NT was up to watch PBS's Cyberchase on high-low estimation. The kids played with the Magna Tiles and cardboard building blocks, but for most of the morning NT had his nose in his tropical fish book. He had the calculator out and was trying to figure out how many inches of new fish he could get if he got rid of a certain number of inches of his existing fish.

After lunch we had homeschool play group where this week's activity was a play dough craft. NT finished quickly and then spent the rest of the time throwing snowballs outside in the sunshine with a bunch of other boys.

We stopped at the library on the way home where NT picked up several more books on fish.

Highlights from the past several days:

We tried out the new play group last Friday. They were meeting for a class on endangered species at Woodlake Nature Center. NT at first refused to go and refused to "learn anything" but, wouldn't you know it, he learned a lot, got to touch a live turtle, met some new friends, and had a lot of fun.

Saturday morning NT had a basketball game and had a good-sized cheering section, as usual. He and John went to the fish store afterward and he brought home 5 new tiny fish for his tank--he has been reading about them over and over in his fish book.

Sunday Aunty Em and Craig took the kids ice skating and out for a treat afterward. We had homemade pizza and banana splits in honor of Valentine's Day while watching the Olympics.

Monday Lizzy had ballet and then the kids went swimming with Grampy and Maria at the "indoor beach" and out for a treat afterward. Late afternoon, NT went to play at the neighbors' while Liz and I went to Irish step class--it was a busy day!

All the while, NT has been keeping up with PBS's Cyberchase, reading his fish book like a fiend, inventing all kinds of things, playing like crazy with his Marbulous building set, devising and writing up all kinds of "secret plans" to "trick" his parents with his sister, and conducting all kinds of physics experiments in the living room which make a huge mess and drive his mother crazy. :-)

NT was up to watch PBS's Cyberchase on mixed numbers in fractions.

We were out the door early this morning to get to The Snowy Day at Stages Theatre with a bunch of other homeschoolers. While waiting for the play to start, NT and I talked about the different kinds of jobs people have to create a play--creative director, music director, choreographer, lighting designer, costume/make-up designer, etc.

After the play we had a quick stop at home to change to go check out the homeschool open house sample classes at Ballare where Lizzy takes ballet. Lizzy tried out the homeschool Creative Dance class and NT tried the hip hop class because he is interested in breakdancing...but they didn't do any.

In the end, the director and I decided to keep Lizzy in her regular class instead of switching to the new homeschool class because there is no year-end performance with the homeschool class. The performance is very important to Lizzy!

In between activities NT has been poring over his tropical fish book planning for the trip to the fish store on Saturday. He has all kinds of fish picked out. It will be interesting to see what he comes home with!

NT has invented all kinds of things today--from a sling shot to a paper surf board (to slide down the dance studio stairs) to a bird feeder made out of an egg carton. I can hardly keep up.

Liz surprised me and "cleaned" her room all by herself this afternoon (the floor is picked up and there is a "mountain" piled up on top of her bed, her toy box, her shopping cart...), and she has spent quite a bit of time this afternoon performing with her microphone on her "stage" (today it's the couch). If only I could find her a class where she could sing and dance at the same time!

It will be early to bed tonight!

Tuesday we had a much needed at-home morning to sleep in (until 7 a.m.), catch up on housework and laundry, and build pillow forts in the living room.

In the afternoon, we joined some new homeschooling friends at the History Center where NT showed us around the Ben Franklin exhibit. We checked out the MN 150 exhibit, and finally ended up in the granary play area where the kids got all rosy-cheeked climbing up and down, running through tunnels, and "driving" the grain wagon.

NT had ceramics class in the late afternoon and then he and John had a Cub Scouts den meeting in the evening where it was a craft extravaganza!!

Yesterday started out bright and early with PBS's Cyberchase and then it was time to take NT to his weekly MN Science Museum class, which he is really enjoying.

The kids built a fort in the living room/dining room after lunch and then we took an impromptu trip to the Como Park Conservatory to meet some other new homeschooling friends. We saw all kind of tropical fish and plants, lots of cool koi, and even an up-close sloth that we watched for quite a while and learned quite a bit about! We really enjoyed the warm, humid air--NT pretended he was back in Lamanai!

NT had basketball practice and one of the other parents approached me to tell me what a great game she thought he had on Saturday!

Today the kids did some more fort-building and then we were off to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts where we waited in line for an hour with hundreds of other artists so NT could register his artwork to be shown in the Foot in the Door exhibit starting later this month. He is really excited--he has been asking to show his work in the "Minneapolis Substitute of Arts" since he was 3-years-old!

After lunch we headed over to the library where we picked up a bunch of lacrosse books and a lacrosse DVD that NT had requested, and Grampy picked NT up to take him to practice basketball at the gym for the afternoon.

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!

The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity with Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and many, many inches of snow.

The kids got to play in the snow and then with their Pye-side cousins on Christmas Eve, and they've gotten to spend time with other family the past couple of days as well. They've decorated cookies with Minna, built a white chocolate "gingerbread" house with Grandpa Alan, made some origami birds, played a new board game with Grandpa Elliott and Katie, and, of course, they've eaten tons of food--even tried some new things like Welsh rarebit and lingonberries!

Last night we did our annual Christmas lights drive around the neighborhood (in the rain!).

We've kept up with our reading and are almost done with our current Hardy Boys mystery.

This afternoon John and NT got out the new microscope he got from Bob and learned how to use it. They looked at all kinds of things, including holly leaves, the water from the holly vase, Lizzy's ribbons, and some of my sourdough starter.

Tonight NT is at the Timberwolves game downtown with Grampy.

This morning NT watched PBS's Cyberchase where the subject was number and operations.

After breakfast he built a structure with his Magnatiles and then disappeared to his basement workshop where he created his own Secret Decoder (note to self: get him some brads!) before it was time to leave for today's field trip.

We picked Minna up bright and early and headed to the Minnesota Children's Museum to check out their new dinosaur display which was really impressive! The kids dug for fossils, learned cool dino facts and saw what North America looked like 65, 75, and 85 million years ago. We stayed at the museum for over 3 hours! Besides the dinos they did a craft, played in the kitchen/restaurant, made a music video, worked with other kids in the factory, and NT worked for quite a while with the hydraulics in the water room--it is so cool to watch him figure things out that even most adults can't do!

After the museum Minna treated us to a fancy (for us) lunch at Fabulous Fern's and then it was home to finish up the crafts they've been working on for the cousins while they listened to more Encyclopedia Brown mysteries on audio book.

After dinner John walked the kids over to Ellie's and then to Debbie's to deliver some homemade toffee--an event they look forward to every year!

This morning NT was up bright and early, as usual, to watch PBS's Cyberchase where today's topic was observing and tracking animal behavior.

We read several chapters of our current Hardy Boys mystery and looked up the words "spume" and "cowling" in the dictionary. We also read Silver Spurs by Minnesota author Robert R. Knigge, the story of the elf who helps Santa get into homes like ours that have no chimney!

NT was working on new paper airplane models from one of his books again this morning. I showed him how to use a ruler to make a 6" x 6" square out of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper for one of his planes. I also showed him how to make and use a template so he didn't need to keep measuring out 6 x 6 squares whenever he needed one.

Lizzy practiced reading some of her alphabet letters, and then we ran last-minute pre-holiday errands. Along the way we discussed the difference between "building" and "remodeling". We also explained to Lizzy what an "advertisement" is, and I quizzed NT on the "tricks" of multiplication when the numbers have zeros in them, like 10 or 50 or 600.

We stopped at the library for a new round of books, including some for NT on keeping fish as pets since he is really hoping for a big fish tank (the kind that requires lights and filters and heaters...) around his birthday.

The kids spent the late afternoon working on crafts for some of their cousins while listening to an audio book of Encyclopedia Brown mysteries.

This morning NT was up early as usual to learn about grids on PBS's Cyberchase.

Afterward, I read several chapters of Hardy Boys The Secret of the Old Mill aloud while NT designed and created a "Vikings" banner on the floor next to me. He cut the letters freehand out of construction paper and then we punched holes and strung them all together on a ribbon. We talked about spacing and balance and he learned that he needed to string the letters on in reverse so the letters were in the right order when it was all done.

While reading the Hardy Boys we looked up the word "counterfeit" and "oppressive" and talked about what a thesaurus is vs. a dictionary. We talked about what the word "descriptive" means and looked up the words "happy" and "sad" in the thesaurus.

NT and I practiced using a tape measure to measure the table he made for me earlier this year so Grandpa Alan can help him add braces so it doesn't wobble. We measure in both feet and inches and talked about which direction to pull the tape measure in when you are measuring something that goes all the way to the floor.

Liz went to visit Minna & Grandpa Alan where they practiced writing "Sebastien" and watched The Nutcracker ballet on DVD.

NT had one of his favorite friends, Brenna, over and they played both indoors and out for several hours--pirates, Marbulous, sword fights, football (in the living room!), wrestling...they never run out of ideas when they are together!

Late this afternoon NT & Liz set up their own makeshift bowling alley in the living room using cardboard building blocks for bowling pins.

NT wrapped up the long day by quietly working on more paper airplanes out of one of his library books.