We have spent so much time doing special things since Thanksgiving, we have started to think of get-togethers, trips, special dinners, and other events as the norm. Our children brought to our attention that life was getting a little boring with nothing to which to look forward for many weeks. I cannot believe that I sat my kids down and gave them the same lecture my folks gave me about how the daily work/school routine is life, not the other special, big events. I went on to explain that life will be a serious let-down if we do not embrace and find joy in the mundane routines that fill our days. There is as much joy in the accomplishing as the accomplishment. I too get caught up in the desire to find something exciting to plan or do, but realize that we get a LOT more good homeschool work done when there are not so many distractions.
Christian had about his best math day ever yesterday. All of his problems were worked in great detail without sparing any paper. That is a huge help when it comes to correcting the work, both in determining if the answer is right, the methodology is right, and the understanding of the concepts are there. The concepts are increasingly more difficult as Christian finishes up his Algebra II so he can move on to Geometry. Kelly only has three more weeks of Geometry before she moves on to pre-calculus. There is a lot of minutiae in Geometry. That minutiae is critical for those who will work as theoretical mathematicians. For us applied mathematicians (in my humble opinion), the minutiae of geometry is only just very important. That is not true, though, for pre-calculus, so Kelly will be returning to painstaking detailed problem working again sometime in February.
The only parts we have left to assemble on the ham radio are one toroid and some transformers. All we have after that is knobs, the case, and that kind of thing.
Kelly is drawing a very fun story line in Betty Blonde right now that will run for a week or two. It is about the Facebook/My Space phenomena. Check it out.
Update: More doubt about the education establishment.
Interesting YouTube video: Mathematically defining functional information in molecular biology