Boring rambly stuff

We went to the drive-in last night (me and the kids) and saw Happy Feet and Deck the Halls.  Both pretty cute movies.  I love the drive-in!  Maybe it's nostalgia about the Capital drive-in in San Jose we went fairly often when I was a kid.  There were these cool horse swings that we would get to go swing on while waiting for the movie to start.  There were a bunch of different movies playing at one time so if the one your parents were watching was boring, there were usually other things to look at.

I have to go to Sacramento tomorrow for a committee looking at the state tests and making sure they are aligned to the state standards.  Should be interesting, lol.

We are doing some blocking of our subject areas this week, just for an experiment.  Kevan's was more blocked than Ben's.  Monday he did quite a bit of progress in his math book; Tuesday he finished the novel he was reading for literature (Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry) and we spent some time discussing it, Wednesday (today) he read several chapters of his history book (History of US series; he is currently on An Age of Extremes) and did some analysis; tomorrow he will be doing some in depth science learning about plate tectonics and volcanic activity.  Friday he will do vocabulary and music.  Every day he still does a little bit of math review to keep it fresh in his head and build automaticity.  He seems to enjoy doing it this way; makes it easier for me too, because I can schedule subjects he does more independently for the days that I have less flexibility with my schedule.

Ben was a little less of a block schedule.  Since he's only 7, I didn't think he would enjoy doing too much of one thing.  Monday he did a little bit of math, and some Language Arts - we read a couple of poems, went over his new spelling words, and introduced adjectives; he had a great time doing a "mad lib" type activity, adding in adjectives to a boring story with none.  We also did a history lesson - he is just finishing up a study of Roman history that began in September, and is learning about the beginnings of Christianity.  It always amazes me the information that he retains, and Kevan, who loves history, is often lurking in the background listening to the stories as well.  I know I never learned about "Veni, vedi, vici" or Pax Romana in any of my schooling.  It is fascinating stuff!  Yesterday, he did mostly math because it was my busy day and he was at the point where he could take a unit assessment and semester assessment for math.  We did not review for these at all because I wanted to see what he had retained; he did awesome on both, getting over 100% on his semester assessment counting the optional questions.  We also did a history lesson and learned about Nero and the burning of Rome.  Today the kids were at Grandpa's since I had to go to a meeting, and Ben did some science and language arts.  Tomorrow he will have science and history, and will be done for the week, except for a spelling test Friday.

The kids will be in our town's Christmas parade this weekend with Ben's Cub Scout den.  I am going to miss it because I will be out of town still, but will see it on tv (recorded).  That's all folks!