If You Teach a Boy To Read . . .

The most amazing thing happened this evening. While we were at church for boy scouts, someone was giving away their yahtzee game. We agreed to take it home with us as we are a board-game playing family. I put the game on the kitchen table and then left it unattended as Max and I talked over his day in the kitchen. When we came out of the kitchen I found Ben and Milo sitting on the floor, the contents of the box unpacked and set up (correctly) on the board. They had the card with the directions on it, and Milo was reading them aloud.

I can't imagine their attention span permitting a full round of the game, but I was tickled by their determination (and Milo's reading skills).

Max got his second report card of the year. They get three a year here. There are no letter grades, just a narrative paragraph for each subject area. He's doing fine. I was pleased.

I'm working on more socks. I have a sock and a half of sportweight yarn socks done for Ben. They're cute. I'm on the leg on a pair of worsted-weight yarn socks for Chris. I have a skein of sportweight that I need to swatch for gauge--those will be for Chris, too. I also ripped back my French Children's sock. I'm still going to make those socks, but I'll make them in a solid color yarn. In the meantime I'm on the leg of a pair of socks for me. I'd like to knit another pair for Max, but I'll wait until I've got some of the other socks finished.

I'm mostly spending every spare second working on the Orenburg Shawl. I want to have the right and left border done and have the pattern for the main body well established by the end of the month. I want to finish the entire shawl by the end of April and then pack it away in the Christmas present box with the mittens and the other scarves. But the shawl requires singular attention to the chart, so I'm working on finishing up the striped wonderful wool child's sweater and the socks during occasions when I want to be knitting, but not necessarily with so much concentration.

As soon as I get the Orenburg done? I am so totally finishing the garden shawl for me. This shawl is turning out so beautifully and I'm giving it away!! So I want one to keep :)