Reading, writing, 'rithmetic, and real food prep.

I begin and end this post with a nasty face from Stuart.  One from each camera.  I could have included more. 



Marcus, in the meantime, is writing numbers on the chalkboard.  His brother was using the board to work problems during his math lesson, so Marcus has taken over and is writing numbers on the board.  And the letter P, although it's supposed to be a 9.



Stu uses the mandolin to chop celery.  For a mixed crock of brine pickles.  He's doing the chopping so I can go to IKEA.  I'll spare you the IKEA photos.



Stuart drew a picture of me.  I guess I'm out in space.



Once again, Stuart is working math problems on the chalkboard.  The answer is correct except for the comma in the wrong place.  Commas are hard, y'all.



At the same time as Stuart working that problem on the chalkboard, Marcus is on the other side of the easel, writing his own numbers in crayon.



Stuart has moved on to a worksheet.  He's explaining to me that it's super easy.  He did get them all right, except maybe another comma in the wrong place.



So where did Marcus go?  Uh-oh, a tunnel in the hallway probably isn't a good sign.



But he's down in the basement.  He wanted to bring a floor puzzle upstairs, but took it out of the bag first.  This picture was carefully cropped to only show the mess he made.



School room bedlam.  Stuart is trying to keep me from getting a picture of him.  Marcus is nearly successful at whacking him in the head with a tent pole.



Later in the day, Stuart makes mayonnaise!



He did a good job, too.  See how thick it is?



He even labeled the jar himself.  First time ever making mayo, first time ever being allowed to use a Sharpie.



A boy who can make his own mayo will go far in life.



Marcus is writing again.  I wonder what he was thinking about.



We just finished Story of the World Vol. 1.  I brought out Vol. 2, and Stuart has been reading it on his own.  I decided that he would learn more from reading his history text of his own volition than he would from getting dressed and doing a math review.  Besides, later he aced the math review.



For Stuart's language skills I am using Writing With Ease, and on Wednesdays that means copywork taken from our current read-aloud (Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder).  I have started making Marcus his own copywork page, too.  Today Marcus found the page, and said, "Pum.  Pump.  Pump...kin.  Pumpkin?"  I boggled for a minute (didn't know he'd be able to read such a long word) and encouraged him to give it a try.  He refused, but later I found his doing the page anyway.



He's very, very hard on himself, so when he likes his work, I make a big deal out of it.  So we got a picture of this one.



Remember how I said Marcus is very, very hard on himself?  He didn't like how he wrote the word "PIE" here.  Or maybe he's unhappy with the current lack of pumpkin pie in the house.  That's a very dissatisfied Marcus.  The other words are his attempt at "PUMPKIN", but he doesn't believe in spelling rules. 



And here is that nasty face from Stuart.  Yes, he does lots of things other than math worksheets (and nasty faces), but that's the best time for pictures. 



I just want to pinch his cheeks.