A is for...

Fiona's letter of the week is A.  A is for...

...Annelid
The boys have moved from habitats in biology (finally) to the different phyla.  For some reason, the creator of our curriculum has the logic level (5th through 8th grade) study the phyla from most simple to complex.  The grammar level (1st through 4th grade) is in the opposite order.  Why? Why can't they just line up and make my life simple?  Well, I just made it line up.  It's not like Evie and Fiona read my teacher's guide and see we are doing things out of order.  We started with worms.

We now have a worm farm in our school room.  I knew that jar would be useful for something.  Their experiment asks, "Do worms mix dirt?" Seriously? Any middle-schooled aged kid who grew up watching Curious George and The Magic School Bus already knows that! But we are proving it with colored sand, so that makes worm farming fun.  We are supposed to be dissecting worms, but they aren't here yet.  On a whim, I made:

Worm Bread, which was actually Pilsbury french bread-just pop the tube and stretch the dough.  I wish I would have thought of this on Monday.  Tonight I decided I needed to have Fun Food Friday and make something that relates to something we've studied during the week.  I was going to make Dirt Cake with gummy worms, but I'm not going all the way to the store just for gummy worms!

A is for Abacus Math
Evie is using RightStart Math instead of Saxon this year.  This program focuses more on mental math, hands-on activities, and games for basic fact memorization.  It took me awhile to get used to the format, but Evie is really enjoying it.

A is for Active
Daniel sure gave me a run for my money this week.  He was very very very active and needy and bossy and sassy.

He insisted a pan was warm although I told him over and over it was hot.  "It's hot!" I would say.  "NO! It's WARM!" he would yell back.  He touched it. He burned himself.  I said, "See? It's hot!"  He cried, "Yes, it's hot! Ow, ow, ow, I'm burned!"  His imagination took flight with the development of a fear of monsters.  He sees monsters everywhere and naps and potty-training have suffered as a result.

A is for Autumn
The weather made a sudden change to normal this week.  We've had over an inch of rain since Monday and I can hear a torrential downpour as I type.

We are supposed to go pick Apples with the preschool group tomorrow, but the forecast is for...rain.  I'm not sure I'm going to be up for standing in the rain with Lula.

A is for...Annoying
Some annoying things this week were the arrival of a MOUSE in my "caterpillar room" (also known as Daniel and Lula's room)!  Thanks to Jack, the cats spend their time up high and out of reach, leaving the mice free to range where they wish.

Also annoying, the state of my school table at the end of the day.  But a messy school room table is a busy school room table, with lots of learning and creative fun.  So I won't complain too much!