Today NT was up early, as usual, for PBS's Cyberchase. The subject was percents.

We had another busy day today. We joined the local homeschool adventures group for a tour of a fire station in NE Mpls and had a great time. The kids got to climb aboard a real fire truck and got to sit inside an ambulance. They got to see where the fire fighters eat and sleep and how they slide down the pole. They also got to hear a lot about what it's like to be a fire fighter. It was very interesting!

Afterward we went to the library where we spent quite a bit of time looking for new books. NT checked out more books on the game of chess and he got some books on chemistry, plus one on the Titanic, which he read for quite a while this afternoon.

The kids built a pillow fort late this afternoon and watched a very detailed dinosaur documentary that NT particularly enjoyed.

Everyone fell asleep early tonight!

Today NT was up early to watch PBS's Cyberchase on factoring.

The kids changed yesterday's wooden "dance floor" into a "tennis court" this morning, complete with pipe cleaner tennis ball.

NT had his first Science Museum class for the Homeschool Engineering: Machines that Move series where, among other things, they each made and tested their own anemometer.

Lizzy went to spend the morning with Minna. They played the little violin and baked banana muffins.

NT and I stopped to check out the new library on Lake Street on our way home from the SMM. We decided it didn't have a very good selection of books (compared to what we're used to at Southdale), but NT did find a book on Chess, which he spent much of the evening reading. We also requested some books online about lacrosse.

The kids played more "tennis" in the late afternoon and built all kind of things with the Magna Tiles in the living room. Then they helped me grate all the cheese for dinner.

We tried a new recipe (Three Cheese Manicotti) for dinner. NT gave it only 1 star (because of the onions).

NT had basketball practice last night and then spent the rest of the evening reading his chess book. Lizzy and I read books on the couch and tried on some of my jewelry.

This morning NT watched PBS's Cyberchase on counter examples.

Lizzy had a make-up gymnastics class today and NT wrote several thank-you notes-turned-art-projects while we waited.

The kids asked to go the IKEA play area for a while on the way home from gymnastics and then they played together at home for the rest of the afternoon. Lizzy did some artwork with water colors and markers and showed me a some new Irish Step dance moves that she learned from watching a video clip.

NT had ceramics this evening and was excited to have been able to use the pottery wheel to make a cup in class.

This evening NT put together a fish mobile from Grampy and Maria all by himself.

For the most part, we had a nice relaxing weekend to finish up our activity-filled week.

Saturday morning was NT's basketball game. The team did much better this week and NT made the first basket of the game with Auntie Em and Craig there as witness!

After the game, Lizzy and I went to the co-op while NT and John went to the fish store to find out how to fix the cloudy water in the new tank. NT also traded in the two common platys he inherited because he didn't want them to have their live babies in his tank, knowing that the baby fish would eaten right away. They learned all kinds of things about how to care for the fish and the tank.

Saturday evening John and Liz made everyone's current favorite dinner on NT's menu--German oven pancakes with sour cream and strawberries.

Sunday morning we all pitched in to clean the house. In the afternoon it was football mania with back-to-back playoff games. John made homemade popcorn for a snack and then sloppy joes for dinner. I contributed homemade apple crisp for the half-time dessert during the Vikings game.

All weekend the kids played with the Magna Tiles, read books, and made up all kinds of their own physical activity "challenges" in the house since it was wet and sloppy outside.

Today NT was up to watch PBS's Cyberchase on refining and optimizing inventions. Then the kids brought up some huge sheets of scrap wood from the basement to play with (Magna Tiles and cars were involved, of course).

Lizzy had ballet and NT and I worked on some new math flashcards I picked up for him. He didn't love them, but I was impressed by how much he knew or was able to figure out...like how to add 53 + 25 without a piece of paper and pencil (or a calculator) and how to solve for "x" in a simple equation.

This afternoon the kids shoveled snow and played together until it was time for NT's cooking class where they made homemade pretzels. Then Liz helped me make dinner--biscuits and sausage with gravy--which NT gave only 2 stars. During dinner NT and I had a conversation about how he doesn't like jazz (always my dinner music of choice) because it's too slow and there's no singing (at least on the CD that's currently in the player...).

I am so wiped out after our big day today, I could hardly get myself to sit down and type this up!

This morning we quickly did our morning routine so we would be ready to be gone for the whole day.

We left at 9:30 for Lizzy's gymnastics, which she really looks forward to every week. While waiting, NT and I planned next week's dinner menu and then he spent the rest of the time reading one of his new fish books. He is trying to figure out what kinds of fish he can add once we get the water situation all figured out.

We ran a couple of errands and then it was off to the Science Museum of Minnesota for NT's first Homeschool Science Club. Today's topic was magnetic attraction and he was able to join the 7-9 year-olds. He made a couple of magnetic contraptions that are beyond me, but they are pretty cool and he had a great time. He saw a couple of his new homeschool friends in class and was really excited about that too.

While we waited for NT during his 3 hour class, Lizzy got to play with one of her new homeschool pals and even made another new friend.

After class NT wanted to explore the dinosaur exhibit, so we hung out at the SMM for awhile longer and ran into his new friends again. The kids had a great time and would have stayed longer if I would have let them. As it was, it was a very long day--we didn't arrive home until 7 p.m.!

This morning NT skipped Cyberchase to get right to his fish-watching. He is really enjoying his new pets and has started making up names for each of them (there are 11). He learned to feed them this morning and is consumed with trying to figure out how one of his platys can have her live babies without having them become lunch for all the other fish.

In the meantime, I am more concerned about figuring out how to keep the existing fish alive. We don't know exactly what kinds of fish we have (except the platys) so we're not sure we're feeding them properly...and then there's the question of clean and safe water...

We just barely finished our latest Hardy Boys mystery this morning. NT has declared that there is no point in reading fiction because you don't learn anything from it. He wants to switch to non-fiction. I'm wondering if he'll consider the Little House books non-fiction by his definition...we'll see.

The kids built castles with the Magna Tiles this morning while I read to them. Then they wrestled and played football in the living room before watching the 1957 version of The Cat in the Hat.

This afternoon the kids went swimming at the "indoor beach" with Grampy and then they all met Maria for dinner. While the kids were gone I picked up two freshwater aquarium books for NT so he can study up on how to take care of his new pets.

NT and John are attending the Cub Scouts pack meeting this evening where NT is getting recognized for earning his Wolf Cub badge!

Liz and I stayed home and read books and then had a lengthy discussion about ballet class. She loves ballet very much but is anxious about her current class, so we are thinking about switching to the new homeschoolers' ballet class (same studio) that starts in March.

We have been so busy the past few days that I've had a hard time keeping up!

Sunday we had brunch at Minna's with a number of our Seattle relatives who were visiting. Of course, during most of it, NT was glued to the Vikings game in Minna's den.

Late Sunday afternoon NT and Liz went to Grandma Ruth's to decorate Valentine's Day cookies and play with Bob. They came home with a huge stash of craft supplies (and a glue gun!) from Grandma Ruth and a whole bunch of notebooks and pencils and items for NT's Leonardo DaVinci inventions from Bob.

Monday morning Liz had ballet and NT worked with his new multiplication flash cards while we waited. We went to the library and NT checked out a number of books on medieval knights & weaponry, and some books on different types of spy planes, etc.

In the afternoon NT went to Minna's for a walk with some of the Seattle folk and then back to the condo to work with his new glue gun. Meanwhile, Lizzy and I met some of our new friends for a hike by the river and a warm-up afterward at the Riverview.

Tuesday NT asked if we could go to the Science Museum to see the Titanic exhibit once more before the exhibit closes. We saw that exhibit and explored many others, including the Egyptian mummy, which we discussed at length with a docent.

We went to the historic 5.8 for lunch and learned about its history and how it started. We talked about the Prohibition and what a speakeasy was.

Late afternoon NT had ceramics class where they are currently working on tea sets.

Today Liz visited with more Seattle folk at Minna's with Auntie Em for brunch while NT and I went to check out The Works where they had a homeschooler program on estimation and budgeting today. NT really liked it and is looking forward to visiting again soon.

When we got home Maria met us with a HUGE surprise for NT. She found a 20 gallon tank with all the equipment (including fish!) for NT, who has been wanting his own fish tank for a very long time. We spent the afternoon cleaning and filling the tank, and then NT and Maria went to the fish store to learn more about what to do to try to keep the existing fish alive. NT is beside himself with excitement!

Tonight NT and John are at basketball practice.

All week NT has been keeping up with PBS's Cyberchase and we have been practicing a lot of math as it has applied to our everyday life. We have been reading another Hardy Boys' mystery. NT has had his globe out and has been figuring out where places are, like Wisconsin and Iceland. The kids have been building things like crazy with the Magna Tiles and jumping on the trampoline in the living room and making obstacle courses all over the first floor.

I think we're all ready for a day off!

This morning was NT's first basketball game. He was so excited he could hardly stand it. He loves playing basketball so much. He put on his uniform first thing this morning and went down to the basement to "practice" (with no basketball and no net in a junky unfinished basement...???).

This is the first time we have seen NT really "take" to a sport. The first time we've seen him really "get it" and work hard instead of just hanging out for the fun of being around kids. He really loves the game and was very assertive in getting his hands on the ball.

After the game the coach from the opposing team approached us and asked NT if he played football. He invited NT to play football for their park--it's the best-known in the city for football (their older boys' team went to FL and won nationals). NT was really pleased.

Since our discussion about Elvis over a week ago, NT requests listening to the Elvis station on XM radio whenever we are in the car.

This afternoon NT and I figured out how many seconds are in an hour and then the kids played outside while John worked on the chicken coop. Later they started watching the football play-off games. NT always likes to hold his football during the game and jump around. It drives us nuts but today he informed us that he likes to re-enact each play after it happens. We realized that's probably why he looks like he has such good football potential (during basketball games) even though he's never officially played. He's been practicing every week for months!

I picked up the Everything Kids' Basketball Book and the Everything Kids' Football Book for NT and he fell asleep reading them tonight.

The last few days have been packed full of activities!

NT has been keeping up with PBS's Cyberchase in the mornings.

Tuesday we went to Northrup Auditorium on the U of MN campus for a "physics circus" with a group of homeschoolers. NT loved it just as I had expected he would.

Tuesday evening NT had ceramics class and then toured a local fire station with his Cub Scout den.

Wednesday NT and I read about Benjamin Franklin and then he went with Grandpa Alan & Minna to the History Center to see the Benjamin Franklin exhibit and then they met Auntie Em for lunch.

Wednesday evening NT had basketball practice. He is really excited for the first game coming up on Saturday!

Thursday we went to check out a local homeschool co-op's open house. We stayed for over 5 hours. The kids each got to sit in on a class and they both loved it. There was a big social room where the kids got to play with other kids of all ages and they had a blast.

While we were there we ran into people with whom we were in Little Sprouts at the Waldorf school when NT was just two. They now have a little girl Lizzy's age as well. They invited us to go out to dinner and play. The kids all hit it off and we are so happy to have found some great new homeschool friends to hang out with!

This morning Lizzy had gymnastics and, while waiting, NT read made out his first-round birthday list and read one of his 28 library books on football. Later we stopped at the library and he checked out about 10 books on basketball.

NT watched PBS's Cyberchase this morning. The topic was deductive reasoning.

NT was in a crabby mood, so I chose the music selection and put in hip hop again, since it really seems to perk the kids up.

Lizzy had ballet class this morning and NT worked on one of his numbers workbooks the entire time. He read all the clues and found all the numbers. He worked on some spelling as he went along. He learned how to check his answers in the back of the book and practiced looking things up by page number.

We went to the library and NT checked out 27 books on football--books about each of the different teams. He laid them out all over the living room floor when we got home and looked them over while listening to the audio book Dinosaurs Never Say Please by Bill Harley.

Before leaving for his cooking class, NT helped me make homemade egg noodles. We measured out the size of the noodles with a ruler so we knew we were cutting them to the size the recipe called for.

While NT was at cooking class, Lizzy and I discussed how icicles are formed. We read several picture books while we waited to pick NT up after class.

Back at home, we cooked the homemade noodles and decided to give them only 2 stars and cross them off the repeat list. They weren't too bad, but they were a lot of work to chew!

This weekend was full of fun activities.

Saturday morning NT had an art class where he worked with both pastels and modeling clay. This particular art class offers the opportunity to have artwork displayed in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, so he is really excited.

As a follow-up to Friday's conversation about Elvis Presley, NT asked if we could listen to the XM Radio station that plays ONLY Elvis music. He liked it very much.

Saturday afternoon Minna, Grandpa Alan, & Auntie Em took the kids to the Lake Harriet Kite Festival where they saw lots of really cool and colorful kites, and the warmed up afterward with hot chocolate at the Riverview. Lizzy wasn't feeling well so she stayed back to rest and watch the original Muppet Movie with John.

Sunday John took the kids sledding and then NT went out to play with the neighbor in the snow. Both kids went to bed on time for the first time in days. There have been so many activities, everyone needs to catch up on sleep!

This morning we chose an acoustic guitar CD, Fingerdance, for our morning music. At first NT claimed to be unimpressed, but later he requested that I put the CD back on.

We played a trivia game that NT made up, and then he worked on some tinfoil inventions while pretending that he wasn't listening to the Hello, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle audio book. Since it seems to him (by the title) that it is a book that girls would like, he wants no part of it, but I caught him listening when he didn't know I was around.

Today was Lizzy's first day of "big girl" gymnastics--a class that parents don't have to be in. NT and I watched from the lobby and NT worked on two different math workbooks--which also involved writing and spelling--and his ice cream truck brain-teaser puzzle while we were waiting.

We grocery shopped for much of the afternoon. Along the way NT and I discussed a surprising number of "big life" stuff. We talked about who Elvis Presley was and how he died. We talked about what it means to overdose on drugs and how that can sometimes happen. We talked about why it seems like that happens to a lot of famous people.

We also talked about how "St." is an abbreviation for both "Saint" and "Street". We talked about what a saint is and what it might take to become a saint.

We talked about pro football contracts and how they might be negotiated and how a player gets signed to play for one team or another.

We talked about how hard he would have to work and how long it would take him to save the $5 he wanted me to spend to buy little individually-wrapped Bonabel cheeses that I think are outrageously expensive (over $1 apiece!).

This evening we tried a new recipe for dinner--Croque Monsieur--and NT gave it four stars--five stars when he tried mine with the fried egg on top. I am so proud of him for really stepping out of his comfort zone and trying new foods from the cookbook we are working out of together.

Tonight NT and John went to the Cub Scout pack's game night and had a lot of fun. NT was excited about it all day and was not disappointed. They didn't get home until after 9 p.m.!

NT watched PBS's Cyberchase this morning. The topic was balancing equations.

The music selection for the morning routine today was rap...which in this case was pretty much the same as the hip hop CD the kids have been favoring, so that was kind of a bust.

We read quite a bit of the new Hardy Boys book this morning, looked up several words we didn't know, and then NT worked on writing his last name in cursive. The kids also played with the Magna Tiles and Maria's dogs for a good portion of the morning.

This afternoon we tried a new homeschool playgroup, which the kids loved. There was a whole pack of boys NT's age to sled and play basketball with, and Lizzy played with 3 other girls near her age, which was fun to watch. This was the first time Lizzy has been in an unstructured group of children and she did beautifully.

After playing with the other kids for almost 5 hours, the kids fell right to sleep tonight!

NT watched PBS's Cyberchase this morning. The topic was factoring.

This morning NT chose The Eagles Greatest Hits for our music selection, but the kids weren't impressed and, before long, asked for yesterday's hip hop CD again so they could do another dance party.

We finished a Hardy Boys mystery and started a new one. We played restaurant and then the kids played football in the living room while I finished up the morning routine.

After lunch they started (but did not finish) the original 1968 version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

NT worked more on his cursive and then was off to basketball practice with John after dinner. He loves basketball and seems to be getting the hang of it. They had their first practice game last night and he came home pretty excited and confident. They stayed a little bit after practice to play a little extra with a few of the other boys.

This morning NT watched PBS's Cyberchase on spending money.

The music selection for this morning was hip hop and the kids were so excited about it that they threw an impromptu dance party in the living room.

Lizzy helped me make the beds and knead bread and then she and NT did a "play" that involved a large furnace filter box that they could fit inside of.

All by himself NT came up with the idea to climb inside the box and put Magna Tiles on the inside and outside so that moving the one on the inside would "magically" slide the Magna Tile on the top. He placed tiny plastic dinosaurs on the tiles on the top and then the kids hid inside the box and slid the dinosaurs around from inside. Half-way through he realized that if he had each dino on a different color and the tile below matched the color of the tile above, he could be outside and tell Lizzy which color to move and she could move the dino he wanted. The whole thing was very clever and really cool!

NT worked hard again on writing his name in cursive and then wrote another "Top Secrit" letter to Ezra--this time in cursive!

We read some of Lizzy's books and NT listened to an entire Encylopedia Brown book on CD and then watched the original classic version of The Wizard of Oz while Lizzy took a nap.

Late afternoon Minna took NT to his first ceramics class of the session, which he loved!

This evening Lizzy asked if we could go back to the house with the Christmas lights synched to music so we stopped on the way home from dropping the car at the repair shop.

This morning NT was up early for PBS's Cyberchase. The topic was the importance of zeros.

The kids did their new morning routines for the first time in the new year. Our new routines include taking a job from the FlyLady Job Jar and quickly getting it done. At first NT was skeptical, but then he said the job didn't take very long (pulling all the toys/trash/misc. out from behind the couch) so he wanted *another* one to do!

NT's routine also includes choosing a CD for us to listen to each morning while we are getting ready for the day so the kids can be exposed to all different kinds of music. Today's CD was Caribbean music!

While getting ready to leave for ballet, NT and I discussed the difference between offense and defense using the example of the Vikings football team, of course.

While Lizzy was in her ballet class, NT worked on a game that involves figuring out how to get a little ice cream truck out of a traffic jam. It can be very tricky and he kept busy the whole 45 minutes with various "jams" I set up for him.

After ballet the kids went swimming at the "indoor beach" and to lunch with Grampy & Maria. Then we dropped NT at his arts-&-crafts-turned-cooking class. We got the call this afternoon that the class had been changed and he decided to try the cooking class, even though he was skeptical. Of course, he liked it and is already looking forward to next week!

Tonight NT worked way past bedtime in his room practicing writing his name in cursive. He has been asking for weeks to learn cursive, so I picked up a book and some tools/paper for him today. He worked for over an hour practicing his first name and was timing himself to see how long it takes him each time--48 seconds is his best time so far!

It's been a busy several days with lots of time spent outdoors playing in the snow, playing with friends, decorating cookies and playing games with Minna, Auntie Em, and Grandpa Alan, and playing LEGOs by candlelight during our mid-winter power outage--brrrrrrrr it was cold with no heat!!

We've been keeping up with our Hardy Boys reading, built lots of giant pillow forts, and had pizza at Fireside Pizza in Richfield on New Year's Eve for the 2nd year in a row. The kids love that there is a tree "growing" in the middle of the restaurant!

We watched the Rose Bowl and the Vikings, and read about fish. John took the kids on a field trip to the fish store today so NT could do more research on the kind of fish he wants, and then they stopped at Cold Springs--an historic site near Minnehaha Park--on their way home. NT wrote a "SECRIT!" letter to his cousin Ezra.

We're two days into NT's dinner menu plan and so-far-so-good. Last night's dinner was a hit (Lizzy and John made it and Lizzy set the table), but the kids decided tonight's dinner wouldn't make the cut for future menus.