She's Halfway Done! and other funny stories

I am so proud of my little girl!  Today she reached Lesson 50 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons!  I promised I would take her out for ice cream when she got this far.

 But she is further than she thinks.  She can already read.  I know, because I caught her reading Book 1 in the I Can Read It! series from Sonlight Curriculum two nights ago.  When she was supposed to be going to bed!

S, one of E's favorite teachers, is so proud of her.  He taught her how to count by 2's, frontwards and backwards, all the way to 12.  So the other day when I wanted to teach her, there was nothing for me to do but teach them how to play "sums of 10s" memory.

 Say, "I can read!"

"No, I can read!"

We've also been catching up on some Story of the World reading.  We are on Volume 3: Early Modern Times in our home school, but IJ likes to re-read the other volumes we've already covered.  A side story- which is always fun, right?- I took the boys to the dentist (why is it always the dentist?) a few days ago.  IJ brought Volume 2: The Middle Ages with him so he could read it in the waiting room.  His hygienist came out and called his name.  IJ sighed, marked the page in his book, and slowly stood up.  She said, "Oh, what are you reading?"  IJ sighed again and answered in a very bored voice, "The Story of the World, Middle Ages."  She was impressed and said, "That is a huge book for a boy who is only 8 years old!"  IJ only sighed again, like she was the dummy for questioning his intelligence.  Which is one of the reasons why I love these books.  They are so packed with information, but easy to read and enjoy just for fun.  I've learned more about history in these books than I did in 13 years in the public school system and the five years of college afterward!

Today we read about the French Revolution, Catherine the Great, and Eli Whitney.  The book describes in gory detail the beheading of Louis XVI with the guillotine.  I mentioned I would like to get a guillotine for the chickens.  In the following picture you can see S and E processing what is a guillotine? and use it on the chickens? and F saying,

"Buy a guillotine!  Buy a guillotine!"