back to routine

we're finally back to our routine.  we still have some boxes to unload, but all the essentials are out, and it's more important to me that we get into our daily schedule.  the boys do better and i do better with a schedule.  we read our "foundations" (scriptures), exercise (there's a trail and the park just down and around the corner we run to and around and then play at the park--pace is starting to ride his bike with me on mondays!), clean (i figure i better cash in on their current excitement to help clean and do chores--they fight over who gets to mop or sweep or scrub the toilet or the tub!), do workbook and reading time.  we also made mondays our experiment day, wednesdays our library day (the library is about a 20-25 minute jog to town, and they have an awesome reading time with a craft afterwards), and fridays our project day. 

during our runs max has started asking some really cute questions.  i think it's stemmed from all the letter quizzing i've been doing (what does a say?  what does m say? what does p say?, etc).  anyway, on our runs he'll just look around the trail and ask what things say: "mommy, what does green say?"  "what does tree say?"  "what does trashcan say?"  "what does orange say"  "what does yellow say?"  "what does bike say?"  it reminds me of the poems with illustrations my mom and i did when i was little, "blue is for ice, green is for frog, etc."  it'll be a good project on project day to write down these little "poems" and let max color or paint something to go along with it.

we've had two experiment days so far (we pick out from an experiment book from bishka), and pace has chosen food-related experiments.  the first was making a fruit slushy.  the boys loved this one, we set a timer every ten minutes to stir the juice sitting in salted ice, and worked on workbooks in between stirring.  this week we made meringues to learn about the protein "squiggles" spreading apart when you beat the egg whites.  the boys liked eating the "bubble nets".     

our first art project was making mono prints.  this was really cool for the boys, and they loved using the rollers.  i demonstrated scribbling in the paint with a q-tip, and let them experiment.  i was helping max when pace said, "look mommy, i wrote daddy!"  instead of scribbling or drawing, pace had written his name, and below that spelled out "dade", daddy!  i was so impressed!  we've never written anything other than his name, so to see him independently sound out and write a word was pretty cool!

we've also been enjoying the view before it disappears to the quickly sprouting houses.  last week we watched thunderstorms roll through the valley every afternoon.