Vacation is over

It feels good to be doing something with our days. Christmas break has consisted of kids making messes and mom cleaning them up. We did have a great time, but a little more structure and a few more things to do with our brains is definitely a good thing.

Yesterday, we started growing a green crystal. I don't know if it will work since it says not to bump it but my eleven-year-old carried it from one room to another and spilled a bit of it. Said eleven year old claims to have not heard the instruction regarding bumping it. Even if said eleven-year-old had heard instruction she probably would have stated that she didn't bump it, but simply carried it from one room to another.

It was exciting to mix the chemicals and I had to smash the 'seed' rock. The rock is a rough surface for the crystal to grow on. Well, when I hit the rock with the hammer it sent a spark flying across the kitchen floor. The kids where ecstatic, especially when it happened a few more times. I found myself wondering if I could start a fire the old-fashioned way, but I didn't try.

Today, we read Jack and the Bean Stalk in honor of Bean Day. I found a website that gives a holiday for just about everyday of the year. Today is Cuddle Up Day and Bean Day. Cuddling is great as long as you don't celebrate Bean Day by way of eating a lot of beans. Which we didn't so we're safe.

Casey took the math placement test from the Mind Sprinting website. He did just as a thought he would do and now the website is making practice worksheets available for him to work on. Everything so far has been free.

He then played with our new Cool School toy. This toy has captured my three-years-old's attention and it a pretty cool toy. The only thing I don't like about it so far is that it shows SpongeBob, Clifford, Dora 'classrooms', as well as a few others, even though they are not available unless you purchase them separately. I would prefer that those options be hidden from my poor kids who would like to play those games.

Aria took a spelling quiz online that asks which is the correct spelling. She got 8 out of 10 and then she went back and corrected the ones that were wrong. I feel that is good practice and she does that on her own. She likes things to be correct but only when she wants to do it. :)

Aria had been reading the Human Body book we got from the National Geographics sale. I like to see her carrying that big book around. She is teaching herself to be a very intelligent and well rounded person I think.

I printed Aria's math sheets from Mind Sprinting and we went through them together. They are just want she needs and I feel like her ability to understand is a little better now that she's older. I am looking at math curriculums but I may just stick with this for now and see how it goes.