And another week is drawing to a close...

So here is a sort of weekly wrap-up:

Language Arts:
Elf worked on some ETC pages and a few pages from HM Spelling & Vocabulary Phonics in Action. He also wrote a journal entry about his model of the Black Pearl (Pirates of the Caribbean). Today I will have him take his weekly spelling test and read a Bob book aloud.

Fairy is working steadily through her Get Ready for the Code book and will move on to the next book within a couple of weeks.

Math:
Elf has finished through lesson 60 in Saxon Math. Lately this has involved measuring, reading temperatures, double digit adding & subtracting, telling time, fractions and word problems.

Fairy is really enjoying the workbook I picked up for her (strange child). So far, it's pretty basic stuff - writing numbers, matching them to groups of objects, etc.

History:
We are finishing up our Mesopotamia unit and are getting ready for (and excited about!!!) our Egypt unit. Today we are making pasta necklaces from the activity guide for Phoenician studies. I'll have to post pictures of them sometime over the weekend.

Science:
We are wrapping up some basic studies on the human anatomy and are gearing up to start our biology text and workbook. We focused a bit on the human heart this week, and found this great interactive resource on the National Geographic website.

Other:
Elf finished unit 3 in Maps, Globes, Graphs, on the 4 cardinal directions. He is working with his dad on building a bird house and a treasure chest, both of wood.

Fairy is also working on building a treasure chest and has spent a lot of time cooking with my mom this week.

We made a visit to the Marin Civic Center a couple of days ago, and now Elf is developing an interest in architecture. Both of them loved the way the building was designed to fit into the hillside, so that you can go out a door on the 4th floor and go hiking. They also loved all the skylights and the trees inside the building. Completed in 1962, this building was designed by the famous Frank Lloyd Wright. Elf would like to design a house someday that incorporates a lot of the elements of the civic center.

In other news:
I start my classes again on Monday - biology, advanced algebra, child development and typing. 2 of the classes are online, which actually really helps me time-wise. I also applied for a city secretarial position that is part-time, so am keeping my fingers crossed.

We have planted 2 trees in our front yard over the past couple of weeks too, a maple and a dwarf olive. I planted a few other things in the borders, and am working on a new design for the soon-to-not-be-lawns out front.

And that's about it!