The Sinister Scribe

Sam and I have spent 2 days trying to solve this and have been unsuccessful. I’m trying NOT to look in the back for the answer and reverse engineer the solution.
Here’s a picture of our white board. It seems to me we’re very close but I’m stumped on how to guide him to the answer. Any suggestions from you gentle reader are greatly appreciated!

Whiteboard notes

Here’s the text of the problem, just in case:
Each pen cost $1.20 less than each notebook. Eric bought 8 pens and 2 notebooks. If he spent $21.90 altogether, how much did each notebook cost?

Here is is Thursday of the first week of the last quarter of this school year. (lotta “of” in that sentence!) It is going very well and most importantly, the kids are having FUN! On the other hand, I am utterly exhausted staying up late to make sure I have everything printed and ready for the next day. It is clear to me that in order for me to survive the next 9 weeks, I will have to do planning in bigger chunks. Like prepping an entire week at a time over the weekend.

Why that title? That is what Jess said to me on Tuesday morning when I introduced her to subtraction. First time I’ve ever explained it to her. We used some dry kidney beans as counters. I briefly explained the concept then had to go help Sam with a math problem. while I was with Sam I heard her exclaim, “This is so easy. I love math!” And completed the remainder of the 21 problems on her own. Yeah, I’m a bit dumbfounded/elated/scared/confused/…

Sam on the other hand is picking up Latin like no body’s business. He definitely prefers the info from Judith’s lessons over Minimus. I think maybe it is just the age and hope that Jessie will like Minimus later on. I am also constantly amazed at his ability to remember his Japanese vocabulary. Ok, I am jealous too. LOL!

Aren't they cute?

Tuesday we spent some time at a friends alpaca and sheep farm (first pic). If we hadn’t been trying to get both kids there for weeks, I would have canceled trip. I am glad I did not even though we were there 2 hours longer than I’d planned.

Sam has such a way with these animals. I teased him that I’d make a farmer out of him yet. I’m only sort of kidding. He had sheep coming up to him that usually do not approach people. He loved holding the lambs as you can see in this picture. They were absolutely adorable.

We even got to herd the alpacas back into their pen. The three of us, Sam, Jess and I, just slowly walked toward them with our arms out. That was all it took. We’ll certainly be going back to help out. Such a beautiful farm and Nancy is just the sweetest person. Sam and Jess are so in love with her.

History reading

What was I talking about… Oh yeah…

History went well yesterday. Here’s a pic of Sam reading to us while I got the yuanxiao dumplings boiling. It was cute to hear Jess ooh and ahh of the pictures in the book and ask Sam questions about them. (which he answered very well)

The dumplings were fairly easy to make. I’d mixed up the dough and filling the day before. The dough needed a bit of kneeding to revive it but they worked just fine. Forming the balls takes a bit of dexterity to get the outer dough around the inner filling well enough to keep it in there during boiling. Refrigerating the filling before using it definitely is a must! Sam thought you could even use savory fillings instead if you wanted. He liked them as we made them but Jessie did not.

Oh, I used corn starch on the outside because the sweet rice dough is so incredibly sticky after boiling. If I had powdered sugar ready, I would have used that instead.

While Sam filled in the GeoScribe sheets for China, Jessie colored chinese motifs (free Dover pictures) .

We had art appreciation and drawing outside on the deck. Beautiful day! Did a few exercises from Barb’s Medieval studies pack and reviewed a Draw Squad lesson.

Today will be Earth Science, more Art Appreciation and maybe the Library again. As I was trying to get my crossing eyes and fuzzy brain to focus on the Science lessons I realized we had no books for it and I was not finding what I wanted online. My solution, introduce the concepts and take them to the library to find books on it. Have them help me find the books! Sounded good last night.

I hope this was all coherent. My brain is feeling fuzzy and sluggish but I did go to bed at a decent hour. And now my coffee cup is empty. Must remedy that.

Oh, anyone know what this is? Nancy has had it growing on her farmfor years. It looks vaguely mint like… square stems, leaves opposite and alternate. Not minty in smell…

What is this?

square stems...

yellow flower...

any ideas?

Yesterday went amazingly well! We got everything done and both kids were right on track all day.

Hopscotch counts as PE, right?

Jessie did 13 addition problems with me while Sam worked on addiding mixed numbers. She tried to tell Sam that he did his warm up drills wrong. They were a mix of multiplication and divistion and she was adding the numbers. Sam, bless him, patiently and politely explained the different operation. Jessie, bless her, even accepted his answer as if she understood. Maybe she did!

While Sam did the stationery bike, Jess and I headed outside for some hopscotch. I think this is the first time we’ve played. Shame on me, eh? I drew out the squares and she wrote in the numbers. I was pleased to see that her balance has much improved.

Afterwards, we all went to the back deck and did some exercises. Jessie did a bit of each and then “scampered off” as she likes to put it while Sam worked on Karate. Man! I really want to take that class myself.

Sam making a Chinese seal

History went so smoothly that we did more than I had planned. Always nice!

We used styrofoam vegetable trays to make “seals”. Sam did the Chinese characters by pressing a pencil into the foam. So the characters themselves are the color of the paper and the area around them is what prints. Makes sense? Jessie did a drawing of a frog.

Then it was time to try the Red Bean Soup which looks amazingly like chocolate pudding. Both kids said it tasted okay but neither finished their little bowels. I think if you used honey instead of granulated sugar and added carob or cocoa powder, you’d have a really nice dairy free pudding. My preference is to have it room temp to slightly warm. I also found it to be very filling and satisfying.

After lunch, I read the legend of shadow puppetry to Jessie (she picked it out) and found this amazing website that lets you set up a shadow puppet stage, choose your characters, props and music and press play!

After quiet time it was on to Latin! We went through the worksheete I made from the class pdf and then I set up Anki on his desktop. Pretty simple. He says he likes this better than Minimus. Sad. I liked Minimus but then this is not just for me.

Copywork was in Latin too! “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck…” just isn’t as fun to say in Latin but it is funny just to be able to say it. Sam got a kick out of it and did a great job of writing it in cursive. His legibility has really improved! Hmmm… wonder if I should have him do some in print. His printing is not so legible.

Today we visit the alpaca farm. I have to remember the camera and battery! The rest of the day will be the usual subjects.

I think the week is planned out. Still need to do some print outs but I can thankfully go to bed at a decent hour tonight. {yawns}

but not kicking… or running for that matter.

Yep. I’m still here. Just gotten over a really hairy case of the stomach flu. Of course it was at its worst on Mother’s Day. My tummy still isn’t really happy but at least I’m not battling a 103 degree fever. Still feeling rather like an old wrung out sponge.

We’ve managed to keep up with lessons during this time. Thanks to HSTracker and our routines. Sometimes I feel like a stick-in-the-mud for making the kids (and myself) stick to our daily routines. Other times something like this comes a long and I don’t feel so bad anymore.

Had a great “Jot It Down” moment with Sam yesterday over… of all things… math. He was working on a sheet from Math Mammoth’s Geometry pack. The one where you create geometric patterns on a grid. Really enjoying himself too. Then he realized he’d made a mistake a few rows back and said:

Oh wow, mom! This is just like math. When you make a little mistake in the beginning, it effects everything after that.

LOL! I can’t tell you how many times in a multiple digit multiplication or long division problem where I’ve tried to tell him this. Yesterday he really “got it” and will more than likely remember it now.

Hey! And what a better segue into the art of MC Escher than geometric patterns. As luck would have it, I picked up a couple of books on his art at the last Library book sale. I still need to blog about that haul. Got some really incredible art books!

Did you know this friday is Pi Day? Did you know that my birthday listed in digits (yyyymmdd) occurs at position 17,267,250 counting from the first digit after the decimal point. (The 3. is not counted.)

I am completely amazed by both statements above. Never crossed my mind until today. Don’t believe me. Go here and here to read more. Wanna find your birthday (or phone number or…) in Pi? C’mon ya know ya wanna. Click here.

I’m going to bed. I’ve been up too late planning lessons. But I did run 2.5 miles today. Outside. Will blog more about it later if I get a chance. Plumber is coming tomorrow. Upstairs bathrooms have backed up into the toyroom down below… again. I think Bob enjoyed punching holes in the drywall today.