It's been about 3 weeks since I've posted and we've been busy. Colin and I have an ongoing project in his room to make art letters. We make the letter into something that starts with that letter- Alligator, Blue/Buttons, Cat, Dalmation Dog. Since this picture we also have an Elephant, Feathers, and Grass.
He's never had a problem learning shapes and numbers, but something about letters stumps him. It's probably that the other two got so much attention on that and he being the third child just hasn't had enough personal time on it. But this is helping him along for sure. He's very proud to recognize letters now.
Our first week back we read
Another Celebrated Dancing Bear. It was a good tale of friendship and also introduced us to Russia and the circus. The kids learned and read about Russia and already had some familiarity since our church has a lot of Russian speakers. We listened to Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. I decided instead of trying to hit every subject, the kids would benefit from planning a project beginning to end. So they put on a circus. It had its ups and downs for sure!
On the first day, they planned their acts, with some tweaking from mom. The next day we worked out the details. They chose their own costumes and decided on snacks for our guests (Dad, Nana, and Byron the dog). Each day we had rehearsals (we even sneakily tried to teach Bryon to jump through a hoop- no luck) and the final day, we chose the circus music and decorated the living room! I had a final dress rehearsal with them before Nana came. I wasn't sure if this was a good idea because they might be a little too overwhelmed with preparation, but I want to instill in them that if you're going to entertain someone, it's good to prepare with care rather than throw something together- that's the musician in me : )
When they time came, they marched out to their circus music proudly, and then our clown broke down. Colin burst into tears and announced he was too shy. Oh no!!! We backed it up and had a little talk. The girls were really sweet to pat him on the back and keep the show going. He eventually got back in the swing of things but the show wasn't as clear cut as it was in rehearsals. That's how it goes haha Here's Colin pulling handkerchiefs out of his sleeve.
They did some limbo, balancing, and animal impersonations. And the final act was a magic show. Hannah made a ketchup packet mysteriously float up and down in a water bottle- pretty cool. Chloe mastered a slight of hand trick with some beads- she worked really hard on that. And the circus wasn't complete without a Disappearing Colin. Overall, I think they got some valuable lessons out of the whole thing.
For art that week, I printed out shapes from the internet we colored and cut and assembled into our own Russian cathedrals. The girls worked really hard on these. Mine is above. I couldn't resist doing one myself.
Hannah's
Chloe's
The next week we read my favorite childhood tale
Amos and Boris, and Ant and Elephant-type tale, but in my view with a lot deeper characters and bigger vocabulary. The last page of that book makes me tear up every single time. Amos the mouse begins his journey by building himself a boat and packing for a long trip. We discussed what one would actually take on a solo boat trip. For instance, bringing along food to cook wouldn't work without a stove. And bringing Candyland wouldn't be much fun when you're by yourself. The girls each made their own list under certain categories. It was fun to see what they came up with..and how they spelled it : )
Boris is a whale that ends up saving Amos when he loses his boat and floats in the sea. Amos is able to save Boris when he is beached several years later. We learned about whale migration, watched a few videos on whales and of course heard their sing-song communication. Hannah labeled a few of the different types of whales. In the book, Boris goes to a whale conference off the shores of Ivory Coast, so we read a book about that country and a couple of African tales. The kids didn't connect as much with that, but most importantly, they were exposed to a completely different lifestyle and once again realized how much they have and get to do in their own lives.
This past week, I went off the path again and decided to do Part 2 of our body series. Early own we explored all the different parts or our face and the 5 senses. This time we focused on bones, muscles, and blood. Here the girls try out their elbow joints and biceps with some arm wrestling.
I bought a two-sided body puzzle awhile back. I got a little impatient with them taking too much time and playing around rather than working on this, but eventually we got it done. One side is the skeleton. The other side is organs and bloodstream.
We learned about the layers of skin, follicles, melanin, everything. I doubt they'll maintain the vocabulary, but at this point simple introduction to function and appreciation for science is good. Here Colin is testing to see if Hannah can feel his super light touch with a paintbrush.
Testing more muscles. Or has Hannah learned levitation?
They learned about red blood cells and white blood cells.. and bacteria (the black). We watched a video of a white blood cell chasing bacteria and consuming it- pretty incredible under the microscope. The kids wanted to know when we'd have our own. Maybe a future Christmas present! Hannah suddenly got very upset in the middle of our discussion. We had been talking briefly about how certain diseases break down the body and the amount of white blood cells decreases. I kept it simple and didn't at all mean to be upsetting. After many tears and calming down, she admitted she was worried about those things being n her body. We talked it out, but also talked about how biting your fingernails and eating the contents of your nose (both things I never realized I'd have to talk so much about) is not a great idea. Chloe's eyes got very big- she's the biggest culprit- and she vowed never to do it again! We'll see..
Hannah created her own skeleton for an imaginary animal. She named it Tritosopus.
And they colored a skin diagram. We read plenty of books and could have read many more.
Finally, we made our most important project. They are finally old enough to grasp the concept of Lent, and I wanted to make it very visual. Since they loved Mary's Starwalk during the Nativity Fast, this will work well, too. It's a calendar marked with important events and days during Lent with a representative icon. A girl of Hannah's creation will walk her way through Pascha (Easter) all the way to Pentecost. I plan on learning a lot during this time, too.
Next week, I decided to let them choose their own topics to learn about- in the meantime, they can earn a Quest badge for their work. Colin chose to learn about pizza- his favorite topic and food. Hannah wants to learn to cook. And Chloe chose watercolor. I think we'll have fun, but it will take quite a bit of balancing of children on my part.
