Here’s some of what the boys got up to today. Gareth built a city:

And both boys built dinosaurs with their magnet sets. (We have a ‘Under the Sea’ set too; I think the company that makes them is called Monkey Magnets). Some they built following a guide:

Others, they made free-hand.

Daegan made a pteranadon and an archaeopteryx:

We also played a couple rounds of the math game, 4-Way Countdown, using addition only, and one round of 4-Way Spelldown—giving Gareth a bit of help making his words.

When Jim got home, the boys were busy making dinosaur books (Gareth drawing, Daegan drawing and then copying the name of the dinosaur from a book…or inventing titles like “new mammal-like reptile”, “new stegosaur”, “primitive ornithopod” etc. Not your usual “A A a a apple ant acorn” sort of copywork, perhaps, but I’m running with it. He titled his book, “The Owners of These Bones” <g>—and  yes, I noticed he mixed up the sight words “to” and “of”.)

Daegs has been watching the National Geographic DVD Dinosaurs Unearthed about recent finds in China, so kept asking us how to spell all kinds of dinos neither Jim nor I had heard of—Guanlong, Yinlong, Junggarsuchus—beginning from some very amusing pronunciations! Thank goodness I learned long ago to ask him about the time period and type of dino (which his mind absorbs like a sponge); I never would have gotten from “E-long” (Daegan’s guess) to “Yinlong” without googling for a list of Jurassic ceratopsians! We were similarly lost on “junker-suchus.” :-)

And after dinner, Jim took both boys to the library to pick out some new things. Good man. And a good day. Or so I thought. My eldest still tells me that I am spending “a bit too much time on the computer.”