'13/14 Week 3 Day 1

Bouncy kids. Happy kids. We did get the school work done. With smiles.

As usual, at the end of our Bible reading Andrew and Saara loved the play - Jacob's ladder - this time. Saara got majorly distracted by a surprise visit by two BIG dogs. Terribly friendly puppies from across the creek. But she still did great as Rebecca and as an angel. 

Math, LA, Science, History, and we finished strong with our Civics class. As Monday is the Labor Day holiday, I read a book about the history of the day and why we celebrate it. I believe, this was the first time Andrew and Saara really thought that everything they play with has been done by someone - a worker. Saara was very concerned about the children who had to work at the factories two centuries ago. "Labor Day" in the Holiday Histories series was a good book to read to them, easy to understand and with lots of pictures.

So, then - Happy Labor Day to ya'll! This worker/teacher will take three days off now and enjoy the triple digit weather outside.

Bible. Rebecca gave Jacob his bag and sent him on his way.

Jacob did travel for a long time.

Until he got tired and fell asleep with a rock for a pillow. Remember the rock Andrew dug up a couple of days ago? It came handy. God provides.

Jacob dreamed about a ladder that reached up to heaven and angels going up and down the ladder. This is my absolute favorite pic.

When Jacob woke up, he stood the rock up, worshiped God and called the place "Bethel" which means 'the house of God'. Exit the angel.

LA. Saara going over her alphabet and letter sounds.

Andrew was 'helping' her on the other side of the couch.

One thing both kids do diligently, is saving all their work in their binders. Every day.

Holiday Histories "Labor Day" by Mir Tamim Ansary

'13/14 Week 2 Day 4

Last day. At least, for the week. I thought, the long Labor Day week end would throw us off our so-far-perfect course, but if I make the coming Saturday Day 1 of Week 3, it all will work out without a hiccup.
As it was our last day, we did not do a whole lot. This will change next week when Saara will start her ballet class and the choir and hand bells group will kick of the week after that. They are looking forward to it very much. So, the precious 'free' time will disappear and we will have full days till Christmas.
Among the other important and big things today, Andrew took his first Math test and scored 148 out of 149. 
Today's 'free' time was actually spent at the library. Our 'loot' is getting heavier and heavier. I am seriously thinking of making some special library totes for Andrew and Saara.
Here's, however, a little scoop of what we did today:

Bible. First off, we had a puppet show about Isaac blessing Jacob.

Andrew and Saara actually kept straight and serious faces throughout the whole play and the retelling of the story ...

... but as soon as I said that we were done, they started goofing around.

Music Appreciation. We moved on to learning about the tempo. A big 'thank you' to the Little Einsteins show on the Disney Channel - Andrew and Saara were familiar with words like 'presto', or 'allegro', or 'adagio'. The only new word they learned today was 'the metronome'. Also, "Peer Gynt" and Edvard Grieg. We listened to the story of Peer Gynt and to the two most famous pieces from Grieg's work: "The Morning" and "In the Den of the Mountain King" The above site is sfskids.org Both kids had fun while learning and experimenting with different metronome settings.

The two trolls listening to the story of Peer Gynt.

Detour. On our way to the library, I dragged the kids over to another building in downtown. I tested Andrew's knowledge of columns. He could remember the three different designs of the ancient columns, but failed to name them. Not a problem - back at home, we looked them up, and I am confident, Andrew will recognize the Corinthian columns anywhere now.

The end-of-the-school-day snack or mommy-has-a-bad-sweet-tooth-ache cookies. The kids and I whipped up some delicious ginger cookies after school. Recipe below.

We made our own version of the Mountain King's Den. I hauled out a dust covered disco ball and the kids had a blast until they were breathless.

Ginger Cookies
2 1/4 cups flour
2 teasp. ground ginger
1 teasp. baking soda
3/4 teasp. cinnamon
1/2 teasp. ground cloves
1/4 teasp. salt
3/4 cups butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tablesp. water
1/4 cup molasses

Preheat oven to 350F. Sift together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. In another bowl cream together butter and sugar. Beat in egg, then water and molasses. Gradually stir flour mixture into the molasses mixture.
Shape dough into walnut sized balls (roll in some sugar, if desired).
Bake for about 8 - 12 minutes (it really depends on how big the 'walnut sized balls' are. The center of the cookie should not be 'liquidy' or 'slushy', but rather on the firmer side.) 

'13/14 Week 2 Day 3

"Days are not brothers," we would say in Estonia; meaning, days do not turn out alike. Today, was a very long school day. Mainly because Andrew was not feeling well and we had to take many breaks. He was not sick so that we did not have to cancel school - just an upset tummy. Happens.
Although long, it was a fun filled day.

Bible. The story of Esau and Jacob. Here comes Esau from hunting and with our neighbor's hound dog who showed up just for the right scene at the right time.

Bible. Yep, sold the birthright for a bowl of porridge.

Interlude. Isaac digging wells. Before Isaac and his servants set off to find Abraham's old wells, Andrew found a bird nest on the ground.

Well # 1.

Well #2.

Well #3.

Epilogue. Andrew was determined to unearth a big rock he found while looking for the well #3.

Science. Saara had loads of science going on today. First, we looked at weather and clouds and snowflakes. Here, Saara is designing her own snowflake.

Science. Saara also learned about the rising air. We repeated the same experiment we did two years ago. In fact, the photo on the laptop is from the time Andrew was learning about hot air raising.

Coloring a swirly snake.

... and watching it swirl powered by the hot air over the stove. 

Art. We finished our day with some art lessons. First, we read the last half of a book on Leonardo da Vinci. Then, I read the kids the story about Johnny Appleseed without showing them the pictures in the book. I asked them to think of how they would illustrate the main fact about Johnny Appleseed. We also made some apple prints with apples ...

... and pencil erasers.

These were the pictures the kids came up with for illustrating the story.

'13/14 Week 2 Day 2

Out of breath, but happy!

 I was pleasantly surprised to be done before two in the afternoon! Two o'clock is our average end of the school day time. Things did go smoothly today. In History, in Geography, in Science, Andrew remembered the key facts about the things we have been learning about, and it made the classes go by much faster. Saara, too, was on top of her subjects. Thankful for a good day!

When I saw the last page of Andrew's math lesson today, I knew, he would be rather overwhelmed with the pure volume of all the addition problems, as easy as they may have been. So, out came the cookies to reward him for every row done. I am not much into using sweets as rewards, but sometimes one has to. And, sure enough, Andrew was motivated and focused to complete the whole page in a very good time.

We finished our day with a few exercises. For balance, the kids jumped on 'stepping stones'. I changed up the path ever so often to keep the challenge fresh. They loved it so much, they did not want to stop! We also did some backwards crab walking - something the kids had not tried before, but mastered well pretty fast.

Outside, Andrew and Saara flew the Frisbee around a little. I challenged them to fly it through a hula hoop. It was not that easy.

Saara is looking forward to our reading time tonight. I found these paper dolls on line and cut them our last night. Saara saw me do it, and got very excited.

'13/14 Week 2 Day 1

Right after our Bible reading this morning, we dove into science. I asked both Saara and Andrew to build a picture of the water cycle. Both kids gave a short presentation explaining the cycle and using the charts that they made. 

LA. I think, both of us - Andrew and me - are very encouraged with the path that we have taken for writing practice. He wants to write and come up with sentences. We still practice spelling and learn grammar, but writing seems to have taken a front seat right now. 
For Andrew's reading practice, he started on "The Cat In the Hat". I must say, reading poetry and rhyming lines is much easier on and for him. Andrew's reading is more fluent and less choppy. He is surprised himself.

Science. Saara giving her presentation on the water cycle.

Science. We continued learning about the rainbow today.

'13/14 Week 1 Day 6

Our fist week of school is successfully over. I feel, we have covered a lot of ground already. Wow! It has gone fast. Only 35 weeks left? Truly, that's how it feels. Only!

We started our day with new Bible memory verses and somehow a arms-crossed full of attitude from the little miss. Too early in the morning? :) She got over it, whatever it was, very fast. 

The rest of the day went as planned. Andrew is enjoying writing sentences and he likes his Spectrum Grade 2 LA workbook which I like a lot as well. It is just his level and the exercises are easy to understand and follow. Good stuff.

The end of our school day turned terribly wet. Saara was outside with a garden hose making a rainbow. I heard a click of the nozzle dial, and the next thing I saw was a jet stream soaking Andrew to the bone. Loads of laughter to finish our first week of school.

Bible. No, seriously - a toilet paper tube, glue, salt, chenille sticks, and ...

... - voila - the pillars of salt. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah, of course.

History. Andrew started learning about the medieval times. First, we read about monks and monasteries and the beautiful manuscripts they produced. We colored our own fancy medieval initials.

Science. Saara going over her continents.

Civics. Andrew learned more about the flag today, about Betsy Ross and Star Spangled Banner.

Science. Saara's science project of the day - to make a rainbow. She loved jumping over one.

And she enjoyed getting her brother soaking wet.

'13/14 Week 1 Day 5

Before school starts. The ground was covered in heavy dew, but this wet fact did not stop Andrew and Saara from 20 minutes of baseball. By 8 o'clock they were back inside and ready.

Being the fifth day, it was shorter than the previous ones. It was still a good day. 
Our two last classes were Estonian and Music Appreciation. The kids had their tongue twisted trying to pronounce some letters in the Estonian alphabet. 

The Music Appreciation was our last class. We talked about soft and loud sounds in the nature and in music. The kids imitated soft and hard/loud rainfall by clapping their hands, and played a few instruments softly and loudly. I showed them the symbols used in written music and we covered some new vocabulary, like 'dynamics' and 'forte' and 'piano'. After that, we listened to Vivaldi's "Spring" from The Four Seasons. Children loved the whole experience very much. I even caught Andrew skipping out the door humming "Spring". :)

No, Saara is not sleeping. This is how she listened to Vivaldi's "Spring".