I Can't Think of a Cleverish Title...

This morning we did some sit-down-at-the table work.

Elijah did some math...more fractions. We played some fraction games. He kicked my butt on the fraction memory game.

He also did some writing (today we did dictation) and some poetry.

Toviel finished up a math worksheet he had a hard time concentrating on yesterday. He is adding 2-digit numbers mentally. Yesterday he was so distracted. Today he sat down and whizzed through it. I was checking on his method to make sure he wasn't counting to get his answers, so I asked him to show me the strategy he was using.

He showed me over and over and I couldn't wrap my head around how he was doing it! Finally, I understood! For example, if he was adding 67+85. He was taking 50 from the 67 and 50 from the 85 to make 100. Then he was left with 17 and 35. He then adds the 35 and 15 to make 50, plus 2 more makes 52. So 152. But he does it while staring at the ceiling, and in just a few seconds.

What a wacko way of doing it, but it's cool that he figured out a way that works for him! I tried to show him a much more

efficient way, but to no avail.

Tove also worked on some copy work and some story summarizing. He also did many, many pages in his Explode the Code book, which is just busy work in my opinion, but it was his choice.

In the afternoon, we went to the Muttart Conservatory.

Their feature pyramid theme is currently The Sword in the Stone, which is timely for us because we have been studying the Middle Ages and are currently reading Kingfisher's interpretation of the story of King Arthur.

We saw Merlin:

Here's Excalibur. Toviel and I were trying to make it appear as though he were grasping the sword.

And, I assume this is Sir Lancelot beside King Arthur's throne. Elijah photo bombed this photo. It made us all giggle.

You can also see Toviel's "purse" strap. It made me laugh when we were leaving the house today as he bounded up the stairs yelling, "Wait!!! I just need to grab my purse!!" It strikes me as particularly funny because I always refer to my "purse" as my "bag".

Elijah is trying to look like a serious guard here:

We met some friends at the Muttart Conservatory, and the boys made plans to stay together all afternoon, and us moms had no problem obliging. So we spent the rest of the afternoon together with friends. Friends are so good.