Our 2nd grader turned 8 this month!  We took a few days off of school while Grandparents visited and did some fun birthday stuff.  Last week we got back into our routine at home, and I am finally getting around to posting some pictures.  Here's a bit of the fun and learning we've been up to.

Since the beginning of the school year, Caleb has been hearing fables from specific regions and studying those areas further.  The first area was China, and now we spent some time learning about Africa.  He can locate Africa on a map and has learned about the climates, wildlife, and lifestyles of the area.  The picture he drew includes some African animals, including the biggest land animal in the world (African Elephant), the world's fastest animal (cheetah) and the world's tallest animal (giraffe).  Caleb thinks Africa is a pretty cool place!

Smiley is doing well learning letters.  Over the past few weeks, he has made pages practicing letters R, S, and T.  In the pictures, the R page has a rat from a Beatrix Potter story we read.  The S page has a snake, and the T page is a tree he made a T into, out of construction and tissue paper.

In Math, Caleb learned about place value in the thousands.  He can now write and read large numbers in the thousands.  Smiley continues to enjoy practicing counting and writing numbers.

Caleb and I are enjoying reading Solomon Owl, as well as other books we get from the library.  He works on word lists, paragraphs, and  poems/rhymes.

The kids have spent some time outdoors each day, enjoying the cold, but sunny days we've been having.  Caleb is doing great on his new bike he got for his birthday.  The boys have also enjoyed hiking around our hills and climbing trees; they help cook and clean-up (pizza dough, tortillas, and oatmeal were their jobs this week), work on art projects, including homemade Christmas cards, read and read (Adventures of Tintin is the new favorite) and lots more!