Days 51,52

Yesterday we had company and it was nice to let the kids play.  I don't think they've had a free day to play with company for a long time.  It wasn't all free play, though.  We did some serious work on our history dioramas for next week.  I think they were both getting pretty into it by the end!  I often have to step back and ask myself what it is that I think they should know, and I have to say that they retain a lot of what we read about history.  I'm not sure it's very real for them, but I think that only comes with time.  I'll be posting pictures of our dioramas next week when they are done, I hope!

Today we stayed out too late.  After a slow morning getting everyone going, we finally reapproached math, and I think we're going to try a new pattern.  We've made the decision to stick with Saxon, and we're going to do 2 lessons a day without the Mixed Practice.  We'll do that 3 days a week, and the fourth day we'll only do Mixed Practice.  We'll do timed math every day.  I think this is a decent compromise, as we will be moving at a faster pace, and the Mixed Practices we do will show me if there are any problems we need to work on.
So, two math lessons were accomplished today with a minimum of complaint.  We'll see how long that lasts.  My bet is not long, but I'll take what I can get.

What Luke did like was a new (to us) typing program for kids.  I'm very glad that he's learning to type properly as I'm sure he'll type more than he writes for whatever career he chooses.  At the same time, Emily was practicing her violin, which was nice to see, and I finally found a way to encourage her that doesn't make her scowl and leave me wondering what I said to offend. 

Meantime, we had a library program tonight that the kids really seemed to enjoy.  It was all about solving mysteries, and it looked like a lot of fun!  Our library has great programs, and a great staff. 

Afterwards, we drove the 40 minutes to another library's book sale.  We ended up getting some books for the kids, of course, including one historical fiction book that I think Emily might like. Then we needed a snack and after all was said and done, we didn't get home until after 9pm.  Late for us!  But a pretty good day all in all.