Election Day! We talked all about elections, voting, representative government, the electoral college.

Emily played more of her chess program, and I cleaned and reorganized the family and laundry rooms. Sam was unhappy with having his clothes downstairs, so I brought them back up to his room. We reworked some of the furniture because the kids decided that they wanted their little table and chairs back, and I took the puppy's kennel down and rearranged the laundry room so she can stay in there while we're out and about.

Our schooled neighbor came over to play since the schools are closed for election day. She played with the kids all afternoon, so they were, of course, in heaven!

Later in the evening, Emily was playing Ages of Empire on the computer, and she turned to me and said, "You know mom, even with twos, like 72, 82, 92, it's still counting by tens." The connections they make all on their own out of the blue are just amazing. At least they seem out of the blue, but the reality is that kids are always learning and making connections. It's just that all we get are glimpses into the workings of their unfettered minds. We could have sat at the kitchen table pouring over workbook pages, bored and likely resentful, to make the same discovery that Emily came to happily on her own. And, the point is, that because Emily figured this out herself--and didn't just have an abstract pattern drilled into her head through repetition--she understands the theory behind the math. A really important distinction.