With Bows of Hally

Operation Decoration continues - today we unearthed the CeeJ and Bee trees

WEIGH TO GO: We continued our math chapter on weights. The kids seem to be grasping the 16 ounces in a pound thing quicker than 12 inches in a foot. No idea why. ...

Today we did some estimating. I lined up CJ's beloved nutcrackers and asked questions like, "Do you think this weighs closer to 4 ounces or 4 pounds?" We made guesses, weighed and compared them all before they got to the written work in their math books.

While they were working in their books, Mr. Curious asked me, "Why is the abbreviation for pounds 'lb.'?"

Um, good question. And one I couldn't believe I didn't have an answer for. Drat! How did I get to be 45 without knowing that?! Lame!

Turns out the Latin words "libra pondo" describe a Roman unit of weight similar to a pound. So the abbreviation "lb" is derived from the Latin word libra, and our pound comes from pondo.

I'm so glad CJ is so curious.

STOOPID LANGWIDG: I have decided we're going back to spelling lists for awhile. We're going to concentrate on the stupidly spelled-but-common words first.

Yesterday we worked on "shun" words - that's right, the ones that (inexplicably) end in TION. I had the kids help generate a list of tion words and they wrote the words down. This morning we did a low key spelling bee with the TION words and they nailed 'em all. Having conquered those, it was time for something more challenging. The dreaded OUGH words.

We started off with the UFF sounding ones (rough, tough, enough ...). Next, we moved on to ones with an OW sound (bough, drought), followed by OO (through) , the long O (dough, though, although), and, of course, the AHs (though, bought, brought). Isn't the English language fun, Fun, FUN!!!

As the kids were writing the ridiculously spelled words down, they were amused by me serenading them with a song about OUGH words sung to the tune "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain."

THE GLOVED ONES: For some a.m. exercise, we popped the rented "Michael Jackson Experience" back in the Wii and the kids took turns choosing songs to dance to.

It was interesting - they were very nearly 100 percent better at it than they were last night, according to the scoring system built into the Wii remote. Pretty impressive - and it goes to show how quickly they can pick things up.

They danced for over a half hour and even worked up a bit of a sweat. Several times throughout the rest of the day, I heard them humming Michael Jackson tunes under their breath.

ON TOP OF THE WORLD: The kids learned a bit more about Santa's stomping grounds - the North Pole - thanks to a BrainPop video. They watched it twice and then took the comprehension test, which they passed.

CHASERS: Annabelle had soccer class this afternoon. It's pretty comical to watch. Ah, nothing like coaching 5 and 6 year olds who are spazzing around, kicking balls all over a gym. I could tell her teacher was a little frustrated a couple of times, but I can't say that I blamed him. ... It was like trying to herd chickens.