Another Friday!

I can't believe November is about half over already! I guess I should be making Thanksgiving plans, but honestly, we don't know what to expect, as M may very well be working. If he is at work, the kids and I might head over to my mom's house, and I can bring pies.

We've been lucky enough to get a little rain this week, followed by this morning's gorgeous heavy fog. I keep hoping for more rain! But then at the same time, I do need a few more good dry days so we can patch a spot in our family room roof, and re-clean the gutters... such fun!

Anyhow, this has been an okay week in the world of homeschooling, though life kept getting in the way. We did read about the Renaissance times in Poop Happened: A History of the World From the Bottom Up, and learned that Louis XIV, upon his autopsy, was discovered to have a stomach twice the size of an average man, and intestines twice as long. Very peculiar tidbit, but it explains why records show him eating constantly, and often greeting company from the comfort of his closestool.

We also started re-reading The Man Who Counted, which is just lovely to read aloud. The Boy has almost finished Maze Runner, and The Girl is making decent, if somewhat slow, progress with Black Beauty. I finished up The Paris Wife, which was very good, and am now rereading a few Maeve Binchy books.

The Boy loves Jacobs Elementary Algebra! I am searching for a reasonably priced copy, and in the meantime we are using one on inter-library loan. The Boy also finished off another chapter in Conceptual Physics. And on a sad note, we have misplaced his almost complete essay on Ford Mustangs. I am 99% sure we put it somewhere "safe", and I just hope we can find it soon! He was doing such good work on it.

I think The Girl and I are going to switch gears in math, and focus on geometry for a while, still with Math Mammoth. She's done really well with multiplication and division, so I want to keep things fresh and interesting. She learned about worms this week in science, and started watching Life in the Undergrowth as we move into a study of insect life for zoology. I added to her Prentice Hall Science Explorers: Animals a couple of chapters from Life in a Bucket of Soil, and so she's hoping to do some hands-on work with worms next week.

We've been on a bit of a movie kick recently. Last Friday, I had dinner with the kids at my mom's, and we watched Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, which was filmed quite locally. The kids got a kick out of seeing familiar landmarks in a relatively older film! And for the record, they found it more funny than scary. Then on Saturday, we watched The Matrix, which The Boy especially enjoyed. Finally, on Tuesday, The Boy and M watched Cube, while The Girl and I watched Sense and Sensibility. So now I am thinking something a little lighter for this weekend -- any suggestions? Maybe a comedy or other fun family film?

A couple of goals for next week... I think we might add back in K12's Human Odyssey, starting just after the fall of the Roman Empire (so Middle Ages). And I would like to get The Girl writing more. If we absolutely cannot find The Boy's essay, he is willing to start a new one. And more reading from The Marvellous Land of the Snergs would be great!

Hope you all had a good week!