Field Trips and Fractions

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer



Spencer runs from a Giant Pinocchio foot!



Were the boys too old to enjoy the premier of a Christmas puppet show? I didn't think so. However, when we arrived at the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts yesterday, I couldn't help but notice that most of the audience was pre-K and below! Even Denver looked like a giant in the crowd-- and John Robert? Well, he was taller than many of the parents!

Nevertheless, the boys and I really enjoyed the wonderful production! Afterward, the puppeteers came out (two women and four men), and showed how they did all the work with the different puppets. They did all the voices and singing live, and the special effects were very creative. They also designed and sewed all the puppets there at the studio! Unbelievable. They looked just like the characters from the old Rudolph Christmas TV shows.

I could see that Spencer and Denver loved the show. To my delight, even John Robert said that he really enjoyed the program. It was Nana's educational money well spent.



Spencer uses manipulatives to explore
fractions, decimals, and percents.



Just in case anyone is wondering whether we actually do any "work" anymore, the answer is YES. Spencer's free time is spent learning about ancient history and playing outside. He is still exploring decimals and fractions in math. He likes using items he can see when he thinks about fractions. He has also been enjoying (?) making his own math problems to practice rounding numbers.

Denver is beginning to do some emails on the computer-- most recently a thank you note to Uncle Rob and Aunt Melissa for birthday money! His reading skills are coming right along, though he prefers video games for reading practice.



Denver sends an email to Uncle Rob.



John Robert's essay writing skills are getting so much better that I breathe a sigh of relief just thinking about the benefits of spellcheck. However, he recently emailed a question to his algebra tutor, and I was shocked to see his "creative spelling"! When I sheepishly mentioned something to his math tutor about all the spelling errors yesterday, she just laughed and said,"He writes just like an engineer!" John Robert smiled at me triumphantly. I said no more.

We are enjoying the cool, fall weather and beautiful trees as we glide toward winter . . . and Christmas!