I don't know when I'll get a chance to post this. The dsl line has been down for days, unlike Katrina where the dsl was back working long before the phone line.

Sunshine has been very interested in reading for the past week. She's been bringing books to lessons for me to read to her. It started with a picture word book and has moved on to The Pokey Little Puppy. She's shown a little interest in math as well, but she has trouble telling me if three items are more or less than four items, even if those items are pieces of candy. She's either not that interested or not that greedy.

Brighteyes will be going through a series of book changes in the next month. She'll be starting Spelling Workout B and Draw, Write, Now 2 in the next week and starting Singapore Math 1B and ending The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading in the next four weeks. We'll go back to the Second McGuffey Reader when she finishes the phonics book. She zipped through the McGuffey Primer and the First Reader, but hit a wall when she got to the Second Reader. She was trying to memorize all the words instead of learn them phonetically, and she was intimidated by the length of the readings. She's since learned the value of phonics and she's not afraid of a two-page reading any more. Last week she started reading the two-page spreads we summarize for History and Science herself, although she lets me help her with the unfamiliar words.

The Oxford Treasury of Classic Poems is popular in Literature. The girls love the longer poems, especially W.H. Auden. Brighteyes thrilled to Auden's "Night Mail" today. She wanted to read it herself, but was put off by the English spelling and Scottish terms. She wants to memorize a poem or two from that book, if she can find any short enough.

Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" was a hit a few days ago, and started the girls to talking more about their own dreams. I have told them about places my husband and I have visited together in Dreamtime. Maybe they will find their own way to those places as well.

We're covering the animals in order of evolution for science. We look at the pages in the Usborne World History book on the evolution of animals, then find a modern equivalent in the Kingfisher Animal Encyclopedia. So far it's been Microbes --> Jellyfish --> Worms. I'd like to make a earthworm farm, but as hot and dry as it's been I haven't seen many earthworms in the garden. We may have to buy some at a fishing supply place, and I'm not sure where those are around here. Next week we'll cover Simple Shellfish and look at my childhood seashell collection. The week after that it'll be Jointed Shellfish, probably Lobster/crayfish.

I've been relying on the internet for coloring pages of animals, instead of buying coloring books. That's not a bad idea, when the internet is working. But now the DSL line is down, and I haven't downloaded the pages I need for the next few days. Grrr....

The big problem lately has been fussing. Sunshine has been throwing huge fusses over the next step in going potty, going potty without anyone watching her. She doesn't understand that if she's dependent on someone else to tell her and stand around watching her, she's not doing it all by herself, which is the goal. Probably in responce to Sunshine's potty fusses, Brighteyes has been throwing fusses during lessons if anyone talks around her, brushes up against her or even breathes too loudly. This touchiness doesn't leave me a lot of opportunity to teach Sunshine her lessons. With all the fussing going on, Mommy is fussed out. Hopefully now that the weather is down in the 80s I'll be able to get them outside more often, and they can burn off their energy fussing instead of playing.

Update: We're covering early humans in History. Yesterday Brighteyes picked up the Magic Tree House books on Sabertooths. Today was the first day it was below 90, so I sent them outside to hunt for mammoth bones. They went for it. Yippee!