Baking and Decorating Gingerbread Cookies

Chirstmas is not Christmas without gingerbread cookies.

This was the fun part!

Birdseed Treats for Our Bird Friends

We do enjoy the birds around our house a lot. It was only natural that we tried out a little craft to make them happy when they come to visit. The instructions came from the December issue of Taste of Home.

The idea behind the craft is simple: mix dissolved gelatin with birdseed and press it into cookie cutters. Let is dry for two days ...

... and you will have a cute treat for the birds.

And they came, in all shapes and sizes.

Fuzzy Sticks Snowflakes

We welcomed the beginning of winter with a simple craft. It takes a few fuzzy sticks and beads.

We made a whole bunch to give to our neighbors.

13/14 Week 15 Day 4

Our last day before the winter break. It went as usual, without any fireworks. Andrew is starting to get the idea behind multiplication and he is enjoying writing down dictated stories a lot.

We had good time during breaks between classes. Andrew receive his first issue of Ranger Rick and we were checking out the magazine's website all through out our school day.

13/14 Week 15 Day 3

It was a quiet day. Because we all were completely wasted last night and got to bed very late, we slept longer and started out school day slightly later than usual. I am glad we did it and thankful we can adjust our school days this way. I'd rather have happy and rested children in my class than sleep deprived and cranky. Goes for the teacher, too. So, a good day, though short. 

An interesting animal classification: Andrew and I were practicing estimation and were trying to think of animals that are about 12" tall. Andrew suggested a raccoon. Size aside, what made me laugh was the classification Andrew gave: "Let me think about other garbage animals." Garbage animal? Mhmm ...

Math. Andrew has started his 'timetables readiness' exercises. I wish, I had been introduced to timetables this way.

13/14 Week 15 Day 2

The subject-verb agreement clearly shows we have a Duck Dynasty fan around.

 Everything today was geared toward our kids' concert. It is one of the biggest highlights of our school year. No wonder, both Saara and Andrew were motivated to get their school work done, so they could get ready for the dress rehearsal and the concert itself. So, our school day was good and fast and focused and productive.

 And here are some pics from the concert itself. The kids did very well. It is quite an experience to be among the 145 (or so) children, all homeschooled, all ages, all singing and/or playing instruments.

A and S watching an older kids choir perform.

And then it was their turn. Three songs in three different languages, plus English.

The bells choir is Andrew's and Saara's favorite.

13/14 Week 15 Day 1

Christmas time is busy, there's no time to just 'vegetate'. Last weekend was full of activities again: one last choir practice, singing in church, Christmas shopping, and sewing practice. 
I believe, my Grandpa is looking down from Heaven and smiling when he sees Andrew sewing. Grandpa was a sought-after tailor in his day and he passed the love for sewing on to my Mom, she passed it on to me, and now I to my kids. The 'sigh' part of the whole experience is that because of the technology nowadays, my kids will not know how fun it is to play with the huge pedaling wheel on the old-time sewing machines. Oh, well...

Today was busy as usual. Our last class was Art and we talked about proportion and how to make objects seem closer or farther away.  After looking at some famous paintings, I had the kids color a desert scene and then figure out where to glue the different size cactus plants. There was a brief  'wow' moment when we placed the cacti on the paper. All of a sudden the scene had depth to it.

Science. Saara was learning about science in the kitchen and what a dish washing liquid can do. We finished our class outside making and blowing bubbles.

13/14 Week 14 Day 5

Yesss! We survived this hectic day. We did have a lot going on and the rainy weather we had to brave did not make matters any easier. But with God's help we sailed through everything in our curriculum and schedule.

Birthday morning with cupcakes in our house.

Saara's ballerinas kept a watch over our entire school day.

13/14 Week 14 Day 4

We had not had any Bible plays for such a long time. Finally, this morning we had a story that promised to be a great one for a play. So, out I went into the cold morning and dragged inside the children's wagon, cleaned it up, and readied it for the play. The kids had loads of fun and, I am sure, will remember this particular story for a long time.

Bible. The Philistines' fish god Dagon and the stolen Ark of Covenant.

Morning #1: the Philis are shocked to see their god down in front of the Ark.

Morning #2: the Philis are scared for their god has fallen and broken to pieces.

Everywhere the Ark was dragged, the Philis broke out in painful sores. ("Mom, can Andrew and I paint each others faces later?" "No!")

The Philis did not want the Ark around any longer, so ...

... they built a wagon, loaded the Ark and a pot of golden jewelry, yoked up two cows and sent the bundle back to the Israelites.

The Israelites sure were glad to have the Ark back.

Some daredevils got too curious and peeked inside the Ark. They did not live long.

Fun and games aside, we did a lot of serious work today and will do more tomorrow. And somehow, we will try to squeeze in an additional choir practice and library visit. Full day ahead. Did I say, tomorrow is Saara's birthday as well?

The kids learning about estimation.

I was looking for cards with the Breille alphabet and dug up some boxes with old school materials in the process. The kids were all over it looking through the sheets and workbooks they filled since they started school two years ago. "I remember that!" what I kept hearing over and over.

Civics. From the US symbols we have moved on to some important people in the US history. Last week we started reading about George Washington and today we continued learning some facts about his life and the Revolutionary War.

13/14 Week 14 Day 3

Everything 'math' dominated our morning. We did quite a thorough review of subjects we had not touched in a while. Our table was filled with all sorts of flip cards and manipulatives. It was quite fun. Both kids wanted to play with this or that after the class was done. 

I believe, we also found a more engaging and level appropriate way for Andrew to practice his story writing. I have tried many things, like asking him to write a paragraph about a picture I show him or he himself draws. He has done a fair job, but all these times have come across as tasks lacking the spark behind creative writing. I decided to slow down the pace and focus on something he is good at - dictation. We have done it a few times and Andrew has accomplished his work well with a big smile on his face. He feels confident and empowered. It may not be a 'creative' writing yet, but it is 'writing' and a good one at that. The creative part will come in time.  

Math. When it comes to shapes, addition, subtraction, money, calendar, etc. Saara does not feel challenged at all. Learning about place value, however, is something new for this Kindergartener.

Andrew got to review and improve his share of shapes recognition ...

... and calendar reading skills.

13/14 Week 14 Day 2

All of the school work we did today paled compared to the ballet performance our little ballerina gave to a surprisingly large audience. She has been enjoying her class so much that I signed her up for the next semester as well.

There she is - all ready to begin!

After her performance with flowers from her biggest admirers (Dad, Mom, and brother).

Today was a beautiful sunny day. We were able to hang our feeders up.

13/14 Week 14 Day 1

What a busy weekend we had! Somehow we managed to attend the choir practice, go shopping, celebrate Saara's 6th birthday, hang up Christmas lights, have a play date, go to church, and watch the whole Christmas Parade in a very cold weather. Just to mention a few things we did. What a blessed time!

Somehow we managed to squeeze 11 children into a small booth at Saara's birthday party.

He is here! Watching the annual Christmas Parade has become a tradition in our family. We even have 'our spot' by the road.

The school day was long but very productive, especially in the science section. 
Saara learned about the air resistance and why birds have the shape they do and why they spread out their wings when they come down to landing. Two years ago, we made our first home-made parachutes. We have been making them ever since. Today, Saara tied her Piglet to the parachute threads and together with some other things we made, we learned about the objects moving through air. 
Andrew read and watched a video about ostriches. Surprisingly, he still remembers visiting an ostrich farm in Estonia a few years ago. Andrew was very excited to get his hands on the craft for birds (not ostriches) I had prepared for them: making bird feeders. We could not hang them out today because it was drizzling all day long. But there's always a tomorrow.

Tomorrow will also bring to an end Saara's ballet class. At least until January. She, together with her classmates, will give parents a pretty little performance. I can not wait!

Here comes Piglet the Paratrooper!

Those are some pretty big birds.

Andrew smearing peanut butter onto a toilet paper roll.

And then you roll it in the bird food.

Our little Christmas presents for the wild birds.

LA. Word scramble. Practicing the words with the 'l' blend.