What a nice sunny warm day today.  I love it.  Here are a few new pictures of what it looks like out there as of today.

This is the ramp they use to drive down into the basement.





The piles of dirt and old concrete are piling up in the front and back yards.

There's plenty of air flow under the house now.

This is our retreat home where we go to do school and get away when the noise gets too loud.

I've been busy doing my laundry.  I should keep track of the time so I know when a load will be done.  It's not like I can hear a buzzer from the house.  But it is usually finished by the time I think to check it.

I mixed up a batch of dough for whole wheat tortillas that should give about 6 dozen.  Actually I used spelt instead of wheat today.  It should work just as well and be a little healthier for us. 

We had a good week of school.  By the weeks end I had almost everything we needed hauled out to the camper.  I should check through my teacher's manuals to see if I need to make copies of anything.  That would save me some time during school.

Daniel finished learning all the books of the Bible.  We play a card game with the New Testament books of the Bible that Daniel thinks is like Shanghai Rummy.  He likes playing it and it helps him to remember where each book is in relation to the others.  This past week he has been learning verses from Romans.  I explained their meaning in relation to some Bible passages from the Old Testament and our lives today.  I love the Bible portion of MFW as I always seem to learn something.

I have been continuing Daniel's cursive practice.  He writes a handwriting page each week with his new verse he is learning.  I find that has not been enough practice for him so on the other days I have him work in a cursive handwriting book.  He is remembering the correct way to write his letters more often now.

In spelling Daniel still struggles.  But we keep plugging along hoping it will stick.  I have had one natural speller throughout the 15 years of home schooling.  Three have struggled with it.  Two are still not the best spellers.  Sometimes I cringe when I see their spelling on Facebook.  I tried.

Daniel did some review and tests this past week in Singapore Math.  I noticed he is more able to work on his own this year.  Thursday and Friday he worked with fractions for the first time since last year.  I admit to being a little apprehensive about it.  But he did well and thought it easy.  I was so happy and relieved.

In the History timeline we have been reading about Caesar Augustus, Herod, and others that lived during that time period.  Daniel continues to enjoy The Bronze Bow as we read a chapter each night.

This week in science the children made models of the tongue, where the taste buds are located, and different foods.  They would place the food on the area of the tongue that best tastes that food.  They enjoyed doing that and learned from it. 

In art Daniel is continuing to learn to draw in perspective.  I have been doing the exercises along with him and have enjoyed learning it as well.  We listened to the 3rd song on our Haydn cd which featured cello music while the children colored a picture of a child playing a cello.

Leah has been doing some of Daniel's projects and listening in to his studies as she wants.  We usually break from Daniel's school after his math.  Then I do school with Leah and pick up Daniel's again after she is finished.

Leah has been learning some long vowel spellings in her reading.  She knows most of them already and picks up the others easily.  I think she will be another natural speller as she can spell well already.

Leah has not started her Bible reader yet and is very ready to do so.  She can already read it and has several of the pictures colored.  In the meantime she is very good at memorizing her verses.

Once a week we do a lesson in Drawing With Children. I did this last lesson with her so she could see how different each of our drawings would be even though we followed the same directions.

In science we read about rain.  I have not done Leah's experiments with her and hope to do so today.  Maybe I will even think about taking some pictures.

In the meantime I had best get some other work finished.