Today marked the end of our trimester. I will be giving out grades on Monday. I need to grade some tests first. Today we marked some success by reading for an hour this morning because all of our Bible and History work was done for the 1st trimester yesterday. It would have been done a week ago but we added one more event so that we could be done by May 10th. If my Mom doesn't come out to visit after Christmas then we will work on the week between Christmas and New Years. This will give the kids a little more leeway later on with their work and finish by the end of April. If my Mom does come out then we will just work a little longer and work up to May 10th. No worries either way. John came home from work around noon, played a game of chess on Yahoo chess. Isaac on the sidelines offering "advice" and then headed up to Canada to play at Newton Wave Pool in Surrey BC. That is how we celebrate the end of the 1st trimester. Two and 1/2 months and we are 1/3 of the way done.

On the way home tonight John was quizzing the kids on their math and on their spelling. Lona spelled a few three letter words such as mop, dad, pan, hop on pop, and mom. John asked Job how to spell "mouse". "That's easy." He responded. "m-o-u-s-e." "How do you spell Washington?" John asked. Job confidently replied, "That's easy. W-A-(dot)." Well technically it is correct. Suprising us very much. Outside of the box thinker.

I read a book that I really like. It's called Beyond Summerland. It is by L.B. Graham. It is a christian fantasy story. I read the first in the binding the blade series and am looking to read the other three. The last book will be out sometime in 2008. I love fantasy books but finding a Christian one was surprising. It was a great story.

Another reason we had an hour of reading for the kids today. It was not only to give them a reward but to reward me as well. All the kids found some books to read or look at. No one complained about it. Hopefully we are instilling a love of reading in these kids. Isaac seems to. He has read three books and we just checked them out on Thursday. I was surprised by Job at the library. He picked up a chapter book at the library and started reading. He was hooked and read the whole book before we left the library and then proceed to tell everyone about it. The only other thing that he reads voraciously is Calvin and Hobbes.
Lona is still just looking at library books but has read 4 of her primer books. We are proud of her.