The Sinister Scribe

Literally… almost.

Because of the winds, last night was mostly spent without power and therefor A/C. It wasn’t as hot as I thought it would be in the house, again thanks to the winds.

It was really blowing and had the kids pretty scared. Discovered we need more of those emergency plug-in flashlights. After giving one to each kid, there were none for Bob or me. LOL! Of course they didn’t last all night so the kids were up (and so were we) a lot. *yawn* not much sleep around here.
I even brought the tomato and cucumber plants in! The cuke vine may not survive. It was propped up on sticks but when I went out, it was completely knocked over and the sticks were pulled up.

The neighbor’s wading pool is in our yard too. I’ll go retrieve it later and take it back. The house is a mess on the inside and I’m pretty rough myself.

Kids are waking… gotta go.

This week will be our “7th Week” break where Sam chooses the things we study in each subject such as: hedgehogs for science, Japan for social studies and language arts, Math Wizardry for well, math and various art projects we haven’t been able to get done. Then of course there’ll be the usual reading, library trip and PE.

I’ll also be taking this time to see where we are in each subject in contrast to where I estimated we’d be as well as what is or is not working with it. So here’s the first subject assessment:

Latin with Minimus: Starting out in Latin (starting out in Latin)

We are at the end of chapter 3 already, only a few worksheets to complete and a review of the chapter. I had not planned on being this far for a couple of weeks yet. I think Sam would do a chapter a day if I’d let him. LOL! Sam really likes listening to the CD while he reads the book. We’ve also been listening to Latinum podcasts and slowly the mumbling is beginning to sound more like words to us. LOL! I will definitely keep up with that.

My original goal for including Latin in out studies was to get familiar with the language and how much it has influenced our language today. I definitely think we are attaining that goal because Sam frequently points out words that he recognizes are based on Latin. This leads to some fun discussions too.

Also, sometime this week, Sam and I talked about doing an “open house” for Dad so that he can see all the great work Sam is doing.
I’d do more tonight but little Peanut will be with us again tomorrow so I really, really need a good night’s sleep!

G’Nite all!

Oh. My. Gosh. I am so tired.

Today I watched a 14 month old along with all the other things I do in a “normal” day. Jessie and Sam were great helpers. Even Kirby was really good with her. Little Peanut, as she is affectionately called, was great too. Her happy nature reminds me of Sam and her budding  vocabulary reminds me of Jessie. I still love babies and toddlers… but now I like to give them back to their parents even more!

The mum and dad are grad students and found themselves unexpectedly without a sitter this week. Oh man can I relate! They are really nice people as well. So little Peanut will be back tomorrow, Friday and (maybe) next week. They are paying me what they pay their usual daycare, so that is helpful and will go into the Estrella War coffer (which is unfortunately still empty). However, I kinda hope that it is just this week otherwise next weekend I will be burnt toast. Oy!

G’Nite!

“Hey mom, this math is FUN!” — Sam No, really… he said that!

We were working on the next lesson in Math Wizardry for Kids today. Pictured is his completed assignment. All three of us sat down and followed the exercise to make a cat completely of triangles. I kinda had fun myself.
Prompted by the directions, I had him measure and add up the angles of the body triangle… and then another. He found it “scary” that both had a total of 180. LOL! Discussion included talk about isosceles and equilateral triangles. I saw several lightbulb moments. Huzzah!
I’m not really sure which of us likes the book more. It certainly makes a great supplement! Sam asked if we could try Science Wizardry for Kids next.