J's copywork today was "City Rain" by Kit Wright. Then she did some multiplication. I told her that to move onto new stuff we need to have 1-on-1 time to go over it. We may do this in the evening, on weekends, or during the weekday when W is engrossed in something else he can do on his own. W did 3 pages of his Sight Words book and 3 pages of his Writing Words book. Usually what I do is open the book to the next page and he chooses to do as many pages as he wants to. Sometimes it's half a page and sometimes it can be up to 4 pages at once. He is really reading so well now - not having to stop and sound out each word anymore. His math was more addition.

After that we read more of the Everything American History Book. Today was all about Columbus and his voyage to "the new world". I love this book because it tells it like it is with no sugar-coating. It tells you the real story about how Columbus was so totally off with his calculations on where he was going and how he left 39 of his men on an island because the Santa Maria sank and there was no room for them on the Nina (the Pinta was nowhere to be found at this point). And how 3 million natives succumbed to the European diseases of small pox and measles. It mentions how another crew member found the Bahamas first, but Columbus took the credit for it. He brought natives back to Spain to prove he found another land and those natives were made slaves. And how right up to when he died, Columbus still believed he found Asia. The kids loved the story and we'll go into more of it through library books and websites over the next week.

J went to her friend A's house this afternoon and to dance at 4. I picked up K and we went food shopping. W decided today that he wanted to read everything in the store he got his hands on. "Mix the hot cocoa in a 6oz cup or mug". And of course this led to What's 6 "o-z"?, which led to a discussion on ounces and measurement. He told me today how much he loves homeschooling and that he feels he learns so much. That was great. K signed up for NaNoWriMo on Nov 1st - which means she'll be working on producing a 50,000 word novel by November 30th. Writing is SO her thing and I love that there are these things out there to inspire her.

Oh, and basketball for W starts Sunday!