We've had a fun week. We started studying the big cats, lions, tigers, cougars, etc, and since they're our first mammals this year, we did a quick mammal review. Platypuses (platypi?) bent J's mind. He came running to tell me that they didn't have live young like other mammals and just went on and on about them. I went to our library online and quickly added a few books about them to our holds.

We finished the Phoenicians, started the Assyrian resurgence, and are moving on to Babylon's 2nd heyday. J's also been reading lots of Greek and Roman myths again. He really loves those stories and said the other day, while watching Toy Story II with the little boys, that Woody was just like Odysseus. It was during the part when Woody hides on the side of the dog to avoid detection while he's trying to save Squeaky. It reminded him of the time Odysseus rode on the side of the sheep to escape the cyclops. He's enjoying Adventures of the Greek Heroes, right now. He likes comparing and contrasting the new versions with the ones he's already read.

We've hit our stride with the Saxon 2 material, and I'm not having to skip around as much. We're about a quarter of our way through the book, so I guess the first quarter was lots of review from the previous year's material. J's also doing alot of math on his own. He asks me questions about multiplication and division throughout the day and started filling out a multiplication grid on his own. He did about half of it and then started using the abacus to finish it out. I think he's on his third grid. He also picks out Miquon sheets of complete whenever he feels like it. He usually does a few of those every other day or so.

The most fun, of course, has been the snow. We played outside alot, made snow angels, of course, and we read Snowflake Bentley together when we were tired of playing outside. We made maple candies and he helped me watch the thermometer until it reached 236 degrees. We talked about the different qualities of the syrup as it changes from cold to bubbling hot liquid to solid candy. He really liked watching me whip the syrup until it started getting hard. Today I have a giant bowl outside collecting snow for snow cones or jack wax, I haven't decided.