Last Post of 2010

It's been a good year.  Not perfect or anything, but what is?  Next year will be Even Better, though.  I hope!  I will be a paragon of patience, sweetness, and organization, and my kids will be diligent, agreeable, and quick to understand their math lessons!  Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

We had a wonderful week off school, and were all sorry to start again (on a light schedule) on Monday.  But the children's brains disappear when they are off school too long and finding them again is excruciating, so back to work we went.  Sort of.  Apparently a week is too long.  Katie was horrified to be introduced to long division at the beginning of the week, and mid-week the percentage problems in Singapore Math's Intensive Practice 6A were getting the better of Travis.  By the time we made it through math most days we were all too exhausted to accomplish much else.  Latin and science have been getting done, but most of the rest of the schedule remains unchecked.  Oh well.  At least they'll be on form next week!

We did watch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead last week, and also the David Tennant Hamlet, and the kids loved them (Ed, not so much.  Not a car chase between them.).  The kids immediately recognized the Hamlet as Barty Crouch Jr.!  Who knew he did Shakespeare as well (guess it shouldn't be surprising, really.)?

And now the last pictures of the year!
These are from Sunday, when we were snowed out of church and (briefly) went sledding across the street.  Even at their ages, it takes longer to get the kids into appropriate clothes than it does for them to get frozen and ready to come home!

 (Ed couldn't find his hat so he wrapped Katie's scarf around his ears to keep them warm.  His dress is not usually so flamboyant.)

And Katie and I played with her new science kit yesterday!  Santa got it from American Science & Surplus -- the Clock Reaction "Chem Kit in a Cup"-- and it really is pretty fabulous!  Well, at least the first two experiments were very entertaining! 

I wasn't thinking when she first set up on the school table (over carpet), and of course she promptly knocked over a beaker.  It cleaned up nicely though, and she was So excited with the way the colors of the solutions changed!  Travis got the Glowing Gel kit, and I'm looking forward to playing with that (with him, of course!) soon!