'18/19 Week 6

The kittens have adjusted to their new home and seem to enjoy their new surroundings.

      The sixth week was the toughest yet. We were out and about every day doing out extracurricular activities, plus a yearly eye appointment Saara's first volleyball game on Saturday morning. The kids were amazing. They did all of their assignments without complaining and on time. 

Lending a helping paw.

Science. Andrew's new lab assignment was to build a hand.

First win 3:1

Building a partitioning off a section of the dog pen for our new rescued dogs.

'18/19 Week 5

A full rainbow. The kids were in awe watching the arc as long as it lasted.

      We have fallen into a comfortable, though intense, routine. The kids know their daily schedule and are learning to manage their time accordingly. We do have lot going on this semester. Saara started her ballet class which was also the last extracurricular activity on the list. Now, we will be just chugging along until November when volleyball is over. The time will fly fast -- I cannot believe, we are more than 1/9 done with school year already!
     

The Cardinals have an extraordinary coach this time and Saara is learning a lot.

History. Saara finished her studies of Texas regions and resources. As a final activity, she had to put together a map. 

Science. One more experiment that did not quite work the first time. Andrew was supposed to build a simple machine that used gravity to move. We had to make some adjustments to this walker for it to start working properly. Once it did, its stride made us laugh out loud.

On top of the two stray dogs we adopted recently, we now have a pair of cats that the dogs found abandoned in our forest.

'18/19 Week 1

The kids had a lot of fun at the home shcool swim party. They played with a lot of friends they had not seen all summer long.

     The other day in our taekwondo class, our instructor asked us to skip rope for two minutes. He assured that even if we had not skipped rope for some time it would easily come back to us just like riding a bike. It did, and it was fun!

      It felt about the same way starting our classes up again this week. We had taken an approximately two-month long break, but as soon as I printed out daily schedules and opened up the curriculum everything felt as if we had not been away from our studies at all. It was very good to have a vacation and not to think about school for a while, but it does feel good to be back.

      As usual, our first weeks are there to test our new schedules. We know, that Saara's ballet class time and day have changed, and so has the time of the kids' piano class. Because of that we have to line up our classes in way that is most effective. So far, so good. Both kids even went as far as to tell me they like being back at school. Ha-haa. Hopefully, the feeling will last for the rest of the 35 weeks we still need to cover. 

Volleyball. Saara was very excited to go through the volleyball evaluations this year. She cannot wait for the season to start.

The kids have been doing math for a couple of weeks now. They went through a Refresher Course to recall things they had learned in their previous grades, like the Properties of Addition Saara is demonstrating here.

Science. Andrew started his Science classes this year with studies in robotics. His first task was to build a vibrating art robot or VAR as he named it.

It does not take much to build a robot.

Work in progress.

Welcome Widge the VAR.

Widge in action.

Some art by Widge.

 

I was glad to see Saara use her knowledge of painting she learned in a summer art camp.

Fifth grade math brings on the calculator. 

'17/18 Week 13

      I normally like reading challenges. Every year, I try to join one, but unfortunately fall off the bandwagon because the books I am reading aloud to the kids are more interesting than the books I am supposed to read in the challenge. 
      This week, I was faced with a different kind of reading challenge. I had to find ways to stop (yes, stop) kids reading. I found them reading everywhere. Andrew, my most reluctant reader hauled his books with him outside, spread himself out on the trampoline and read. He read at the table while having lunch, at his sister's volleyball game, and - here's the challenge part - while he was supposed to do his homework. It made me smile, I can understand the difficulty in putting down a page-turner. There truly was not much to do but to let the boy read, then regroup and march on. No damage done.

Science. Another experiment with crystals. Making a supersaturated solution of Epsom salts.

The Epsom salt crystals sparkled like snow.

Snow geese on their way south.

LA. The kids are picking up speed finding words in the dictionary. 

Taekwondo. Target practice.

Volleyball. Saara's last game.

Meanwhile ...

The week culminated with an awesome event - Saara's baptism. It was a great time of celebration.

'17/18 Week 12

      Fall is finally showing its colors. A short-lived cold spell started turning some trees yellow and orange and red. But now the air conditioning is running again and so are kids in short sleeves and flip-flops. 
      The week started off with us carving pumpkins. Next, we found ourselves at the doctor's office where Andrew got his vaccination shots. Poor thing could not lift his arms for a whole day, they were so sore. After that, we visited a local animal shelter. A sweet pup showed up on our porch, and we took him in. Actually, we wanted to adopt him, but the shelter found his owner, and we were more than happy to reunite the the owner and the pup. Finally, the kids had a taste of the early polyphonic music we have been learning about at a concert they enjoyed very much.
      Quite a week.

Girls finishing up the carving while boys play. Typical.

Science. Andrew's crystallization experiment is working. Water is producing sugar.

Yes, the humidifier is out again. The fluctuating weather which can not make up its mind took its toll on the kids.

Volleyball. One but last game.

On our way to take Pudding back to his owner.

A wonderful singing by a group from Estonia.