It is 8:15 and everyone is asleep.  I love that the days are getting shorter and bedtime is becoming easier.

Our days just plod along.  Last weekend we had nothing on the calendar (aside from Church).  Our schedules are so paired down this fall that aside from Joseph's therapies and my inconsistent job responsibilities, not much else happens.  Seems like there is not even much to take pictures of.

I am slowly compiling a list of books geared toward older readers (ie Benjamin).  He loves to read and one of my goals is to turn him onto other genres of books....right now pretty much all he reads is graphic novels.  So, as the days are drawing shorter, I am hoping to spend those dark evenings reading aloud to the boys. (I envision hot chocolate and popcorn :-))  I have always enjoyed reading but the cooler weather always draws me to books.  One of the first we will read is Robinson Crusoe  and Johnny Tremain.

Jacob is coming along with his reading.  It won't be long before he will be reading chapter books out loud to us.  He has a bad habit of guessing at hard words instead of sounding them out.  One of the hardest habits to break I am told!  Joseph is even expressing interest in reading, so slowly working with him.

The homeschooling is all over the page still.  We are on track but can't seem to find a schedule that works for us yet.  Seems every couple of days I am trying to rearrange folders, etc to find a system that suites us best.  Benjamin is making some headway with typing.  He finished the first section with 92% accuracy.  The spanish book we are using has a really neat approach and focuses more on the function of the language, than just the memorization of vocabulary.  Will be interesting as we continue along how B does with it.

We started some pre-Algebra stuff today.  He was totally overwhelmed and confused but Mom to the rescue.  I love relearning all this stuff.  The web site we use is awesome.  You have to get 5 in a row correct before you can move on to the next task.  So, you have to know your stuff before building on it.  Benjamin was laughing at me last night as I was working in 'my account'.  They were asking me all sorts of questions about parallelograms, rhombus, squares and rectangles.  I repeated kept getting the wrong answers.  I found myself raising my voice at the computer telling it that a rectangle can't be a square.  That is when Benjamin said, 'actually mom, a rectangle can be a square'.  Just so no one is confused (and I find the best way to know you have learned something is to teach it to another), a parallelogram has 2 sets of same size parallel lines, a rhombus has 4 equal sides, a rectangle has 4 right angles and a square has 4 equal sides AND 4 right angles!

Jacob is loving school.  The behavorialist at the school called me today to tell me that Jacob witnessed something inappropriate on the playground and he was quick to report it to one of the aides.  I made sure and gave him many kudos for doing the right thing, despite others being mad at him.

Hunting season has started.  JR missed a 40 yard shot of a deer with his bow.  The snow we got last week has mostly melted off so it is hard once again to track the animals.

This weekend is pretty quiet, except for the annual fall festival 'downtown'.  The kids are all riding on the 4H float.  I think my first parade without any kids beside me.