Along The Crooked Path

by request, more cute baby pics

2012-01-30T16:06:00.000-08:00

Caving into peer pressure and posting a couple more pictures of baby Rosebud. I'm hindered by several factors: 1. my camera totally sucks -- it's broken, in more ways than one, including the fact that I can't see anything but a black blur in the view finder, the fact that the view finder, bad as it is, is actually off subject -- no matter how carefully I center subjects, they wind up with heads or feet cut off. Oh, and the fact that the light meter no longer reads accurately, so the auto-flash function either doesn't work when it needs to, or goes off when it doesn't need to and washes everything out.

and

2. The vast majority of the time Rosebud is like this:

Seriously, it's like the kid is narcoleptic. Which works for me, I'm the most well-rested new Mama on the planet! No lack of sleep around here. I know babies are SUPPOSED to sleep a lot, but neither of our boys seemed to know what a nap was, nor did either of them sleep longer than 1 1/2 hours before waking and demanding to nurse until they were about 3 years. Rosebud has already settled into a pattern of only waking every 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours per night (yes, you read that right, she's only waking ONCE during the night to nurse), then goes right back to sleep. It's hardly even disturbing to my sleep. Heck, I haven't slept this much since....um....before conceiving J. Which is GREAT for being well rested! But not so great for photo opportunities, especially when the request is "more pictures with her eyes open, please".

Most of my good photos wind up having Zoo Boy in them. He's crazy mad in love with his little sister (tho don't tell him I said that, he'll deny it for sure). Which makes for totally adorable photos that I'm just nuts for, but also means all our photos sort of look the same.

Totally off topic, but check out the skin tone difference in those two kids!! Both J and Zoo Boy have The Map Man's pasty white German complexion. Rosebud's complexion is just like mine. She's also going to have brown eyes, I'm pretty sure, or at the very least hazel like mine, unlike the blue in all our men-folk. Hair color is still a mystery -- I was born with very dark hair which lightened over time, The Map Man was born with very light hair that darkened over time (the same with the boys). Rosebud doesn't have enough hair to even make an educated guess (although the Pediatrician says she's going to be blond, due to her lack of dark eyebrows, we know that's pretty much genetically impossible, so we're not betting on it).

Sorry, that's all I've got for today! Hopefully things will pick up a bit once we start getting her out in the world a little -- if nothing else, other people with GOOD cameras will start having access to her.

auditions

2012-01-30T05:53:00.000-08:00

To add chaos to our already busy lives, we decided to have a baby right in the middle of Summer Program Audition season (for ballet). This time of year all the major ballet schools are auditioning for spots in their summer dance programs. Summer dance is a great way for students to experience other schools, instructors, and programs, and gives them a taste of what a career in dance feels like -- training from dawn to dusk and living and breathing dance all day for a couple of weeks. The age ranges of the programs vary, as do the length -- older kids have intensives that last for 5 or 6 weeks, including room and board. Most schools also have programs geared at younger dancers, some with and without room and board. J's at that in-between age where he could qualify for either type of program, but given his relative inexperience (he's only been dancing for 2 years) and immaturity, we've decided that a day-program at the younger dance level is the best fit for him. This has reduced the number of appropriate programs greatly.

Number one on his list of preferences is the American Ballet Theater's (ABT) Young Dancer program, which is held for 2 weeks in New York City for dancers that are 9-11 years of age. Auditions were held this past weekend in Boston, and J attended along with a bunch of his classmates (see photo above). His instructors drove him up and back -- I really wanted to be there, but Rosebud still can't go out in public yet. I hear he did great at the audition, and suspect he will be offered a spot in the program, but the expense of having to stay in NYC for 2 weeks means that we'll only be able to afford to send him if they give him a scholarship (which I figure is fairly unlikely, but you never know!). So everyone keep your fingers crossed for that! We should hear back sometime in the next 10 days, then we can decide which other programs he will audition for this season.

Last summer he attended the 2 week intermediate intensive at his regular ballet school (plus the one-week Modern Intensive). Honestly, I'm OK with him doing that again, and continuing his private lessons through the summer (the expense would come out about the same). He's still young enough that I feel like he's got plenty of years ahead of him to attend programs at other facilities. But since this is the last year he qualifies for the young dancer program at ABT, I figured we'd give it a shot, as I'm sure it would be a very valuable experience for him, and give him a taste of what living in a big city is like, which can only serve to help him in deciding whether or not ballet is a suitable career for him, or if he'd rather keep dancing as a hobby rather than a profession.

the cat who wanted a baby

2012-01-29T06:17:00.000-08:00

Above, Linus the cat and "his" baby, Rosebud.

Linus has never had a normal life. I don't think he knows he's a cat. He's not quite human either, of course, but some sort of strange human/cat hybrid. I bottle-raised him from the time he was a day old -- a woman found him and his brother, newly born, in the trunk of her car, after seeing their mother jump out of her back window while she was driving. She tried giving them milk and brought them into the veterinary hospital where I worked the next day -- Linus's brother had eaten quite a bit of the cow's milk, and he ultimately didn't make it. (You just can't feed a kitten cow's milk and expect it to survive.) But Linus had not eaten well, so he survived, and I raised him on kitten milk replacer. He went everywhere with me, since he needed to be fed every couple of hours. He went to restaurants in my pocket, he went to dog shows in my car. I was pregnant with J at the time, so Linus was still quite a young cat when J was born, and I guess he figured J was his littermate. They were inseparable, and the vast majority of the photos I have of J (and subsequently Zoo Boy) as babies has Linus in them as well. From that point forward, Linus only wanted to be with the kids, he pretty much stopped having anything to do with me. Instead, he became the world's best kid's cat -- he let them dress him up, stick toy kittens on him as though he was nursing them, and fawn all over him.

About 2 months before Rosebud's birth, Linus suddenly took an intense interest in me again. He started following me around, crawling all over me whenever I sat down, sleeping up against my belly at night. He started greeting me at the door when I came home, and watching me intently whenever I was at home. It confused us for the first week or so, then we figured it out -- he somehow realized I was pregnant and was waiting for the baby.

Now Rosebud's here, and Linus doesn't really want much to do with me anymore. Why would he, he's got the baby he wanted at long last!

family photos

2012-01-26T07:24:00.000-08:00

Just a few random shots from the past week of us all enjoying having our Rosebud with us.

purple belt

2012-01-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

In the midst of all the birthing chaos, The Map Man managed to get Zoo Boy to his karate belt test, which was held the day after Rosebud was born. Here he shows off his forms in his final moments as an orange belt.

Zoo Boy receives his certificate and belt from Master Ken.

Our new Purple Belt.

7 days (aka, our adventures in the NICU)

2012-01-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

Our first picture as a family of 5.

I thought it would be good to document our hospital experience. Rosebud was technically a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) baby, even though she never spent more than a few minutes at a time in the actual NICU room (and only with one of us along to "supervise"). We joked that she was the most ridiculously healthy NICU baby ever, and everyone agreed -- the only reason she was admitted there was because she had an indwelling IV catheter for her antibiotic treatments. But it did mean that she couldn't leave the birthing center at all until she was done with all of her medications. Which, given that I was discharged on day 3, presented a few challenges.

Day 1: Rosebud's birthday was a very long day that started with her birth at 4:51 am. She was only with me for about 10 minutes after birth until she was whisked away (with The Map Man in tow) to the NICU for testing and treatment. When she returned after all the poking and prodding and trauma, she slept until I woke her up at mid-morning to make sure she had a good feeding (she'd only had a couple sips from me right after birth). Fortunately, she was a very good feeder right from the start, and never gave us any reason for concern there. Later that morning, the boys came for their first visit, along with Laurel and her girls. They all had a turn or two holding her and gave her birth gifts. Then in the afternoon, I got to take a shower (HEAVEN!!!) and The Map Man's parents came to visit and fuss over her. At this point, we still thought the antibiotics were just a preventative, and would be discontinued when all the lab results came back, and we expected to go home on Sunday morning.

Day 2: Mimi, Aunty H and cousin K came to visit in the morning, and while they were there we received the news that Rosebud's lab work was showing unexpected results and there was a possibility that she might need to stay, although the details were still unclear. The boys came back for another visit, too, and got to sleep at home that night with The Map Man. Uncle Jeff came to stay the night with us at the hospital, and we all cheered on the Patriots to their victory over the Broncos. This was my last "official" night in the hospital.

Day 3: This morning the weekend Neonatalogist came in and sat down for a chat with us. He explained what the lab results did and didn't mean, and explained that since the infection was in the umbilical cord as well as in the placenta, chances were really good that Rosebud was also affected. I pointed out that the blood culture was negative, but he said that it could have been a false negative result due to the bag of antibiotics I was given during labor and delivery. While The Map Man and I strongly agreed that we wanted Rosebud to get the full dose of antibiotics to protect her, I was very upset at not knowing what this would mean in terms of my being able to be with her, care for her, and breastfeed her. I had a consultation with the lactation consultant to discuss options. Then I had my friend Laurel come over for a visit -- she spent several hours with me and basically talked me off the ledge and helped me adjust my viewpoint back to taking everything one moment at a time. We created a little wardrobe for Rosebud by cutting the arms off of a few tops on the side her catheter was in and decorating them with sharpie markers. My OB discharged me, but arranged for me to stay one more night in that room, something I was told I could take day by day as a "boarder" so long as there was room on the ward. The boys came for another visit before going to Laurel's for the night so that The Map Man could stay with me and Rosebud.

Day 4: We were awakened at 5 in the morning to the news that we had 2 hours to get out of our room. So much for day to day. Rosebud was due for an infusion at 6, so I grabbed a fast shower (the last I'd have until Thurs night) and went with her for her treatment while The Map Man cleared all of our belongings out of our room. Unfortunately, Rosebud's catheter was not functioning properly and needed to be replaced. So more torture for the poor little girl. Luckily this was the last day they needed to draw blood, so at least that part was done.

They parked us in a corner of the NICU for a bit, but then moved us out to the regular nursery when things got busy in the NICU. It was a relief -- it was warm and stuffy and crowded in the NICU itself, and there was really no reason we needed to be in there. It was much more comfortable in the nursery, and we took up residence in a couple of rocking chairs and waited to see what the day might bring. When the Neonatalogists did their rounds, we discussed her treatment and my intention of staying with her. They mentioned that there were several families in the same position, and Rosebud's nurse promised to fight for us to get a bed for the night, although there was only one available for all who wanted it. Later in the day, the Drs informed us that we would have the available room that night (which was Monday) and Wednesday night, but that another family would have a turn on Tuesday night. The room was pretty lousy, sort of a closet with a bed and sink, no toilet or shower or window, but it had a real bed, and when the boys came to visit that evening, they got to have some fun interaction with Rosebud. The Map Man brought the boys home for the night, and Rosebud and I got as much sleep as we could in the stinky little room, getting up every couple of hours to traipse across the hall to the NICU for her treatments.

Day 5: This was our "hospital hobo" day. Since we had no room for the night, we settled into our rocking chairs in the nursery and prepared to wait it out. I was quite resolute that I wasn't leaving the hospital. The Map Man was running out for meals for us, and I was making the best of the public restroom just outside of the Family Birthing Center. The boys spent the day with The Map Man's parents and the night with Laurel -- since we didn't have a place to be, they couldn't come to visit. When the night shift came on, Rosebud's nurse asked me what my plan was, and I told her this WAS the plan. So I spent the night sitting in the rocking chair, holding and feeding Rosebud, only leaving her to use the bathroom as needed. I sent The Map Man home to get some sleep around midnight since everyone seemed OK with me stubbornly sitting in my rocker. It made for a very long night, but we all survived it. An entire night in the nursery was certainly an eye-opening experience, and very confirming that I'd made the right decision to stay, and to always have one of us with Rosebud during treatments.

Day 6: The Map Man came back early with breakfast for me, but wound up having the throw it out because I was in the middle of the ordeal of trying to get another new catheter into Rosebud. First we had to pin her down and try to save the old catheter, which was very traumatizing for the poor little girl (and her poor old mother), then 5 different people tried to place a catheter but kept blowing her veins. Finally the Neonatalogist came in and place a catheter in a large vein in her leg. Which meant that it was less likely to blow and need replacing, but also meant that she could more acutely feel her IV treatments, which became very unpleasant for her. Poor little thing. Half way through the day we were told that we would not get to have the room we were promised for that night, which was a real bummer, but we figured we'd survived this far, we'd make it a bit farther. We rearranged childcare plans for the boys, then rearranged it again when suddenly we WERE able to get the room. The boys came for a short visit that evening, then went back to Laurel's for one more night so The Map Man could stay with us. We actually got quite a bit of sleep that night, as Rosebud shifted her schedule to sleep for two back-to-back 3 hour stretches.

Day 7: We woke up on the home stretch! After Rosebud's morning treatments we napped a bit more in our room until we had to check out at 11. Then we settled into the nursery to await her last treatment at 4pm and her discharge. As it got closer to 4, I became very antsy and found it impossible to sit still. I couldn't believe how physically ramped up I felt. Finally 4 came, and she got her last treatment, got her catheter removed, and we signed all the papers we needed to sign. The Map Man warmed up the van, and I carried her out of the Family Birthing Center at long last!

Home at last!!!! The boys fuss over their sister, they were as happy to get her home as The Map Man and I were.

We need to keep Rosebud away from others for a couple of weeks, since any fever that might start is going to be treated aggressively, so better to keep her away from other germs for a bit, just in case. We're watching her temperature to make sure it doesn't start going up, but otherwise we're just living our lives and loving our new little flower! We're looking forward to being able to take her out visiting and show her off a bit once we're done with our little "quarantine" period. But for now it's a whole lot of snuggling!

Rosebud's birth story

2012-01-21T17:43:00.000-08:00

I've included some photos of Rosebud's first couple of hours -- nothing graphic, so don't worry. (This first is of me holding her for a quick photo after they first bundled her up -- I got to hold her a little when she first came out and The Map Man was dealing with the cord, etc, but of course neither of us were thinking of photos at that point!)

I went into labor the morning of Wednesday, January 11. When I got out of bed at 7am, I lost my mucous plug, and contractions began soon thereafter, although they weren't particularly organized. We went about our day as scheduled, although I did call The Map Man to come home from work at noon, just so I wasn't driving around in labor in case things suddenly got serious. While we sat in the ballet studio during J's classes, the contractions settled into a good solid pattern of every 5 minutes for about a minute each. I called my OB on the way to pick up dinner, and since I was going to be a VBAC, she wanted me checked at the hospital, so we took a drive over there around 6pm. They confirmed that I was in early labor, but I hadn't really dilated yet, so I convinced them to send me home until my scheduled induction the next morning at 7am. We dropped the kids off at Laurel's (our incredibly wonderful friend and support system!) and went home, where I continued to labor at about the same level all night, but also managed to get in a couple hour's worth of sleep.

(This is a photo I must have taken of The Map Man and one of our nurses working on Rosebud at the warming table in our labor/delivery room. Honestly, I can't remember taking it, or even having had the camera in my hands, but apparently I must have!)

We awoke to snow and ice and a treacherous drive to the hospital. The highway was closed due to a serious accident, so we poked along on back roads and called to warn them we'd be a little late. My labor was still in the quite early stages, but we discovered that I was dilated to 2cm when I was examined, so I was pretty thrilled with that. They hooked me up to pitocin and began augmenting the contractions, which picked up right away into a good solid rhythm of every 3 to 4 minutes for about a minute. We spent some time walking in the hallways. My OB checked in on me around noon, but I was still only at 2cm. She broke my water at that point (and I have to say, the fluid gushing out of me for my subsequent contractions was by far my least favorite part of my labor -- I found it quite disgusting, actually). They continued increasing the amount of pitocin. At some point I started running a fever, which continued to climb throughout my labor until I was about 102.5 a couple hours before pushing, at which point they hung a bag of antibiotics on me. Rosebud was giving them a really hard time with the remote monitor, she kept shifting her position, and finally they asked to place an internal fetal monitor, which ended my ability to walk in the halls, but I could still sit on my birth ball or the edge of the bed to labor.

(Rosebud on the scale for the first time -- 8lbs, 7oz.)

My OB checked on me again around 9pm and found me to be at 5-6 cm. I was absolutely thrilled -- so far I had been managing the contractions without pain meds and felt like I could keep going for awhile more like that. However, Rosebud's heart rate had started dropping at the peaks of the contractions, and they realized that she too was running a fever. They wanted to push my pitocin even further, and they suggested that now was a good time to get the epidural, as not only might it relax me and get me to dilate faster, but also would also ensure that if I did wind up needing a c-section, things would go much smoother if the epidural was already in place. I debated over this for awhile (I was going through a period where I could not make up my mind about anything, The Map Man said it was a definite shift in my attitude). Finally I did ask for the epidural (around 9:45), and got it at 10:30. What a horrid experience that was -- at that point my contractions were 3 minutes apart and 2 minutes in duration, plus I was on a blood pressure cuff that kept triple-inflating because my blood pressure had shot up so high (due to my fever), and I was shaking uncontrollably also due to the fever. That wasn't exactly conducive to relaxing and holding still while they stuck a big needle in my back. But I got through it with help from The Map Man and a really wonderful nurse, and soon I was comfortable, although still shaking. Warm blankets helped me relax enough to be able to sleep.

(Rosebud receives her first IV antibiotic infusion on a warming table in the nursery.)

At midnight the OB checked on me again. I was still at 5-6 cm. Everyone was getting worried about our temperatures and the heart decelerations, and I had a strong impression that if things didn't get moving, I was going to wind up with another c-section by dawn. I tried not to let that bother me, reminding myself that a healthy baby was the important thing, and I agreed to do whatever my OB decided was right. We went back to sleep for awhile. Around 2 am on Friday morning, I began feeling a lot of pressure in my vaginal area. I told the nurse and she checked me, but felt that I was still at the same dilation level, although my cervix seemed to be completely thinned out. The pressure continued to increase, and they woke my OB and had her come check me around 3am. She said "almost there!" and did the happy "almost there" dance. I heard her tell my nurse "we're pushing in 10 minutes," so I woke up The Map Man by saying "Hey, honey, wake up, we're having a baby!"

(Our sweet little Rosebud, back with a very happy Mommy a couple hours later.)

I began pushing at 3:15am. Our nurse had a couple of other nurses join her as back-up. She assured me that I was pushing correctly. I couldn't believe how much it hurt, or how strong the need to push was, but I still didn't feel like it was really going to happen until my OB came in. Then I shifted into a whole different gear -- she sat down and said "alright, we're having this baby right NOW." And a few pushes later, at 4:51am, out came Rosebud! I could tell we were getting close when I heard The Map Man begin choking up -- he was counting for me during my pushes, and I knew that he must see her. I had my eyes closed and was very focused on what I was doing, but very clearly was thinking "I can't believe I'm doing this!" The feeling of seeing her beautiful little self placed up on my belly was the most amazing thing!!!

Her fever was as high as mine, and they decided to send the placenta off for pathology and start her on antibiotics, just in case, although everyone assumed her fever was due to mine. My own fever dropped immediately after giving birth. They let me nurse her quickly (she latched on like a pro from the start!), then she went with The Map Man and the pediatric team to the nursery for evaluation, blood tests, catheterization, and her first doses of antibiotics. We were all shocked when the pathology report showed a severe infection in both the placenta and the umbilical cord. Even though Rosebud's blood culture came back negative, they feared that it might be a false negative due to the antibiotics I received during labor, so it was determined that she should stay for a full 7 day course of antibiotics. But more about our adventures in the NICU later!

she's here and we're home!

2012-01-20T17:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry to leave you all hanging and wondering!

Our Rosebud was born at 4:51 am on Friday, January 13, weighing in at 8lbs 7oz and measuring 21 1/2 inches long. I'll be posting MANY more photos, her birth story (I did it! I got my VBA2C!!), and our adventures in the NICU (purely precautionary, there's not a thing wrong with this cutie pie!) in the coming days, but right now we are just THRILLED to all be home and together at last! We got home last night, and are all dripping in love with our adorable, sweet baby girl!

changing table and baby update

2012-01-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

The boys put together a changing table for their little sister today. Well, OK, so the changing table is really for their big mother -- at my age, I just don't feel like getting down on the floor or bending over my bed to change her, so for the first time in our parenting history, The Map Man and I decided to buy a piece of baby furniture. (All our babies have slept in bed with us until weaning, so we've never had a need for traditional nursery furniture.) Luckily for us, the Man's office had gifted us with a large enough gift certificate that all we actually paid for was tax and shipping, so it was pretty painless. And made a nice project for the boys.

So, I know everyone is pretty much waiting for me to announce the birth of little baby Rosebud. As my babies always do, she is making us wait until she is good and ready. I went into labor with J on my due date (which would be this coming Tues or Weds for Rosebud). I never did go into labor with Zoo Boy, and chose a repeat c-section at 42 weeks with him (as opposed to being induced for a VBAC with a 10lb + baby). This time I've agreed to induction just a couple days after her due date, so she'll be on her way one way or another as of Thursday. She's measuring a little over 8lbs at the moment, we're all guessing about 8 1/2 lbs by the time she's born, and my chiropractor reassures me that her head does not feel large.

I feel like I really could go into labor anytime. At my most recent appointment yesterday afternoon, I found out that I'm 50% effaced (cervix thinning) and that her head is low and well engaged with the cervix, so even though I wasn't dilating yet, that could start really anytime and I should progress nicely when it does. I've never been told that my baby's head was low and engaged before (not even when I was fully dilated and pushing with J!), so I'm feeling very positive and confident that I'll get my VBAC this time. I have an appointment with my chiropractor on Tuesday mid-day, she'll do some voodoo to try to ease me into labor, then I have a doctor's appointment later that afternoon where she'll do some voodoo of her own.

So it'll be soon, one way or another! And now we're ready with a handy place to change her when she gets here!

We're all very excited and ready to welcome baby Rosebud into our family. I will try to post a photo from the hospital with The Map Man's smart phone.

THE belly shot (the one and only so get it while you can)

2012-01-04T16:21:00.000-08:00

And there you have it, a 39-week pregnant belly. For those of you who have seen me at +80lbs during the pregnancy with each of my boys, this isn't too terribly shocking -- +27lbs just isn't anywhere near as dramatic.

Stay tuned, I'm bound to have exciting news sometime soon!

resolutions (or lack thereof)

2012-01-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

Every year for the past half dozen or so I've posted a year-end wrap up where I post progress on goals I'd set at the start of the year, and then I post again in a few days with my goals for the coming year. I've always enjoyed both reviewing the year and looking ahead, but I'm changing that all this year. In fact, I'm not even going back to read what goals I had set for this year, because it's all entirely beside the point now.

With this pregnancy throwing us all for a loop, generally changing the future "face" of our family, and making me feel like I've accomplished something just by getting out of bed every day, I can pretty much guarantee I achieved none of whatever goals I set for myself for 2011. At the same time, I've come more and more to understand that it's not about what you do or do not accomplish, or how you go about accomplishing it, but rather that you are living your life in the moment, every moment, regardless of what that moment brings your way. That's a pretty huge leap for an over-planning dreamer like me, and while I've always known that I WANT to live my life that way, the actual implementation has been a process. I think I'm close.

So I have no goals for 2012. Oh sure, I have wishes, and hopes, and a general feeling of how I can see things going for us. But I also am 100% committed to just taking life as it comes this year, living in the moments as they happen, and enjoying my family, our farm, and the lives we have built together to the absolute fullest, every moment of every day.

And that's my one and only resolution for this year. Just to BE, and to be OK with whatever will be. I'm pretty sure it's going to be an amazing year, and I don't want to miss a single minute of it thinking of what could be or could have been.

Wishing you all a joyous, present New Year!

holiday happiness

2011-12-31T14:42:00.000-08:00

A quick run-down of our holiday festivities this year.

The boys sack out in front of the fire during our long-night observance. (We don't use electricity so the only light was from the fire and candles -- and the camera flash in this photo.)

The next night, lighting our Yule Log (complete with our wishes for the new year, which go up in smoke to the universe, or the gods, or the fates, or whatever it is that you happen to believe).

The boys and their friend Tree Elf in Santa's sleigh -- we go to visit Santa with Tree Elf every year, it's one of our favorite holiday traditions.

The kids in front of Santa's tree in his workshop.

The boys at The Map Man's parents' house on Christmas Eve.

Our tree on Christmas morning. Not only did the boys pick out our tree this year, but they were also completely responsible for decorating it. J made an origami angel for the top, and they decided not to use lights on the tree this year to conserve electricity.

The boys and their cousins at my parent's house on Christmas Day.

So we managed to survive another holiday season! This was a tough one, with my feeling fairly unable (and unmotivated) to do much more than absolutely necessary, but fortunately the boys chipped in and did quite a bit of the preparation and kept the spirit of the holidays alive around here.

Next year will bring a whole new set of challenges, with a toddler around....

Happy Hanukkah!

2011-12-21T04:16:00.000-08:00

latkes

2011-12-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

Wow, was this fun!

After our story work wrapping up our Torah unit today, we sat down together to the read the picture book Grandma's Latkes, by Malka Drucker, illustrated by Eve Chwast. In the book the grandmother teaches her granddaughter how to make latkes for their Hanukkah party, and while they cook, she also tells her the Hanukkah story. The book ends with the recipe for her latkes, so of course we had to make some right away!

We first grated 3 large potatoes (Zoo Boy, above) and one small onion (J to the left). Then we added 2 beaten eggs, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of pepper. We stirred it all together and let it sit for 10 minutes to thicken, then poured off the extra fluid (there was quite a bit, our potatoes were juicy!).

Then we heated up some vegetable oil in a frying pan and put the mixture in by the rounded tablespoon. The boys commented again and again how much fun it was to cook these -- I've clearly been negligent in the cooking department with them lately. I'm going to have to make a point to carve out some schedule time in the spring to make sure we include some cooking on a regular basis. I just haven't felt up to it this fall, what with the constant nausea and retching and all....

Our latkes frying away in their oil. The recipe made an alarming number of them, actually, I suspect our chickens are going to be enjoying latkes for a bit....

The boys were game to try them, but neither they nor I were particularly impressed by them. We'll sample them again tonight when we do our little Hanukkah celebration, with some apple sauce and sour cream, maybe we'll be more keen on them then.

Naomi and Asher at Hanukkah

2011-12-20T09:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I told the Enki Education Torah Unit wrap-up story, "Naomi and Asher at Hanukkah." In the story, Zeidy (the grandfather who told all the Torah stories to his grandchildren between Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah) finishes up his last story, then the family prepares for their Hanukkah celebration, polishing the Menorah, dipping candles, playing Dreidel, and making latkes. The story ends with the start of the family's Hanukkah celebration. Above is J's story drawing, of Asher polishing the Menorah, Naomi in the kitchen preparing to make the latkes, and the little children playing Dreidel. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing, of the family sitting around the table, ready to light their Menorah.
I think both boys truly captured it. What a great way to end our Torah unit Good Book!

menorah

2011-12-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

As part of the preparation for our semester-closing Hanukkah celebration, yesterday the boys created their own Menorah from a hunk of trunk (one of the casualties of the Halloween snowstorm -- I'm glad to see it put to good use, I miss that tree!!). They used a hand-drill to create the hole for our Shamash candle. The Map Man later jumped in to help them use the electric drill for the other 8 candle holes -- the hand drill proved to be a bit exhausting with the large bit we needed to use.

J inserts the Shamash candle -- he can't wait to get to light it!

Our finished Menorah.

The candles were dipped previously as a part of another project -- we've done enough candle-dipping over the years (with many, many hand-dipped candles still lying around) that I didn't see any benefit in dipping more for this project. I figured the wood work was more important since we never seem to get enough of that sort of thing.

the battle of Jericho

2011-12-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

This was it, the final story of our epic! The Battle of Jericho isn't actually a part of Exodus, but it's a really good final story for us, because it gets the Children of Israel settled into their promised land, a great way to wrap the whole thing up. Above is J's story drawing of the elders of the Hebrew people marching around the walls of Jericho. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of the two spies that Joshua sent into Jericho, about to take refuge in Rahab's house. (Finally, at the end of it all, a strong, important woman!)

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's.

Just a couple more days to bring the story back into the present and wrap up our semester! It's been a great ride, we really enjoyed this culture and the epic. But now I'm ready to coast our way into the holidays and get ready for this baby!

the land of milk and honey

2011-12-19T06:59:00.000-08:00

Above, J's story drawing of the spies Moses sent into Canaan, checking out the people and the fruits of the land. Below, Zoo Boy's drawing of one of the spies lying about the size and strength of the people and minimizing the plenty of the land. (I love the looks of dismay on the people's faces!)

J's story summary above, Zoo Boy's below.

nomadic tent, week 6, finale!

2011-12-15T06:25:00.000-08:00

J sews his hand-woven tent strip to the main tent as I prepared the poles and ropes for our tent raising.

The kids spread the tent out on the ground and prepare to put their poles into position. If we were to do this again, I'd want to use twice as many curtain panels for our tent to double the width. I think the length was fine, but a wider panel would have gone up smoother and felt more like a place to live in afterwards (plus would have given us the opportunity to add a hanging panel to make separate "rooms" like there are in full-size nomadic tents). But given time constraints, plus the fact that only a few of us pitched in with the sewing, I think this turned out pretty good.

The adults helped pound in the stakes. We were so lucky with the weather, it's not often that the ground is not frozen in mid-December around here!! That would have made the tent raising that much more challenging (and it was already challenging enough as it was!).

Zoo Boy and J pose inside our completed tent. It felt great to finish this project! The boys are still bemoaning the fact that we never finished the earthen oven (we will, it just needs to wait until Spring and more conducive drying weather), but to have taken one larger project through to completion made us all feel good.

a cloud moves on from Sinai

2011-12-15T06:21:00.000-08:00

Above is J's story drawing, of the Israelites following the cloud (which is Yahweh) across the wilderness towards the promised land. He pointed out the cloud itself (at the top center of the drawing) and the fact that the people are moving in the shadow of it. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of Moses, sword raised, commanding the believers (one of whom is standing behind him) to cut down the non-believers (in front of him).

J's story summary above, Zoo Boy's below.

keva build, part 2

2011-12-14T06:13:00.000-08:00

We had another group Keva build on Monday, this time the goal was to see how high the kids could build their structures. We brought along step-stool to help out, there were many amazing feats of structural engineering!

the ten commandments

2011-12-14T06:08:00.000-08:00

Above is J's story drawing, of Moses descending Mount Sinai with the tablets in his hands, and seeing his people celebrating and worshipping the golden calf. (My favorite part is always the extras he adds to his drawings -- the tents are just awesome!) Below is the next scene, drawn by Zoo Boy, of Moses smashing the tablets (the crumbles at his feet in front of the golden calf). I love how he's got Joshua behind him, and Aaron looking very worried about his part in all of this.

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's. This story made a big impact, Zoo Boy kept saying "uh oh, that's not good" with each thing the Israelites did that went against the commandments.

one weekend down, one to go!

2011-12-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

The Nutcracker opened with a bang on it's first weekend! Above, The Map Man and J get ready for the opening of the first act.

Above, J at stage rehearsal on Friday night, as Fritz. Below, The Map Man dances with the other party parents at stage rehearsal.

Above, J strikes a pose in his Russian costume, below he dances the Russian Dance in the stage rehearsal. (Photos aren't allowed during the show, but we can order a DVD of it, and there will be professional photographs available for purchase, which will be MUCH better than the crappy photos I can get with my crappy camera anyway.)

You still have one more weekend to come see J (and The Map Man) in The Nutcracker at Manchester High School! You can find ticket information at http://www.connecticutnutcracker.com/ .

into the wilderness

2011-12-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

Above is J's story drawing, below is Zoo Boy's -- they chose to draw the same scene from our story, of Moses drawing forth a stream of water from a stone in the desert during the exodus from Egypt. Both boys commented on the whining of the Israelites as they wandered through the wilderness. J said that the story should have been called "The Children of Israel Have no Faith." I told him I would call it "The Children of Israel are a Bunch of Whiners." I love how into his drawings Zoo Boy suddenly is -- he explained in depth to me about the emotions and body postures of each of the characters in his drawing.

J's story summary above, Zoo Boy's below.

lessons learned

2011-12-09T05:42:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take a few minute to jot down some notes from this past semester in regards to how it will effect our homeschooling going forward. Sorry, don't have the energy to dig up any cute photos to go with it! So those of you who are just here for pics of the kids, you can skip this. I know there are some folks that actually like to read my mind's meanderings, so this is for them (and to help me get it all straight in my head).

As I went along with this semester, I learned quite a bit about the way a long cultural block like this should work (which is important, given that this is pretty much how our homeschooling life with be structured from this point until high school). The Enki Education guides set these blocks out by starting with general humanities/language arts, then shifting to either science or math (with the topics arising form the cultural epic), then shifting to the other, then shifting back to humanities/LA to wrap up the block. I chose to run things a little differently (based on my perceived needs for my kids, and how I thought things would move along best for my family), and I overlaid the cultural science (with weekly get-togethers with a little co-op, plus our little Science Fridays chemistry co-op) and the math (in a weekly class that I taught to yet another co-op). I've since discovered that the way Enki lays it out would have worked MUCH better for us.

First of all, we've done too much strictly LA work. Working these stories through the entire 3-fold process (intake, artistic digestion, written output) week after week has been grueling, as much for me as for the kids. I had decided to do it this way based on several assumptions about my kids. First, I assumed that Zoo Boy still needed daily handwriting practice to keep from resisting it (which had been my experience up until this school year). But kids change, and their needs change, and I discovered, after giving them 2 weeks off during our power outage situation in early November, that he came back without the resistance he used to show, and had actually made gains in his penmanship during that rest period. Another reason I had done it this way was because I felt my kids needed the stories in smaller chunks than they were offered (one main theme per story rather than combining them), and in order to accomplish that, I needed to make enough progress each week on the epic (which stopping for science or math projects would not allow). Again, I discovered that my assumptions were wrong -- I've been combining stories these past couple of week simply because we're running out of time to cover everything before I want/need to end for the semester, and it turns out my kids are just fine with it (in fact, it's helped us streamline the whole summarizing process quite a bit).

Next, not only could we have used a break from the Story process with a bit of science or math focused work, it would have been much more beneficial for us to work those topics in more concentrated doses. Starting with Science, we discovered that it was VERY difficult to keep consistent progress with our larger curriculum-based projects by only working on them weekly. First of all, the group we tried to get together with was plagued by scheduling conflicts, illness, and other issues that undermined our ability to work regularly as a group. We also discovered that we were inviting the bad-weather-gods to kaibosh our plans (seriously, it rained at least 80% of the days we got together!). And finally, the general momentum was lost by trying to fit in our projects once a week. If we had just dedicated our main lesson time for a couple of weeks to the projects, they would have flowed much smoother, steadier progress would have been made, and the whole thing just would have "felt" better. That's how we'll do it from now on. That weekly co-op time in the afternoon can be used for cultural crafts instead, which I think will be a much better use of that time.

(Incidentally, I really love our little Science Fridays chemistry work, and will continue with that as is -- it's not connected at all with the epic or cultures, my kids love it, I love it, and it's really more about enjoying combined lab experience and social time with our friends, growing the kids' love of and enthusiasm for science, and feeding J's request for more organized physical science learning. And the curriculum we're working with is so outrageously age-appropriate. No reason to change anything there!)

As far as math is concerned, I actually liked how our math class (fractions this semester) went, and would do that again, but in addition to a couple weeks to actually focus on math each semester as well. Initially (up until the time of the blackout) we were getting in math practice work every day, but that has fallen by the wayside as the ballet rehearsal schedule picked up (meaning later nights, so getting started later in the mornings, so less time before having to leave again in the afternoon for our various commitments), and my pregnancy has progressed (causing me to "push" our rhythms less, so there's been a looser feel to everything around here). As a result, we've had almost no organized math since that fraction class ended in mid-November. Also, just from a personal perspective point, as I moved along with the epic, I could really see how I could have brought out various math concepts within the body of work we were dealing with, and I think the holistic feel that would have created to our math work would have been very beneficial for all of us. So I feel like I "missed the boat" with that this semester, so will want to pay more attention to that into the future. I will probably offer more weekly group fractions work in the spring, because not only did my kids love it, but so did the others in the class and everyone wants more. But that will be in addition to the topics we raise from our cultural epic, not in place of them.

At the same time, I'm pretty sure I don't want to spend as long in each type of block as the Enki materials lay out. Two weeks of science project work, and a week or two of concentrate Math is really going to be enough for us before getting back to a heavier concentration on the epic and LA work.

So here's the rough plans for the rest of this school year:

January and February (aka, our "baby moon" period): Independent reading and math practice work (mostly worksheets, but some games as well), including long subtraction and addition, and geometry and measurement. We'll also do a read-aloud book or two just for fun. With the independent reading I am going to introduce book reports (basically the sort of story work we've been doing all along, but completely on their own and with whatever books they want to read). We'll also prepare for a Science Fair hosted by our Monday Homeschool Classes for late Feb, probably with some sort of chemistry theme.

End of Feb/beginning of March: one or two week Maple Sugaring science block with a very light touch on Native American culture in terms of the discovery of using Maple sap.

March through June: Haudenosaunee cultural unit and epic (as per Enki Education 3rd grade curriculum package). My plan is to start with a week of creation painting, followed by 2 weeks of focused humanities/LA work to get the epic established, then alternate between 1 to 2 week science blocks, math blocks, and LA blocks through the end of the epic. Our two science project blocks will be building a Long House and planting a 3-sisters garden (when the weather is appropriate for that). Math will primarily be focused on introducing the times tables and work with multiplication and division, and further work with place value.

Now that I've worked through an entire cultural block, I feel much better prepared to tackle the next one! I wish I could have known all that prior to muddling through it (there's SO much I would have liked to approach differently!), but I really do think a lot of this is "discovery learning" for the teacher as well as the students, and what I've learned this semester is going to serve me very well throughout the rest of our homeschooling journey.

Passover and the parting of the Red Sea

2011-12-09T05:31:00.000-08:00

We're cruising with our stories now! Above, J depicts the Israelites crossing safely through the passage Moses created in the Red Sea by raising his staff. Below, Zoo Boy chose to draw a door of one of the Hebrew families, painted with lamb's blood, in the dark of night -- there is a pale figure just to the left of the door (it's hard to see in this photo), which is Yahweh passing over this house during the night he struck all of the first-born in Egypt dead. I find it very interesting (and typical) that the boys chose such blatantly different parts of the story to focus on.

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's. Since we included two major chapters of the epic in this one story, we had to be very careful to truly summarize just the most important pieces, otherwise our summaries would have been ungainly long.

We're so close to the end! Just need to get through the wilderness, be given those 10 commandments, and finally make it to the land of milk an honey! One more week of the Moses epic, then our wrap-up and Hanukka celebration!

nomadic tent week 5

2011-12-08T07:38:00.000-08:00

This week we started by binding our woven strips off of our ground looms. This photo shows J tying knots in the warp threads at the end of his weaving.

Then the kids sewed their strips together to create one strip. Here J and Tree Elf (D requested her own blog identity!) sew their strips together. We were missing a couple of kids from the co-op today, so will hopefully add their strips to the others before we add it to our actual tent.

Then it was time to get working on sewing the major woven strips together into one large tent. We used woven curtain panels as our main tent strips, and these worked out really, really well. 4 panels sewn together will make a good sized play tent.

Sewing our tent strips together was a great group project, lots of great conversation, and really skillful sewing from the kids. We worked right along and got the entire thing sewn in one sitting.

Next week will be our final session -- tent raising! It feels so real now that we're near the end!

let my people go!

2011-12-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

In J's drawing, above, Moses conjures up a giant storm. He really REALLY did not like this story, was very stressed out about one horrible plague after another being dealt out to the Egyptians all because their Pharaoh was being a jerk about letting the Hebrew people go. The end of the story left us hanging about the "final horrible plague" that was to come, and the uncertainty of what might be even worse than what had already happened left J in a very uncomfortable place. (This distress is appropriate -- these are intense stories!) Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of Aaron turning the river to blood in front of Pharaoh.

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's. Since J was distressed by the story, I purposely made sure we didn't include any detail in our summaries, just highlighting that time and again Pharaoh broke his promise to let the Hebrews go if the plagues were lifted. During our recall, we did hit on each type of plague in turn, but only in a listing fashion, and without any emotion or real detail.

Anticipation can be worse than reality -- seems to me that the boys handled the final, horrible plague better than not knowing what it was. But more on that tomorrow after we work the story through to completion.

keva build

2011-12-06T04:29:00.000-08:00

We got together with some of our Monday Homeschool Classes friends yesterday for a 2-hour building session where the kids used all 4000 of the Keva blocks that the group owns to make a giant city. The builders all had a bunch of fun, and we adults got in some relaxed visiting time!

Moses returns to Egypt

2011-12-05T05:38:00.000-08:00

In this story, Yahweh gives Moses instructions on how to convince the Israelites that he was sent to free them, and how to convince Pharaoh to let them go. Above, in J's drawing, Moses' brother Aaron (who acted as Moses' voice to the people) greets Moses upon his return to Egypt. Below, Zoo Boy drew Yahweh (in the burning bush) giving Moses his instructions on Mount Sinai.

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's.

come see J in the Nutcracker!

2011-12-02T08:39:00.000-08:00

The Nutcracker, presented by Connecticut Concert Ballet, will be held at Manchester High School (Manchester, CT) on Saturdays Dec 10 & 17 at 2pm and 7pm, and on Sundays Dec 11 & 18 at 2pm. Tickets can be purchased here: http://www.connecticutnutcracker.com/

Not only is J dancing the part of Fritz (above) in the first act each night, but he's also a Russian dancer in the second act as well. And The Map Man is making his big stage debut as a Party Dad during the party scene! (That's almost worth watching as much as coming to see J do his ballet thing!!!)

Let us know if you're planning on coming, we'd love to say hi in person after the show!

the burning bush

2011-12-02T08:35:00.000-08:00

Above is J's story drawing of Moses speaking to Yahweh in the burning bush. Below is Zoo Boy's depiction of the same thing, his obviously on the side of Mount Sinai.

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's.

nomadic tent week 4

2011-12-01T05:38:00.000-08:00

Our projects co-op got together at a park this week to work on our strip weaving on the ground looms we created two weeks ago. The weather was cold and blustery (although less so than we should really expect on the last day of November, so it feels silly to complain), and it made for kind of a surreal experience. It makes no logical sense to sit on the cold ground, bundled up in our winter woolies, weaving on a ground loom! A hot sunny day would have made MUCH more sense. Lessons learned about choosing appropriate weather for some of these sorts of projects! (Of course, the entire point of these projects is learning about ecosystems -- specifically the ecosystem of survival in the desert, and the point has certainly been driving home about how different OUR climate is from that of the ancient Hebrews!)

Anyway! We set up our looms, staked them to hold them in place, then began weaving. Here Zoo Boy uses his batten to separate the warp threads.

J gets the yarn on the shuttle ready to pass through the space created by Zoo Boy and the batten.

Passing the shuttle through the threads.

Celebrating weaving victory.

We need to do a bunch of weaving at home this coming week to complete our strips, because we're all getting together to sew them together to create the tent next week. Will be nice to have an INDOOR project time! The following week we will erect our tent (fingers crossed that major winter storms will hold off for another couple of weeks), and then hunker in for the winter.

Our next major cultural project will be Maple Sugaring in late Feb/early March. At least our weather and climate will be appropriate for that one!

Moses flees from Egypt

2011-12-01T05:33:00.000-08:00

In this story, Moses kills an overseer who is beating a Hebrew slave. Above is J's story drawing of Moses meeting Jethro's daughters at the well in Midian. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of an angry Moses about to kill the overseer.

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's.

We're doing our best to blast through these last couple weeks' worth of stories. I've learned a LOT about how I'd like to set up our next cultural unit by the things that worked and didn't work for us during this one! I'll blog about that separately when I get a chance, probably not until the end of the semester.

pottery class

2011-11-30T05:55:00.000-08:00

I keep wanting to blog about the homeschool pottery class that J is taking at the University, but he keeps NOT bringing home projects for me to photograph. So yesterday I just walked into the studio and snapped a photo -- you can see some of the projects they've been working on on the tables in front of them (and on the wheel on the right side of the photo). Supposedly he'll be bringing stuff home with him next week (but they've been saying that since about week 3!). He gets a real kick out of me asking him every week "Do you have anything to bring home?"

He's very much enjoyed this class, and it was an easy way for me to get "out" of doing much in the way of pottery and clay work with the boys at home, yet still give them the experience of really working with fired clay to produce actual products. Great tie-in with our whole Torah unit! (Zoo Boy wouldn't take the class, he still doesn't like his hands getting that dirty, but he's enjoyed checking out the studio and the products and the whole process.) The class was once a week for 6 weeks (next week is the last week), and they started out with pinch-pots, and progressed through to throwing on the wheel the past couple of weeks. Perfect class at just the right time for us!

Moses in the bulrushes

2011-11-30T05:45:00.000-08:00

Now we're into my favorite part of the whole Torah epic -- the stories about Moses. The Enki materials actually have you start with Moses, then sort of revisit the stories again at this point, but I chose to hold off. I'm honestly glad I did, I think the story has flowed best for us from the beginning. Above is J's drawing of Pharaoh's daughter and handmaids finding Moses in the river. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of Moses' mother bringing his basket (with him in it, you just can't see him) to the river to leave him. He made sure to point out the tear she was crying as she left her son. I love how the kids' own perspectives come out in their drawings.

J's story summary above, Zoo Boy's below. Zoo Boy has really started making some astute observations about the stories during recall. For instance, when recalling this story, he said "I've been wondering, why did Pharaoh order all the male children killed? Wouldn't it have made more sense to keep the males as slaves? They'd be stronger for moving the big bricks, and the women are the ones having the babies, if you wanted less babies there should be less women." Great question. And more proof of how male-centric these stories are, which Zoo Boy has definitely picked up on, and it clearly bothers him.

argh!

2011-11-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

I don't know why Blogger won't let me comment on any of the blogs I read, it's making me nuts. But I had two important comments to leave, so I'll just do it here and hope they read it here!

First, Happy Birthday, Kirven!!

And second, EEEEEEEEEEEE! Congratulations Ashley!!! I'm so excited for you.

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled blogging.....

The Map Man's weekend project

2011-11-29T06:20:00.000-08:00

letters north

2011-11-29T06:10:00.000-08:00

The Santa magic is still strong here. I'm enjoying it while it lasts, but it's nice to know that there's a wee one coming along to keep it going for another decade or so!

Above is J's letter, below is Zoo Boy's.

Something I never got around to blogging about was the fact that J took all his birthday monies, combined with some of what he's squirreled away from his job, and bought himself a wii console and a couple of games -- Mario world type stuff. He was very mature asking me if he would be allowed to buy it, so I was mature about it too and told him that I felt at 11 years old, he's old enough to decide if he can handle having a video game system. He's been quite responsible about using it, and the boys only play on it for about half an hour a day, after they come in from doing their chores and while I'm cooking breakfast, and never whine about it when I tell them to turn it off, nor do they bug me about using it, waiting instead until I offer. They love having something to talk about with other boys they meet, Mario seems to be a cultural constant in this age group.

Joseph's family in Egypt

2011-11-29T06:02:00.000-08:00

For the last of our Joseph stories, both boys decided to draw the moment that Joseph's little brother, Benjamin, was caught with the silver cup that Joseph had his guards hide in his grain bag. Above, in J's drawing, he depicts Joseph confronting his brothers -- I love the look of shock on their faces. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing, of one of Joseph's guard stopping Benjamin (that's a donkey he's riding, in case you were wondering).

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's. Someone asked me about the sudden improvement in Zoo Boy's handwriting -- he recently switched from using the Lyra Giant pencils to using thin Prismacolor pencils for his writing. It seems to have made a huge difference -- not only is his pencil grip better, but they lay down a bolder line and he's happier with the result, which makes him less resistant about writing. Of course, they are all kinds of expensive, and difficult to sharpen (the tip likes to break off), but I think it's been worth the added expense. You can imagine what might be filling his stocking this year.

Joseph's brothers bow

2011-11-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

My apologies once again for the glut of posts, seems all I ever do lately is play "catch-up" . This is it for today, though, I promise!! But don't miss any of the cool posts below, either.

Above is J's drawing, depicting Joseph talking with his brothers in prison. Below, Zoo Boy's drawing of Joseph and a guard deciding the fate of his brothers.

J's summary above, Zoo Boy's below.

mini-performances

2011-11-25T09:33:00.000-08:00

Above, J as Fritz, between the two Claras. (Our Nutcracker performances have two casts, but J is double-cast in both. In fact, he's double-double cast, since not only does he play Fritz, but he also appears in the 2nd act as a Russian dancer.)

J has been performing in mini-performances across the state at various libraries, schools, and churches, as a promotional activity for the ballet school. These photos were all taken at the first performance of the series, at the Somers Public Library, in Somers, CT.

Above J, the Claras, and the ballerina dolls await the start of the performance.

Below, "Fritz" and two of the party boys perform their "boy dance".

Above, J (Fritz) dances with Clara.

Below, the cast for the mini-performances. Of course, the cast for the real, full-length performances is much, much larger (like over 250 cast members).

the Pharaoh's dream

2011-11-25T09:29:00.000-08:00

Above is J's story drawing, Zoo Boy's is below, they both drew Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's dreams.

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's. The misspelling of "Pharaoh" is mine, a mistake I didn't discover until the entire week was over. Sigh.

ground looms week 3

2011-11-25T09:18:00.000-08:00

This is from last week, but I just got the photos. This was the week we constructed and warped our ground looms. It was a rainy day, so a nice day to be inside T's house working on our looms. First the kids selected some appropriate sticks and yarn. (It would have been far beyond the scope of the experience we wanted to give our kids to have them use only hand-spun mohair for this, so we used commercial wool yarn instead -- they can incorporate their hand-spun into the weaving.)

We tied on 25 long warp threads to each loom. This took us awhile (like pretty much the entire 2 hour project slot for the day). The goal is for each of the kids to weave a strip of fabric about a foot wide by about 10 feet long. (The strips will be sewn together to form the nomadic tent.)

J trims his warp threads to the same length.

Two of the kids work on rolling up their loom for easy transport. The looms will be unrolled and staked into the ground and the weaving done outdoors.

Joseph a captive in Egypt

2011-11-25T09:13:00.000-08:00

Above is J's story drawing, below is Zoo Boy's, both of them chose to draw Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's head butler's dream in prison. (Zoo Boy says the black streaks are shadows in the dark prison cell.)

Above is J's summary, below is Zoo Boy's.

barn kitty update

2011-11-22T06:22:00.000-08:00

Wanted to give a quick update on the litter of feral kittens we adopted as barn cats. They've gained a lot of weight and size in the past month and now have the run of the farm. And while they'll never be "pet" cats that enjoy interacting with humans, they've all gotten with the program nicely and show up for meal times, so keeping tabs on them is easy.

We've also renamed them according to personality or physical traits, now that we've gotten to know them a little. This one in the first photo is Tippy (she has the very tip of one ear missing). She is by far the most friendly of the kittens and comes running at meal times, meowing in your face until you put the bowl down. She's very snuggly with Bromley (the adult we adopted at the same time), they are best buds.

This is Elbee. (A derivation of "L.B." or "Little Brown".) She's super-cute, and the smallest of the four. She was actually the first of them to understand when the meals were being served and to hang out waiting for them. She's pretty much always around.

This is Cotton (it stuck from her original name "Cottontail", because she's just so fluffy). She's very pretty and very shy, but she too can be found hanging out most of the time. She's a bit more adventurous than the others, I've seen her walking along the tops of the fences, but she's always around come meal time.

And this is Spook. He's very elusive and shy, and can never be found when humans are out and about (I took this photo from my bedroom window, right before he realized I was there and took off). I think he's living with the rest of them in the garage, but he only comes out when he thinks nobody is around to see him. He's by far the largest of the group, so he's certainly getting plenty to eat. I was worried we'd lost him for a bit, because it was a good solid week since we let him out before I spotted him again for the first time, but I've since been seeing him more regularly.

And Bromley is Bromley (the adult black and white in the middle -- that's Spook to his right and Tippy in front of him). It's hard to get a good photo of Bromley because he's always right in your face demanding attention, so this is again from the bedroom window. Total attention hog and wants to be petted constantly, and he follows the kids around while they are doing chores and drives them nuts in general. I'm glad we adopted him too, because he sets a good example for the baby kitties, and I swear he's the reason why Tippy has tamed down so nicely.

So that's them!! They've all moved into our garage since we let them out of their pen, but come back to the pen for feeding times -- we'll start feeding them in the garage once The Map Man walls it in and winterizes it for them. (He'll put a cat door in the wall so they can come and go as they wish.)

the coat of many colors

2011-11-22T06:17:00.000-08:00

Above is J's story drawing from the story "The Coat of Many Colors", depicting Joseph showing up where his brothers are tending their flocks, wearing his coat of many colors, and the brothers discussing what to do about him. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing, of two of the brothers discussing Joseph's fate after they threw him in the pit (that brown line at the bottom of the right hand side of the drawing is the pit, you can't see him but Joseph is in there shouting for help, Zoo Boy says).

Above is J's summary, below is Zoo Boy's. We had a discussion about how long our summaries have gotten, and both boys had to shorten theirs in order for them to fit on the page. Today we'll work on creating a much more concise story summary for the story we read yesterday.

sibling class

2011-11-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

The boys attended a "new siblings" class at the hospital where we will be delivering our little Rosebud. They took a tour of the maternity ward, got to see an actual newborn baby, learned about the "magic bell" that is rung whenever a baby is born, and got some first-hand instruction and practice on dolls in diapering and swaddling. Zoo Boy took a more passive approach, preferring to watch rather than participate (although he said he really liked the class), while J enthusiastically jumped right in. He told me that he wants to help with diapering Rosebud, but that he'll let me take the dirty diaper off and clean her up first, then he'll put the new one on. Both boys are really psyched to get this baby here! J in particular can't wait to have a real baby to cuddle with.

science fridays, a lot of catching up

2011-11-20T05:36:00.000-08:00

I've missed posting about at least 3 chemistry lab sessions (possibly more), partly because I'm just so far behind on the blog, and mostly because I can't seem to remember to take photos! We just get so involved with running the experiments, it's not until everything is all over and we're all cleaned up that I even remember I was going to take photos! Very frustrating for me, the person who likes to document everything!

In any case, we've been exploring atoms - how they move in response to various temperatures (they move faster when they are warmer), and if they are small enough to smell through balloons (they are!). We also explored the various ways scientists test substances -- through physical observation and through chemical reactions. The kids are learning to form and test hypotheses, and are learning some common scientific terms (like the parts of an atom).

I really like the curriculum we are using (Pandia Press's R.E.A.L. Science Oddessy Chemistry) -- I like the discovery learning it promotes, and the activities and labs really capture the kids' sense of exploration, they seem to just love it. One of the other moms is less impressed, she wanted more hard-core science, I think, but for the majority of our kids, I think this is just the right balance of hands-on discovery and active output.

new girls

2011-11-18T11:46:00.000-08:00

Say hello to our new goats, Lucy and Ethel. Cuties, aren't they? They are Oberhasli crosses.

Didn't get caught up on everything today after all, a nap interrupted my productivity (but felt SOOOO nice....). One of these days I'll be all caught up and have nothing else to post about! (Yeah, right....)

the meeting of Jacob and Esau

2011-11-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

So Jacob returned home, knowing he'd have to meet up with is brother Esau eventually. He sent gifts on ahead, hoping to win favor with him (worrying that he was still mad at being tricked 20 years before). Above is J's drawing of the strange man Jacob wrestled with during the night while he waited for Esau -- turned out it was a messenger from Yahweh who told him he would now be known as "Israel". Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of Jacob and Esau's joyous meeting, with one of Esau's men standing behind him, and Jacob's wife Rachel and son Joseph waiting to meet Esau.

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's.

air museum

2011-11-18T11:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we took a field trip with other homeschoolers to the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT. We had a tour of the museum and time afterwards to explore a bit on our own. Here our tour guide shows us an early tri-plane which was a replica of the Red Baron's plane, and gave us a brief history of aircraft in World War I.

Moving on to WWII, he showed us the difference between and Army plane (only the wing can be seen), and a Navy plane (behind him). The Navy Plan is a Corsair that was build entirely in Connecticut.

This is a Pusher, built in 1912 by a CT teenager, around the same time the Wright Brothers were working on their planes.

Our tour guide had many amusing stories about the history of flight and the specific planes we looked at (both military and passenger planes), it's tempting to include them all in this post, but I'm trying to restrain myself. I was really surprised at how interested I was in the topic matter, since it's not really an interest area of mine. The boys were extremely engaged and asked a lot of really intelligent questions.

The highlight of my day was standing underneath this Boeing B-29 bomber, that actually flew 19 missions over Japan. This particular plane was nicknamed "Jack's Hack", and there was lots of information about the crew that manned it and it's missions, as well as some great stories about the B-29 bombers in general. One that made me really laugh was how the commanding officer justified overloading the plane by several thousand pounds over Boeing's recommended limits (making take-off extremely hazardous). His comment was "What does Boeing know about airplanes?"

They also opened the cockpits of several planes for the kids to climb in and get a taste of what it was like behind the controls. Here Zoo Boy checks out the cockpit of a navy fighter jet.

Great field trip, we'll go back again at some point, no doubt. There were flight simulators and other activities that we just didn't have time to check out, and I'm sure The Map Man would enjoy a visit there as well.

Jacob and Laban

2011-11-18T11:21:00.000-08:00

Still waiting for photos from our work on our nomadic tents on Weds, in the meantime, I'll just forge ahead:
Above is J's story drawing from "Jacob and Laban", where Jacob finally leaves Laban after 20 years of servitude. That's Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel, lying on her camel saddle in the background, hiding the fact that she's stolen her father's gods' images from his house. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing, depicting Jacob on a hill with his flock of speckled, spotted, and brown sheep and cattle.

Above is J's summary (which we even had to shorted from what we originally came up with, because it was more than page long), and below is Zoo Boy's still somewhat shorter summary.

I find it interesting that the kids have not been concerned by the fact that it's common in these stories for the husbands to have children with other women. For instance, Jacob has children with Leah (Rachel's sister, also his wife), and both Rachel's and Leah's handmaidens. We've run into this sort of thing in previous stories as well, but the boys just take it in stride. Like I said, interesting! They (especially Zoo Boy) are much more concerned with the fact that Jacob's 12 sons get to sire the 12 tribes of Israel, but nothing more is said of his daughter.

Rachel and Leah

2011-11-18T05:34:00.000-08:00

Check back again soon -- I'm going to try to get as caught-up as possible on the blog today, which means there will be 4 or 5 posts in fairly rapid succession.

This week it was back to our epic! Both boys were excited to hear more of Zeidy's stories. We started back up with the story of Rachel and Leah -- above is J's picture of Jacob meeting his cousin Rachel at a well in Haran. He then bargains with Rachel's father, Laban, to marry her in exchange for his daughter's hand in marriage. But at the end of his 7 years of labor, Laban tricked him into marrying his daughter Leah instead. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of an angry Jacob bargaining again with tricky Laban to work an additional 7 years so he could marry Rachel also.

Above is J's story summary. Our summaries are getting longer as the boys are getting more vested in the stories and less willing to leave out any of what they deem as important details. Which means that I have to adapt them for Zoo Boy (his summary is below) because he can't do quite so much handwriting as J can.

some thoughts on unschooling

2011-11-16T07:50:00.000-08:00

Before I get even further behind on this blog (and trust me, I'm fairly well behind....), I know that at least a few of you have been waiting ever so patiently for me to follow up on my mention of having experienced a bit of radical unschooling recently. So this is for you. :)

Radical Unschooling is the name for a fairly popular form of homeschooling, where the child chooses how to spend his/her time each day and learns all of his/her life skills from actually living life, rather than having been directed there by a teacher. The parent serves as more of an enabler, making sure the child has access to a vast variety of experiences, but they let the child decide for themselves what they want to pursue and how they want to pursue it.

What I do with my kids during the normal course of our homeschooling lives in no way resembles Radical Unschooling. I've personally always been a big unschooling proponent -- I think for typically developing kids, it's a very valid approach and can have simply amazing results. (It also appeals to me because I'm lazy, despite what it might look like on this blog.) I moved away from usnchooling (which I had originally planned on) because I felt that it was not the best choice for me and my particular kids.

But 10 days of living elsewhere, with absolutely zero structure to our days, has led me to rethink whether or not it would work even in our situation.

With 10 days of nothing but time on their hands, what did my kids choose to do with their time? Well, lots of pretend play, reading, and game playing happened of course. But other trends began to emerge as well.

Zoo Boy decided to do some drawing, just for the fun of it. This is shocking on several levels. First, Zoo Boy supposedly "hates" to draw. He finds working with the media frustrating and difficult. He doesn't like to be strapped to a table and chair for longer than absolutely necessary. So he's always tried to get away with as little drawing as he can. Which, of course, is why I require drawing of him -- my focus is to strengthen those areas where my kids are the weakest, on the theory that they otherwise would not choose to work on it.

Looks like I might have been wrong about that.

In the above drawing, Zoo Boy drew an owl (on it's daytime perch) being mobbed by crows and blackbirds. He was inspired by something he read in one of the zillions of books available to him at our friends' house. (We have zillions of books here too, of course, but he's already read them all, whereas shelves full of books he's never seen before inspires all sorts of things!) Not only did he draw this, but he and one of the girls we were living with decided to created an eagle's nest out of bed pillows and blankets, and then took turns being eggs hatching into chicks and being the parent eagles hunting and returning with food for the chicks.

Meanwhile, J, having been attracted by some math books, decided to mess around with percentages. (Something I'd not introduced to them yet, nor plan to introduce for at least another year, maybe two.) He walked around the house observing and commenting on various things in regards to their percentages. For instance, in the above scenario, he said "66 percent of the children in this room are playing 'eagle's nest'; 33 percent are figuring percentages. 25 percent of the children in this house are not in this room. So 50 percent of the children in the house are playing 'eagle's nest,' while 25% are figuring percentages." (Personally, I just turned to the other adult in the room and whispered "yikes.")

Even after we returned home, the unschooling continued. I had too much to do, and was too discombobulated from our time away, to jump right back into our normal schooling rhythms, so we wound up with a full 14 days of unschooling. J continued his math explorations, and in the above drawing is showing me the various sorts of quadrilaterals (he named them all, too).

Which was all fine and well, until he delved into more advanced geometry:

What the....?????

Ok, this is way (WAY) beyond me. I guess it's trigonometry anyway, which I honestly never had a grasp on. He TRIED to explain it to me, but I can't say I could completely grasp it. Not even enough to describe to you what it is. It's something to do with the formula to find the area of a triangle, and he even did out the math to prove the formula to me, but honestly, it's a bunch of goblety gook to me. J even understands the concept well enough to make a joke about it (which went right over my fluffy little head, I can only imagine it was as clever and funny as he thought it was). My intention has always been to send my kids to community college when it's time for stuff like this, so a real professor of math can talk with them at their level. Looks like I'd better stick with that plan.

Again, yikes.

Meanwhile, both kids are absolutely in love with chemistry and the periodic table. So being the good little unschooling mom (ahem) that I am, I went ahead and ordered them the books they wanted on those topics. Here they are, gleefully perusing the periodic table and referring to information about the individual elements.

So, what does this all mean in regards to our current homeschooling program?

Not a whole lot. I always knew my kids would learn, even without my direct guidance. It's why I've never worried when we've gone through periods where we just can't seem to get to to our schoolwork for one reason or another. But it doesn't mean I'm going to change what I'm already doing with them. For one thing, it makes me feel good to be involved and stay on track with what they are learning. I also still believe that working on areas of challenge is the best approach for my kids. And I see no reason not to have time set aside for them to work on actual skills such as handwriting and basic math functions.

But really, if I had to stop "schooling" my kids tomorrow, I think they'd be just fine.

fraction sundaes

2011-11-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

We wrapped up our Fun with Fractions class last Monday by creating "fraction sundaes". We started by creating them on paper. The kids had 3 flavors of ice cream to choose from, so decided how many thirds of each to use. They did the same for halves of sauce, and quarters of toppings.

Then they brought their fraction recipes up to the serving tables and created their sundaes for real.

They used self-created measuring cups to measure out their toppings in quarters.

My faithful assistant, Ariel, doled out the halves of syrup. (I figured after all of her hard work for me this semester, Ariel deserved her own photo on the blog ;)

Then the kids ate their creations. YUM! Fractions are delicious!!

I'm blown away by what a great grasp of basic fractions the kids have after such a playful approach. I'm planning on a follow-up class in the spring, where we can play with adding and subtracting fractions, lowest common denominator, decimal fractions, and other more complex concepts now that everyone has such a good understand of what a fraction is. My boys have already started playing around with those concepts on their own naturally, I have no doubt the same holds true for the other kids in the class, and many of them have expressed enthusiasm at continuing our fraction studies in the future.

basket weaving (Ancient Israeli Crafts)

2011-11-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

We did basket weaving during our final Ancient Israeli Crafts class

last Monday (thanks to Cori for the photos -- I'm starting to think I need a professional photographer to follow me around all day, I'd get WAY better pictures for the blog that way!

This little basket is my very first basket that I wove 15 minutes before class started. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.... but it only goes to prove that anybody can do basket weaving (or lead a class in it!) if they just try.

Here's J starting his basket. The best part was that, despite using all the same materials (donated by Cecilia, thanks Cecilia!) and technique, each kids' basket came out differently, depending on how tightly they wove it, how soon they bent up the sides, etc.

Another student working on her basket. It needed a bit of adult supervision to get them going, but I was pleased by how much of this the kids really were able to do themselves.

A basket nearing completion.

Me trimming the ribs off a finished basket.

(Yes, it's me, big pregnant belly and all! Complete with my pants falling down, a theme for this pregnancy....)

It really was a fun class, and such a good experience for my boys to work in a community setting with cultural crafts jiving with what we are working on at home -- just ties it all together so nicely!

"go ahead, make my day!"

2011-11-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I had a caption contest on the blog, and this morning the perfect opportunity presented itself as our Labrador, Kiri, tried to eat her breakfast bone in peace.

Go ahead and suggest a caption (by leaving a comment) for this photo:

Winner gets absolutely nothing but a good chuckle from the other readers of the blog. :) I'll give you a few days to respond, then will update the heading on this post to reflect the winning caption. Have fun!

***UPDATE****, and the winner is Diane from Black Birch Farm! (Her actual caption suggestion was "Come on you walking feather pillow --MAKE MY DAY!") See the comments section for all of the suggested captions for this photo. I thought Diane's was the most appropriate because that bone is the ONLY thing keeping Kiri from making lunch out of that chicken.

Thanks to everyone who played, I thought the captions were all fun! My idea was "Proof that Labradors prefer venison to chicken."

parent observation week at dance

2011-11-12T06:17:00.000-08:00

This is my 3rd Parent Observation week at J's Ballet school. Each time, J has been dancing at a different level, so each one has been quite different. The level he is at now he'll probably be at for a couple of years. I have to say that FINALLY I can see the difference between dancers' ability and natural form - I'm not sure if it's the added experience to my "eye", or if the level has finally gotten challenging enough that the more talented dancers are easier to pick out.

I apologize about how far away J is in these photos. I really could have gotten closer to watch, but the actual chairs were all the way across the room from him, and I just wasn't willing to sit on the floor for an hour and a half just to get better shots.

He's still the only boy dancing at this level, but a couple levels behind him is a younger boy who is very serious about ballet as well, and who also happens to be homeschooled. Not surprisingly, he and J have already bonded. They're also in Modern class together, which is nice for both of them. And behind them are a couple of adorable little boy dancers who are just starting out -- we've all got our fingers crossed that they'll be bitten by the bug and become serious about it as they get older. Would be so much fun to have enough boys to justify a "boys" class.

The class sinking into their splits. This always makes me cringe. But I see such difference at this level, even though there was only one girl in the class with a true ground-touching split, most of these kids are very, very close, including J. You'll also note what a shorty J is in this class -- not only is he on the small side anyway, but he's also a bit young for this level of class. This is the level where the girls start to go en Pointe.

Which is why it was important for J to start private lessons this semester -- the girls take an extra pre-pointe class, and, lacking a specific boys' class, J needs time to develop the skills specific to male ballet. I've really seen a huge jump in his technique these past couple of months, and I know the privates are at least partially the reason. It's nice to see a return on our investment, since, as you can imagine, private ballet lessons do not come cheap.

Best part of getting to sit in on his classes is always the same thing, no matter what level or age he's at -- the huge smile on his face the entire time he's working! It always makes me teary to see him involved in his true passion. (I have the same reaction watching Zoo Boy do Karate.)

earthen oven day 2 (and nomadic tent 2)

2011-11-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

I'm still waiting for friends to send me photos from my baby shower (last weekend) and this past week's Monday Homeschool Classes, where we did Basket Weaving in Ancient Israeli Crafts and made Fraction Sundaes in the Fun With Fractions class, and I'm still waiting for the opportunity to take some photos of J's projects in his Pottery class that he started a couple weeks ago at the University. But I'm also in danger of falling horribly behind if I don't just keep plugging ahead with posts, so here, I'll just keep going and catch up with those other things when I can!

So we traveled to our project co-op on Wednesday, and the kids drop-tested the bricks they made the last time we got together (which seems oh so long ago). They figured out which brick recipes weren't strong enough (the ones that cracked or fell apart when dropped), and which recipes would make for good building materials (the ones that remained intact or chipped when dropped).

Then the kids dug up some more clay and dirt to mix up a new batch to construct our earthen oven with. (After discussing it, we decided to stop calling it an "adobe oven", since "adobe" is the term used for this kind of building in Mexico and the southwestern US -- it's just not an appropriate term when discussing the Ancient Israelis!)

They measured out the various ingredients (clay earth, sand, and clay) in the right proportions, and added water.

Then they turned the mixture out onto a tarp and used their feet to mix it all together.

When it was all mixed, they took handfuls of the clay mixture and threw it onto the top of the oven base (which T had prepared on a day we couldn't make it, from cinder blocks filled with earth).

Then they spread the clay mixture over the top of the base. This will need to dry well before we start building the dome of the oven over top of it.

In the meantime, we'll be spinning up the goat (mohair) fleece that we sheared a few weeks ago. We're flick-carding the fiber and spinning it in the grease (without washing it) on our drop spindles. More photos on that to follow, no doubt.

update on the iron and the power situations

2011-11-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

First, thanks to everyone who posted thoughts and ideas about iron supplementation for my little anemia problem. I've got a product in hand -- it's called Bifera, and it's the over-the-counter counterpart to the prescription the OBs office had given me, at a fraction of the cost. Only difference is it's just iron, there's no Vit B12 and Folic Acid that the prescription stuff had (which was pretty convenient since all play a role in anemia). I'd already been taking the prescription version for 5 days (from a sample pack) and it had agreed just fine with me, so I feel semi-confident I'll do OK with this stuff too. Fingers crossed!

Next, our power situation is tenuous -- there are many, many (MANY) dangling tree limbs hanging precariously above power lines, and wind is expected tomorrow. Lots of wind. So my guess is that my power will be on and off for a bit (we already lost it for most of the afternoon today, but thankfully it was back on before we had to see in the dark). So anyway, just to say, if you don't hear from me for a bit, don't wonder why.

childbirth classes and ultrasounds

2011-11-10T05:38:00.000-08:00

One of the exciting new things that happened in the midst of our power outage and home displacement was that The Map Man and I began weekly childbirth classes. I know it's a little unusual to take a full set of classes for your 3rd child, but we're delivering at a different hospital this time (our beloved local hospital closed their birthing center a couple years ago), and quite honestly I've forgotten more than I ever knew about trying for a natural childbirth. With this being an attempted VBA2C (vaginal birth after 2 c-sections), and with me being the age I am (as in, could legitimately be the mother of any one of the other ladies in the class with us, without it being at all scandalous), I wanted to give us as much chance as I could for a positive outcome. So far I'm very pleased with my decision! And the other couples in the class (all of whom are expecting their first) sort of treat me like an oracle, which is both amusing and disturbing....

We also decided to take advantage of 3-D ultrasound technology so that the kids could get peek at their new baby sister. So, without further ado, here is our little Rosebud, at T-minus 2 months and counting:

Isn't she CUTE?!?!?!? I have to tell you, now I'm just DYING to get my hands on her!

She didn't cooperate much for the first 15 minutes -- she had her arm across her eyes, her umbilical cord across her mouth, and both of her feet in front of her face. But after taking a little break to stuff me full of sugar (a candy bar and a glass of orange juice), and bouncing around the room a bit, she managed to wriggle free of all of her various extraneous pieces so we could have a peek at her face. Her eyes are open in this picture, she's looking straight ahead.

In this one her eyes are closed, and she has a hand (pointing downwards) resting along her cheek. I like that you can see her pouty little mouth in this one.

People have been asking how I feel, and I have to say, I'm somewhat better pukiness-wise (as in, I'm not actually vomiting every day, tho I certainly feel like it on most days), somewhat worse heart-burn wise, and decidedly worse fatigue-wise. The Braxton-Hicks contractions are starting to drive me a little crazy, and I can't seem to be on my feet more than a few minutes before they start up. But they stop as soon as I sit down and relax. There's an obvious message there somewhere....

This is a "color" version of the pictures (I mean really, what is the point?) -- her other hand is up across her eye now, you can just make out a finger or two. That's the umbilical cord across her chin.

I think a big part of the reason I'm so exhausted is because I'm anemic (discovered at a recent blood test). But my insurance company is refusing to cover the expensive iron supplements my OB wants me on. Argh. Same company that dropped covering my prenatal vitamins half-way through my pregnancy because I turned 46 and they don't cover prenatals past that age. Charming. So I'm still trying to find a solution for the anemia, since taking standard iron supplement pills will just make me puke. Hopefully my OB's office can help us figure that one out.

One more picture, with her arm up along the side of her head (and more umbilical cord across her mouth).

We got about a dozen photos in all -- one of her girl parts (which we figured we'd protect her modesty and not share), and a couple of her sucking on her feet. The ultrasonographer said she was very active and most people don't get so many great action shots. We also have a DVD of the entire session (half an hour) so we can see her moving around.

Just amazing technology.

These next 2 months waiting for her are going to feel l-o-n-g.....

a quick little catch-up

2011-11-08T17:05:00.000-08:00

It started out innocently enough, almost 2 weeks ago, with a small, festive, 2 1/2 inch early snowfall, breaking snow total records for October:

The next day we rescued some feral kitties and brought them home to be our new batch of farm cats:

(From left to right, that's Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter.)

Along with Bromley (decidedly more mature and friendlier):

But then this happened the following day:

It started snowing around noon on Saturday Oct 29, we lost our power about 4pm, and the above is the view from our bedroom window on Sunday morning. Needless to say, the new October snowfall record was shattered. Over a foot of heavy, wet snow atop trees that still were covered in leaves meant that many of those trees snapped, bent in half, or toppled over entirely. Many landed on power lines, taking down wires and snapping power poles. There are still people in our town without power today, 11 days later. We were amongst the lucky that were only out of power for 10 days.

So what's a family to do?

Well, we moved in with our friends. And celebrated J's actual birthday:

Even more friends moved in the next day, so we held a sledding party:

Then carved some pumpkins:

Then threw a great big Halloween party (J is the ghost on the left, Zoo Boy is the vampire next to him):

And then things really got rolling. But those things deserve their own posts, so you'll just have to wait.

Heh heh heh....

let there be light!

2011-11-07T16:41:00.000-08:00

Yes, the power is back on! As of sometime this afternoon. And we moved back home this evening. Our water is brown (ewww...) and the heat is having trouble getting back into the "livable" range, but the lights are on and there's new fresh groceries in the fridge. Life is GOOD!!

I will have much catching up to do in the coming days -- communal living and radical unschooling for the past 10 days has had an impact on my homeschooling philosophy! So, in that light, the unschooling will continue for the rest of the week while I catch up on the rest of my life. But I'll have plenty (PLENTY!) to post about, so I'll be around. At last!

survival

2011-11-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure all of you (except those that actually live under a rock) know, we've been dealing with the aftermath of a bizarre, devestating October snowstorm here in New England. Our town happens to be in one of the worst hit areas, but other than losing power (since last Sat afternoon) and a lot of trees (nothing we can't live without, and nothing that damaged anything other than fences), we are fine. We've taken refuge with a friend who has power (thank the universe for good friends in times of need!!!) so we are warm and fed, and I'm blessed with a strong husband who is willing and able to shoulder the burden of running back and forth to take care of animals.

Projections are hopeful that we'll have power by midnight on Sunday night, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. In the meantime we're healthy and relatively happy and managing to survive, so thanks for all of your thoughts and well wishes! I'll have lots of stuff to share once we're hooked up to the real world again.

Jacob's ladder

2011-10-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

Above is J's story drawing, of Rebekah discussing with Jacob the plan that he should leave Canaan and seek refuge in Haran with her brother's family. Below is Zoo Boy's depiction of the dream Jacob had while traveling in the desert, of the ladder filled with angels and reaching up to heaven and Yahweh. I am extremely pleased at how much thought and detail Zoo Boy is putting into his drawings as this semester goes on. I'm patting myself on the back with my decision to continue working with the epic in this uninterrupted way rather than breaking out into separate math and science blocks, I feel like it's done Zoo Boy in particular a world of good to keep working with story drawings and full summaries.

Above, J's summary, below Zoo Boy's shortened version. In fact, even J's version needed to be shortened a little, because, for the first time, the boys composed a summary that was longer than they could fit on a single page -- they just insisted on including so many details. Zoo Boy wasn't happy about me shortening J's version as well as his, he thought that at least one of them should be writing the entire thing!

Havdalah candles and donut auction

2011-10-26T08:01:00.000-07:00

During our Ancient Israeli Crafts class this week we made Havdalah candles. Havdalah is the closing bit of Shabbat, and the candles used for the ceremony have at least 3 wicks -- the idea being that 3 wicks burning together produce a stronger light than 3 separate candles burning. We started by dipping 3 different candles in 3 colors of wax.

Then we braided the candles together while they were still warm. They came out really cool!

In the Fun with Fractions class, we held a "donut auction" -- I brought in a dozen donuts, all different kinds, and everyone who wanted each kind got a piece, so we wound up cutting donuts into thirds, quarters, fifths, sevenths, eighths and tenths.

We also explored fractions in terms of liquids, making our own measuring cups out of paper cups, and doling out various fractions of various drinks (water and several kinds of sodas).

Then we did a simple craft, making ocean scenes from foam fish and sea creatures, then identifying what fraction of our scene was lobsters, what fraction was clown fish, etc.

The fractions class has really been super-fun, and we could easily have used up a 2 hour slot rather than just an hour, the kids are just so into it. And it's amazing what a good handle they all seem to be getting on fractions despite the totally playful introduction.

The kids also had Flight class today, where they competed in a flying competition of some sort, but I was busy tending to hot, melting wax, so I didn't even get to see a minute of it, or take any photos.

nomadic tent, week 1

2011-10-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

Last week I wrote about the start of our big Adobe Oven cultural project. Our other big cultural project for this semester is making a Nomadic Tent, from the goat up. Today we had our project co-op friends out to our farm to shear our Angora goats. First we talked about how our goats' lives are different from the goats of the ancient Israelis. (They are more sedentary and live in the same place year-round, as opposed to goats in the desert who must move from water hole to water hole.)

Then the kids picked up scissors and got to work. As we sheared, we talked about the tools the ancient Israelis actually had to shear their goats (sharp rocks and sharpened goat bones) and how much harder that must have been than using scissors. (Which made a pretty big impression, because all of the kids thought it was too hard as it was.)

The kids all lost interest before the first goat was done, but the lesson was learned -- it's not easy to shear a goat, imagine if you had an entire flock of them and depended on them for all of your clothing and shelter needs!

Afterwards the kids had fun collecting chicken eggs, herding ducks, snuggling with the pony, and climbing all over hay bales.

It was a chilly late-October afternoon, but a nice day to be out enjoying the cooler weather and visiting with friends.

We'll be getting back to working on the oven this coming week, the weather was rainy last week preventing us from working on it. Now that we have the goat fleece, we can work on that project on rainy days, so we'll have a bit more flexibility with our projects.

harvest party, 2011

2011-10-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

We had our annual Harvest Bonfire party this weekend -- we roasted wieners, made s'mores, ate birthday cake, gorged ourselves on yummy food (and a good quantity of junk, too), and ran around in a dark pasture (well, the enormous pack of kids did anyway). Great fun had by all! Wish I could have gotten more pictures (especially of our pony, Butterscotch, snuggling with everyone), but I was too busy running around playing hostess.

Jacob tricks Isaac

2011-10-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

Above is J's story drawing, of Rebekah and Jacob scheming to trick Isaac into giving Esau's birthright blessing to Jacob. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing, of Jacob, disguised as Esau, delivering the meal Isaac had asked Esau for. (For Enki-users that might be confused, this story is really the 2nd half of the Enki Torah story "Esau Loses His Birthright".)

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's shorter one. When we finished composing our summary, J commented "I wonder if Esau will kill Jacob." Zoo Boy responded, "Nah, I'll bet he has another trick that keeps that from happening."

Esau Loses His Birthright

2011-10-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

A quick note to other Enki-users. I've split some of the Enki Torah stories into 2 (or more) parts to try to keep the story content to one major theme/issue per story. This is to keep my kids from devising overwhelmingly long summaries that nobody would be happy copying, and since summarizing is one of my big focuses with them, this seemed to make the most sense to me. So when I start using story names you can't find in your curriculum package (like, in tomorrow's post), it's because it's really part of another story in there. You'll also notice that I began the epic at the chronological beginning rather than with Moses, as I also felt that served my kids best. Anyway, on to today's topic:

Above is J's story drawing of Esau asking his brother Jacob for some stew. Jacob eventually bargains with Esau, giving him stew in exchange for his birthright. I love the realistic nomadic tent in the background of this picture! And the adobe brick stove that Jacob is cooking his stew on. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of Esau eating the stew, and Jacob smiling because he'd tricked Esau out of his birthright. When I finished reading the story, J commented, "Well, that wasn't very smart of Esau!" and Zoo Boy said, "Esau is strong with his body, but Jacob is strong with his brain."

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's somewhat shorter one. You can see what I mean about the length of this -- imagine if we'd had to continue by summarizing the second half of the story as well, it would have taken pages to write it all out. Much easier to just read that second part as a separate story, that way none of the important parts are left out.

Rebekah at the well

2011-10-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

Above is J's story drawing of Rebekah (Isaac's future wife) offering water to Abraham's steward and his men and camels (the men and camels in the background). One of the readers of this blog pointed out the cool perspectives that J is showing in his recent drawing work. This is developing naturally as he continues doing drawings, it's nothing that I've ever mentioned or worked on with him. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of the steward (and one of his camels) meeting Rebekah at the well.

J's story summary above, Zoo Boy's somewhat shorter one below.

monday crafts

2011-10-18T06:42:00.000-07:00

I had to make an emergency run for clay before my classes began yesterday, so I didn't get any photos of the boys' flight class. But they made cute little helicopters and learned all about the effects of wind on wings.

In Ancient Israeli Crafts, we talked about clay, where it comes from, and how the Ancient Israelis used it for everyday items. We looked at a lot of photos of adobe houses, both modern Egyptian houses and ruins of Ancient Israeli houses, and looked at some drawings and models of Israeli adobe houses as well. Then we talked about how clay was also used to record history, and got the class going with designing and making their own clay relief tablets.

I told the class they could either record a picture from Ancient History, or from their own personal Modern History. As an example, I said that if I was going to make my own clay relief tablet right now, I would depict a woman with a big belly, getting ready to have a baby. (Everyone liked that.)

J chose to make a farmer using a hoe (something from Ancient Israel).

Zoo Boy went the Modern personal history route, and depicted his DS.

After we finished our clay relief tablets, we made clay oil lamps. After these lamps dry (in another week), we'll fill them with Olive Oil and light the wicks.

I forgot to take photos during Fractions class, but we worked a little on equivalents and lowest denominator (without too much explanation, more just manipulation of seasonal candy on a plate), and we read through a fun little fractions play and assigned roles -- we'll present our play to the entire Monday Homeschool community during share day.

Meanwhile, at home, the kids continue to play around with the fraction pictures we did in the last class, continuing to create with wholes, halves, quarters and eighths.

photo shoot

2011-10-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the ballet school held their formal promotional photo shoot for the Claras (there are 2 casts, each has it's own Clara) and Fritz (J is the only Fritz, so he dances with both casts), to use in advertising and the catalog. I thought J might find this a little overwhelming -- it took hours of formal posing -- but he said it was actually a lot of fun. The boy loves a spotlight.

J and one Clara get in a bit of practice while the other Clara is being photographed.

I'll have bunches of professional shots to share when they are available. We actually finally abandoned the shoot to go find other things to do -- J might have been having fun, but honestly, the rest of us thought it was a little boring.

Want to come see J dance in the Nutcracker?? The shows will be held at Manchester High School in Manchester, CT, and the dates are Sat Dec 10 at 2pm and 7pm, Sun Dec 11 at 2pm, Sat Dec 17 at 2pm and 7pm, and Sun Dec 18 at 2pm. I'll post ticket information when it becomes available. The school hires in professionals for some of the larger roles, as well as allowing all of their students to participate, it's really a WONDERFUL production, well worth making the time to see. Many homeschooled kids involved too -- in fact, one of the Claras is also homeschooled!

Abraham and Isaac

2011-10-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

Above is J's drawing, of Abraham preparing to kill his only son, Isaac, according to the instruction of Yahweh. Below, Zoo Boy depicts a similar scene, but he included the angel of the Lord coming to stop Abraham from actually doing it. While we were reading the story initially, Zoo Boy interrupted me to ask, "Does Yahweh REALLY want Abraham to kill Issac?" I just told him we'd see and continued reading. He was trying to decide if it was worth getting upset or if he should just wait and see how the story ended.

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's slightly shorter one.

the sons of Abraham

2011-10-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

When I read the title of this story, both kids cheered -- they were glad that Abraham and Sarah were FINALLY getting the children that Yahweh promised them. Of course, Zoo Boy then noted, "Why is it in these stories everyone is always giving birth to sons? SOMEONE must have had daughters!" Astute kid. Above is J's story drawing, of Hagar and Ishmael leaving Abraham's family (at Sarah's jealous insistence) and traveling into the wilderness. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing, of the well Yahweh provided to Hagar so that she could save Ishmael's life after the food and water Abraham had sent with them ran out.

Above is J's summary, below is Zoo Boy's slightly shorter version.

adobe ovens, week 1

2011-10-13T06:30:00.001-07:00

Our little cultural projects co-op began yesterday. A big part of the Enki cultural units (the part that makes up the actual Science work) is based on longer-term, larger scale projects. My friend T is leading our first project, which will ultimately be an adobe oven.

The timing of the start of this project is perfect for us (purposely), because this week we've been reading stories about Abraham and Sarah, and in the stories Sarah bakes bread in her adobe oven.

In the first photo, T is just helping the kids get a feel for the landscape and materials available to the ancient Hebrew people.

Then we went outdoors for the real work. Our first job was to find clay. Fortunately, T lives on an old river bed, so her yard is just FULL of clay, and the kids didn't even need to dig all that deep to find it. They were pretty excited with how much clay they were able to dig up and collect in a fairly short amount of time.

Next, they came up with "recipes" -- different combinations of amounts of clay, sand, and composted soil. They mixed up each of the recipes, adding some water along the way to create enough moisture for it to stick together well.

Then they formed their clay recipes into test bricks (in our case, the bricks are just informal balls rather than molded bricks).

The whole point of this activity is discovery learning -- the kids are making various ratios of clay/sand/soil to determine which is the optimum mixture for constructing our oven.

Then they laid out their bricks to dry. Next week, we will drop the bricks and see which ones hold up the best, then use that recipe to start building our oven.

Our recording sheet to keep track of the recipes we used. Next week we'll fill in the results.

The entire scientific focus for this year is ecosystems -- in particular, determining what is needed for the human species to survive, and discovering how these ancient peoples went about providing these things for themselves. Right now we are working with "food" -- after we're done with this half our our semester, we will switch to working with "shelter" and will construct a nomadic tent from goat fiber.

Yahweh's promise to Abram

2011-10-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

Above is J's story drawing, of an aging Abraham and Sarah being promised, yet again, that they would have children, despite their advanced age. Below is Zoo Boy's depiction, from an earlier time, with Abram and Sarai looking decidedly unhappy at the continued promises with no results. While they were drawing, both boys commented "I wonder if they ever will have children."

Above, J's story summary, and below is Zoo Boy's slightly shorter summary.

a sustaining rhythm

2011-10-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

It's a wonder to me how easy it has become to fall into a supportive, sustaining rhythm with our days and our schoolwork now that we've been working with the concept of daily/weekly/seasonal rhythms for a few (OK, 5) years. I thought I would spend a minute talking about our fall rhythms now while it is on my mind (and before the seasons, and our rhythms, shift!)

This autumn, the boys have taken on more responsibility on the farm. At this point they are doing all (ALL!) of the morning chores here, without supervision. This is coming in handy for The Map Man (who doesn't need to get up quite as early for work), and will come in very handy for me once the baby arrives as I won't have to bundle baby and myself up to go outside in the bitter winter weather. This is what starts our day -- the boys feeding and caring for the livestock, while I take care of breakfast preparation and get the dogs situated for the morning.

Then we eat breakfast, brush teeth, and prepare to go out for our morning walk.

Our daily walk starts our morning movement time -- we've been taking Joy the Collie (now 9 1/2 yrs old) with us for a little exercise too. When I say little, I mean little. I'm only capable of about half a mile now, so much to the kids' chagrin, our walks are pretty brief these days. We round out their morning movement
with a spin-and-fold cycle set to a Hebrew song. On rainy days, instead of the walk, we do a Hebrew folk dance, or some other sort of vigorous exercise set to music.

We transition into our morning lesson time by finishing up our movement with walking a form. I'm going to have to post separately about form drawing, as this is the first year we've incorporated it into our schoolwork. Briefly, you walk a "form" (pattern) for a few days, then draw what you walked. It has bunches of developmental benefits. Since we've never done this before, we're starting at the very beginning with very basic forms that most Enki or Waldorf kids worked with back in 1st grade. We walk the same form every day for a week. Then one day a week, we draw the form in sand or shaving cream or some other sensory-rich, easily-erasable medium. The next day we draw it in their form books. And on the final day of the week, we paint it.

Then we move into our main lesson time. This usually consists of recalling the previous day's story, then writing a summary (together) of the story which we then post for the kids' to copy later. Then the kids are left to draw a scene from the story on their own (while I sneak in here and deal with email, paying bills, blogging, etc). When they are done with the drawing, they copy the summary into their good books opposite from the drawing. On the first day of the week, they work on entries in their journals during this time slot instead of the story work, since we have not read a new story the day before.

Then we have snack.

After snack, the kids do some independent practice work (although if I'm giving them verbal word problems or a spelling test, I am right there with them). This consists of a few word problems and several worksheets -- one on either addition or subtraction (20 practice equations for J, 10 for Zoo Boy), one on geometry/measurement, and one on spelling. This photo shows a few of the workbooks I draw from when assigning practice work -- you'll note that these are geared at Grade 2, while my kids are actually working on new material at a higher grade level. That's because they are just practicing skills they already know -- I do not introduce new material via workbooks. (New material is introduced in a more living manner, in case you've not been reading along with this blog for years....)

After all the practice work is finished and corrected as needed, I read them a new story to work with the following day. On Fridays, this is a science story (unrelated to the rest of our curriculum work) in the topic we'll be working with in our afternoon chemistry lab Science Co-op.

Then the kids are allowed some free time to play (indoors or out, their choice) until lunch. Depending on the day and how quickly we got through everything, this ranges anywhere from a few minutes up to an hour. (Lunch happens at 1:00 each day -- our morning begins with chores at 7:30, so that gives you some idea about the length of our "school day".)

The afternoons are all different, but always consist of some sort of group activity during the first half, then something exercise-intensive (dancing or karate) during the 2nd half. Between the two we have snack. (This photo is of the kids flying kites in the park.)

On most Mondays we spend the entire day at our Monday Homeschool Classes Co-op, so those classes just continue into the afternoon. Tuesdays we have playdates or outings. Wednesdays we have a cultural projects co-op. Thursdays we have J's piano lesson and a playdate. And Fridays we have our Science Fridays co-op. J dances 5 times a week (including Saturdays), and Zoo Boy goes to the Karate dojo 2 or 3 times a week.

Then it's home, supper, bed prep, the boys watch a short video (TV program on DVD), then J practices piano. When he goes to bed, Zoo Boy reads independently for a bit before he goes to bed, too.

Does it sound exhausting? Many folks have said as much to me. Honestly, it's not. (Well, I mean, I AM exhausted at the end of the day, but that's because of the pregnancy, not our daily life!) Our rhythms just flow so smoothly from one part of the day to the next, I find it very easy to maintain the pace of our days and fit in what seems like a lot in what is actually a very relaxed manner.

Thank goodness, because what I didn't include above is my having to excuse myself at regular intervals to puke.... I know that the baby coming is going to throw a great big curve ball into the easy flow of our days, but it will be SUCH a relief to feel good again!

the tower of babel

2011-10-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

Above is J's story drawing of the Tower of Babel. Below is Zoo Boy's -- it's hard to see, but he's got a bunch of people looking up at the tower (all with different hairstyles, which I think is clever) and Yahweh up in the right hand corner being very displeased.

J's summary above, Zoo Boy's below. It was a short story, so it was a short summary. Great story for working our way back into our school rhythms after our vacation week!

corn maze

2011-10-11T05:58:00.000-07:00

We took advantage of a lovely holiday afternoon yesterday, with The Map Man not at work and no Monday Homeschool Classes or dance, to visit a local farm for some seasonal fun. We had a delightful hay ride, the boys successfully traversed the corn mazes, and had a blast playing in the play area afterwards. Nice afternoon!

orange belt

2011-10-11T04:33:00.000-07:00

Zoo Boy had his 2nd belt testing for Karate this past weekend. Unfortunately, J had a Nutcracker rehearsal at the same time, so only The Map Man got to go to the testing and belt ceremony. But we all went out to dinner to celebrate afterwards.

That's my little dude in the middle of this pic with his yellow belt on, behind the little blond girl in the front of the photo.

Zoo Boy receives his new belt and his certificate from Master Ken.

The Boy bows to The Map Man in respect and thanks.

He's as proud of himself as we are of him!

vacation!

2011-10-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

We took a little last-minute vacation last week to this AMAZING resort in northern NH, thanks to our wonderful friends who suddenly had an extra room available in the time-share they rented, and generously offered to put us up for a few days on their own vacation. Since we've never (NEVER!) been away together as a family (and the Map Man and I haven't had a vacation together in 11 years....), we jumped at the chance for a bit of fun family time in a beautiful autumn locale!

We did a bit of sight-seeing in the Franconia Notch region. This is the boys at The Basin. The weather really wasn't the greatest, on-and-off drizzly and windy and cold, but we made the best of it! My "condition" (that pesky baby growing in my interior) didn't allow for much real hiking, since almost all of my joints are screaming "sit down!" on a regular basis at this point, but it all worked out pretty well since we didn't have a whole lot of time for that sort of thing anyway.

The kids had a bunch of fun with what we did manage to do. Honestly, they would have been happy to just hang out at the resort all day playing with their friends, so they were pretty easy to please. Made for an easy, relaxing trip.

We went to a trained bear show (famous in the area) at Clark's Trading Post. These bears really love their "jobs" -- they are paid in ice-cream and raisins, which they think is pretty wonderful. They played basketball, swung on swings, jumped across barrels, rode on scooters, weighed themselves on the scale, checked the mail, recycled their "bear" bottles, and had a generally wonderful time while we all applauded for them and learned facts about bears and the history of the show at Clark's.

Then everyone in our party except me took a scenic train ride. (I didn't think a half hour of puking on a train sounded like a fun vacation idea.) I did a little window shopping while they took their trip, and The Map Man snapped a couple photos for me so I didn't feel like I completely missed out.

At the end of the day(s), the kids swam in the indoor pool, and then hunkered down to watch a movie, while we adults played cards.

It really was a nice little vacation, next time I want to do it when I'm not pregnant!

monday classes, week 3

2011-10-08T06:42:00.001-07:00

During their Flight class this past Monday, the boys work on building airplane models that demonstrate pitch, yaw, and roll.

Zoo Boy cuts out a glider from a Styrofoam plate.

J sends his glider on a test flight.

In our Ancient Israeli Crafts class, we worked on sewing woven cloth robes.

In Fun with Fractions, we explored a bit of equivalencies with Hershey Bars, the kids discovering that half a Hershey bar equals 6/12, etc. (Hershey Bars are great for playing around with fractions, as they have 12 equal segments.) As one of my students exclaimed "Fractions are delicious!"

We also did a craft project with card stock "pie pieces", creating all sorts of creatures and scenes from wholes, halves, quarters, and eighths. (Below the class shows off their finished projects.)

We have the next week off from Monday classes due to the holiday.

science fridays on the road

2011-10-08T06:36:00.001-07:00

We've taken our Science Fridays co-op on the road for several weeks. Last Friday we went to Northwest Park in Windsor, CT, to enjoy the beautiful seasonal weather and outdoors in general. (Yesterday we went to the Springfield Science Museum to explore the exhibits and take in a wonderful seasonal planetarium show -- no photos from yesterday.)

Above, the boys enjoy the outside -- and inside -- of the Nature Center while awaiting the rest of our friends. Below, they explore along the pond, finding many fish and frogs.

Above, Zoo Boy was quite taken with the mule (and vice versa, she seems rather fond of him as well). Below, the boys all explore something in the grass outside the pasture. It was a GLORIOUS day!

Noah and the flood

2011-09-30T08:08:00.000-07:00

Above is J's drawing of Noah's ark, below is Zoo Boy's (his is an aerial view). J was singing songs we'd learned about Noah and the ark while they were drawing.

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's. Again, the boys pretty much wrote the summary entirely on their own, they are getting a really good grasp of pulling out the important parts of the story (though entirely on their own they would still write a summary so long neither of them would want to copy it into their good books).

Torah joke

2011-09-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

As told by J:

Eve: Adam, do you think we should worry about Cain picking on his little brother?

Adam: Nah, he'll be fine. Here, have another apple.

Cain and Abel

2011-09-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

I had worried about telling this story -- admittedly, it's a little intense, and I wondered how hearing it would affect my boys. How does introducing the concept of one brother killing another sound to two brothers who are as close as mine? J (whose story drawing is above, with Abel making a heart-felt offering to Yahweh, while an angry, jealous Cain glares at him from behind) merely gasped and looked up from the deck of cards he was shuffling when I got to that critical part of the story. Zoo Boy (story drawing below, of Cain drawing a blade on Abel in the field where they fought) said "uhoh" when the story started building, then followed that up with a quiet "I knew this was going to be bad" when Cain finally killed Abel. All in all, I'd say they handled it remarkably well.

More and more I am letting the kids chose the wording for our summaries. Today's was written almost entirely by them. (J's full summary above.) Since it was a little on the long side, I let Zoo Boy write a shorter version of it:

Rosh Hashanah

2011-09-29T08:01:00.001-07:00

I was walking a thin line as we celebrated some of the Rosh Hashanah traditions, in keeping with the cultural spirit of our Torah unit. Zoo Boy really wanted to do a REAL Rosh Hashanah celebration, with the Hebrew readings and a visit to a Temple and the whole nine yards. (He's just SUCH the right age for this sort of embracing of the cultures.) J, on the other hand, was highly opposed to celebrating it at all -- he felt that it was disrespectful for us to observe a religious holiday that was not our own. (And that's totally normal for his developmental place as well.) So I settled on sampling the foods and listening to some recorded prayers and readings in Hebrew, but did not go any deeper than that. Zoo Boy was disappointed we didn't "do more" to celebrate. J was OK with the compromise, and we discussed how there are some holidays that people celebrate because they believe in the religion behind them, and some that they celebrate because they are just part of their family traditions. (I used Yule and Christmas as examples of each for our family -- we know plenty of families who celebrate the Winter Solstice who are not Pagan, and we certainly enjoy the Christmas traditions ourselves without believing in the nativity story as a truth.)

It was a nice little celebration, not as deep as I would have liked to delve into it, but the best I could do and still respect what my kids needed from it.

stuff

2011-09-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

There just so much stuff that I want to blog about and can't seem to find the time. Like, for instance:

Our Science Fridays co-op, where we explored chemicals in everyday household items.

Or the kite making session during the boys' Flight class.

Or the making and using of horizontal ground looms in our Ancient Israeli crafts class.

Or using M&Ms and bead stringing to explore fractions in that class.

Or the fact that J got a really exiting role in his upcoming Nutcracker production. (He'll be dancing the role of Fritz, Clara's brother, as well as participating in the Russian dance.)

Or the fabulous science classes (Ecosystems, Rocket Design, and brainstorming how people could live on Mars) at The Children Museum's Homeschool Day yesterday.

Or the fact that Zoo Boy has received an invitation to participate in an upcoming test for his next Karate belt.

And, on a very, very sad note, the passing of April, our beloved Akbash livestock guardian dog, who has protected us and our critters for the past year. She was quite old for such a large dog (9 1/2 years), and didn't give us any sign that she was at the end. We just found her curled up and sleeping forever one evening, after having been her usual bouncy, happy self right up until then. May we all have such a peaceful passing when our times come.

poetry

2011-09-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Below is an Acrostic poem that J wrote as part of his practice work today. This is the first time I've assigned something like this, and I was totally blown away by the creativity of his poem! So I felt the need to share:

ANIMAL, by J

A lion was walking
Not knowing he was stalking
Impala -- the master of tricks.
Mighty Impala kicked his legs
And hit Lion in the head,
Lion said "Impala sure got his kicks!"

the fall

2011-09-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Above is J's drawing of Yahweh telling Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of Yahweh punishing the serpent and Adam and Eve after they ate from the Tree of Knowledge. I find it interesting that both boys drew Yahweh as a sort of non-distinct individual (in J's you can only see a light and a pair of hands, in Zoo Boy's he's just a shapeless flesh-colored blob).

Above is J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's.

the creation and the garden

2011-09-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

J's drawing, above, is of Adam and Eve naming animals in the Garden of Eden. Zoo Boy's drawing, below, is of Adam and Eve together by the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge.

J's story summary above, Zoo Boy's below. As you can see, I am requiring a more complete summary from Zoo Boy this year, and amazingly, he is not resisting the extra handwriting. If you ever want to see a larger picture of the handwriting samples (so you can actually read them), just click on the photo and it will take you to a larger version.

opening: Naomi and Asher

2011-09-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we read the story that opens our epic. It's a story set in modern times that shows a family preparing for Rosh Hashanah, and the grandson's excitement at hearing the stories of his father's father's father's fathers. Above, J draws the family, all dressed up, joining other people on their way to Temple. Below, Zoo Boy shows a scene from the family's kitchen, as Mother and Naomi prepare the Rosh Hashanah foods and Asher works on his homework.

Above, J's story summary, below is Zoo Boy's.

The boys are both exited to hear grandfather's stories in the coming weeks.

J asked today if this work means we're going to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. When I said that yes, we will observe some of the traditions next Friday on Rosh Hashanah, he was stunned. "But why?" he wondered, "We're not Jewish!" I nodded and told him that he's right, and we're not going to celebrate in quite the same way -- we won't go to Temple and we won't say all of the sacred prayers, because those are not our family's beliefs. But we're going to listen to a few of the readings and eat some of the same foods that Jewish families all over the world will be doing, and have been doing for many, many years. He went off to think about that a bit. Zoo Boy, on the other hand, thinks the entire things sounds really cool --I think he'd love to go to Temple and really participate in a real Rosh Hashanah ceremony.

I will need to keep a feel of the "temperature" of this type of thing with my kids, especially as Hanuka coincides this year with Yule (an important part of our family's spiritual celebrations), the first night of Hanuka falling on the Long Night. I will need to decide if it will mean more to the boys to incorporate the Hanuka story and the lighting of the menorah into our own family celebrations, or to keep it a separate observation a week prior to the actual dates. I am keeping flexibility in our schedule so that I can do what feels right when we get to that point.

monday homeschool classes

2011-09-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

Our fun Monday Homeschool Classes co-op started up again yesterday, and the kids were all thrilled to be "back to school" with their friends.

First class of the day for my kids was about Flight. After discussing the historical beginnings of flight, they made their own hot air balloons from lightweight plastic trash bags, then heated the air inside with a hair dryer, then let them go! It was amazing how well these things floated!

Next they created a more complicated flying machine out of a latex balloon. They used a washer on a piece of string as a weight (to keep the balloon upright) and the hair dryer to provide upward lift. After experimenting with their wobbly creations, the teacher showed them how (and where) to add cellophane tape fins to make the balloon spin, which added stability. The kids then practiced flying their creations and landing them in plastic cups.

Really, really cool class.

Next was one of my offerings, a class called "Ancient Israeli Crafts" which I designed to support our Torah study unit this fall. We started the class by looking at some maps and satellite photos of Israel, so the kids had an idea where in the world it is, and were able to determine (from the satellite photos) that there is a predominate desert climate there. We also looked at photos (from library books) of what the desert looks like, and identified the sorts of plants and animals that could survive in that ecosystem. Then we brainstormed about how people could survive there without any of the technology we have today. We soon discovered that the Ancient Israelis depended quite a bit on their goats, and we created a few products like they may have used for survival -- a folded leather pouch for carrying food, and yarn from goat fiber (mohair) which they made tents and clothing from for shelter. Next week we'll build ground looms and weave tent strips on them.

Lunch was held at a nearby park, complete with glorious weather, a nice play scape, tennis courts and ball fields, and a small river to wade in. And, most important to me, picnic tables in the shade of a big tree.

Last class of the day was my Fun With Fractions class. This is a really "lite" introduction to fractions, comparing what fraction of whole things the kids themselves are a part of. The worksheets to the left of the photo provided some questions that we answered together in class, like "What fraction of the class are you?" and "What fraction of your family are you?" This week we just dealt with fractions whose numerators are 1, we'll deal with multiple numerators next week. The craft project, to the right in the photo (J's above, Zoo Boy's below), was a huge hit with the kids, who all loved cutting their half of a half in half to create an eighth. Also a huge hit was dividing our round coffee cake and our square coffee cake into fractions to feed the class.

If only I could remember to take photos while the class is running! But I get too caught up in teaching and can't seem to remember to click the camera, despite the fact that it's sitting next to me on the table.

genesis paintings, day 5

2011-09-19T05:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the sudden glut of posts! A combination of a busy weekend and the fact that we actually schooled and created stuff I wanted to post right through it left me without time to get on the computer and take care of it.

This was our final day of painting from the Genesis story. Yesterday we finished up the story with the verses about the creation of the beasts and man. This is my painting. I was thrilled that my elephant and giraffe actually turned out to be recognizable! It made up for the fact that my man looks like a zombie alien....

J's painting. His man, of course, actually looks like a man. Glad one of us is mastering this painting thing....

Zoo Boy's painting.

Now it's on to reading the epic one story at a time, and working with recall and story drawing and summaries like we have for the past couple of years. I'll also be adding in form drawing (wish me luck, I'm not overly confident about it....) and practice work to round out our "full" school days. The painting has been fun, but I'm ready to get back into my more comfortable elements, and SO ready NOT to have to set up to paint every day!

genesis paintings, day 4

2011-09-19T05:05:00.000-07:00

Our day 4 paintings were inspired by the passage where Yahweh created the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky. We were all a little more careful about the amount of water and paint on our pages, and hence experienced a bit more success with these paintings. This first one is mine.

J's painting. I like how his water looks more like water than my flat blue does. His fish are also less blurry than mine. This was our first time using smaller brushes than the 1" flat brushes we we've been used to, for painting in the fish and the birds. I had a bit of a problem controlling the amount of paint on mine. (The kids seems to have less trouble with that.)

Zoo Boy's painting. Halfway through this, he exclaimed "This is my best painting ever!" I was so happy to hear him enjoying himself with painting again, after the problems from yesterday's painting.

sizing up and sizing down, part 2

2011-09-19T04:52:00.001-07:00

Above are some of the "sizing up and down" strips that the kids in our Science Fridays co-op created. Zoo Boy's is on the bottom, J's is above. All the kids had a total blast with this homework assignment, and all had a different approach.

The kids share the details about their strips with one another. Zoo Boy had made sure to include all the various size categories on his, along with the name of the size category, using the game cards from last week's game as a reference. J just drew from his own ideas of what is larger and smaller than himself and put them in the right locations on the strip. Some of the other kids also drew, some cut pictures from magazines, and one took photos of the objects she wanted to include.

Here's a couple more of the strips. One of the "little" kids in our group just ordered things from biggest to smallest -- she said that comparing to their own size was "too grown up" for them. I loved that perspective!! Our group is geared at our kids that are ages 8 and up, but thanks to flexible thinking on the kids' parts, the 5 and 6 year old are finding ways to participate right along with them.

After sharing their strips, the kids listened to a story called "What is Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew?" which is all about sizing down, down, down to the microscopic realms.

Then they viewed a computer simulation of sizing both up and down, from the universe down to the pieces of a quark. They participated in a discussion about what is the biggest thing and what is the smallest thing, and whether or not that can actually be defined. The kids were all really into it.

Then with our remaining time, they all sat down and made covers for their binders.

Zoo Boy was disappointed that there wasn't any homework this week, but I assured him that we'd read a science story before heading to co-op next Friday.

genesis paintings, day 3

2011-09-19T04:34:00.000-07:00

We all struggled with the day 3 paintings, during which we read the verses of genesis that cover the creation of plant life, and then the placement of the moon and the sun in the sky. For the first time, we were purposely trying to bring some form to our paintings, and it was a challenge -- usually kids have a year of bringing in a bit of form before attempting this series of paintings, which we haven't done since we'd been a bit behind with painting, so I had anticipated that it would be a bit challenging for us all. (Me too, I've had no prior painting experience at all before starting working with the kids with it a few years ago.) This first painting is mine.

Here's J's painting -- he alone didn't complain about how his came out, he has an uncanny way of seeing the beauty in everything, even when it doesn't come out as planned. Or perhaps the key to his positive attitude is that he doesn't really have any set expectations when he sits down to create, so he's happy with whatever happens to come out on the page. Either way, I wish I could can that and share it with others!

Zoo Boy was quite upset with the way his painting turned out. I let him be sad about it for a bit, then asked him if he wanted to talk about it. He told me that he didn't know WHY he was so sad. I said that I could understand why, I was sad that my painting didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, either. Then we talked about what went wrong while we were painting -- too much water on the page, we didn't use strong enough colors and there was too much paint on our brushes which only added more water to the page and blurred our figures. I pointed out how the roots of his tree looked more like roots than mine or J's paintings, and how that wouldn't have happened if his page had been as dry as ours. In the end we decided that we would try again tomorrow with the next painting and see if we couldn't correct some of the things we didn't like with this painting.

genesis painting, day 2

2011-09-16T05:51:00.001-07:00

Here's our day 2 paintings -- this first is mine. For these paintings we read the passage where Yahweh created a firmament between the blue to separate the sea and the sky.

J's painting

Zoo Boy's painting