Lazy Days

Can I pretend that I haven't posted lately because our lives are just a whirlwind of fun?  We are constantly outside, studying nature, frolicking in the fields... ?  But you know me better.  I can pretend 'til the cows come home, but you know I've just been lazy.

But we did go over to Stone Mountain yesterday.  What with the pool being so convenient in the back yard, it's the first time we've been there all summer.  Stone Mountain does have some things that our backyard pool lacks, though.

It has waterfalls, stones to slide down, butterflies, and snails.

And deer so friendly they would hop in the car and come home with you, if you let them.  Travis wanted to bring this one home and eat her.  Must be a boy thing.

We bought him ice cream instead.

Ed loves ice cream!

See, all fun all the time!

But just to keep things from getting boring, we do this...

(I love the Vanna White thing!  And he's never even seen Vanna.)

Playing in waterfalls and diagramming sentences, which is more fun?  Fortunately, we don't have to choose!

And here are the kids with their new toys.  Katie is an even better saver than Travis, and was able to buy herself an ipod a week or so after his birthday. 

At first I thought that the ipods were just going to be one more dumb gadget, but I have found a computer program which will, instead, turn them in to the world's most expensive pack of flashcards!  Actually, I haven't yet put Anki on their ipods -- right now I have it just on my computer, and am entering all of Travis's Latin vocabulary as flashcards, but once I have Latin for both of them, states & capitals, countries & capitals, and some science memory work, I plan to put those ipods to good use! 

Oh, and we had a wonderful rainbow not too long ago.  A full arch. 

I finished selecting the poetry for our co-op to memorize this coming school year.  It wasn't easy, but here are the nineteen "pieces," from which each mom chose sixteen for her kids to memorize:

- Bible verse (a choice of Psalm 23, Psalm 100, Psalm 121, or 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

- Nicene Creed or Apostles' Creed

- the "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" speech from Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2

- part of St. Francis's Canticle of the Sun

- Kings and Queens of England (the one that starts "Willie, Willie, Harry, Steve...")

- Christopher Columbus, by Stephen Vincent Benet

- Eldorado, by Edgar Allen Poe

- Hernado de Soto, by Benet

- the "Quality of Mercy" speech from The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1 (which I can't think about without also thinking about the joke that goes with it... here)

- Death, Be Not Proud, by Donne

- On His Blindness, by Milton

- Sea Fever, by John Masefield

- The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

- Miles Standish, by Benet

- George Washington, by Benet (too many by one author, I know, but it isn't easy finding historically related memory work for ages 7-12!)

- Declaration of Independence (just through "when a long train of abuses and usurpations..."

- Preamble to the Constitution

- The Cow, by Robert Louis Stevenson

- There Once was a Puffin, by Jaques

After a minor tempest (apparently not all denominations are familiar with the creeds), everyone has picked what they want and has their schedule.  Now all I have to do is plan out the writing assignments for the year and my planning work for co-op will be done!