Our school week

There weren't to many photo opportunities this week for school.  The ones I did take just didn't turn out as well as I liked.  Anyway, we read "The Story About Ping" by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wise.  It is a classic book about a duck named Ping who lives on a beautiful wise-eyed boat on the Yangtze River.

Here are the lesson's learned from the week:

• The Yantze River is yellow and in China
• China is on the continent of Asia
• 1933 was 75 years ago (the book was copyrighted then)
• The book was written before Dad, Mom, and Grandparents were born
• It's good to have colored pencils sharpened before needing them
• Lines can be used to show motion or puddles when drawing
• There were 68 ducks in Ping's family, we only have 31 people (not ducks) in ours
• Some things float, some things sink
• With two of the same item, that look very similar, one may float and the other may sink.
• Not all things that float will be at the top of the water
• Ducks in the same family, may have different colored feathers which led into how we have different skin colors
• Learned that Chinese use chop sticks to eat, so we tried too.
• Reviewed how the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and how this is done by the rotation of the earth

There were also some Aha moments in our Math-U-See and success with Language Arts this week as well.  There were twinkles in their eyes because they were understanding their lessons.  It was a great week of learning.  What more could any teacher (or parent) ask for.

A chain is

only as strong as it's weakest link; so someone once said (and I don't remember who, so I can't give proper credit).  Based off of that statement, I realized this afternoon, that a fence is only as good as it's closed gates.  "Huh?" you say.  I went to pick some tomatoes and realized, well to late, that I had left one of the gates open after mowing yesterday.  You see, we back up to woods that have deer living in them.  To them, my plants, with varying degrees of orange tomatoes, was a salad bar (and at the right height too).  So, I've lost a lot of tomatoes, but hopefully more will grow.

Does this count

as a "staycation"?  On one forum that I read regularly, some have have opted for a staycation instead of going somewhere, meaning they stay home but have a vacation week.  They find cheap things to do around town, maybe go out to dinner once, sleep in, etc.  It's cheaper than traveling, $$ on food, hotel or condo fees, etc.  Read an article in the Washington Post, awhile back, of a woman who paid to have her house cleaned and lawn mowed.  She then took a week, at home, to enjoy the friends, books, and other things in life that can be difficult during a 40 - 50 hour job.  That sounds like fun to me.

Anyway, back to our life right now.  Kevin hurt his ankle this past Saturday (went to the ER, too), doctors today, and now to the orthopedic tomorrow.  We've been vegging on the couch more, working on computer stuff together, reading to the kids more, enjoying the olympics.  In all of this, the boys are having to learn to clean more and we're all learning patience.

In the post below this, Kevin's blog is spelled out and there's a pic of his foot on it.

CHECK IT OUT!!

Yes, I am actually sending you to another person's blog - my husband's.  No need to blog all the current events when he's done some for me.  :)

http://detoursanddevotions.blogspot.com/