Snapshots From Our Day

Just an ordinary day, doing ordinary things.

Both boys practiced math facts. We're working toward mastery, which includes speed drills for Hero, though Dragon's not ready for those. Listening to Andrew Pudewa's talk, Mastery Learning and Ability Development, has reenforced my decision to require the kids to do timed tests. There's a lot of value in knowing the facts cold -- and he shares a cautionary tale from his own family about what happens when kids don't know their facts, but move into harder math anyway, including how it affects his daughter's perception of herself and her abilities. Math facts and speed drills are a good thing.

We're having a watercolors phase, and they've been out on the table nearly constantly for several days now, except when I insist on clearing things off for meals. This is Hero's current project, the goddess Artemis. It's a coloring sheet we printed, and he's having a great time painting it. Lots of Greek stuff going on -- looking forward to writing more about it when I share the review that I'm working on, near the end of the month.

So much reading going on lately; it's just lovely. Hero's been re-reading a number of the sci-fi series he has recently, plus devouring classic fiction that I assign. Here he's working on Gone Away Lake, from the Ambleside Online free-reads list. So many good books on their curriculum! So glad I finally figured out how to use it.

A while back I started asking Dragon to read to Peanut. Turns out they both love it (even if she was distracted when I caught them doing it), and it's been huge: he doesn't really want to read to me, much, but he will cheerfully read to her. So I ask him to. And his reading is really taking off. I love this part, where they discover that they love reading.

This has got to be the cutest "gate" ever invented. It's actually open in the picture. When they wanted to close it, they'd spread out their feet as far as they would go, and the two of them can cover a lot of ground! Surprisingly effective... but I have long legs.

Lunch. Baked potatoes. Yum.

And the "meat" of the day. Good stuff.

Hope you liked your peek into our day of school today! How's your day been?