We love to walk!

Lately...since the weather has been more cooperative...we find ourselves walking everywhere. Last week we walked to & from the light rail and all over downtown. Yesterday we took ourselves to the Greenway and over the Martin Sabo bridge. Today we walked to Franklin library & home again. It's SO nice to GET OUT!!

Yesterday Mane and I had a long conversation about puppies and DNA while we were out walking. I find that if I pay attention, every second is a learning opportunity. We also gabbed about all the flowers and bushes we passed along the way. Today we talked about camping, hiking, and getting ourselves in shape for all the climbing we want to do at Whitewater this year...which fits perfectly into our current studies of the heart and lungs.

...yep, we've been checking out the human body some more...namely the heart. Today we checked out a few more books about the heart & some DVDs about the body.

Mane is 1.5 lessons away from completing her math book and totally dragging her feet. We'll get it done.

We're also picking up momentum again in the 100 Words book we've been using for reading. Mane is interested and gaining some fluency. I'm talking with some people about whole word approaches to reading, and I'm implementing some of the strategies. I'm also using the words that Mane is learning in the 100 Words book for her handwriting practice.

Oh, and we're keeping a caterpillar in a jar on the kitchen table in hopes that we'll get to watch it build a cocoon and turn into a butterfly.

We're still reading Ballet Shoes, and I promised Mane that we'd watch the movie once we've finished it. Every time we're out walking I remind her of how Nana took the children out for a walk every morning in the Ballet Shoes book and how good and healthy it is to walk. It's fun to pretend we're children living in England going out for our daily "constitutional."

Mane spent Saturday night at the Farm with her grandparents and our neighbors. She ran around outside and slept like a baby. I'm so glad she has places like that where she can spend time with nature.

Oh, one more thing...We're still reading Story of the World, and we began our studies of ancient India yesterday. Mane is still so in love with Egypt that it's going to be tough to transition her to something else, but I am excited. We looked at India on the map and traced the waterways that connect India to Mesopotamia. We also spent considerable time talking about how traveling by water was the easiest & fastest way to travel with large quantities of goods in the ancient world.

The end.