Winter Continues and So Do We!

Katie's allergies were ferocious last week.  She spent a day on the couch, comforted by her heater cat, and was off her game the other days.  And Travis, whose allergies are quite mild, has been congested too.  I don't think it can be pollen, so I suppose the blame must lie in my substandard dusting talents.  Or maybe it is just the cold.  I'm sure I'm allergic to cold.

Apropos of nothing, here is a link to a video someone shared on Facebook last week which I particularly liked:


Katie's Noeo science stuff came on Friday, all except  the  the Usborne Science Encyclopedia, which I ordered from Amazon, so I thought we'd be all set to start our new programs today.  Katie did start, but when I tried to show Travis his assigned reading I realized that I must have ordered the wrong edition of Prentice Hall's Physical Science book.  The curriculum guide suggested purchasing a used copy, as it would be so much cheaper (and it was -- $2.00, including shipping, instead of $137.72), but they failed to mention which edition their guide references.  It's not the 2001 edition, anyway.  So Travis will be doing science with Katie for a little while more while I figure out what to do.  Phooey.

The kids had a good time at co-op today.  They made tomahawks (just what they needed).  Katie read one of the free verse type poems she wrote, on Native Americans, in a costume of her own devising (and Bobbi Brown Cocoa eye shadow smeared on her face because she thought she was too pale for a real native American.  Of course, she ended up looking like a Native American raccoon, but it was attention grabbing anyway.)

Travis's group did creative writing for today.  Mostly they wrote rambling stories that I had a hard time following and dread grading.  It is all very well to tell someone they wrote a lousy research paper, but telling them their story is not good seems more harsh somehow.  Oh well.  Their new assignment is a very elementary literary criticism paper, and I think they ought to be able to do that pretty well. 
Here is Travis reading The Three Little Grains of Salt and the Big Bad Pepper Corn....