Book of Days

 Last week was our last week. To give Hannah more reading and writing practice, I did something I remember doing with my next door neighbor in 7th grade. We would write messages to each other and send my younger sister to make deliveries back and forth from porch to porch. I sent Hannah to her room and found a willing messenger : )

 I asked her questions and she gave me answers. I love how she decided to spell trampoline. She often hears "tr" as "ch"

 In lieu of Five in a Row, we did one of the unit studies from the Garden of the Theotokos curriculum. The kids really loved it. It's called Book of Days. In the Orthodox Church each day represents something holy. Of course Sunday is about the Resurrection and we take communion, so they made a chalice with gold material and decorations. I was really proud Colin completed his book. As a 3 year old, his attention span is quite short, but he was at peace concentrating on his book. The pictures I'm posting are mostly Hannah's work.

 Monday is designated for angels and we talked about their origin and the various types. The kids love hearing they have a guardian angel and the prayers asking angels for their help.

 Tuesday is for St. John the Forerunner (otherwise known as John the Baptist). We actually had dove stickers! Hannah's Jesus and John have glasses- a little ahead of their time.

Here are the girls singing their very favorite song from the cd we listen to every morning according to the day of the week. Chloe loves it so much, she can't help but dance : )

                                                 O Forerunner, O Baptizer
                                                 Holy Saint John, Pray for Us
                                                 You lived in the wilderness
                                                 You baptized the Master
                                                 Help us follow Him, too.
                                                 Help us follow Him, too.
                                                 Holy Saint John, Pray for Us.

 Wednesday and Friday are about the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus. The wonderful thing about Orthodoxy is its focus on the wonder and power of the cross. We cross ourselves, we wear the necklace, and we venerate the cross each Sunday. I remember loving this little crayon + eraser project in elementary school.

 Thursday we focus on the disciples. I found some they could cut out and surround Jesus.

 Saturday is for the departed. There is a story of St. Theodore. At a time with the king did not loved Christians, he contaminated the people's food. Since it was during Lent, the Christians were already not eating meat or dairy- and now they had no fruits or vegetables. St. Theodore prayed and was told in a dream to boil wheat, add spices and honey, and feed it to the the Christians. (this is the child's version) This food is called kolliva and served with a candle at Orthodox funerals in remembrance of God's deliverance. We made ours with rice and a ribbon for the candle. I let the kids pick out their ribbons and didn't realize until later that Hannah's said "Vacation Memories."  Leave it to her to pick out the one ribbon with words! Although I'm sure she didn't even notice : )

 I suddenly got on a TED talk kick and watched lots of interesting videos. Among them were some folks who talked about the creativity opportunities we perhaps forget to give children. I've also heard many people talk before about growing up taking apart radios, etc. to see how they work. I had an idea and rushed off to Goodwill. I bought a bunch of junk the kids are allowed to do whatever they want with. We call it the "Crazy Box." They've played with it twice now and it keeps them busy for hours! Chloe is usually chatting into the phone/answering machine while Hannah builds interesting contraptions with tape, wire, bungee cord, etc. Colin mostly bangs things around- and it's okay!

 For our off weeks, we've been having a good time relaxing and doing a few activities. We had a family movie night and the kids made pretzel and Fruit Loop snack necklaces. We've also been working hard on a special project for their room at Nana's house. I can't wait to share some pictures when it's done.

I've been sneaking in opportunities for Hannah to read. We make a daily list of things we'd like to do- some needs, some wants and it's Hannah's job to review the list and mark things off.

 Today we visited the Perot Museum. There are so many things to see, we bought a membership so we could come back and absorb it all over the next year rather than try to rush them through in one trip.

 At the sandbox, I realized that Colin's shoe is technically bigger than Chloe's now.

 The kids said this was their favorite part- never mind the space exhibit and the dinosaurs. Good ole sand is what they enjoyed the most. We still aren't interested in having it at home. Thankfully Nana's more tolerant.

See you next time!

Week 5- Madeline and more

 I'm posting this a week late due to my leaving my camera battery in Tennessee- and not being to upload the photos! Last week, we focused on the book, Madeline. I don't at all remember the book being about appendicitis when I was a kid, but that's really the story line. Of course it has a lot more to offer, too.

 For math we lined up our little people 2 x 2 just like Madeline and her little school mates.

 For art, we tried to construct the Eiffel Tower with marshmallows and toothpicks. Despite following the YouTube video we found, it was kind of a bust. The kids did learn about cubes, though, and did a pretty good job of following the directions. Chloe was most interested in this project. I realized perhaps the marshmallows needed to dry out for a day and they would be sturdier- didn't really work that way : ) It was fun construction time anyway.

                                The kids loved singing along with a counting in French video.

 Chloe decided to design her own Eiffel tower with other shapes. Way to take initiative : )

 Here is what Colin does during Math and Spelling for the girls. For his birthday, Grandma and Papaw offered to purchase several ipad games for him, so he has a lot of fun with those, and it's great that they're mostly educational.

 Underneath Colin's new loft bed has become a great new place for quiet learning. Chloe was working on patterns.

 

For Science this week, we did a very quick lesson on the parts of the flower- Madeline's friends bring flowers to her in the hospital. Since I didn't want to dig up the very few blooms we had, I grabbed the garlic we have curing on the deck. I didn't gauge how hot it would be outside, so we made it quick.

 

 

 We used the chalkboard for a nice large diagram and they found all the parts coordinating with their garlic plant and went inside to cut and glue a diagram of their own. Hannah insisted I add the veins on the leaf just like her friend Phoebe draws them, which is more accurate.

Somehow we managed to keep school going even when Dax's family came into town for a visit. Boy was Nana excited to have all her grandkids in one place- and extreme rarity! The had a full three days and the kids loved playing together.

 

 Hannah was especially interested in meeting her new cousin, Jacob who recently turned 7 and therefore would be closest to her age. They're chatting a little at the Fort Worth Stockyards.

 Colin was thrilled to suddenly have tons of wrestling buddies- 5 more to be exact.

 In Fort Worth some of us tried out the maze- which was fun to watch, but didn't seem too fun to complete in that heat!

 Weston and Colin show their serious side- the oldest and youngest Stokes grandsons.

 Chloe was most interested in hanging out with Weston who was willing to act silly with her- what a great cousin! But she also loves her Uncle Alex a lot and held his hand as we walked around.

 After the family left, things died down only a little bit. Since we ended up canceling our original plans for renting an RV and camping this summer, we offered each of the kids a "Special Day" where they get to pick a few things to do. Chloe picked Chuck E. Cheese, her favorite place in the world. On Sunday we went to our first Minor League ball game and had a great time. We called it Colin's Special Day and he was really proud to say it all evening. Tomorrow, Hannah has requested to eat lunch at Cracker Barrel so she could eat her beloved mac n cheese. She also wants to try the bungee cord at the mall- at as low a height as I can get them to make it! I love that their ideas are so easy and doable at this age.  This past week we are finishing up our last week of the 6 weeks! We're learning about the church days of the week as I want to make sure we're always learning about our faith and don't let it take a backburner to everything else. I'll post on it soon. As always, thanks for visiting with us!

Week 4- Independence

 Since we planned on heading out of town for the 4th of July, I lightened up on the amount of work.
Monday, we were still home, so talked about the basics of 4th of July. After our regular spelling and math, we read a book about Betsy Ross and the supposed origin of our flag. Then I pretended to be George Washington, ordering a new flag for my country. The kids designed their own versions.

 I was curious to know exactly how many states the girls knew and had them color the ones they did. We have recent connections to most of these states, but Pennsylvania? I have no idea.

 For our trip, the kids usually like to do a lot of coloring, but the pages fly everywhere. I found these handy binder boxes at a thrift store- 40 cents for all three!!  I printed up little cover pages with their requested favorite things- Hannah's is a picture of mac and cheese of course. : ) I filled the boxes with things to do.

 We read a couple of books on George Washington and colored a picture.

 

 

For the music portion of the week, of course we've been singing the Star Spangled Banner, but taking advantage of several hours in the car, we brought many of our patriotic cds, one of which I could brag I was on. : )

 Once at Grandma and Grandpa's lovely house complete with woods, lake, and deck, schoolwork had a pretty pleasant atmosphere.

 We used the front porch to make a store. Hannah's learning about the 10s place in math as well as different coins. So we used play dimes and pennies, lines up things from around the house and put price tags on them. The girls had to put the correct change on the item in order to buy it. They liked it, so we'll do more of that at home to really help them absorb the concept.

 We took a tour of Grandma's new school where she'll be teaching 3rd grade. The kids wanted to sit at the desks and have her teach a lesson.

 

                                 What a nice school, and I loved that the hallways were color coded.

                                        A lot of our time was spent just enjoying family.

                     For art, we made a few crafts with the cousins. Poster board paper airplanes...

                                and made glitter fireworks and hands/feet bald eagles on the dock.

                                      This year we tried a watermelon eating contest- so fun.

 On our way back home, we stopped for an official field trip to the Bill Clinton library in Little Rock, Arkansas. We'd heard it was mainly for adults and mostly full of things to read, but we were surprised with several things the kids could enjoy.

 They played in the cool fountains outside and we walked on the bridge over the Arkansas River.

 Inside we were excited to find that George Washington's personal copy of the constitution was visiting until Friday. No pictures were allowed, and we went into a quiet dark room to view it. He even had rare markings in pencil, highlighting parts he felt especially important. The book itself has been on quite a journey- what a perfect coincidence for this week's school!  In the Clinton portion of the library, Hannah recognized the seal from one of our books as well as the bald eagle we had read about just a few minutes before.

 In one section they had portraits of world leaders at the time of his presidency. I was happy when the girls immediately found China's flag and even Great Britain's since they learned about that at the church co-op. In general, Hannah was interested when I pointed out specific things. Chloe was interested in everything she saw and asked tons of good questions. I didn't always know the full answer, but I tried to give her enough to satisfy her curiosity. I was impressed she could focus on all this complicated information at all!

 Pretty views...

 Every day of Clinton's schedule was kept in binders. Dax found the Inauguration parade, which he marched in back in college. He also found the day Clinton arrived at the Knoxville airport at which Dax played in a welcoming band and shook Clinton's hand. My claim to fame was having played on the soundtrack to the HGTV special "Christmas at the Whitehouse" for the Clintons. So we ended up all having a bit of connection.

 Another great surprise for the kids was an entire room full of things celebrating George Washington. They tried "hoe-cakes" (small buttery pancakes smeared with honey) and wrote with quills.

                                   They rolled up beeswax candles and guessed who got purple?

                They played ring toss with rope and milk jugs filled with sand- an old game called quoits.
                I learn something new everyday.

              I'm ready for my exclusive meeting with the president. Guess he's a little late.

            The wardrobe of the 1st Lady- she looked great wearing these in the pictures, but in real life,  many of these looked pretty uncomfortable!

                  It's not a Clinton museum without a collection of saxophones. I can't wait to come back on my own someday and really read everything. It's pretty amazing what a huge job the presidency is. Regardless of one's support for who holds the office, it takes an amazing human to take want to take on such a task.

             Last but not least, Hannah drew her own portrait of George Washington, age 5.
Overall, I was surprised that even though we were light on written work this week, there was still lots to learn and absorb for the kids about one of my favorite holidays. And to me, experiences are worth more than anything else.

             Next week we begin Madeline- an old favorite!