Knex, Legos, Ramp jumping and room cleaning

This week we went light on actual schoolwork.  Summer is wrapping up and we will have plenty of time once the neighborhood kids and Grinmaster are back in school.   Although now that I listed everything I realized that the only thing we didn't cover was our Science.  Oh and I haven't started another literature read aloud yet.  Instead we played.  A lot.  The kids are building towers, roller coasters, cars that walk across the floor with a flipping motor, and garages.  They also built a larger ramp to jump with their bikes.  I guess that learning that the smaller the bike the higher in the air they can jump is learning.  They also learned the value of gravity and that when you fall midair and hit the ground you will say ouch.  Our other project is clearing out all of their broken and useless toys.  And yes I saw Toy Story, and yes it bothered me a little bit.  I figure that was sorting and hands on classifying for G-Baby.  Broken toys in this bag, donations in that box.....yeah that is classifying.  Next up we will cover Art when we paint the playroom and make it a second family room. 
As for book learning, G-Baby began the letter M and is working hard to tell the difference between words that begin with the F, B, or M sound.  He knows what they look like and he knows what sound they make but it is a bit more complicated to then decode words and match the letter sounds up.  As for math skills he knows his numbers, can recognize them when written and is doing some very simple adding.  I am beginning to introduce the number symbols for 10-20 and he is motoring right along. 
Allboy continued with his normal subjects and there wasn't anything exciting or new learned.  I can see his writing improving as his spelling improves.  We don't have a formal writing program because he uses his imagination to create his own stories, and it is working fine so far.  He likes creative writing and is filling his journal so no complaints or concerns there. 
Grinmaster finished his book and needs to decide on a project to complete before public school begins.  Each child in 6th grade has to turn it in the first week of school.  He tackled a book that stretched him, and I am proud he stuck with it. 
Our history lesson took us to the Great Plains, where we met the Sioux last week.  This week they learned about the mighty Buffalo and all of its uses.  They built a book with the different tools, weapons, and clothing that buffalo provided the Sioux.  They also created their own Wampum's using beads and their wishes for the upcoming year.  That was fun and listed everything as serious as wishing there were no more Wars, to as silly as wanting more food to eat.  (Of course Allboy didn't really mean food.  He meant junk food).  All in all a really good week.