To Outer Space and Ancient Greece

 Colin headed off for his first day of school. He's really liked it so far. I have this same picture of each of them on their first day.

He's all decked out in his superhero gear.

 

Most of the time, the girls and I head back home for piano lessons and school after we drop Colin off, but one day we went on a little nature field trip. 

This one loves the camera- and other people. She's so helpful and giving : )  

 This pup is sweet, too, but pretty lazy. I have no idea why she chooses this spot when I practice. It is loooouddd!

 

Colin loves Peter Rabbit and the Velveteen Rabbit. We think he looks exactly like the boy in the story!! 

                  We finally made a little pirate craft so Colin could complete his pirate badge.
                       Just an egg carton, play dough, paper, and sticks from the yard.

                  We ordered several badges they've earned and Dax presented them officially.
                  They're so cute and excited about those.

                                                       Some school tricks I found online.

 This kept Colin occupied for at least a few minutes! Coin rubbings.

This one I made up and turned out to be a good idea. It's probably already out there, but I should set up a blog where people can share their "use what you own" ideas for school.

 To complete science week where we left off, for the sense of touch, we made homemade play dough. It didn't turn out to be "fluffy as a cloud" like the instructions said, but it entertained the kids and was hands-on. That's good enough for me.

 The project I was most excited about was making galaxy shirts. There were plenty of tutorials online, but one particular girl's steps looked most like what the kids could handle. First we sprayed their shirts with bleach. We let them dry, gave them a cold rinse and dried them out again. The next day we added paint in certain steps to highlight the galaxies and space dust. Then we did the toothbrush trick and sprinkled on our stars. I think they turned out great. They've held up well in the wash, too.

 The girls wear them for night shirts- appropriately. : ) And Colin has worn his to school. The only thing I didn't quite notice is that we should have put cardboard inside the shirt before we sprayed bleach. So the backs have a couple of the original orange stain. Oh well.

We only got through half of the science plans, so we'll pick that back up the next 6 weeks. On to Greece! Dax planned all the lessons last week and he did a terrific job. He should know better because now I'll have to ask him to do more : ) The first day was a church feast day- the birth of Mary- or better known as Nativity of the Theotokos- "God-bearer." Since Mary is the patron saint of Greece, this was a great place to start. The kids sang her troparian (festal song) read a book and colored an icon. We also located Greece and talked about peninsulas. 

 

We also located Athens, Sparta, and Mt. Athos- where many monasteries exist and our own Father Justin recently visited. We read The First Marathon. We watched some of the New York Marathon online and the kids were very interested in who was passing whom. Our detailed Hannah commented on how they held up the banner at the finish line for the lady to break but they took it away when she ran up to it and she had wanted to see it break.

Of course some Greek Mythology was in order, so we read Pandora's Box and King Midas. They saw a few of the creatures typical in Greek myths and mixed a few animals of their own and named them. We made a list of animals we had learned about over the past year and grouped them according to habitat, then they chose their favorites. Hannah combined an eel and a tiger to make a "scooper." She also combined an elephant and shark to make a "cotle."

 Chloe was thrilled with this assignment and made several drawings, but this is her official "pipoppis" made from a hippo and an octopus. We also learned about Zues, Athena, and a few others. A mother on the school playground reminded me just how different homeschooling is when she asked what we were up to. I explained we were learning about Greece and how reading stories about the ancient gods was actually a challenge because of course they weren't real and how we compare that to our own beliefs.  The mom just smiled politely and moved on. I don't think ancient Greece and philosophy was quite on her radar for kids that age- haha, but really it's quite a fascinating subject for young ones with plenty to learn from.

 Doing this was a given. They announced they would wear them all day, but they were off in about 20 minutes. Colin declined to wear one. 

 

For their art project, the kids tried mosaics. 

 

We looked briefly at a few ancient Greek buildings and looked at the different styles of columns. 

Hannah wanted to try a freestyle column of her own.

              They cut out many laurel leaves for their Olympic wreaths. One of my
                      favorite sights is to see them chattering and hard at work.

We had to postpone them twice, but we finally squeezed in a few little Olympic games for them. We had watched a few videos of the modern games and I completely teared up when I saw the Chinese opening ceremonies again. So many people coming together to make something beautiful happen. That's why I love being a musician. We tried these games in Nana's back yard which had a little more space than our own. Colin is doing the long jump.

Chloe was super serious about the broom handle javelin.

 

                                                                    Plastic plate discus.

                          It's always more fun when the adults join in. Dax beat me in everything.

                                         They official receive their laurel wreaths.

This week we'll be studying basic nutrition, the digestive system, and the food pyramid. They've already informed me they know everything from watching The Magic Schoolbus, so we'll see if I have anything new to offer them ; )

 KID CONVERSATIONS

We received this in the mail. Hannah -  "Um, that's not real living."

This was on the cover of one of their Greek books. Since they first performed athletics in the nude, I said, "So, what do you notice he is missing in the picture??"  Hannah- "shoes?"  

We were looking at pictures having to do with time. One was a clock, one was needles and yarn (as in it takes time to knit a sweater) and one was a Viking ship. Chloe- "Because it takes time to vike."

Colin- "We're having sausage? I haven't had sausage in weeks!"