Homeschooling...

First full week of homeschooling in Leiden ended today.  Juliet has been so busy that it's been the boys and me for most all of the school work:  an hour of violin first, then various projects of numeracy (math) and literacy (English).   Liam and Kai have been waking up early to get work done: at 6:30 am yesterday Liam was teaching Kai the parts of speech in a sentence.  Forty-five minutes of that before breakfast -- who knew that was possible?  Numeracy has included breaking down a "number of the day" into tally notation, scientific tally, roman numerals, factors, and constructing an array.  They've been doing "mind-math" as well, improving their ability to add and multiply in their heads.  They are also voracious readers and I think Liam's goal is to read all of the 30 or so books in English that are in the local library. 

After lunch each day we leave the apartment to do various adventures like visiting the Rijkmuseum (see Liam and Kai's posts), outdoor market, and sundial.  We also do the mundane but necessary food shopping, laundry and errands.  Mundane, but it always includes an exciting, if not life-threatening, bike ride.  More on that later.

 It remains cold outside, today was the third straight day of waking up to snow.  Not sure if this winter will ever end. Another project we're planning is how The Netherlands is responding to climate change.