Stories--it was about a rock in the North Sea. We looked up the North Sea and he narrated the passage. I'll post it later if I can.

Over lunch and snack we read Archimedes Takes a Bath. We haven't finished it yet, but so far everyone loves it.At some point we took out William Shakespeare and the Globe by Aliki and read a little about Shakespeare's life. I thought I'd impress the boys by telling them that I have been to his house. They just looked at me, blinking, "you've been to someone's house, yay." They didn't say that, but I know that's what they were thinking.

After lunch they went out to play where Annika go filthy and had to have a bath, so we had an impromptu bathtime for the kids. Harry also amused himself by finding all of the contractions in a passage. Hey, it works for him.

Now it's quiet time--the boys are acting out invasions and wars in the loft and the little girls are asleep (I love saying that). We'll go out later on--to the library and Kinko's or Staples, but for now, we're all tucked in nice and cozy at home.