> Well did everyone take a break these past few weeks?
I noticed the lull in the chatter here. :)  My kids had vacation but they 
really kept on with the learning. They read every day for at least an hour, 
even with Grandma and Grandpa B. visiting - they read before bed and if they 
awake before everyone else in the morning, the only things they can do are 
play quietly or read. Mostly, they read.
Then there are computer programs. My kids loved the Oregon Trail that they 
got for Christmas. It was a "Classic Edition", which judging by the graphics, 
means it's an older version now transferred to a CD. For $13 or so at KMart, 
I felt it was a bargain. After our hard drive crash the day after Christmas, 
I had to reload all of their games, and even found a bunch that had never 
been loaded on in the first place. They now spend quite a bit of time on the 
'puter daily.
One of Jenn's favorite programs is a CD-ROM
given to them by Uncle Bill over a year ago: San Diego Zoo Animals. It's not 
a game, it's just an informative, beautiful way to learn about animals. She 
said she can't wait to do another science report! It took us awhile to get 
this one to run. Our old monitor wouldn't run it at all (not enough memory on 
the video card, probably). After getting a new monitor, it still wouldn't 
run.  Then I
realized that I didn't have the right video driver loaded into Windows (3.1). 
Once the right driver was loaded, the program runs beautifully.
 > their own.  I guess they just couldn't stop going to school.
Kids love to learn, I think, as long as no one has stifled them from doing 
.
One of my girls' gifts this year was simple and had been purchased back in 
the back-to-school sales: spiral notebooks. I think I got them 5 for $1 or 
something like that. I gave each girl 2 for Christmas and kept one for 
myself, for keeping my grocery lists and "sales" lists of stuff to stock up 
on! Kris loves to write stories, so this new clean white notebook encouraged 
her to start several stories while still on Christmas vacation.
Right before Christmas vacation, I went on a field trip with Kris' classroom. 
We went to Cabrillo National Monument, the site where Southern California was 
first "founded" by white man back in the 1500's. I was dismayed to find out 
that Kris and I, and the teacher, were the only ones to have ever been out to 
this relatively free spot in San Diego. It's got a lovely view of all of San 
Diego, an old lighthouse which has been restored into a museum, and on the 
right day, some great tidepools to discover.
This coming week, I am going on a field trip with Jenn's classroom. I'll hand 
it to this teacher - she loves field trips. I'm kinda glad Jenn is in school 
this year - tho there are still things about school that I am mad about - she 
has had some good experiences, and loves her teacher. Anyway, we're going 
whale watching out on a ship. Though this can be done by the public, it's a 
lot more expensive to do it that way. We're going for $4.50/each - ordinarily 
it's about $10 more per person. I was able to get time off of my morning job 
- my supervisor said for that price, she'd be glad to be a chaperone as well! 
:) It'll be interesting to view the class dynamics.
                                 -donna
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