It finally rains in Northern California

(Anyone recognize the song nod in that post title?)

Yep, rain has finally returned to our neck of the woods. It was a pretty soggy day today; heading to school to pick up Emily this afternoon, I couldn't go much faster than 45 on the interstate without seriously impeding my visibility. We had to miss our scheduled park day because of the rain as well. If next week brings a repeat of this kind of weather (which wouldn't be unheard of), we'll find a fun indoor activity: either bowling on base or free play at our gymnastics center.

Big school news in our house is that Joel is reading "short a" words now. I've been having him listen to words and write/spell them for a few weeks, but now he is transferring that to reading the words without having already heard them spoken out loud. He's pretty happy with himself. Joel is actually the first one I've taught to read without using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." I think this is mostly because he has been talking about letter sounds for quite a while, so I figured the typical phonic approach used in Sonlight's language arts program would work just as well for him.

I'm being paged to watch a movie with Brian and the kids.... for those who are interested, it's Hoot. I'll leave you with a final link for fun (I have to spread out my fun links now, to give me blog fodder for NaBloPoMo): "So is it really just a gross habit or gold worth digging for after all? Ultimately, that's a pick you'll have to make on your own." Anyone willing to test this out? Hat tip to Thumper for this one!