It started off shaky ...

... but thankfully by today we seemed to have settled back into a routine. This happens after every kind of break from the norm but I never learn. I'd hate to be a teacher trying to motivate a class of 30 kids after a school holiday, motivating 2 kids was hard work on Monday and Tuesday!

Anyway, today was good, we accomplished lots and had fun with it - just what we all like. Here's a quick run down.

We've decided to look at maths topics as a threesome for a while, rather than just concentrating on individual work books. At the moment we're studying 2D and 3D shapes, their names, how they are made up and the measuring of angles (if appropriate). K and B have started to make a poster showing, so far, the circle and sphere using spiral-craft drawings and we've just started polygons - looking at the triangle and all the different varieties available. Tomorrow we'll us Geomag to make a 3D pyramid and look at prisms and tetrahedrons too! Will also use Enchanted Learning to produce some 3D shapes.

We're continuing with our Around the World lapbooks and have begun learning about Japan. K is seriously into Bonsai trees at the moment and we've bought her one for her birthday (on Sunday - she'll be 10). Being K, she's read three books and browsed the web for information on these stunning little trees and is considering joining a forum. Today she trimmed her tree for the first time and luckily, unlike the cartoons I've seen in the past, the leaves all stayed on! So, we did a bit on Bonsai as well as Mount Fuji, thus recapping on earthquakes and volcanoes (as Japan has three tectonic plates beneath it), pinpointing the country on the map and finding it's flag, capital city and continent.

In their spare time, K has been busy making little fairy type dolls using the leftovers of a kit she had a couple of year's ago, and B made this fun little robot using a variety of junk modelling stuff. It has match boxes for feet which he's turned into drawers for little bits and pieces! I personally think the eyes are the best bit, and the bow-tie of course!

Also, K decided she would find out how to make a mini movie using Movie Maker on the PC. In no time at all she'd worked out how to make a simple clip showing some of her horses, progressing onto this clip which has much more detail and music too. She did this without any help from me (as I wouldn't know where to start) or P (he was a work) or from the application itself. Therefore, P and I are pretty proud of her and she's pretty proud of herself. Having problems putting the clip up on the blog - nearly there but want to watch Desperate Houswives instead, so I'll fiddle again tomorrow!

B received his Flat (Travellers) Lego George home from Pennsylvania and it's already packed up ready to zoom off to Kentucky - doing an exchange with Flat Matt! Flat Clifford, from Texas, is nearing the end of his stay with us - he'll enjoy K's sleepover party on Saturday night and then leave us once he's recovered! Doing the travel journals certainly ensures we go out and about during the week! This week we've been to the museum to see an exhibition on pantomime and also to the museum's art gallery which had some wonderful modern art on display titled "The Destabilisation of Perception".

Into logical thinking at the mo - here's a couple of games (haven't yet tried them out on the kids, but I liked them!)

Build the square puzzle

Traffic jam game