After the chaos of our recent trip to Mexico, we are just now starting to get back into the groove. In the evenings, I usually read aloud to the kids while they work on their art (Betty Blonde) and Lorena cooks dinner. This year we are doing it a little different in the past by reading some from both a fiction and a non-fiction book each day. Just before we went on our trip, we finished up The Gammage Cup, a very light fantasy novel, and Understanding the Times, a book on worldviews.

Last night, we read in a book titled Explore Evolution that examines “the current evidence and arguments for and against the key ideas of modern Darwinian theory”. Last night we read some arguments for common descent and the first section on some arguments against it which covered the Cambrian explosion and the “big bloom”. It is a very, very good book. One of our big problems with the non-fiction books is that kids interrupt with interesting questions so often, sometimes we do not make much progress in our reading. I need to be very patient and accommodate more of those kinds of interruptions as they are often the times when both the kids and I learn the most.

We did not read a fiction book last night, but we have a historical novel selected on medieval Poland (I think) that we hope to start tonight. In addition to that, I need to get started on giving the kids some Trigonometry so they will be ready for the ACT. I might just get a book of the basics and some worksheets. I think I might do the same with the writing part of the ACT for Kelly.

October 21, 2008 – Retaking the test
October 22, 2008 – More testing