Wintermantel

 Last week we read A New Coat for Anna about a German girl and her mother just after World War 2- or so the book hints through story and pictures but does not elaborate on. Little Anna needs a new coat for the winter, but they have no money and no stores are open. Her mother decides to barter some of their belongings to get the coat made. They trade a gold watch for wool from a sheep farmer, but they have to wait until spring when the sheep are sheared. They trade other items for the spinner, weaver, and tailor. They dye the material red themselves by picking lingonberries. (Sadly, I only know of those berries from my trips to Ikea). The story is beautiful and teaches so many things! First the girls made a seasonal timeline showing how long and how many steps it took to make the coat. It wasn't ready until the next winter, so that's a great lesson in patience for those of us who fuss when we can't find something the day we want it. (me)

 

                  They also designed their own winter coats and we took the same measurements the tailor did in the book. My mother's maiden name is Taylor, so we talked about how many last names come from occupations, so someone in their family was likely a tailor, too.

                                  Chloe is in love with rainbows, thus the intricate hood.

                  Here's Colin's coat! One of my horn students gave it to the kids for dress-up.
             It's now in the garage due to extreme shedding. Oreo already does enough of that.

We watched videos on sheep shearing that even I had to admit look quite uncomfortable for the sheep, although every video assured us it didn't bother them. We watched a spinner and weaver at their crafts as well.

 Remember these? Oh, I had such fun with this when I was a kid. I bought it months ago waiting for the opportunity to introduce it to them. We all worked on the first potholder.

                I wouldn't dare hold a pot with that tiny thing, though! Now I'm realizing some of my
childhood gifts to people weren't ass functional as I thought. Chloe is working hard on a rainbow/ red, white, and blue cupholder.

 

We had a lot of fun reading books about bartering. One in particular called Dinosaur Deals had the girls all tight up in knots hoping the main character was able to trade for his T-Rex card before the card fair was over. We discussed trading goods verses services and they made a chart of all the bartering from their book. Some turned out to be gifts since Anna and her mother either gave or received with no attached expectations. This was a nice additional topic for the girls, since kids often think first about what they can get in return for something!

 Finally, we tried yarn printing. Pinterest to the rescue again! This project worked great. We found some scrap wood blocks and simply tied yarn around them. We painted the yarn and printed away.
Colin chose a long, skinny piece of wood I tried to talk him out of, then I realized...why? His way was perfectly great. Stop interfering, mom!!

 I was even being a stickler about using only 1 color, but when they started overlapping, I admitted once again I was being pretty narrow-minded. Their ideas were much better.

 Some painting happened on faces last week, too. Here are 2 little army soldiers eating lunch. We finally opened Colin's camouflage kit.

 And while we were meeting Colin's new teachers Thursday, I noticed this one had a random blue circle on her chin. We finally figured out it was from a marker top. You try and dress them nicely, put barrettes in their hair..but then a blue circle takes center stage.

 

My face is finally stitch free, but Hannah was quick to immortalize them in this portrait of me. 

 I'm so glad Colin is heading to pre-school tomorrow. We visited his classroom and he seems to really like the teachers. I've been running out of things he can do on his own while the girls need help with their math and reading. I'm also trying not to buy additional supplies and more creatively use what we have. Battleship is a great manipulative in many ways. I wrote various numbers and he had to fill in the rows with the matching number and color. My favorite thing about Colin lately is that he is never without his knee-length super hero socks.

 This week we are focusing on science out of a book called God's Wonderful Works. I love that it takes all the verses from the creation story and magnifies them into just about every category in science. It's like an overview before they go into depth later. I also want to clarify that in Orthodoxy, there is no fast hold to the view that science is incorrect...just that it is ever-changing. Could God have made the world in 7 days? Sure! Was 1 day equal to 1 day now...or is it more equal to a million or more years? That's a great question. So is the Big Bang possible? Is it essentially God creating?
Again, wonderful things to explore. In any case, it's important for the kids to know that science questions and answers...then questions again. I want them to feel confident in exploring and in awe of the created world and it's extreme detail and vastness and order.

 So this week is DAY1 of creation. First we focused on the senses since we appreciate the senses we are given to experience the world. I gave the kids brand new science notebooks and we looked at how Thomas Edison's notebooks looked. Chloe proclaimed them "boring," but I think she'll come around. Here she is drying her tongue to see if saliva or lack thereof affects how we taste. We're taking the opportunity to form a hypothesis and write down conclusions with these. 

 For sight, we read a book about optical illusions and they drew their own version of Face or Vase?  They had a great time with all the visuals. We also did the old favorite- items on a tray. They had 1 minute to look and then recorded what they remember being on it. For hearing, they spent time outside recording sounds they heard.

 We tested to see how well they could identify objects by touch with and without a sock on their hand. 5 pillow cases were lined up and they recorded all their guesses. They loved this activity most of all. Hannah was proud she recognized the toothbrush and Chloe was pleased with her correct potato guess.

 With school over today and time to relax, they began making Christmas lists....already.
We also celebrated Oreo's "birthday" and Labor Day with our viewing of The Empire Strikes Back.
: )

KID CONVERSATIONS

Ch-  When can I ride in a booster seat like Hannah?

C-  You have to be 7 .... and fat enough.

Hannah referring to her red, blue, and yellow paints. 

"Those are primate colors."

In the van passing a retail area.

Ch- Mom, do you want gold more or cash?  I see a sign that says Cash for Gold.

Walking with Chloe and Colin around a lake.

C- I bet there are pigs at this lake. Do you think we'll see pigs?

Ch- Pigs don't come around here. 

H- My hands are covered in sticky and I can't scratch my face where it itches.

C- Then just scratch your head.