Another week almost done

It's Thursday. It shows that the kids are all getting tired and are ready to be done with school! I've allowed the routine to change a bit and am initiating educational things that aren't necessarily as demanding as I'd like them, but it's still stuff they enjoy and helps.

Examples of stuff we've done this week:

-they've spent HOURS on Google Earth. Oh, and what a proud mama I can say I am after dd and the 12yo pinned where the grow-up was on our street...

-the 12yo, dd and I played a subtraction game yesterday with a die. We started at, hm, maybe 100 and rolled a 10-sided die to find out how much we could subtract. The first person to reach (or go past) 0 won. At first it was just dd and I playing but the 12yo asked if he could play with us the second round. Today, dd and I did some multiplication with 3 6-sided dice: 2 for the first multiplicand and the 3rd die for the multiplier. When it was your turn, you rolled the 2 dice and decided which number you wanted. Then you'd roll the other one to see what you had to multiply by. There was no real winning or anything, just taking turns. Dd managed to get x1 and x 2 an awful lot. lol. Then she went on Google Earth while the 12yo did an addition game with a 20-sided die--same principle as the subtraction game, but you start from 0 and add up. We decided to go to 200. I lost.

-we played a word bingo game I made up yesterday. I used the evaluation version of this program http://www.schoolhousetech.com/Products/SchoolhouseBingo/Default.aspx but don't think I'll buy it. I'm certain I can make a basic bingo template and create my own lists easily enough. Yeah, it'll take a bit more time to rearrange words, but... $34US for the program? Hm... I just don't think I would use it that much.

-I've been reading to them from The Thief Lord and a bit from Story of the World. I still haven't finished my sheets for the timeline. Did I share my timeline idea? I've taken 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper and am taping them together along their lengths, folded up according style. They will be hole-punched and go into a timeline binder. Each page will be for a century and different images and texts can be added on. Because of the limited space with an 8.5" x 11" sheet, I'm thinking lapbook style additions--like a little booklet added on, for example, or a fold-up sheet, things like that (if you haven't seen the type of lapbooks I have in mind, you probably won't know what I'm talking about!). We've just covered so much in various ways and it'd be nice to have it all kind of together and easy to flip through. The kids kind of know who Ghenghis (sp?) Khan is, then they heard about Attila the Hun. There's no connection now of how far apart these two were historically. We've been looking at anicent Egypt--again, little real understanding of how long ago it was. For right now, I'm putting together 45 sheets. I can always add more if needed!

Other than that, I'm not too sure. The 16yo has been busy with her own work and wrote up a poem today that she converted into a Powerpoint presentation for her ELA work. I asked the 12yo to write me a paragraph on something--he wrote 4 crazy lines. So I decided to write a story, but it turned into a poem instead about this kid they know who's making some very poor choices in his life.

Not sure what we'll do tomorrow. The 16yo has got a LOT of work to do, so hopefully she'll be able to work hard. I think I want to sit down and have the 12yo pick between developing an essay or developing a short story. We really haven't been out this week, so if we can, I think we need to go somewhere. Not sure where yet!