Just face it

 It's our last week of the second 6 weeks. I can't believe when we pick up again, it will be October! My favorite month!  Right now I'm sitting on our picnic bench outside in some beautiful weather- the first pretty and comfortable day in a very long time, and I can begin to feel the pleasantness of fall.

This week we started a Parts of the Body series I kind of made up the weekend before in the orchestra pit during intermissions. This week we focused on our head! I mainly want the kids to wonder at the  amazing details of what God has made. I'm not sure how scientists can study the human body or really anything of the natural world without seeing the intricate creation and design behind it. All of this working together perfectly to form an entire planet of function and life...by accident? So instead of delving too deeply into diagrams and vocabulary words, I wanted them to understood how each part was designed to work, to appreciate it, and to start noticing how other things in our lives work- teaching them to teach themselves so to speak.

Before that, though, we added a United States map to their school board. We put push pins into every state in which we knew someone who lived there.

 Then Chloe asked at dinner once, "Why is that chicken there?"  Do you see it?

 Our little station in the kitchen. I try to post Chloe's preschool work. I also have a cleaning and laundry schedule up there, which is a laugh. It's been up there for months and I've followed it for maybe 3 days. They are organized well if I will ever follow them- and they're pretty, so they stay.

 On the first day of school, we learned about hair. We made a hair chart of several people we knew. This was a great chance to discuss characteristics as well as addition and even simple fractions for Hannah. How many out of 8 people have short, curly hair?

 We measured our own hair lengths and drew a portrait. This is Hannah's of course. I like that she also decorated her hair.

 

We also read several wonderful books featuring hair that I found in the library. Who would have guessed? This one really made me tear up when I read it to them. It's about a little Mexican girl who sacrificed her braids to earn money for her mother's new fishing net so they could have money to eat. I caught Hannah reading it again later, so I'm very glad these kinds of characters are available for them to emulate. We read a couple of silly ones about a girl who wouldn't brush her hair and grew a whole forest on her head. We also read two more emotional ones- one about a girl in Africa who desperately wanted braids with coins like all the older ladies in her community- and an inner city boy who had his head shaved so he could make his mother a wig to wear during their family picture. She was not going to participate that year because she was undergoing chemotherapy. The kids not only learned about different cultures and how important their hair is, but also learned compassion and love. You never know when a simple subject will bring so much good.

 

 The next day we learned about eyes. They were all excited to try on my glasses and frequently say they can't wait to get some. Part of me is sad to know they will most likely all need them at some point, mostly for selfish reasons. I was always frustrated growing up that I was recognized as the "the girl with the glasses" and I felt people couldn't really see my true face. Those glasses defined me too much. I want to see my children's true faces too, and not have to look at their pretty eyes through frames that will change their look. I don't want other kids to define them like I was- but hey, they homeschool and are surrounded by loving friends already, so perhaps that won't ever be a problem for them. And there are plenty of children wearing glasses out there who are perfectly happy.
Wow, I really went on a tangent there!

 I showed the girls some optical illusions (which line is longer than the other?) and we noticed how depth perception of lack thereof affects how we perceive things.

 My dad always enjoyed taking these kinds of pictures while we were growing up. The girls had no idea what I was doing, but they laughed like crazy when they saw the eye trick in the photos.

 We then talked about what it meant to lose eyesight entirely. I blindfolded each kid and gave them a simple task- like "go to the restroom and wash your hands." They got a real kick out of that and were quite good at it.

                                Lastly, we talked about all the pats of our eyes and their functions.

 I've always stayed away from magnetic letters on the fridge- drives me crazy! But it's a great way for Chloe to practice forming short words- and then we promptly put them away haha.

 The next day we studied mouths. We talked about the function of each type of tooth then ate apple chunks to pay attention to which teeth did what. We also read that children have 20 teeth and they were excited to find out they did indeed have 20.

 One book gave great instructions on caring for teeth so we practiced with a real toothbrush on the page. All 3 kids flossed that night without being asked at all.

                                 We made little teeth molds with plastic baggies and play dough.

 We even talked about saliva and it's function. We tried to mash up bread with water and without water to see the difference. Understandably, they wanted to keep this experiment out of their mouths.

 We took notice of which parts of our mouth helped form which letters. It even made me think a little bit! The girls were particularly excited about getting to make lipstick kisses.

 On Thursday they went to preschool and church co-op. Then Friday was a rainy cool day. Dax was off from work and we had some errands to run, so we took the day off and had a nice time. That night, we were surprised with a visit from our wonderful friend, Heather!! Remember her answering our cat interview questions? The kids showed her their schoolwork so far and crawled all over her with excitement : )

 Today is Saturday. How dare I have school? Well Dax is at work and we have fun plans later, so why not have some fun at school, too? We were left studying ears and noses. We read several funny books. And this sweet one, which was my favorite- about a prince with a big nose who repelled potential princesses and a princess with big feet who couldn't find a prince..until they met each other.

They had fun smelling a lime, a garlic cracker, and chocolate. We learned about nose hairs and how to properly clean out your nose- without eating the contents!!! The things we have to say, especially with a 3 yr. old boy in the mix. We looked at a simple diagram of the ear and learned about vibrations leading to their brain. They all stood in the den with their eyes closed while I slammed different doors in the house- they had to identify which room. That was entertaining for sure, and they were almost always right. Every door has it's distinct sound.

 We drew some simple comparisons with animals- this one is my work of art.

 We emulated a nose sneeze with a baby aspirator and green water, saying Aaaachooo!for good effect.

 We looked at Picasso's art and treatment of facial features. Then they cut out various eyes, ears, noses, and mouths from magazines. The only problem with this is that everyone in magazines are beautiful and therefore don't have super unique features, such as a crooked nose or crinkled eyes that would have made this more interesting. Sorry, pretty people!

 Turns out now matter what, facial features rearranged will always make for an odd look!

 Hannah did two.

 Chloe's Picasso.

 I've heard from so many who enjoy reading the blog. Thanks so much for taking an interest in what we're up to and we've loved sharing it with you. (It also helps keep me accountable and interested in documenting everything we do). See you soon : )

Cherry Blossoms

 This week we read A Pair of Red Clogs about a Japanese girl named Mako who ruins her clogs and tries to trick her mother into buying her new ones. Thankfully she realizes her transgression before she commits it and ends up minding her mother. Good decision, Mako!

 

After finding Japan on the map, adding the flag to our collection, and cutting out a girl wearing a kimono, we tried our own version of socks with clogs. I have to say, it's extremely uncomfortable.

 I set up a low table for the kids' lunch. Their kimonos were my sweaters wrapped with karate belts. :) They were also happy to have their water in real tea cups. Don't mind the broken blinds- all part of the future cleanup process with the house!  We also watched a video of a young woman giving a quick Japanese lesson on how to say things like "No way!" and "Wow!"  We tried to use them throughout the day, but I could barely remember it. They are seriously going to have to take any foreign language lessons from someone else.

 To give Hannah a break from flashcards and workbooks, we did some stuffed animal math. I tried to incorporate most things she's learned. They put the animals in sets, added them together, took out 1 out of 4 and did some simple fractions. We sorted them into married couples- haha. That was fun t watch. The kids had different ideas about who would want to be married to whom. The arranged them by "species" and by color- and in this picture, by size. I was surprised how much we could do with this- and it got them really moving as my directions got faster.

 Mako cracks her clog by playing a weather game with the other kids. How the clog lands predicts rain, sun, or snow. (I remember trying to predict things by throwing my stuffed animals around- and who can forget the Magic 8 ball, which I had always let myself believe just a little bit).

 We flipped our own uncrackable flip flops into the grass and predicted all sorts of weather.

 In the book, the illustrator mostly uses black pen and then sparingly uses certain colors, most consistently yellow. The kids tried their hand at this, too. Then we made tissue paper cherry blossom trees. During that, they listened to some traditional music and watched some Gagaku music clips. They loved watching that. We also read 3 other books set in Japan and noticed their similarities- traditional Japanese houses with hardly any furniture and no clutter ( sounds good to me), a love for nature, and one had a great lesson on not listening to what others define as success in life verses what you value most. I especially appreciate that being a musician. I will never be rich or make it big, but there is no greater thrill or more satisfying feeling than working hard to create something beautiful that will fill someone's soul with happiness. You just can't put a price on that.

 Thanks to a friend's suggestion, we took Friday to celebrate the Elevation of the Cross and followed instructions to make crosses from the Garden of the Theotokos. The kids were very happy to have a friend join in on school for the morning.

We had planned on a trip to a Hibachi restaurant, but the prices were pretty steep, and let's face it, if you're going to spend a lot on dinner it's really difficult to watch your kids not eat it. In any case, they were happy with their last activity, which was playing in their own sand (sugar) gardens. Why I bought a 10 lb bag of sugar I have no idea, but we've got plenty of sugar now. It was also a great distraction for the kids while Dax and I discussed more house decisions.

All in all, I was a little afraid that I would essentially be teaching the kids all the stereotypes of Japan verses what it really is today, but once you think about it, it's more important to preserve what is special and unique about a country rather than talk mostly about how modern it can be. And really it's all about exposing the kids to things that are different and wonderful so they can grow on that knowledge later.

Next week was originally slated for a fall unit study. Well, it's not even close to feeling like fall over here so I changed things up and we'll focus on the parts of our face and senses. I have a few fun activities in mind and can't wait to try them out.

On the Fly

 The last 2 weeks have been tough ones for us school-wise. I found out two weeks ago that my cousin passed away due to a motorcycle accident. She was just headed to work and a car backed out of a driveway. She was just 22. That's how quickly it can all end, and of course it hit everyone in the family hard. It's difficult to think about death when we know so little about it. Only faith and love can hold us through. I didn't know Quin that well as she grew into an adult, but I was privileged to get to organize and hang all of her artwork for the funeral services back in Tennessee. I had no idea she painted and was so creative. I heard she had always wanted a gallery showing, so we set it up just like a little museum. Her mom said this was an old glass door they had replaced. Quin wanted to salvage it from the trash and make something out of it. Even the funeral home staff kept commenting on how much they liked this window with all of it's 3-dimensional elements.

 This screen was really beautiful. She also had some clever and funny paintings as well as plenty of black and white sketches.

 This was also done on glass and probably my favorite.

 Here is Quin playing with my niece and nephew. Listening to everyone speak about her made me proud to be part of her family. It sounded like she had made a positive difference in so many lives.
I'll pray for her always and will be reminded of how she took care of people and made so many smile.

I returned to Texas to start rehearsing this!! There are so many beautiful moments in this musical. I get to play alongside old friends. And to see the audience so happy and uplifted when they leave is such a reward! So that was a very busy and emotionally up and down start to last week. We decided to take a break from school and resume the next week when our schedule had settled down.

Chloe got to visit her new classroom and finally be an official student in Mrs. Weber's class. (Hannah's teacher from 2 years ago and we love her!) That was last Thursday.

 Then this happened!!! Without going into all the details, basically half of our house flooded. There were almost 30 fans drying the house for 4 days.

 All of our stuff was unceremoniously dumped everywhere.

 And left quite a bit to cleanup. Nana graciously allowed us to live in her house for all those days so we had some nice family time. However, the insurance/restoration folks are having a hard time deciding on numbers and although we are back in the house and it is certainly liveable, we do need many major things replaced such as most floors and cabinetry. It's costing quite a bundle (which we don't have of course) but we pray God will provide what we need to put the house back at least to the value it was before.

 So the next week, we began school again at Nana's house. Hannah works on flash cards while Chloe has an assignment to make various shapes with Nana's thread spools. Use what you have, right?

 Contemplating math...

                                                While we goof around with the camera.

                                                                   Shah Rukh Khan

The kids got a little unexpected education when Nana got very interested in Bollywood. They all know some pretty fun dance moves and much more about Indian culture than I do. And this is their first movie star interest. Chloe has apparently looked up plane tickets with Nana so she can visit him and "follow him around."  Apparently he's the most major star there is, and quite a great guy in real life. I've heard he doesn't ever kiss the leading ladies in his movies because he is married. Now that's something you don't see every day!

 In the meantime, we focused on the Book of Creation project from the Garden of the Theotokos curriculum. I had the idea of painting the "days" on a large canvas I've been saving for the girls' room instead of making books. I thought wrong. We got off to a great start and the kids were very interested in learning about what God has created. We don't focus on how for now, but focus on looking around our world in wonder. Here they are painting light.

We also painted angels. The next day we added the firmament, then the waters. This is where it ended. I had envisioned something similar to what I painted for Colin's room a couple of years ago. I had forgotten it took me many weeks, by myself, and with the help of an art class to complete that. This wasn't looking so hot. The kids didn't know any different, but I could tell it was not going to come together in the end or be something I would like on the wall. In the meantime we were trying to move back into the house and it was Chloe's first week of school so we just couldn't focus very well. We may come back to it in the future, and maybe I shouldn't have given up- that's the trouble with schooling on your own- it's not a collaborative effort and so "right" answers on what to do are hard to come by!

 Back at home we were able to keep studies lively. Hannah chose do math in the bathtub.

 She came up with her own superhero whose powers are making colors, flying fast, and being invisible.

 I've had the idea for awhile to have a popcorn reading party. It's always associated with movies and a good time, so why not shift it to something I'd rather have them do than stare at a screen. First we had a popcorn pop quiz. I introduced them to Ramona the Pest. It was just as good as I remembered it. Beverly Cleary really knows how to capture the mind of a child. After we read a chapter, they all sat on the couch and if they answered a comprehension question right, I threw popcorn into their mouths. It was pretty fun :) And after that they were super pleased to grab their own books and bowls of popcorn. And I got to read my own book for 5 whole minutes! haha

Now we are at home with a clear week ahead of us- we hope! We're heading into the culture of Japan : )