It is almost time for us to pack our suitcases and head over to Germany for another visit, the second one this year! I am trying really hard not to be stressed out by our travel preparations.
The children and I worked in our community garden this week, mostly weeding and looking at all the plants that are coming up, and thriving for the most part! Gardening is exciting, and hard work, for sure. I don't think we'll be here for the harvest, though, which is disappointing. However, we are becoming more and more experienced, and one day we will have a garden in our own backyard.
We gathered up all the weeds and fed them to CJ, a donkey that lives on the property. He ate some, but we still had plenty of weeds left over to put in our compost bin at home.
I've been working mostly on language arts with the children. Some reading comprehension with Annika, and learning about locational prepositions and conjunctions with Christopher. Lily is working on letter recognition and counting.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
September 30, 2007
We didn't really do much today. We mostly hang out.
One thing that is worth mentioning, however, is how Annika and I cuddled on the bed today. She had brought one of her books that she had checked out of the library at Casa Vida. It's called "Clown" by Quentin Blake. It's a picture book, and since there were no words, I asked Annika to narrate the story for me, based on the pictures. She did a fantastic job, of course, and it gave me a glimpse on how she perceives things a little differently than I do. Lilly also walked in to take part in the snuggling.
I'm getting off the 'puter for now, so I can spend a few more minutes decluttering before climbing into bed.
One thing that is worth mentioning, however, is how Annika and I cuddled on the bed today. She had brought one of her books that she had checked out of the library at Casa Vida. It's called "Clown" by Quentin Blake. It's a picture book, and since there were no words, I asked Annika to narrate the story for me, based on the pictures. She did a fantastic job, of course, and it gave me a glimpse on how she perceives things a little differently than I do. Lilly also walked in to take part in the snuggling.
I'm getting off the 'puter for now, so I can spend a few more minutes decluttering before climbing into bed.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
September 26, 2007
Okay, so it's been some time since I last blogged. What can I say but that life has been pretty busy for us.
The kids and I went on a really neat field trip this week. Our home school group met at the Imax theater at Arizona Mills Mall, and we watched "Deep Sea in 3D". Jeannine was there with her two boys, Malhar and Tejas, so we all sat together. Christopher later told his Dad that there was a lot of crunching in the movie, from the sea creatures eating other sea creatures. Yuck! :-)
Tonight both of the older kids attended choir practise. It was Christopher's first time, and he enjoyed himself thoroughly. He sings a lot at home, so I'm glad he has found an outlet for using that voice of his!
Tomorrow all three kids have their Aikido class. Yes, Lilly is now enrolled, even though she's not yet 5 years old. Sensei made an exception, and so far so good! Lilly tries hard to keep up with the rest of the class. She does get a bit silly here and there, and prefers to hop like a bunny when she's supposed to be walking. I told her she can hop like a bunny when she's off the mats, lol.
Christopher is now interested in skateboarding. Oh boy! There's a skateboard park right by Snedigar, so that's where I take him. The girls can play on the playground equipment while C works on his techniques. He's using Mike's old skateboard. It's old, and certainly not a very good one, but it's one that we have! We're thinking about getting him a new one for Christmas. We'll see.
I signed all of us up to help plant a demonstration garden for our city. We got to choose our plot of land last Saturday, and raked like mad to make these little grooves where the drip lines will go to make watering easier. The senior center also has a plot of land there, and it was so nice watching the kids interact with the seniors! They were really helpful, too, and were given jobs by the elderly people. Jeannine and her boys will take over planting the plot next to ours, that way we can spend some time together. Cool beans.
It is getting cooler here, and so we have started riding our bikes again! I bought this third-wheel-trailer thing for Lilly that attaches to my bike. That way, she can ride, but she's safely attached to me. She's not too thrilled with it, since she's very independent and would much rather ride her own bike. But that's the deal, and she knows it. In another year she may be ready to ride her own bike. We're keeping our tours rather brief for now, but plan to eventually ride longer bike paths.
As far as schooling goes, we are working hard to finish some of our projects. Christopher is researching Native Americans that lived in this area, and is reading about their customs, way of life, food, and so on. He's making some crafts to go along with this also.
Annika has finished her Fairy Tales book, and filled an entire notebook with her writing. She is now using journal prompts for everyday entries. She keeps them short.
Lilly is learning to write her name, and I must say I'm impressed! She was taught by her sister, of course.
Well, I'm off. I'm rather tired, and still have some other writing to get done tonight.
The kids and I went on a really neat field trip this week. Our home school group met at the Imax theater at Arizona Mills Mall, and we watched "Deep Sea in 3D". Jeannine was there with her two boys, Malhar and Tejas, so we all sat together. Christopher later told his Dad that there was a lot of crunching in the movie, from the sea creatures eating other sea creatures. Yuck! :-)
Tonight both of the older kids attended choir practise. It was Christopher's first time, and he enjoyed himself thoroughly. He sings a lot at home, so I'm glad he has found an outlet for using that voice of his!
Tomorrow all three kids have their Aikido class. Yes, Lilly is now enrolled, even though she's not yet 5 years old. Sensei made an exception, and so far so good! Lilly tries hard to keep up with the rest of the class. She does get a bit silly here and there, and prefers to hop like a bunny when she's supposed to be walking. I told her she can hop like a bunny when she's off the mats, lol.
Christopher is now interested in skateboarding. Oh boy! There's a skateboard park right by Snedigar, so that's where I take him. The girls can play on the playground equipment while C works on his techniques. He's using Mike's old skateboard. It's old, and certainly not a very good one, but it's one that we have! We're thinking about getting him a new one for Christmas. We'll see.
I signed all of us up to help plant a demonstration garden for our city. We got to choose our plot of land last Saturday, and raked like mad to make these little grooves where the drip lines will go to make watering easier. The senior center also has a plot of land there, and it was so nice watching the kids interact with the seniors! They were really helpful, too, and were given jobs by the elderly people. Jeannine and her boys will take over planting the plot next to ours, that way we can spend some time together. Cool beans.
It is getting cooler here, and so we have started riding our bikes again! I bought this third-wheel-trailer thing for Lilly that attaches to my bike. That way, she can ride, but she's safely attached to me. She's not too thrilled with it, since she's very independent and would much rather ride her own bike. But that's the deal, and she knows it. In another year she may be ready to ride her own bike. We're keeping our tours rather brief for now, but plan to eventually ride longer bike paths.
As far as schooling goes, we are working hard to finish some of our projects. Christopher is researching Native Americans that lived in this area, and is reading about their customs, way of life, food, and so on. He's making some crafts to go along with this also.
Annika has finished her Fairy Tales book, and filled an entire notebook with her writing. She is now using journal prompts for everyday entries. She keeps them short.
Lilly is learning to write her name, and I must say I'm impressed! She was taught by her sister, of course.
Well, I'm off. I'm rather tired, and still have some other writing to get done tonight.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
June 15th, 2007
Today is a rather pleasant day, although it is still very humid. At the same time, it's a bit cooler than the weather has been lately.
The children have already had their riding lessons today, and both are improving. They even learned how to make Sugar jog today, and I could tell they were having a lot of fun with it. Susanne keeps working on balance exercises with them, and also works on improving their coordination. I always bring a book to read, but I never get to actually read, since Susanne's english is not very good, and so I have to translate quiet a bit. After the riding lessons, Christopher proudly showed off his latest bionicle creation to Susanne, and Annika told her (IN GERMAN!) about how her uncle Eric comes to visit us in Gaggenau every weekend with his girlfriend. Her grammar was not exactly correct, but this is okay. I'm thrilled with any efforts the kids make when speaking german.
A couple of days ago, on wednesday, I drove to the children to the city "Kaufhaus" (department store). They were all eager to spend their pocket money, so we spent most of our time there in the children's department. Christopher is never able to afford much, since he spends his pocket money almost right after he gets it from his Omi. He bought a small Lego set that looks like a helicopter. I think it has options and you can build it in a few different ways. Annika had the most money to spend, and bought a "paint-by-numbers" set for herself. Lily, oddly enough, fell in love with an old-fashioned children's broom that she just had to have. It cost slightly more than the €4 she had saved up, so I discreetly snuck in another euro into the plastic container she uses to keep her pocket money in, and all was well.
Christopher has been doing rather well with his lessons, and has been keeping up with his daily journal. He never writes much, but I see him making more of an effort and I'm pleased to see that. I was very impressed yesterday when he spent some time on the internet researching local (AZ) wildlife for his social studies. He drew pictures of mammals, reptiles, fish, etc. and also labeled them all. I liked how he signed each of his drawings with "by Christopher", lol.
Annika has been working on math, mostly, and she's also improving. I'm letting her have a small bowl filled with red kidney beans to help her figure out more complicated addition and subtraction problems, since we don't have our math manipulatives with us here.
Rassa is here today, to clean. I'm waiting for her to leave before I start on today's lessons. I suppose I prefer teaching when it's really just us here.
The children have already had their riding lessons today, and both are improving. They even learned how to make Sugar jog today, and I could tell they were having a lot of fun with it. Susanne keeps working on balance exercises with them, and also works on improving their coordination. I always bring a book to read, but I never get to actually read, since Susanne's english is not very good, and so I have to translate quiet a bit. After the riding lessons, Christopher proudly showed off his latest bionicle creation to Susanne, and Annika told her (IN GERMAN!) about how her uncle Eric comes to visit us in Gaggenau every weekend with his girlfriend. Her grammar was not exactly correct, but this is okay. I'm thrilled with any efforts the kids make when speaking german.
A couple of days ago, on wednesday, I drove to the children to the city "Kaufhaus" (department store). They were all eager to spend their pocket money, so we spent most of our time there in the children's department. Christopher is never able to afford much, since he spends his pocket money almost right after he gets it from his Omi. He bought a small Lego set that looks like a helicopter. I think it has options and you can build it in a few different ways. Annika had the most money to spend, and bought a "paint-by-numbers" set for herself. Lily, oddly enough, fell in love with an old-fashioned children's broom that she just had to have. It cost slightly more than the €4 she had saved up, so I discreetly snuck in another euro into the plastic container she uses to keep her pocket money in, and all was well.
Christopher has been doing rather well with his lessons, and has been keeping up with his daily journal. He never writes much, but I see him making more of an effort and I'm pleased to see that. I was very impressed yesterday when he spent some time on the internet researching local (AZ) wildlife for his social studies. He drew pictures of mammals, reptiles, fish, etc. and also labeled them all. I liked how he signed each of his drawings with "by Christopher", lol.
Annika has been working on math, mostly, and she's also improving. I'm letting her have a small bowl filled with red kidney beans to help her figure out more complicated addition and subtraction problems, since we don't have our math manipulatives with us here.
Rassa is here today, to clean. I'm waiting for her to leave before I start on today's lessons. I suppose I prefer teaching when it's really just us here.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
June 7th, 2007
Hah! I did it! This would be my second post this month! Excellent.....
The children's first riding lesson went really well yesterday. Their teacher, Susanne, was able to speak with them in english, so there really wasn't a language barrier. Their german is getting better every day, but it's not enoough to get by just yet. The horse they rode on is named Sugar, in english even!
Lillian complained because she didn't get to ride, but she's really too little. My mother and I sat in lawn chairs and watched and talked idly. I think I will drive the children there in the future by myself, and bring a book to read. We've decided on lessons every tuesday and every friday. It will be great, I think, and I'm really excited the children have this opportunity.
After the riding lesson, my mother took the children swimming. I stayed with my father, to run errands with him. I thought they'd be quick, but they weren't and we were gone at least a couple of hours.
This morning we got up early to drive to Frankfurt. My father left for India today, and he wanted to be at the airport nice and early. We dropped him off there, and also met my brother there. We then drove to my grandmother's home in Sindlingen, which is very close to the airport, and visited with her for several hours. Eric came, as well, and so did my cousin Yvonne and her 1-year old daughte, Zoe, and her dog, Nellie. We had a good time. Then Eric drove himself to his work, and Yvonne left with her daughter. We (that is, my mother, my children, and myself) decided to take my grandmother out to lunch. We were all hungry, but the restaurant my cousin had recommended to us was rather crappy, and we didn't eat well at all. So we went to an ice-cream parlor after the crappy restaurant and ate some really good ice-cream. The kids were pretty cranky themselves and fighting a lot, and I couldn't wait to get back "home" to Gaggenau. So we dropped off my grandmother, and drove the 1.5 hours to G.
It is beginning to get really hot in Germany, and I'm missing the standard air conditioning we have in Arizona.
We have no plans for tomorrow yet. I'd like to rest and work on my LLL stuff, but who knows if I'll have the chance.
The children's first riding lesson went really well yesterday. Their teacher, Susanne, was able to speak with them in english, so there really wasn't a language barrier. Their german is getting better every day, but it's not enoough to get by just yet. The horse they rode on is named Sugar, in english even!
Lillian complained because she didn't get to ride, but she's really too little. My mother and I sat in lawn chairs and watched and talked idly. I think I will drive the children there in the future by myself, and bring a book to read. We've decided on lessons every tuesday and every friday. It will be great, I think, and I'm really excited the children have this opportunity.
After the riding lesson, my mother took the children swimming. I stayed with my father, to run errands with him. I thought they'd be quick, but they weren't and we were gone at least a couple of hours.
This morning we got up early to drive to Frankfurt. My father left for India today, and he wanted to be at the airport nice and early. We dropped him off there, and also met my brother there. We then drove to my grandmother's home in Sindlingen, which is very close to the airport, and visited with her for several hours. Eric came, as well, and so did my cousin Yvonne and her 1-year old daughte, Zoe, and her dog, Nellie. We had a good time. Then Eric drove himself to his work, and Yvonne left with her daughter. We (that is, my mother, my children, and myself) decided to take my grandmother out to lunch. We were all hungry, but the restaurant my cousin had recommended to us was rather crappy, and we didn't eat well at all. So we went to an ice-cream parlor after the crappy restaurant and ate some really good ice-cream. The kids were pretty cranky themselves and fighting a lot, and I couldn't wait to get back "home" to Gaggenau. So we dropped off my grandmother, and drove the 1.5 hours to G.
It is beginning to get really hot in Germany, and I'm missing the standard air conditioning we have in Arizona.
We have no plans for tomorrow yet. I'd like to rest and work on my LLL stuff, but who knows if I'll have the chance.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
June 5th, 2007
I am going to try to blog more than just once a month. There is so much happening in our lives that it shouldn't be very difficult to post more.
Today we decided to drive deeper into the black forest in order to check out this giant slide in a place called Poppeltal, just past Enzklösterle. I purchased a guide for doing outdoor activities with children in the black forest region, and it's really coming in handy. It's called "Mit Kindern Unterwegs - Im Nordschwarzwald" by Birgit Blessing. The drive to Poppeltal was, in itself, an adventure. The road wound its way through densely wooded hills, and everything is so green and wildflowers are blooming. We also passed through a few tiny, quaint villages that looked amazingly beautiful. Many of the houses were built in the traditional black forest style. It took us about a half hour to get to Poppeltal. The place wasn't very busy, judging from the near-empty parking place. Perfect for us! We walked a short way up to where the slide began. After we purchased the tickets, we grabbed our seats. They were rather heavy and we had to carry them to the machine that would take us up. Christopher was not able to carry his own, so that part was inconvenient. Children under age 8 are not allowed to ride by themselves, so my mother shared her seat with Annika, and I shared mine with Lily. The machine that took us up was like a ski lift. Our slide was on these tracks, and then a guy who works there hooked us up to a cable, and that cable dragged us up the hill. Here is a link: www.riesenrutschbahn.de . I got a bit nervous as we were being dragged up, because it was really steep at times, and Lily worried she might fall off. I assured her that I wouldn't let that happen, but really, I shared the same concerns!!!! By the time we got all the way up, we had to get off the tracks and move our seat over a few feet to another track that would take us all the way back down again. Again, there was a guy there whose job it was to supervise to make sure we made the switch easily. There was also a stick in the middle of the seat, and if you push it forward, you go faster, and if you press it back, it acts like a break. I was pretty nervous going back down also, especially during the curves. I knew I'd be embarrassed beyond belief if I fell off the darn thing and had to tumble down the steep hill by myself, so I hung on for dear life and tried to work with gravity as much as possible. I also knew that Lily enjoys fast rides, so I frequently let go of the break and we felt the wind in our hair and Lily screamed with joy. Again, the view of the mountains surrounding us was stunning! If I hadn't had my 4-year old child with me, I would have been tempted to film my ride down with my video camera. When we came down, we decided to do the ride one more time, and we did.
Afterwards, we spent some more time going through the very small amusement park. The kids went on a few rides, but they were nothing special. One noteworthy ride were a couple of giant rubber ducks in a very shallow, man-made pond. For €2 a ride, the children could steer their ducks on this small pond, and they all had a good time. Except you're supposed to steer the duck-boat towards the anchors when you hear the signal, or you risk losing power to your boat when you're still in the middle of the pond. Well, that happened to Christopher, since his duck-boat didn't give the signal! The poor boy was stuck in the middle of the pond, and we had to reassure him that he would not be left there. We saw one of those poles that you can use to drag small boats back, so I grabbed it, hooked it onto C's duck, and dragged him back to the edge of the pond where we anchored it.
After all this we decided to head back home. It had started to drizzle again, and it just seemed like a good time to go. When we were in the car, Annika asked when it would be time for us to have our "middle day eating time". She must have temporarily forgotten the word "lunch", lol. We hadn't gone far yet, so my mother pulled over to this small Inn in Enzklösterle because it looked so warm and inviting. We went in, and ate our meals. We are now home, and the children are watching TV downstairs. My mother has left to spend her evening with a group of friends she has. My father has also gone out with a couple of colleagues. He is leaving for India in a couple of days, and will be living in Mumbai for another month, before returning back to Germany. Who knows where he will be after that, lol.
My father took the children and myself to Baden Baden yesterday for some ice cream. It was really nice, since the weather was perfect and there's just nothing like sitting in an old-fashioned, European Cafe for some ice cream. Or coffee. Doesn't really matter. :-)
My mother has been looking for a farm that offers riding lessons, and she finally found one yesterday. That is, we all got into the car (except for my father, of course), and prepared to drive to a couple of different farms. We ended up really liking the first one we drove to, in Michelbach. Even though they were technically closed, they let us walk around their property and let the children pet their horses, and gave us information about their riding classes. We set up Christopher's and Annika's first class for tomorrow! They are very excited. They will learn how to care for a horse properly first, like some basic cleaning and grooming skills. They will ride towards the end of their lessons. Since we're not really sure yet if the children will enjoy riding, we're careful about our commitment to the riding courses, and are not sure yet how often they will ride. If it turns out that they like it, we will sign up for additional lessons. My father joked how we live in the "wild west" but the children learn how to ride in Europe. I suppose that it is a little ironic, but you can hardly call Arizona the Wild West anymore, lol.
We played some table tennis over the weekend right here in Gaggenau with my brother and Kati and my father in tow. There's a small playground nearby that has a table, and we brought the paddles and tabletennis balls from home. This time it was my mother who stayed home. We had a blast, and I think it would be fun to try and find a used tabletennis table when we're back in the US. I'm not sure I want to spend the money on a new one. We had cake and coffee when we came back home.
It is now time for the children to take their bath. I'm sure they're feeling a bit dirty after all their playing and time spent outdoors. I would very much like for them to go to bed early, so that I can have an evening to myself for once.
Today we decided to drive deeper into the black forest in order to check out this giant slide in a place called Poppeltal, just past Enzklösterle. I purchased a guide for doing outdoor activities with children in the black forest region, and it's really coming in handy. It's called "Mit Kindern Unterwegs - Im Nordschwarzwald" by Birgit Blessing. The drive to Poppeltal was, in itself, an adventure. The road wound its way through densely wooded hills, and everything is so green and wildflowers are blooming. We also passed through a few tiny, quaint villages that looked amazingly beautiful. Many of the houses were built in the traditional black forest style. It took us about a half hour to get to Poppeltal. The place wasn't very busy, judging from the near-empty parking place. Perfect for us! We walked a short way up to where the slide began. After we purchased the tickets, we grabbed our seats. They were rather heavy and we had to carry them to the machine that would take us up. Christopher was not able to carry his own, so that part was inconvenient. Children under age 8 are not allowed to ride by themselves, so my mother shared her seat with Annika, and I shared mine with Lily. The machine that took us up was like a ski lift. Our slide was on these tracks, and then a guy who works there hooked us up to a cable, and that cable dragged us up the hill. Here is a link: www.riesenrutschbahn.de . I got a bit nervous as we were being dragged up, because it was really steep at times, and Lily worried she might fall off. I assured her that I wouldn't let that happen, but really, I shared the same concerns!!!! By the time we got all the way up, we had to get off the tracks and move our seat over a few feet to another track that would take us all the way back down again. Again, there was a guy there whose job it was to supervise to make sure we made the switch easily. There was also a stick in the middle of the seat, and if you push it forward, you go faster, and if you press it back, it acts like a break. I was pretty nervous going back down also, especially during the curves. I knew I'd be embarrassed beyond belief if I fell off the darn thing and had to tumble down the steep hill by myself, so I hung on for dear life and tried to work with gravity as much as possible. I also knew that Lily enjoys fast rides, so I frequently let go of the break and we felt the wind in our hair and Lily screamed with joy. Again, the view of the mountains surrounding us was stunning! If I hadn't had my 4-year old child with me, I would have been tempted to film my ride down with my video camera. When we came down, we decided to do the ride one more time, and we did.
Afterwards, we spent some more time going through the very small amusement park. The kids went on a few rides, but they were nothing special. One noteworthy ride were a couple of giant rubber ducks in a very shallow, man-made pond. For €2 a ride, the children could steer their ducks on this small pond, and they all had a good time. Except you're supposed to steer the duck-boat towards the anchors when you hear the signal, or you risk losing power to your boat when you're still in the middle of the pond. Well, that happened to Christopher, since his duck-boat didn't give the signal! The poor boy was stuck in the middle of the pond, and we had to reassure him that he would not be left there. We saw one of those poles that you can use to drag small boats back, so I grabbed it, hooked it onto C's duck, and dragged him back to the edge of the pond where we anchored it.
After all this we decided to head back home. It had started to drizzle again, and it just seemed like a good time to go. When we were in the car, Annika asked when it would be time for us to have our "middle day eating time". She must have temporarily forgotten the word "lunch", lol. We hadn't gone far yet, so my mother pulled over to this small Inn in Enzklösterle because it looked so warm and inviting. We went in, and ate our meals. We are now home, and the children are watching TV downstairs. My mother has left to spend her evening with a group of friends she has. My father has also gone out with a couple of colleagues. He is leaving for India in a couple of days, and will be living in Mumbai for another month, before returning back to Germany. Who knows where he will be after that, lol.
My father took the children and myself to Baden Baden yesterday for some ice cream. It was really nice, since the weather was perfect and there's just nothing like sitting in an old-fashioned, European Cafe for some ice cream. Or coffee. Doesn't really matter. :-)
My mother has been looking for a farm that offers riding lessons, and she finally found one yesterday. That is, we all got into the car (except for my father, of course), and prepared to drive to a couple of different farms. We ended up really liking the first one we drove to, in Michelbach. Even though they were technically closed, they let us walk around their property and let the children pet their horses, and gave us information about their riding classes. We set up Christopher's and Annika's first class for tomorrow! They are very excited. They will learn how to care for a horse properly first, like some basic cleaning and grooming skills. They will ride towards the end of their lessons. Since we're not really sure yet if the children will enjoy riding, we're careful about our commitment to the riding courses, and are not sure yet how often they will ride. If it turns out that they like it, we will sign up for additional lessons. My father joked how we live in the "wild west" but the children learn how to ride in Europe. I suppose that it is a little ironic, but you can hardly call Arizona the Wild West anymore, lol.
We played some table tennis over the weekend right here in Gaggenau with my brother and Kati and my father in tow. There's a small playground nearby that has a table, and we brought the paddles and tabletennis balls from home. This time it was my mother who stayed home. We had a blast, and I think it would be fun to try and find a used tabletennis table when we're back in the US. I'm not sure I want to spend the money on a new one. We had cake and coffee when we came back home.
It is now time for the children to take their bath. I'm sure they're feeling a bit dirty after all their playing and time spent outdoors. I would very much like for them to go to bed early, so that I can have an evening to myself for once.
Friday, May 18, 2007
May 18, 2007
The children and I left Arizona on May 1st and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, the following day. Unfortunately, we arrived without our luggage (6 suitcases and a car seat), which was a huge hassle at the airport. It was delivered to my mother's village the next day, which was a big relief.
We are continuing to homeschool, as I brought most of our books with us.
Naturally, it would be ridiculous of us to spend a lot of time cooped up inside, poring over books. We go out on most days. A coupe of days ago we drove to an old castle (Eberstein) that was situated up on top of a hill. It's been raining a lot since we arrived, but we determined to hike the trails around the castle anyway. We only hiked 2 km of it, since Christopher complained heavily about his legs hurting him. ;-) The constant drizzle might have been a nuisance to most people, but I found it refreshing! Everything is much greener here in Germany, so utterly different from our desert climate in Arizona. We stopped frequently to take closer looks at different trees and shrubs, and also to look at wildflowers, spider webs with rain drops glinting in them, fallen tree stumps, moss, etc..
The following day, which was yesterday, we wanted to visit another castle, that supposedly had fun activities planned for children. My mother typed the address into her global navigation system (GPS) in her car, but it led us to Heidelberg instead. Ugh! No worries. We decided to make the best of the situation and have coffee and cake in a small city Cafe. Afterwards, my mother drove us to an airpark, where they fly motorless planes. I'm not sure what they're called in english. "Seegelflugzeug" in german, though. None of the planes were in the air, probably because of the bad weather. We walked along the meadows surrounding the airpark, and even saw a young deer bounding through the tall grasses. But then it started to rain yet again, and we walked back to the car. By the time we got to it, Lillian was soaked to the bone. She had her rubber boots on, and decided to jump into each and every puddle. Hence the soaking, lol. There aren't many puddles in Arizona, so I let her have at it. Christopher jumped in a few of them himself, and got mud on his clothes, too. Annika preferred to avoid the puddles.
Yesterday was father's day in Germany, and I learned that fathers traditionally go on picnics with other fathers that includes a lot of beer! They put their beer in a wagon ("Bollerwagen") and then pull it along as they make their way to wherever they're having their picnic. I never really knew about this tradition, even though I am German myself. My father has never done this, though, and we usually lived in other countries anyway.
I dedicated a lot of time today to homeschooling. I want to finish up this week's lessons, so that we don't have to worry about it on the weekend. My brother, Eric, and his girlfriend, Kati, usually spend their weekends here in Gaggenau with us. They live in Frankfurt, which is about 2 hours north of us.
Annika learned how to estimate this week by rounding numbers either up or down. Christopher is still working on the times tables and we also touched on division. Both children learned about odd and even numbers. Annika still struggles with writing inequalities, but I've noticed an improvement.
Christopher reviewed nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs this week for his grammar lessons.
He's not really reading anything, but will start reading in his book "Indian Legends" soon. He does read on his own time, though. He currently has an infatuation with books on bionicles.
We worked on other things, too, but I'm too tired to write it all down.
Early on in the evening, when my mother was taking her pilates class, my father took me and the kids to Baden Baden for a walk through the city's center. It was nice, and didn't take long. Ordinarily we would have stopped for ice cream somewhere, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with the inevitable sticky faces. Plus, Christopher has been fairly grumpy today.
It is almost time for dinner, and so I'm going to take some time now to go and freshen up. :-)
We are continuing to homeschool, as I brought most of our books with us.
Naturally, it would be ridiculous of us to spend a lot of time cooped up inside, poring over books. We go out on most days. A coupe of days ago we drove to an old castle (Eberstein) that was situated up on top of a hill. It's been raining a lot since we arrived, but we determined to hike the trails around the castle anyway. We only hiked 2 km of it, since Christopher complained heavily about his legs hurting him. ;-) The constant drizzle might have been a nuisance to most people, but I found it refreshing! Everything is much greener here in Germany, so utterly different from our desert climate in Arizona. We stopped frequently to take closer looks at different trees and shrubs, and also to look at wildflowers, spider webs with rain drops glinting in them, fallen tree stumps, moss, etc..
The following day, which was yesterday, we wanted to visit another castle, that supposedly had fun activities planned for children. My mother typed the address into her global navigation system (GPS) in her car, but it led us to Heidelberg instead. Ugh! No worries. We decided to make the best of the situation and have coffee and cake in a small city Cafe. Afterwards, my mother drove us to an airpark, where they fly motorless planes. I'm not sure what they're called in english. "Seegelflugzeug" in german, though. None of the planes were in the air, probably because of the bad weather. We walked along the meadows surrounding the airpark, and even saw a young deer bounding through the tall grasses. But then it started to rain yet again, and we walked back to the car. By the time we got to it, Lillian was soaked to the bone. She had her rubber boots on, and decided to jump into each and every puddle. Hence the soaking, lol. There aren't many puddles in Arizona, so I let her have at it. Christopher jumped in a few of them himself, and got mud on his clothes, too. Annika preferred to avoid the puddles.
Yesterday was father's day in Germany, and I learned that fathers traditionally go on picnics with other fathers that includes a lot of beer! They put their beer in a wagon ("Bollerwagen") and then pull it along as they make their way to wherever they're having their picnic. I never really knew about this tradition, even though I am German myself. My father has never done this, though, and we usually lived in other countries anyway.
I dedicated a lot of time today to homeschooling. I want to finish up this week's lessons, so that we don't have to worry about it on the weekend. My brother, Eric, and his girlfriend, Kati, usually spend their weekends here in Gaggenau with us. They live in Frankfurt, which is about 2 hours north of us.
Annika learned how to estimate this week by rounding numbers either up or down. Christopher is still working on the times tables and we also touched on division. Both children learned about odd and even numbers. Annika still struggles with writing inequalities, but I've noticed an improvement.
Christopher reviewed nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs this week for his grammar lessons.
He's not really reading anything, but will start reading in his book "Indian Legends" soon. He does read on his own time, though. He currently has an infatuation with books on bionicles.
We worked on other things, too, but I'm too tired to write it all down.
Early on in the evening, when my mother was taking her pilates class, my father took me and the kids to Baden Baden for a walk through the city's center. It was nice, and didn't take long. Ordinarily we would have stopped for ice cream somewhere, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with the inevitable sticky faces. Plus, Christopher has been fairly grumpy today.
It is almost time for dinner, and so I'm going to take some time now to go and freshen up. :-)
Friday, April 20, 2007
April 20, 2007
Last night I took my children to the Mesa Southwest Museum to listen to a children's author speak. I'd never heard of her before, her name is Cynthia Kadohata and two of her books are named "Weedflower" and "Kira-kira". I thought she was very interesting, even though I had no clue what she was referring to from her books. Maybe one day I'll find the time to read them. She also spoke a little of her writing process, how she needed to research her books, and write many rough drafts. My children were invited to do some paper crafts in the back of the room after the author was finished with her speech. Annika and Lily made flowers out of delicate tissue paper and Christopher and Annika made whales out of regular paper.
As we were walking back to the car, I talked to my children about the process of writing. Christopher had understood the part about doing research, and we talked about how this research allows the author to make her stories seem more credible. Then I talked about how some authors may write an outline before moving on to the rough draft. I asked Christopher if he knew what a rough draft is. He said that a rough draft is written with a pencil held too tightly so that the color is very strong and dark and the writing makes dents in the paper, like he does when he's angry and doing his math problems!!! Lol. He thought such drafts are roughly written in the physical sense! What a hoot. It is such a pleasure for me to see the world through his eyes. He's wonderful.
The older kids spent today at Casa Vida again. Mrs. Oaks, Christopher's teacher, has taken some time off. She has uterine cancer, and will be out of commission for a while. I sincerely hope that she will recover from this. She's a wonderful teacher, and I like her style of lightly patting each child on the shoulder or back and speaking a few personal words to each child when they line up to follow her to class. She also has a very kind face.
Mike is still in Las Vegas, and we don't think we'll be spending much time with him this weekend due to "pre-inventory" at work, or something like it.
I plan on getting some more homeschooling done tomorrow. I will take the children to Michaels in the morning for their craft time. Lily calls the store "Mrs. C's house". We don't know why, since the craft lady is known by everyone as Miss Mindy. Her last name doesn't start with a C, either.
If I'm in the mood, I will take the kids to a gymnastics class at Fitness Forum. I've been tired and having to get up early every morning, and would like to get some rest, too. We'll see.
As we were walking back to the car, I talked to my children about the process of writing. Christopher had understood the part about doing research, and we talked about how this research allows the author to make her stories seem more credible. Then I talked about how some authors may write an outline before moving on to the rough draft. I asked Christopher if he knew what a rough draft is. He said that a rough draft is written with a pencil held too tightly so that the color is very strong and dark and the writing makes dents in the paper, like he does when he's angry and doing his math problems!!! Lol. He thought such drafts are roughly written in the physical sense! What a hoot. It is such a pleasure for me to see the world through his eyes. He's wonderful.
The older kids spent today at Casa Vida again. Mrs. Oaks, Christopher's teacher, has taken some time off. She has uterine cancer, and will be out of commission for a while. I sincerely hope that she will recover from this. She's a wonderful teacher, and I like her style of lightly patting each child on the shoulder or back and speaking a few personal words to each child when they line up to follow her to class. She also has a very kind face.
Mike is still in Las Vegas, and we don't think we'll be spending much time with him this weekend due to "pre-inventory" at work, or something like it.
I plan on getting some more homeschooling done tomorrow. I will take the children to Michaels in the morning for their craft time. Lily calls the store "Mrs. C's house". We don't know why, since the craft lady is known by everyone as Miss Mindy. Her last name doesn't start with a C, either.
If I'm in the mood, I will take the kids to a gymnastics class at Fitness Forum. I've been tired and having to get up early every morning, and would like to get some rest, too. We'll see.
Friday, March 30, 2007
March 30, 2007
It's certainly been a while since I last blogged. What can I say, life is pretty busy. :-)
Annika finished the alpha course for her Math-U-See program earlier this week. She was so proud of herself, and I immediately got online to order the books for the beta course. They arrived yesterday, and Annika was very happy about that. She decided to get busy doing some math right then and there, even though she was nervous about doing more difficult math. She doesn't trust herself to be able to know the material, and so I told her not to worry, that I would help her if she got stuck. The first pages tend to be mostly review work, so she was pleasantly surprised that they were easy for her! She did really well.
Also yesterday was the children's Aikido class, and Annika found out that she has been invited to test for the orange belt! Her teacher feels that she is ready now, and so I will be paying extra attention in class to the moves that are being practised. Her original testing date was set for mid-May, but I let the teacher know that we'd already be in Germany by then. So she moved her testing date up to late April, and Annika will have to practise hard for that test. I'm hoping Christopher will be able to help her with the moves.
Last Saturday I took the children to the Mesa Southwest Museum. They had an event there for children about mammoths. The kids did mammoth-themed crafts, and were generally very happy with the visit. We always like going to the Southwest Museum, especially panning for gold (technically "fool's gold"). The kids all got wet.
My car broke down yesterday when we were on our way to Christopher's chess class. The serpentine belt fell off, and I lost my power steering. I was able to wrestle the car into a parking lot, and sat down to lunch at NYPD Pizza while waiting for Mike to come to our rescue. He did, and spent most of the rest of the day making sure the car got fixed. It's fixed now, mostly. It's still leaking in some places, but those are slow leaks, and we're not that worried about them right now.
It is surprisingly cold today, and I'm tempted to turn on the heater. Maybe I will later tonight. It seems a bit odd, especially after we've already had some rather hot days.
Christopher and Annika are attending their weekly home school program, Casa Vida, today. Lily and I stayed a bit later than usual at the school so she could play on the playground for a bit. There was another Mom there, with 4 more kids around Lillian's age (not all of them her own, of course), and we had a nice time talking to each other. I'd seen her around many times, just never had an actual conversation with her that lasted longer than 30 seconds. I forgot to ask her name. But I know the names of her children.
Lillian found a marble in the sand, and was very impressed with it. She called it her "diamond", lol. She enjoyed alternately throwing it and burying it in the sand, then digging it back up, and ultimately lost it. She says she'd like to go back to the playground to search for her "diamond" again. Funny kid.
Annika and I collect some seeds off of my friend's Desert Willow earlier this week. We are still studying plants, and are thinking about trying to make the seeds grow. I attempted to call the plant hotline for the Desert Botanical Garden, but was unable to get through to an actual person. It was disappointing, since I was hoping to get some planting tips for the seeds. Oh well, I think I'll just try and wing it, and see what happens. I don't have much hope of actually growing a Desert Willow from seed, but it can't hurt to try. I will use cheap materials we already have from home. I read somewhere that you can make your own biodegradable seed pots by using toilet paper rolls, and shoving crumpled up newspaper at the bottom. I will fill those up with soil from our yard, and put one or two tree seeds in, and will just see what happens. It would be so exciting to actually start a tree ourselves!
My friend has invited us to come back to her house so Annika can make a sketch of the tree, and maybe we'll collect even more seeds. Wouldn't that be fun?? We love our nature studies.
Well, I must go. I'd like to spend a little more time on the computer doing actual work before driving back into Ahwatukee to pick up the kids.
Annika finished the alpha course for her Math-U-See program earlier this week. She was so proud of herself, and I immediately got online to order the books for the beta course. They arrived yesterday, and Annika was very happy about that. She decided to get busy doing some math right then and there, even though she was nervous about doing more difficult math. She doesn't trust herself to be able to know the material, and so I told her not to worry, that I would help her if she got stuck. The first pages tend to be mostly review work, so she was pleasantly surprised that they were easy for her! She did really well.
Also yesterday was the children's Aikido class, and Annika found out that she has been invited to test for the orange belt! Her teacher feels that she is ready now, and so I will be paying extra attention in class to the moves that are being practised. Her original testing date was set for mid-May, but I let the teacher know that we'd already be in Germany by then. So she moved her testing date up to late April, and Annika will have to practise hard for that test. I'm hoping Christopher will be able to help her with the moves.
Last Saturday I took the children to the Mesa Southwest Museum. They had an event there for children about mammoths. The kids did mammoth-themed crafts, and were generally very happy with the visit. We always like going to the Southwest Museum, especially panning for gold (technically "fool's gold"). The kids all got wet.
My car broke down yesterday when we were on our way to Christopher's chess class. The serpentine belt fell off, and I lost my power steering. I was able to wrestle the car into a parking lot, and sat down to lunch at NYPD Pizza while waiting for Mike to come to our rescue. He did, and spent most of the rest of the day making sure the car got fixed. It's fixed now, mostly. It's still leaking in some places, but those are slow leaks, and we're not that worried about them right now.
It is surprisingly cold today, and I'm tempted to turn on the heater. Maybe I will later tonight. It seems a bit odd, especially after we've already had some rather hot days.
Christopher and Annika are attending their weekly home school program, Casa Vida, today. Lily and I stayed a bit later than usual at the school so she could play on the playground for a bit. There was another Mom there, with 4 more kids around Lillian's age (not all of them her own, of course), and we had a nice time talking to each other. I'd seen her around many times, just never had an actual conversation with her that lasted longer than 30 seconds. I forgot to ask her name. But I know the names of her children.
Lillian found a marble in the sand, and was very impressed with it. She called it her "diamond", lol. She enjoyed alternately throwing it and burying it in the sand, then digging it back up, and ultimately lost it. She says she'd like to go back to the playground to search for her "diamond" again. Funny kid.
Annika and I collect some seeds off of my friend's Desert Willow earlier this week. We are still studying plants, and are thinking about trying to make the seeds grow. I attempted to call the plant hotline for the Desert Botanical Garden, but was unable to get through to an actual person. It was disappointing, since I was hoping to get some planting tips for the seeds. Oh well, I think I'll just try and wing it, and see what happens. I don't have much hope of actually growing a Desert Willow from seed, but it can't hurt to try. I will use cheap materials we already have from home. I read somewhere that you can make your own biodegradable seed pots by using toilet paper rolls, and shoving crumpled up newspaper at the bottom. I will fill those up with soil from our yard, and put one or two tree seeds in, and will just see what happens. It would be so exciting to actually start a tree ourselves!
My friend has invited us to come back to her house so Annika can make a sketch of the tree, and maybe we'll collect even more seeds. Wouldn't that be fun?? We love our nature studies.
Well, I must go. I'd like to spend a little more time on the computer doing actual work before driving back into Ahwatukee to pick up the kids.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
February 13, 2007
We've had a lot of excitement recently. All good, of course. Lillian celebrated her 4th birthday on Saturday, Feb. 10th. We decided to have a small party for her at Michaels, the craft store. Miss Mindy organized it, and all I had to do was bake a cake, provide drinks, and paper plates, napkins, and that kind of stuff. We had 10 children there, including my own 3. Darshani's daughters came, Rebeckah's sons were there, and Tiffany's 3 older sons were also there. The kids made their own mosaic frames. Unfortunately, we had some digital camera issues, and I had to send Mike out for a disposable camera in the middle of the party. He missed the actual crafting time, and the cake-eating time. He came back when Lily opened her first present, and took some pictures then.
After Michaels, we met my in-laws at home and drove to Chuparosa Park for a birthday picnic. The kids had a really good time. :-)
Yesterday was hs park day. We again went to Chuparosa Park, and met with some other homeschooling families. Jeannine Markandeya was there with her two boys, Malhar and Tejas. I really enjoy talking to Jeannine, she's a fun woman.
Darshani also came, and we had a pretty good time.
I should work on making a sign for our hs group, though, to make it easy for us to be recognized. There are always some new faces in Summit View.
I didn't feel very good this morning when I woke up. It really put a damper on my day, and I let the kids watch too much TV while I was trying to get myself feeling better again. I did, however, manage to drive to the allergy clinic for some shots. I want to get them twice weekly, in order to speed things up a bit. The last time I had a terrible reaction that kept my injection sites swollen and itchy for days. But today was no big deal. I'm not sure why, but I'll let the "allergy people" know, lol.
We didn't start homeschooling until later this afternoon, and obviously didn't get very much done. C and A both were able to finish their math work, though. I am mostly pleased with their work, and their progress. They've made A LOT of progress. Annika often confuses plus and minus, so she needs to work on that some more. I'm not too worried about that, because it's more of a "technicality". I keep reminding her what plus means versus minus. She will understand it in time. Oh, and she is also struggling a bit with problems like 50-10. She just routinely adds when there are tens involved. I make her "build" the number 50 with her manipulatives, and then take one ten-bar away and tell me what she has left. She also confuses 50 with 15, 20 with 12, and so on. Again, I'm not too worried. She's ahead in math anyway, according to her Oak Meadow 1st grade curriculum. Both children are working through Math-U-See at the same time, and she is nearing the end of "alpha". Once she starts "beta", I will let her slow her pace. "Beta" is far more difficult, and I don't want her to start disliking her math lessons.
Christopher is doing "gamma", and moving along at a pretty steady pace. However, he still likes to rely on manipulatives quiet a bit. I'm pleased with how well he understands word problems.
He finished reading "Stuart Little" by E. B. White today. So, it was time for him to write his very first book report today. Christopher hates writing. It is his weakest subject. This is his book report (he spent about 2 hours on it today!):
Stuart Little is a mouse that lives in New York and trying to find Margalo and Snowbell is a cat George is a human and he is Stuart's brother Stuart's parents are human to.
Christopher also drew an illustration of Stuart's New York home, and a picture of Margalo carrying Stuart. He did a really nice job with the drawings.
I'm not really sure what else I can do to improve his writing. Christopher is very happy with his report. I may write a simplified version of a book report on Stuart Little and let him read it. It may help him.
Another person suggested buying a book on "book report writing" from Lakeshore Learning where he is given a template and just fills in the blanks. I may do both.
In other news, I took some time today to get caught up on some medical bills. That felt good. We got our tax refund from the state, and have nearly spent the whole thing! Not on things that we want to buy, but on reducing our debt. We don't owe very much, just enough to spend most of our tax refund on bills. How boring! Mike thinks we should replace our windows with any left-over money, and I think he is right. We've had a springtail problem for years, and have finally figured out that those little thingies are walking right into our home through our very old windows. We've spent sooo much money already on exterminators, but none of that has ever done us any good. Then Mike caulked up one of the bathroom windows in an attempt to get a tight seal. He did succeed with that, and I've had no more "springtail sightings" since then. They will still be able to invade our home through other windows until we get them replaced. At least I now know that this situation is not hopeless. I seriously considered selling our home over this.
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! Mike and I don't have anything grand planned. I want to get the kids each their own frosted heart cookie (you know, the kind that are sold in every coffee shop around this time of year). They will be so thrilled, since they never get these frosted cookies at any other time. Mike wants to pick up a couple of cheesecake slices from The Cheesecake Factory and eat them in front of the TV when the kids are in bed. I'm too tired these days to plan anything more elaborate than that, so that's what we'll do.
Tomorrow will be a busy day, just like any other Wednesday. Christopher will have his chess practise. Wildflower Bread Company is on at 3:30pm with their free craft, free milk, and free cookie per child. I have already decided to treat myself to a house cappuccino and perhaps a chocolate croissant. Annika has her choir practise in the evening. I plan to bring my knitting along again, and look forward to chatting with the other moms in the baby room.
I'm off to bed now.
After Michaels, we met my in-laws at home and drove to Chuparosa Park for a birthday picnic. The kids had a really good time. :-)
Yesterday was hs park day. We again went to Chuparosa Park, and met with some other homeschooling families. Jeannine Markandeya was there with her two boys, Malhar and Tejas. I really enjoy talking to Jeannine, she's a fun woman.
Darshani also came, and we had a pretty good time.
I should work on making a sign for our hs group, though, to make it easy for us to be recognized. There are always some new faces in Summit View.
I didn't feel very good this morning when I woke up. It really put a damper on my day, and I let the kids watch too much TV while I was trying to get myself feeling better again. I did, however, manage to drive to the allergy clinic for some shots. I want to get them twice weekly, in order to speed things up a bit. The last time I had a terrible reaction that kept my injection sites swollen and itchy for days. But today was no big deal. I'm not sure why, but I'll let the "allergy people" know, lol.
We didn't start homeschooling until later this afternoon, and obviously didn't get very much done. C and A both were able to finish their math work, though. I am mostly pleased with their work, and their progress. They've made A LOT of progress. Annika often confuses plus and minus, so she needs to work on that some more. I'm not too worried about that, because it's more of a "technicality". I keep reminding her what plus means versus minus. She will understand it in time. Oh, and she is also struggling a bit with problems like 50-10. She just routinely adds when there are tens involved. I make her "build" the number 50 with her manipulatives, and then take one ten-bar away and tell me what she has left. She also confuses 50 with 15, 20 with 12, and so on. Again, I'm not too worried. She's ahead in math anyway, according to her Oak Meadow 1st grade curriculum. Both children are working through Math-U-See at the same time, and she is nearing the end of "alpha". Once she starts "beta", I will let her slow her pace. "Beta" is far more difficult, and I don't want her to start disliking her math lessons.
Christopher is doing "gamma", and moving along at a pretty steady pace. However, he still likes to rely on manipulatives quiet a bit. I'm pleased with how well he understands word problems.
He finished reading "Stuart Little" by E. B. White today. So, it was time for him to write his very first book report today. Christopher hates writing. It is his weakest subject. This is his book report (he spent about 2 hours on it today!):
Stuart Little is a mouse that lives in New York and trying to find Margalo and Snowbell is a cat George is a human and he is Stuart's brother Stuart's parents are human to.
Christopher also drew an illustration of Stuart's New York home, and a picture of Margalo carrying Stuart. He did a really nice job with the drawings.
I'm not really sure what else I can do to improve his writing. Christopher is very happy with his report. I may write a simplified version of a book report on Stuart Little and let him read it. It may help him.
Another person suggested buying a book on "book report writing" from Lakeshore Learning where he is given a template and just fills in the blanks. I may do both.
In other news, I took some time today to get caught up on some medical bills. That felt good. We got our tax refund from the state, and have nearly spent the whole thing! Not on things that we want to buy, but on reducing our debt. We don't owe very much, just enough to spend most of our tax refund on bills. How boring! Mike thinks we should replace our windows with any left-over money, and I think he is right. We've had a springtail problem for years, and have finally figured out that those little thingies are walking right into our home through our very old windows. We've spent sooo much money already on exterminators, but none of that has ever done us any good. Then Mike caulked up one of the bathroom windows in an attempt to get a tight seal. He did succeed with that, and I've had no more "springtail sightings" since then. They will still be able to invade our home through other windows until we get them replaced. At least I now know that this situation is not hopeless. I seriously considered selling our home over this.
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! Mike and I don't have anything grand planned. I want to get the kids each their own frosted heart cookie (you know, the kind that are sold in every coffee shop around this time of year). They will be so thrilled, since they never get these frosted cookies at any other time. Mike wants to pick up a couple of cheesecake slices from The Cheesecake Factory and eat them in front of the TV when the kids are in bed. I'm too tired these days to plan anything more elaborate than that, so that's what we'll do.
Tomorrow will be a busy day, just like any other Wednesday. Christopher will have his chess practise. Wildflower Bread Company is on at 3:30pm with their free craft, free milk, and free cookie per child. I have already decided to treat myself to a house cappuccino and perhaps a chocolate croissant. Annika has her choir practise in the evening. I plan to bring my knitting along again, and look forward to chatting with the other moms in the baby room.
I'm off to bed now.
Friday, January 26, 2007
January 26, 2007
We have had a very eventful week. The ant farm turned into a disaster. Mike had some trouble getting the ants into the farm, and so we got all freaked out trying to catch the "escaper ants". Oh boy. Yes, we did stomp on a few of them in our desperation to contain them all. Luckily, the kids were already asleep and didn't witness this. The next day, we all got a huge kick out of watching the ants in their new home. Lily asked me how come we put aliens in there. I explained to her that they were ants, not aliens. She then called them spiders. Goofball! ;-) Unfortunately they didn't live very long. Not even a week went by before they all died. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it may be temperature-related. We had placed the ant farm in front of our window, and even though it's winter, it still gets pretty warm in that front room.
Mike insisted on purchasing another family membership to a gym. The nice thing about this place is that it is far more humble than our previous gym, and this one is family-owned, not a huge national chain. We like that better. Oh, and it's much closer to our home. On Saturdays they offer special aerobics classes for kids. How fun! We checked them out last Saturday, and the kids had a blast. Mostly the girls, since Christopher got pretty tired towards the end. I checked out the gym's childcare facility, and briefly talked to the woman in charge there. When I mentioned to her that we home school, she smiled and said that their childcare will surely fulfill my children's need for socialization. That had to have been the dumbest comment I've heard from a person so far re: homeschooling. I would certainly not send my children to a gym's childcare and consider them properly socialized from then on! What a joke! I smiled back, and let her know that we get plenty of socialization already.
On Sunday I took the children back to the UU church. It was a dreary day, cold and rainy, and I was under dressed, so did not feel very comfortable. After the service, we had to wait for Mike to come and get the kids. I stayed behind, to take that 3-week membership class. It was fun, in a way, and I got paired with an older man named John to talk about our religious histories. John has been involved in developing and setting up ESL (English as second language) programs at international schools, and I'm a former ESL student myself! We have both done extensive travelling, so we felt we had some things in common. Still, I have to say that I'm doing this more for the kids, and not so much for myself. They LOVE attending Sunday school, and I think it would be helpful to belong to a bigger community, not just the hs and LLL communities in Arizona. Who knows where this will take us. :-) I'm thinking of signing up Annika for the church choir. She loves to sing, and it's FREE! I'll ask Christopher if he's interested, but I know Annika will want to join it.
I had my last iron treatment at the hospital on Tuesday. Mike stayed home with the kids so I could go by myself. It's a bit odd knowing I won't go back, since these hospital visits have been a weekly part of my life for nearly 3 months. And the nursing staff was so friendly and accommodating when I had to bring my kids with me. I'm on my own now with making sure my hemoglobin levels stay within a normal range. I don't know what they are now that my treatment is done, so I will need one more blood test to find out. I will make an appt. today.
The kids had their Aikido class last night. Christopher seems to be doing rather well. Still, I sat there with my notepad and pencil to jot down notes about the different exercises he will need to know for the test in February. He doesn't know the Japanese terms, and so I scribbled down short explanations so that I can help him practise more efficiently at home. His sensei doesn't require an understanding of Japanese, but still.... It's the perfectionist in me, and I really want to help Christopher succeed. He will be so proud of himself for earning the orange belt.
After Aikido we went to an ice cream parlor to celebrate our friends' youngest son Asher's 2nd birthday. We ate a late dinner at home afterwards, and consequently (I'm sure) overslept this morning by a good hour! The children's hs program Casa Vida begins at 8:30am, and when I sleepily turned my head to look at my clock it was 8:25. Oops! I figured there was no rush at that point, so I calmly went to wake the kids. I explained the situation, and even though they were bummed out at being so late, they got themselves ready. I helped Lily get ready, and we left the house without eating breakfast. I stopped by an Einstein Bagel's to get a couple of cream cheese bagels for the older 2 kids, and a cookie for Lily. The older 2 also got to each pick a chocolate milk. I had considered just going to McDonald's for their breakfast, which would have been more convenient and quicker since we wouldn't have needed to even get out of the car. But just thinking about the extremely unhealthy ingredients in their food made me change my mind. We had gone through the McDonald's drive-through the previous week, and I strive to keep those visits few and far between. So on to Einstein Bagel's we went, and the kids had a far more nutritious breakfast that way. I let them have their breakfast in the car to save on time, and Annika spilled her chocolate milk all over her jeans and shirt! Yikes. So I turned the car around and drove back home so she could get some clean clothes on. I figured there was no point in stressing out about it, and I had called Julie (the program director) letting her know that we were late. I had to sign them in at Casa Vida and got to say Hi to the teachers, which is always nice. I love the laid-back atmosphere at Casa Vida! The children are happy there, and there is no pressure on either the teachers or the students. Being that it's a program for home schooled children, every child is at a different level and that is perfectly acceptable. Lily and I walked past the library on our way out, and there was a teacher with her class (Casa Vida shares its space with a local public school) talking about her expectations regarding book reports. She stood in front of them like a drill sergeant, and the kids were still so LITTLE! I'm happy my kids don't have to experience that. We do book reports at home, also, of course. But not "drill-sergeant-style".
I went to my allergy clinic for my shots after Casa Vida. Lily busied herself with a phone book that kept her attention focused for at least 10 minutes. Amazing. She likes to page through books. She does the same thing at church, during the early part of the service when children are still with their parents. I wished I would have brought my latest knitting project with me. I will next time. I should start going twice a week, so I can get put on the monthly schedule faster. Now that I don't have to go to the hospital anymore, I should be able to do that. I started a new dilution today, and didn't have much of a reaction. No itchy injection sites for me today! That's always a good thing. I just have to remember to take my allergy meds before the shots, and then I'm fine.
I'm a knitting fiend these days! There are so many patterns I want to try, and new yarn I want to work with. I ordered some really good-quality wool to make a wrap for myself, with some of my birthday money. I can't wait for it to get here. I also just started a very simple project making place mats for our family. The colors are beautiful and don't really match, but that's part of the beauty. I saw them featured in a catalogue and just had to have them for our home. I will also crochet napkin rings to match the individual place mats. That will be hard for me, since I don't really crochet. But I can always ask my friend, who crochets for a living.
We are also working on completing our altered books, and need to get started making valentines for our valentines exchange list.
Mike insisted on purchasing another family membership to a gym. The nice thing about this place is that it is far more humble than our previous gym, and this one is family-owned, not a huge national chain. We like that better. Oh, and it's much closer to our home. On Saturdays they offer special aerobics classes for kids. How fun! We checked them out last Saturday, and the kids had a blast. Mostly the girls, since Christopher got pretty tired towards the end. I checked out the gym's childcare facility, and briefly talked to the woman in charge there. When I mentioned to her that we home school, she smiled and said that their childcare will surely fulfill my children's need for socialization. That had to have been the dumbest comment I've heard from a person so far re: homeschooling. I would certainly not send my children to a gym's childcare and consider them properly socialized from then on! What a joke! I smiled back, and let her know that we get plenty of socialization already.
On Sunday I took the children back to the UU church. It was a dreary day, cold and rainy, and I was under dressed, so did not feel very comfortable. After the service, we had to wait for Mike to come and get the kids. I stayed behind, to take that 3-week membership class. It was fun, in a way, and I got paired with an older man named John to talk about our religious histories. John has been involved in developing and setting up ESL (English as second language) programs at international schools, and I'm a former ESL student myself! We have both done extensive travelling, so we felt we had some things in common. Still, I have to say that I'm doing this more for the kids, and not so much for myself. They LOVE attending Sunday school, and I think it would be helpful to belong to a bigger community, not just the hs and LLL communities in Arizona. Who knows where this will take us. :-) I'm thinking of signing up Annika for the church choir. She loves to sing, and it's FREE! I'll ask Christopher if he's interested, but I know Annika will want to join it.
I had my last iron treatment at the hospital on Tuesday. Mike stayed home with the kids so I could go by myself. It's a bit odd knowing I won't go back, since these hospital visits have been a weekly part of my life for nearly 3 months. And the nursing staff was so friendly and accommodating when I had to bring my kids with me. I'm on my own now with making sure my hemoglobin levels stay within a normal range. I don't know what they are now that my treatment is done, so I will need one more blood test to find out. I will make an appt. today.
The kids had their Aikido class last night. Christopher seems to be doing rather well. Still, I sat there with my notepad and pencil to jot down notes about the different exercises he will need to know for the test in February. He doesn't know the Japanese terms, and so I scribbled down short explanations so that I can help him practise more efficiently at home. His sensei doesn't require an understanding of Japanese, but still.... It's the perfectionist in me, and I really want to help Christopher succeed. He will be so proud of himself for earning the orange belt.
After Aikido we went to an ice cream parlor to celebrate our friends' youngest son Asher's 2nd birthday. We ate a late dinner at home afterwards, and consequently (I'm sure) overslept this morning by a good hour! The children's hs program Casa Vida begins at 8:30am, and when I sleepily turned my head to look at my clock it was 8:25. Oops! I figured there was no rush at that point, so I calmly went to wake the kids. I explained the situation, and even though they were bummed out at being so late, they got themselves ready. I helped Lily get ready, and we left the house without eating breakfast. I stopped by an Einstein Bagel's to get a couple of cream cheese bagels for the older 2 kids, and a cookie for Lily. The older 2 also got to each pick a chocolate milk. I had considered just going to McDonald's for their breakfast, which would have been more convenient and quicker since we wouldn't have needed to even get out of the car. But just thinking about the extremely unhealthy ingredients in their food made me change my mind. We had gone through the McDonald's drive-through the previous week, and I strive to keep those visits few and far between. So on to Einstein Bagel's we went, and the kids had a far more nutritious breakfast that way. I let them have their breakfast in the car to save on time, and Annika spilled her chocolate milk all over her jeans and shirt! Yikes. So I turned the car around and drove back home so she could get some clean clothes on. I figured there was no point in stressing out about it, and I had called Julie (the program director) letting her know that we were late. I had to sign them in at Casa Vida and got to say Hi to the teachers, which is always nice. I love the laid-back atmosphere at Casa Vida! The children are happy there, and there is no pressure on either the teachers or the students. Being that it's a program for home schooled children, every child is at a different level and that is perfectly acceptable. Lily and I walked past the library on our way out, and there was a teacher with her class (Casa Vida shares its space with a local public school) talking about her expectations regarding book reports. She stood in front of them like a drill sergeant, and the kids were still so LITTLE! I'm happy my kids don't have to experience that. We do book reports at home, also, of course. But not "drill-sergeant-style".
I went to my allergy clinic for my shots after Casa Vida. Lily busied herself with a phone book that kept her attention focused for at least 10 minutes. Amazing. She likes to page through books. She does the same thing at church, during the early part of the service when children are still with their parents. I wished I would have brought my latest knitting project with me. I will next time. I should start going twice a week, so I can get put on the monthly schedule faster. Now that I don't have to go to the hospital anymore, I should be able to do that. I started a new dilution today, and didn't have much of a reaction. No itchy injection sites for me today! That's always a good thing. I just have to remember to take my allergy meds before the shots, and then I'm fine.
I'm a knitting fiend these days! There are so many patterns I want to try, and new yarn I want to work with. I ordered some really good-quality wool to make a wrap for myself, with some of my birthday money. I can't wait for it to get here. I also just started a very simple project making place mats for our family. The colors are beautiful and don't really match, but that's part of the beauty. I saw them featured in a catalogue and just had to have them for our home. I will also crochet napkin rings to match the individual place mats. That will be hard for me, since I don't really crochet. But I can always ask my friend, who crochets for a living.
We are also working on completing our altered books, and need to get started making valentines for our valentines exchange list.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
January 16, 2007
I am sitting here in my computer chair, and all kids are supposed to be asleep. I can still hear C and A chatting in their rooms. They are getting along really well these days, it seems.
Hmm, and where is Lillian? Interesting question, that is. She has lately fallen into the habit of falling asleep on my back! Yes! She waits until I sit in my computer chair, and then climbs between my back and the chair's back. She plays with my hair for a short while, and then zonks out. Her feet are dangling at either side of me, and I can both hear and feel her rhythmic breathing. I kind of like it, but I'm also kind of stuck in my chair and I'd really like to get a drink. Oh well. I will finish the post, and then gently transfer her to the couch. I might even put her in the bed. It doesn't really matter.
We got a late start to our day today. Mike stayed home in the morning, so that I could go to the hospital by myself for my iron treatments at ATU (ambulatory treatment unit). The girls are still coughing, and I'm nervous about one of the nurses saying something, since "pre-op" is adjacent to the ATU, and they can be finicky about germs, understandably.
I made sure to drink 3 glasses of water before going to the hospital. But apparently I was dehydrated yet again. I must drink more water. Ugh. I thought I was good to go, but I wasn't. I had to have 3 people working on me to find a good vein. I got poked 4 times, and that was painful. The 3rd nurse, Mike, got an IV started in no time, without much effort. I wish he would have been the first one to try one! My usual "IV vein" is becoming more difficult, and Jan, one of the other nurses, says it now has scar tissue on it. What a bummer! Maybe scar tissue on veins eventually disappear? I don't know. I hope so, because I'd hate for the vein to be permanently "done in for". Oh well.
I got home and Mike rushed off to work.
The kids and I started on our math. Christopher learned how to multiply by 9 today, and he complained that it was much harder to multiply by 9 than 0, 1, 5, and 10. Well, yes! But 9 isn't so difficult once you notice the pattern with the digits (as the 10s place increases by 1, the units place decreases by 1). I pointed out the pattern to Christopher to hopefully make it easier for him. He'll be fine with it. Or, I told him you can just multiply the other number by 10 instead of nine, and then subtract just that one number. He'll just need to practise this.
He worked on his spelling again today, and also on writing cursive.
He added a drawing of South Mountain in his social studies notebook. I think that was it. We didn't get to do very much, because we had that late start.
Annika practised her handwriting with "Draw, Write, Now". She did the page on pigs today. Very cute.
We reviewed the rhymes for the letters A and B today. The A one talks about a taming a lame crane. The other one is a tongue twister about Betty Botter who accidentally bought bitter butter, and then she doesn't want to put it in her batter for fear of making the whole thing bitter, so in the end she goes back to the market to get better butter and is happy. Well, good for her!!! I can say this rhyme really fast without making a mistake. Annika still makes several of them, but that's okay.
We talked about the seasons again today. I mentioned the date, and talked about how it's still winter and that January is the first month of the year. The kids know this, but they have a tendency to forget, so I like to repeat it a lot.
We searched for the moon again tonight, and couldn't find the darn thing! Annika reminded me of this when it was almost time for bed, and so we quickly "snuck" out of the house in our pajamas, got in the car, and took a slow ride through the neighborhood. Sometimes the moon "hides" behind someone's house. We made up songs like "Moon! Moon! Where are you? We would like to find you!" But alas, we had to end our expedition soon after it started without any luck. Oh well. Annika already knows about the different moon phases. But she does enjoy looking at it and drawing it on her calendar.
I spent a little bit of time working with Annika on her knitting. She is learning to knit in order to improve her eye-hand coordination. She is getting somewhat better at it, but still holds her fingers very stiffly, drops over half of all attempted stitches. She is also interested in knitting for the fun of it, since she sees me have so much fun with it. I want to keep her from feeling frustrated, so I let her dictate when she wants to stop. I am extremely patient with her, and encourage her gently to keep trying. She will be able to master it, and she already knows how to hold the yarn very well on her own, without me telling her how. That's a step in the right direction.
I read her a fairy tale called "The Golden Key". The story was about a beautiful maiden named Sabrina who wanted to live by herself in a tower after a man broke her heart and married someone else. Lot's of men try to win her love, but she won't have any of them. Eventually this guy named Devon rides by her tower, and is deeply moved by her poetry which she reads aloud each day. And without ever seeing her, he decides to fall in love with her. A wise woman tells him he must find the golden key in order to gain access to the tower. So he goes on this mission to find the golden key and it's of course incredibly difficult but he eventually gets it, and when he meets Sabrina at last, they fall in love and live happily ever after.
Annika liked it, and Christopher wanted to listen to it as well. Tomorrow I will ask Annika to re-tell the fairy tale to see how much she remembers. It's a deliberate exercise in memory, but she doesn't really know she's doing it for a particular purpose. That's good. :-)
Both girls are really into this kids' Yoga DVD I rented through Netflix. It's called "Animal Yoga", I think. It's weird, and goofy, and silly. But they LOVE it. Annika mvoes my yoga mat in front of the TV, and makes sure both she and Lily have enough room to practise their stretches and movements. She is definitely the big, caring sister, and takes charge of the experience for Lily. She will say things like "Ok, Lil, let's get started. Can you stretch like a giraffe in the movie??" Or "Ok, girl, you did that so well. Get on your hands and knees now and stretch just like a cat. Like Geroge, Lily!" Or "Lil, do you need some water now?" Annika also provides her little sister with physical assistance, and will hold Lillian's leg high up in the air to copy the leg stretch on the DVD, until Lillian complains of leg pain. Lol. This is sooooooo funny to watch. Lily takes her Yoga very seriously, and tries to copy every single stretch and exercise. Annika does, too. And Annika is so sweet and caring towards Lily and helps her with suggestions and stuff. And Lily acts very compliant and completely serious the whole time. It's really funny. Today they worked through the DVD 3 times in a row. I am not kidding. However, they lost interest during the third time.
Christopher enjoys watching the DVD, but does not want to practise any Yoga himself. It's too bad, but his choice. There's a small part on the DVD that shows you step-by-step how to breakdance. Christopher likes that part, and wishes he could breakdance. But he hasn't practised it yet, so I don't think he will. It's up to him.
Hmmm, I think that's all the interesting stuff we did today.
Hah! I nearly forgot! The ants I ordered months ago finally arrived today! We bought an ant farm on sale at Target at least one year ago, and then in november I finally decided we should order those ants! They arrived in a box today. 3 little test tubes full of these black ants. I really wanted Mike to put them into the ant farm with the kids watching when he came home. But he worked late again tonight, and the kids are in bed already. He will need to transfer those ants into their habitat when he comes home so they can get all settled in. It wouldn't be fair to leave them in their test tubes another day just so the kids can see. I thought about just doing it myself, but I think I'd just be way too freaked out. I mean, they're ANTS! Living, breathing, crawling ANTS! I haven't read all the instructions yet, but I do know they need to be refrigerated for 15 min. before we can transfer them. It will make them sleepy and less active so they don't escape. I guess it's like inducing hypothermia! Wow, that sucks big time for them, huh? I'd hate to be one of those ants, suffering from hypothermia...... But I also don't want them to escape, so hypothermia it is!
Mike is home! I need to stop writing, get this baby off my back, and get that drink I've been craving! Oh, and also I need to eat something, since I didn't have dinner with the kids. I cleaned dishes while the kids had theirs.
Hmm, and where is Lillian? Interesting question, that is. She has lately fallen into the habit of falling asleep on my back! Yes! She waits until I sit in my computer chair, and then climbs between my back and the chair's back. She plays with my hair for a short while, and then zonks out. Her feet are dangling at either side of me, and I can both hear and feel her rhythmic breathing. I kind of like it, but I'm also kind of stuck in my chair and I'd really like to get a drink. Oh well. I will finish the post, and then gently transfer her to the couch. I might even put her in the bed. It doesn't really matter.
We got a late start to our day today. Mike stayed home in the morning, so that I could go to the hospital by myself for my iron treatments at ATU (ambulatory treatment unit). The girls are still coughing, and I'm nervous about one of the nurses saying something, since "pre-op" is adjacent to the ATU, and they can be finicky about germs, understandably.
I made sure to drink 3 glasses of water before going to the hospital. But apparently I was dehydrated yet again. I must drink more water. Ugh. I thought I was good to go, but I wasn't. I had to have 3 people working on me to find a good vein. I got poked 4 times, and that was painful. The 3rd nurse, Mike, got an IV started in no time, without much effort. I wish he would have been the first one to try one! My usual "IV vein" is becoming more difficult, and Jan, one of the other nurses, says it now has scar tissue on it. What a bummer! Maybe scar tissue on veins eventually disappear? I don't know. I hope so, because I'd hate for the vein to be permanently "done in for". Oh well.
I got home and Mike rushed off to work.
The kids and I started on our math. Christopher learned how to multiply by 9 today, and he complained that it was much harder to multiply by 9 than 0, 1, 5, and 10. Well, yes! But 9 isn't so difficult once you notice the pattern with the digits (as the 10s place increases by 1, the units place decreases by 1). I pointed out the pattern to Christopher to hopefully make it easier for him. He'll be fine with it. Or, I told him you can just multiply the other number by 10 instead of nine, and then subtract just that one number. He'll just need to practise this.
He worked on his spelling again today, and also on writing cursive.
He added a drawing of South Mountain in his social studies notebook. I think that was it. We didn't get to do very much, because we had that late start.
Annika practised her handwriting with "Draw, Write, Now". She did the page on pigs today. Very cute.
We reviewed the rhymes for the letters A and B today. The A one talks about a taming a lame crane. The other one is a tongue twister about Betty Botter who accidentally bought bitter butter, and then she doesn't want to put it in her batter for fear of making the whole thing bitter, so in the end she goes back to the market to get better butter and is happy. Well, good for her!!! I can say this rhyme really fast without making a mistake. Annika still makes several of them, but that's okay.
We talked about the seasons again today. I mentioned the date, and talked about how it's still winter and that January is the first month of the year. The kids know this, but they have a tendency to forget, so I like to repeat it a lot.
We searched for the moon again tonight, and couldn't find the darn thing! Annika reminded me of this when it was almost time for bed, and so we quickly "snuck" out of the house in our pajamas, got in the car, and took a slow ride through the neighborhood. Sometimes the moon "hides" behind someone's house. We made up songs like "Moon! Moon! Where are you? We would like to find you!" But alas, we had to end our expedition soon after it started without any luck. Oh well. Annika already knows about the different moon phases. But she does enjoy looking at it and drawing it on her calendar.
I spent a little bit of time working with Annika on her knitting. She is learning to knit in order to improve her eye-hand coordination. She is getting somewhat better at it, but still holds her fingers very stiffly, drops over half of all attempted stitches. She is also interested in knitting for the fun of it, since she sees me have so much fun with it. I want to keep her from feeling frustrated, so I let her dictate when she wants to stop. I am extremely patient with her, and encourage her gently to keep trying. She will be able to master it, and she already knows how to hold the yarn very well on her own, without me telling her how. That's a step in the right direction.
I read her a fairy tale called "The Golden Key". The story was about a beautiful maiden named Sabrina who wanted to live by herself in a tower after a man broke her heart and married someone else. Lot's of men try to win her love, but she won't have any of them. Eventually this guy named Devon rides by her tower, and is deeply moved by her poetry which she reads aloud each day. And without ever seeing her, he decides to fall in love with her. A wise woman tells him he must find the golden key in order to gain access to the tower. So he goes on this mission to find the golden key and it's of course incredibly difficult but he eventually gets it, and when he meets Sabrina at last, they fall in love and live happily ever after.
Annika liked it, and Christopher wanted to listen to it as well. Tomorrow I will ask Annika to re-tell the fairy tale to see how much she remembers. It's a deliberate exercise in memory, but she doesn't really know she's doing it for a particular purpose. That's good. :-)
Both girls are really into this kids' Yoga DVD I rented through Netflix. It's called "Animal Yoga", I think. It's weird, and goofy, and silly. But they LOVE it. Annika mvoes my yoga mat in front of the TV, and makes sure both she and Lily have enough room to practise their stretches and movements. She is definitely the big, caring sister, and takes charge of the experience for Lily. She will say things like "Ok, Lil, let's get started. Can you stretch like a giraffe in the movie??" Or "Ok, girl, you did that so well. Get on your hands and knees now and stretch just like a cat. Like Geroge, Lily!" Or "Lil, do you need some water now?" Annika also provides her little sister with physical assistance, and will hold Lillian's leg high up in the air to copy the leg stretch on the DVD, until Lillian complains of leg pain. Lol. This is sooooooo funny to watch. Lily takes her Yoga very seriously, and tries to copy every single stretch and exercise. Annika does, too. And Annika is so sweet and caring towards Lily and helps her with suggestions and stuff. And Lily acts very compliant and completely serious the whole time. It's really funny. Today they worked through the DVD 3 times in a row. I am not kidding. However, they lost interest during the third time.
Christopher enjoys watching the DVD, but does not want to practise any Yoga himself. It's too bad, but his choice. There's a small part on the DVD that shows you step-by-step how to breakdance. Christopher likes that part, and wishes he could breakdance. But he hasn't practised it yet, so I don't think he will. It's up to him.
Hmmm, I think that's all the interesting stuff we did today.
Hah! I nearly forgot! The ants I ordered months ago finally arrived today! We bought an ant farm on sale at Target at least one year ago, and then in november I finally decided we should order those ants! They arrived in a box today. 3 little test tubes full of these black ants. I really wanted Mike to put them into the ant farm with the kids watching when he came home. But he worked late again tonight, and the kids are in bed already. He will need to transfer those ants into their habitat when he comes home so they can get all settled in. It wouldn't be fair to leave them in their test tubes another day just so the kids can see. I thought about just doing it myself, but I think I'd just be way too freaked out. I mean, they're ANTS! Living, breathing, crawling ANTS! I haven't read all the instructions yet, but I do know they need to be refrigerated for 15 min. before we can transfer them. It will make them sleepy and less active so they don't escape. I guess it's like inducing hypothermia! Wow, that sucks big time for them, huh? I'd hate to be one of those ants, suffering from hypothermia...... But I also don't want them to escape, so hypothermia it is!
Mike is home! I need to stop writing, get this baby off my back, and get that drink I've been craving! Oh, and also I need to eat something, since I didn't have dinner with the kids. I cleaned dishes while the kids had theirs.
January 15, 2007
Lily, age 3 (nearly 4!) is doing better today. We had taken her to urgent care the day before, on sunday, because of an ear infection. She's doing much better on the antibiotics, but is still complaining about her ear making noises. Both girls, Annika (7) and Lily have a cough and stuffy noses. Even though they are technically sick, they are acting like their usual happy selves. No worries. :-)
We start most of our days working on math problems. Generally we do math about 6 days a week. This is our "strong" subject, and we really like our program, which is "Math U See". Each child completes about 3 pages per day, and I'm pleased with their progress. Especially since both kids seem to be doing their work easily enough without much help from me.
Christopher is focusing on single-digit multiplication right now. He is working through chapter 8 in Gamma. There are 30 chapters in all.
Annika is focusing on single-digit addition and subtraction. She is working through chapter 23 in Alpha. There are 30 chapters in Alpha as well.
No problems with either of them today. The mistakes they do make happen when they're distracted. Christopher has a special fondness for "distractions" and likes to create them, lol.
Annika and I worked on learning some rhymes. We focused on these 2:
"Over in the meadow in a nest built of sticks,
Lived an old mother crow with her little crows six.
"Caw," said the mother, "We caw," said the six,
So they cawed all day long in a nest built of sticks."
"Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John,
Went to bed with his breeches on,
One shoe off and one shoe on;
Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John."
I also asked Annika to draw a picture of a person with eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, a neck, trunk, arms, hands, legs, and feet. She loved doing this. I saved her picture by rubber cementing it in her language arts notebook.
Later, I asked her to lie down on butcher paper, and I traced her body's outline. She then was allowed to draw clothes on the figure and draw a face on. She totally had fun, and we liked the outcome so much we hung it up on the wall in the kitchen.
I started knitting her a scarf yesterday with soy wool. I was intrigued by the "soy" as an ingredient in the wool, and just had to work with it. :-) I finished the scarf today, and Annika wore it proudly all day long, and included it in today's drawings.
While I was working with the kids I also managed to put the finishing touches on a potholder I knit recently. I used 100% wool from Peace Fleece. It's very colorful and I just needed to weave the ends in. I love how it turned out. :-)
Annika and I tried to look for the moon outside, since she is recording moon phases in her calendar. Unfortunately we couldn't see the moon in the sky tonight. :-(
Annika also practised her writing independently with the book "Draw, Write, Now". She likes it and gets it out of its cubby whenever she's in the mood to work with it. This particular book has farm animals as the theme, and she worked on the hens/chicken page today. Very cute.
I played "Scrabble" with the 2 older kids today. Believe it or not, but it was my first time playing the game. I had to learn the rules first, and it wasn't a lot of fun. Mostly because my kids are both poor spellers and I had to basically play for all of us!
Speaking of spelling, Christopher and I worked on his spelling today. He is still misspelling words like "away", "little", "make", "funny", etc. I'm hoping to make vast improvements in this area for him in the coming months. We go through about 5 words a day, and are loosely following the "Spelling Power" program/philosophy on teaching spelling.
Christopher spent most of his "school" time on his social studies today. He is to study our local topography. He is supposed to keep a record of his observations and sketches. This is incredibly difficult for him, the writing part. He can draw easily enough. But he hates to write. I wrote part of it out for him, and had him copy my words. He contributed the last sentence on his own. He needs so much guidance, too much, in my opinion. But if I didn't guide him through the writing part, the exercise would take him hours and he would only hate it more and more.
He pasted a picture he had drawn of a saguaro cactus with rubber cement in his social studies notebook . Then he wrote:
"This is a saguaro cactus. It grows in the sonoran desert. I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to learn more about the desert I live in. I have seen saguaro cactuses and other cactuses and cactuses can survive with little water for a long time."
Note: We did not go to the DBG today.
Christopher spent a little bit of time practising his cursive writing, which Annika was very jealous of, lol. She really likes to write. What a relief!
All 3 kids played a game on the PC. It's a "Dora the Explorer" one that Mike had bought especially for Lily the day before. She spent the most time playing with it, while I was teaching the others. It's educational, so why not. The funny thing is that when a character in the game asks a question, Lily will loudly answer it! She really thinks the game is talking specifically to her! That's hilarious, I think. She does the same with TV shows like "Dora the Explorer" and "Blue's Clues".
We start most of our days working on math problems. Generally we do math about 6 days a week. This is our "strong" subject, and we really like our program, which is "Math U See". Each child completes about 3 pages per day, and I'm pleased with their progress. Especially since both kids seem to be doing their work easily enough without much help from me.
Christopher is focusing on single-digit multiplication right now. He is working through chapter 8 in Gamma. There are 30 chapters in all.
Annika is focusing on single-digit addition and subtraction. She is working through chapter 23 in Alpha. There are 30 chapters in Alpha as well.
No problems with either of them today. The mistakes they do make happen when they're distracted. Christopher has a special fondness for "distractions" and likes to create them, lol.
Annika and I worked on learning some rhymes. We focused on these 2:
"Over in the meadow in a nest built of sticks,
Lived an old mother crow with her little crows six.
"Caw," said the mother, "We caw," said the six,
So they cawed all day long in a nest built of sticks."
"Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John,
Went to bed with his breeches on,
One shoe off and one shoe on;
Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John."
I also asked Annika to draw a picture of a person with eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, a neck, trunk, arms, hands, legs, and feet. She loved doing this. I saved her picture by rubber cementing it in her language arts notebook.
Later, I asked her to lie down on butcher paper, and I traced her body's outline. She then was allowed to draw clothes on the figure and draw a face on. She totally had fun, and we liked the outcome so much we hung it up on the wall in the kitchen.
I started knitting her a scarf yesterday with soy wool. I was intrigued by the "soy" as an ingredient in the wool, and just had to work with it. :-) I finished the scarf today, and Annika wore it proudly all day long, and included it in today's drawings.
While I was working with the kids I also managed to put the finishing touches on a potholder I knit recently. I used 100% wool from Peace Fleece. It's very colorful and I just needed to weave the ends in. I love how it turned out. :-)
Annika and I tried to look for the moon outside, since she is recording moon phases in her calendar. Unfortunately we couldn't see the moon in the sky tonight. :-(
Annika also practised her writing independently with the book "Draw, Write, Now". She likes it and gets it out of its cubby whenever she's in the mood to work with it. This particular book has farm animals as the theme, and she worked on the hens/chicken page today. Very cute.
I played "Scrabble" with the 2 older kids today. Believe it or not, but it was my first time playing the game. I had to learn the rules first, and it wasn't a lot of fun. Mostly because my kids are both poor spellers and I had to basically play for all of us!
Speaking of spelling, Christopher and I worked on his spelling today. He is still misspelling words like "away", "little", "make", "funny", etc. I'm hoping to make vast improvements in this area for him in the coming months. We go through about 5 words a day, and are loosely following the "Spelling Power" program/philosophy on teaching spelling.
Christopher spent most of his "school" time on his social studies today. He is to study our local topography. He is supposed to keep a record of his observations and sketches. This is incredibly difficult for him, the writing part. He can draw easily enough. But he hates to write. I wrote part of it out for him, and had him copy my words. He contributed the last sentence on his own. He needs so much guidance, too much, in my opinion. But if I didn't guide him through the writing part, the exercise would take him hours and he would only hate it more and more.
He pasted a picture he had drawn of a saguaro cactus with rubber cement in his social studies notebook . Then he wrote:
"This is a saguaro cactus. It grows in the sonoran desert. I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to learn more about the desert I live in. I have seen saguaro cactuses and other cactuses and cactuses can survive with little water for a long time."
Note: We did not go to the DBG today.
Christopher spent a little bit of time practising his cursive writing, which Annika was very jealous of, lol. She really likes to write. What a relief!
All 3 kids played a game on the PC. It's a "Dora the Explorer" one that Mike had bought especially for Lily the day before. She spent the most time playing with it, while I was teaching the others. It's educational, so why not. The funny thing is that when a character in the game asks a question, Lily will loudly answer it! She really thinks the game is talking specifically to her! That's hilarious, I think. She does the same with TV shows like "Dora the Explorer" and "Blue's Clues".
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