What we did in school today (Dollygirl's Grade Seven)

We sang a hymn from the back section of The Accidental Voyage, and read the part about their yummy tofu-seaweed dinner (Abdul thinks cooking is unnatural).  Mr. Fixit sometimes joins us for opening time, but he was busy with the plumber who came bright and early to replace our bathroom taps and do something to the bathtub.

We read about the fossil record in General Science.  According to Dr. Wile, 95% of the fossils found are basically clams, and the next largest group is fish.  Doesn't leave much room for dinosaurs!

After a break (when Dollygirl finished a post for her own blog), she did ten questions from an old Gauss contest.  She got most of them right but it did show us a couple of places she needs to review.

We read from Sigurd the Volsung, how Sigurd killed the dragon/serpent/man Fafnir, and then Fafnir's brother Regin, and how Sigurd accidentally got a taste of the dragon's blood...which would not appear to be a really good thing.

The plumber left.  He said his boss told him that we are good people to do work for because our cheques don't bounce.  I suppose you could add that they like us because we give them so many things to fix...sigh.  This didn't have anything to do with the basement flood--the bathroom repairs were already set for today.

After lunch we read about King Canute, Earl Godwin, and Godwin's son Harold, who became the most powerful man in England although he was just the king's brother-in-law at the time. Seems like the king (Edward, not Canute) was a little too friendly with the Normans and that didn't win him points with his English subjects.

I tried to help Dollygirl demonstrate the story of King Canute and the Waves by letting her use her new beanbag chair as the royal seat; but when the waves came at her (me), she kind of capsized the beanbag and went over backwards.  Well, it was a diversion anyway.

Copywork.

Music history: how Bach's Prelude in C is a piece of music without a tune, but it's still well liked.  We listened to it once in its usual legato version, and then in Glenn Gould's staccato, more harpsichord-like interpretation.  I said that a piano teacher might smack your hand for playing it that way, and there are some negative comments on the You-tube version, but it's Glenn Gould, and he doesn't do things just like everyone else.  Maybe that's how Bach meant it to sound.

Last 20 minutes: a game of Hexxagon on a math website, which Dollygirl says is a lot like a game on Webkinz.  First Dollygirl beat the computer, then she beat me.

After supper will be swimming.

And that was our day.