Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Whew. I have been sick with flu-like symptoms for a week now. I have managed to make it through homeschooling but barely. We ended up with a FOUR HOUR delay yesterday because I felt too badly to do my planning and fill the boxes the night before. But, the boys got to work and got it done when I was FINALLY ready. Today I was prepared so of course everyone felt better (okay, mainly me).

Today, Joel learned more about echolocation (when bats sound out sound waves to locate objects.) Luckily we had seen a Stan Lee Super Human special on a guy who is blind and uses echolocation expertly to ride a bike though his neighborhood and town. Both boys spent some time covering their eyes and making clicking noises to maneuver around the house. They both swore they could hear a difference, and maybe they're right since they didn't run into any mess obstacles.

Did you know bats actually fly with their hands, and that thing sticking out on top is a bat thumb? Joel didn't remember being able to see bats at Disney's Animal Kingdom, so I whipped out the photo album to show him. This made us all excited about our upcoming trip! I am excited because there are so many things that will back up our curriculum. (The countries in Epcot, the animals in Animal Kingdom).

I am very impressed with the free books I've been getting for my Kindle. I found a great grammar book that I started Jason on today. They also have some free math books. I will take all the help I can get, and if it's free, it's even better!!

I woke up this morning thinking about PE. Before our break the boys were doing well at getting on the treadmill about four times a week. We haven't done that since starting back. They would do it without complaining but I hate the treadmill and could tell they did too. It occurred to me that I could just have them do 30 minutes of the WII fit. I know they break a sweat doing that, so it's a win-win. So our boxes went well today, and both boys have done at least 15 minutes of PE. Time for a nap.