Day three and all's well. K is liking school, making plans with new friends, and she's even happy to do homework. She did a 350-word essay yesterday that she typed out on her Sidekick phone and emailed to B, who printed it out for her. She can even email homework and papers directly to the teachers. How cool is that?

The younger kids and I started with The Witches again this morning. They're loving the book so far. It has plenty of scary-ish parts to keep them paying close attention (they love scary). J did copywork from a poem book called Baseball, Snakes, and Summer Squash: Poems About Growing Up. She enjoys fun poems, but I'm going to print out some light Shakespeare next week and see if she can connect with that as well. W copied out of his Corduroy book. Then he did a little out-loud reading, some long-vowel exercise, and a section on telling time in the bridge workbook. J moved on to her bridge workbook where she did a section on synonyms, a page on the geography and countries of South America, and a page on multiples and least common multiples.

In the afternoon the kids decided it was bike-riding time. So I grabbed the old bikes out of the garage and threw them in the back of the van. J's front tire was totally flat and both of W's tires were. W's bike is this embarrasingly small 12-inch, but I grabbed a wrench before we left, took off the training wheels, lifted the seat, and almost broke the bike apart trying to raise the handlebars. He is determined to ride a 2-wheeler and I've put off teaching him all summer. He normally rides his Green Machine (a new-fangled Big Wheel) and really hasn't asked about a regular bike until this week. So I stopped at a bike shop near the park and the guy replaced J's front tire tube and "rim strip" and filled the air in W's tires.

It was a beautiful day for bike-riding. J sped off as soon as we got out of the car and W put on his helmet and with one push from me, pedaled into the park. He thought that was the most awesome thing in the world and I just couldn't believe he did that his first time on 2 wheels. The small bike was a good idea for learning. If he can stay balanced on that thing, he should have no problem adjusting to a bigger bike later on. After a little while he tried riding J's bike (22") and did just as well! He still needs to learn how to brake and how to stop without flying headfirst over the handlebars, but for his first day he did really great!