Birthday Fun!

Left to right:  Ryan, Brandon, Dustin, Me, Whitney, Tim

August brings three birthdays in our family, our oldest child, Dustin's, then mine, and also Daniel's.  Whitney invited us all to her and Ryan's house last Saturday night to celebrate.  It was so nice to have the whole family all together.  Since it was partly "my" night I asked if everyone would play Shanghai rummy.  They did.  Boy did I get skunked.  It was still fun.

Leah took some pictures for me. 

It's been a busy week for sure.  We are continuing school each week day.  Plus we went to Fargo for Daniel's vision therapy appointment.  We are still doing that every two weeks.  Since it was Daniel's actual birthday that day he got to pick the place we would eat.  He chose Space Aliens.  On Tuesdays kids get pizza for $0.99 and free tokens to play the games.

 We did some "back to school" shopping.  I had almost $200 worth of coupons for Gap.  With the Gap Tuesday discount and clearance on some items I was able to save over $300, came away with most of the clothes they will need for winter, and I barely spent a thing.  That was fun!

Tim only worked two nights at his job this week.  When we got home from Fargo he was still here working on the basement.  He wanted to surprise us so he didn't tell us he would be home.  Even though he is still busy around here it has been nice to have him home.  He decided he needed to take "vacation" time to get some projects done here.  We had to completely take everything out of our basement.

Next week Tuesday we are starting some major renovations at our house.  This is the reason we started school so early this year.  Since we moved here 15 years ago this fall, the condition of our basement has gotten worse.  It is an old rock basement with poured concrete.  Most of the concrete is gone now.  With the wet spring and summer we have had it is most unpleasant down there.  We have two dehumidifiers running at all time.  I empty one three times a day and the other twice.  Still it stinks and is unhealthy.  We are having the basement replaced with a new one.

The people we hired will support our home on beams while they destroy and take out the old basement.  Then they will construct a new one.  The process is scheduled to take about 5-6 weeks.  We are supposed to be able to live in our home while they do this.  Once they get the old basement out and start construction on the new one we may do that.  Until then we are planning to live in the camper.

All this will be very interesting to a ten year old boy.  It would be very distracting to a very distractable child.  I'm glad we will have four weeks of school under our belts as we will definitely be taking next week off from regular school.

How is school going?  For the most part it is going well.  Leah is such a breeze to teach.  In phonics she just whizzes along.  Nothing is hard for her yet.  She easily learns her Proverbs' verses each week and remembers the old ones.  Her printing is getting easier and is very neat.  Math is starting to click as well.

Daniel's history study of the Romans has been interesting.  As we study the Roman Empire we also study what was going on elsewhere in the same time period.  We studied how the Bible came to us.  His memory work has been to learn the books of the New Testament which he will finish this week.

Daniel started his spelling curriculum last week.  The first week was a review and he finished Step 1 in All About Spelling.  This program has helped him learn to read better though he still struggles with spelling.

We are using English From the Roots Up again this year.  Last year he learned the Greek roots of words.  This year he is learning the Latin roots.  He learns two words a week.

For English we use Intermediate Language Lessons.  We use this for a three year period and complete 100 lessons each school year.  This is the second year so he is working on lessons 101-200.  They are usually short and to the point.  If there is no writing involved with it or he can do it orally he is quite happy.

Daniel is using Singapore Math 5A & B.  For the most part that goes well.  We have had a couple days when math has taken way too long for him to complete.  I need to learn to shorten the lessons on those days.

I am loving the science this year.  This first semester we are studying human anatomy and have been using several different books.  We started out studying the basic parts and are now on the 5 senses.  He liked making a model of the head with lift up flaps showing where the different senses are.

In music we studied about Haydn and listened to some of his music.  Daniel continues art instruction using God and the History of Art program.  With his vision getting better and he getting a little older, art is a little easier.

This week we started The Bronze Bow for read-a-loud time.  Since school is taking us quite long I have been saving this for bedtime.  Tim was listening as I read the second chapter last night and thought it sounded interesting.  It does give a good picture of what life might have been like in Roman occupied Israel in that time period.

I am lazy this morning and need to get going.  I will be sure to take pictures of the basement project as it happens and post them here.