CA, Part Two

Uncle Howard, his wife Nii, and son Jack (7) arrived late at night on July 4. Dad and I waited up for a phone call, but the phone booth was broken at Manzanita, so they walked! Tell you what, in this day and age where seemingly everybody is tracked, and informs you of their littlest movement, it's almost surreal to have people... just show up! Very refreshing, too.

So, we coped with our respective jet lag. Our first foray out was an early morning walk to the local playground. We started heading to Safeway afterward, and Howard points into the distance: "That looks a lot like Derek's recumbent bike."

"That's because it is his bike," I said. Which was great, because the kids were starting to flag, and small rides on the bike really pepped them up.

Anyhoodle... pictures. We went to the Marin Headlands in two different cars, aiming for a Pt. Bonita lighthouse visit. Unfortunately, we got the timing wrong, but we did get a great little explore out of the trip, even if it was foggy.

Dad and C hanging out on a foggy Hawk Hill.

Visiting a foggy Rodeo Beach after our hike. This cooler weather arrived just in time for Uncle Howard's family to feel extra cold after flying from summertime in Thailand.

The next trip out was into San Francisco, via the ferry.

We did some walking around, some shopping... and it was so windy coming back that the kids giggled and danced for ten minutes straight. They were having so much fun. (Also, I love that E and J have the same missing-top-teeth smiles!)

Next time: B arrives! More adventures.

Home education is going well. We did two museum visits: the British Museum, and on Friday E and I went to the Science Museum, where I was pleasantly surprised to find that even on term-time weekdays, they run shows! So we went to "Flash, Bang, Wallop!" where he got to see some explosions/flames and learn that fire needs three things: oxygen, fuel, and heat. He also learned that dry ice can "sublime" from a solid straight into a gas, bypassing the liquid phase. We've hit a few workbooks this week, couple pages out of each one: Math, Spelling, Handwriting, and Science. We finished "Danny, Champion of the World" and are now halfway through a nonfiction moon landing book.

C and I are doing "Teach Your Monster to Read" which is a free, interactive online game that is a) fun and b) teaches your CHILD to read. We've been reading a book a night, lately - "Each Peach Pear Plum," and other short books she chooses daily from Nursery. During my last library visit I got her a short chapter book and read it to her in a cafe while E did some workbook pages and we all drank nice, hot drinks. It's a fun way to do things.

I have 67,000 words on the novel. Plan to put in some more time in the evenings since my time during the day is a bit eaten up by home edding.

Tomorrow we all go to S's (cousin's) 5th birthday party, which will be science-themed. We are in a cold snap but two years ago I remember at this very time (when S turned 3) everything was covered in at least a foot of snow and we went to his party with heavy snowflakes falling outside!