Done!

Well, we've had some visitors and been busy these past few weeks, and now summer is over!

What worked well:

1. The girls LOVED keeping a journal of what they learned and were mad when I forgot to find "journal-time."
2. Watching my girls stop at the zoo, notebooks in hand, alongside their uncle to sketch an elephant.  A mom passed me and said, "Are they sketching?!?!?  What a great idea!!" She was surprisingly stoked.
3. Having a theme each week.  During lunch, we'd just start talking about the theme.  Kids have so many questions, and I have so many answers . . .  and those answers just give them more questions!  Without those topics to guide us, I think they would have spent their entire summer talking about Barbie and Cinderella.  They still talked about Barbie and Cinderella, but it was nice to have a break and think about our ribs go up and down when we breathe, or why bugs don't have skin, or things look smaller the further thay are from you.

What didn't work well:

1. Mommy's energy.  After a while I just didn't care what the Spanish word for "monkey" is.  God bless teachers.

Have a safe school year!

Awesome Animals

105 degrees heat index, husband busy at work, and what did I do today? I went to the zoo. See? That's why you have to give themes to your summer weeks, because it guilts you into doing wonderful things for your children that no sane person would do.

So I reminded the kids that I had no help from dad and they had to be good. They always take pity on me when I am by myself and act ike perfect angels. We rocked that zoo. And the animals were really workin' it today!

What we learned:
*Giraffes can lick inside their nostrils with their tongue.
*Bonobo babies are cute. The adult females Bonobos are even more awesome.
*Otters get out of the water to poop. And the smell of the poop is so bad it permeates the entire exhibit. Otters are also camera-hogs.
*Ants like elephant exhibits. So much so that you have to watch the elephants from the reptile house in order to avoid being bitten.
*The red-legged Sierna (or something like that) likes to lay right next to the walking path and look dead. Seriously, they don't curl up or lay down, they just look like they plopped down all funky-like. (I almost reported the injured and dying bird, until I saw a sign posted saying, "This bird isn't dead or injured, he just lays down like that.")

Okay, the kids slept on the way home and now they are up and full of energy . . . where's my nap?????

Sew Super!

Last week was craft-o-rific!

My two eldest made these little American Girl crafts (40% off at Michaels a while back).  Except for the beginning and ending knots, they sewed them all on their own.  Pretty good for a 5 & 7 year old!

The eldest is so excited to try her hand at other sewing crafts.  We are planning on making capes, scarves, and bandanas for some of her dolls. 

(Confession time)  I find sewing very, um, annoying.  I'm fine until something goes wrong.  In my world, taking apart a seam is like being one of those guys in old Western movies that has to take out a bullet lodged in his own arm.  Yep, it's that torturous for me. I just can't bring myself to do it.  I'd rather walk away a failure, arm swinging lifeless at my side, than have to redo something.  But I do it.  And just when I take out the last stitch, I realize, no, my first attempt was actually the correct way . . . . well, that's like when the old Western guys have to seal the wound by heating up their dagger over an open flame and then FZZZZZZZ, burn the wound close.

I don't sew much.

But, just because I am not naturally inclined towards the activity, doesn't mean it's not a great activity.  I actually find it to be great for developing spatial awareness.  Take a flat piece of fabric and visualize how you have to cut and sew it to make it into a skirt or shirt or whatever.  Pretty amazing.    So I am supporting my daughter's creativity! . . . . until she asks me to undo a seam.  Then I'm hiding the sewing machine until at least next summer.

(P.S.--Daughter #3 got a Hook n' Latch kit.  I thought that would be easier for her.  After hours . . . . she had one row completed.  I decided to help her at night.  After 2 hours . . . I had 6 rows completed.  What a terrible activity. Never . . . . a- . . . . -gain.)

Next week: Gracious God or Awesome Animals, hmmmmmmm, we'll see which strikes my fancy!

Exquisite Earth

Okay, let's pretend Mondays do not count this week. My four-legged child required extra attention today and I fear she may consume more of my time this week, but I shall persevere! I trudge on and offer up this spectacular week--Exquisite Earth!

(A hush falls over the crowd)

Okay, this is kind of a catch-all week. So just pretend it is amazing, 'kay?

Activities:

1. Maps
*Find all relatives' houses
* I have got extra butcher paper from Bodacious Bodies week, so let's make our own maps of our home, neighborhood, state, and country!

2. Transportation
*I have little wooden models of a boat, tractor, etc for the kids to put together. How does this relate to the Earth? Well, how else do you travel across the Earth? See? See how I worked in a craft?

3. Flower Identification
*Remember the flower coloring activity we were supposed to do during Drawing week? Well, we didn't, but now we will!

4. Nature Party
*Everyone pretends to be something in nature--not just animals, but even trees or lakes! Then our party takes a crazy turn--winter hits with snow, or there is a big hurricane coming! How will nature react? What happens to the lake in freezing weather? What will the tree do during severe winds?

5. Duplication (Sharing Nature with Children, pg. 48)
* Gather 5-10 natural items from the yard and place them on a tray. Introduce the tray to the children and have them study the items. Then the children must go out and see if they can find duplicates (shells from the lake, rocks, a maple tree leaf, etc). This helps them with identifying objects in nature and also increases observation and memory.

Happy last week of June to you!

Magnificent Music Wrap Up

The fun:

*The girls did a fine job of learning a composer's style. I particularly enjoyed when I played a song and my eldest guessed correctly that the composer was Wagner. I asked how she knew and she said she knew it was Wagner because, "It sounds like someone is winning a war!" Great! Bwahahah, I am raising mini-geniuses. I am now feeling a bit motivated to continue playing the few select composers throughout the summer to keep quizzing them. I am pondering this even though I cannot believe some of the omissions, but whatev.
*This book (see below) was well worth the purchase. We put the CD in the player and read from the book. I did my best preschool teacher impression--full of uberduber voice inflections. I had the kids listening for the different sounds and walking around imitating the animals. The two oldests' attentions were rapt.
Check it out!

The failures:
*Did not have time to try out all of instruments in the house, but that's not so bad. It means we were busy!!
*The Sound Detective Game?? Yeah, apparently one of my daughters is a cheat! I would tip toe and her head would just turn and follow me. She just could not keep her eyes shut.

Magnificient Music

Music. Many of the topics that we are exploring this summer seem to have a "extra-curricular" feel about them. I, however, do not feel that way about these subjects. Not only do I feel that familiarity with art, poetry, music, etc is important for expanding the mind, but I believe approaching these subjects develops skills that are used in numerous other aspects of our lives.

I love music's history, its hidden cultural codes, the psychological aspects of how music alters our moods, and the math inherent in musical notation. It's just pretty dang interesting. To add to the interest, I have decided to teach music in conjunction with greater listening skills.

Here we go . . . .

1. Meet The Composers. So many choices here, what to do, what to do???
*The story of Muzio Clementi. Mommy plays an excerpt.
*The story of Chopin . . . because I loooove his music.
*The story of Brahms
*The story of Rachmaninoff, because I can't get enough of those dang Russians. I just can't. They are my weakness.

2. The sections of the orchestra. I think we might actually have an instrument from each section for the kids to try.

3. Carnival of the Animals
*Read the book
*listen to the CD
*Imitate the animals we hear. Want to watch our elephant walk?

4. Listening skills: Sound Detectives (Games for Learning, pg. 10). Kids all close eyes/blindfolded. Mommy sneaks around the room and then makes a little sound. Kids have to point to where they think Mommy is. They open their eyes to see who was right (in case of a tie, who was first). Take off shoes to make it harder. tippy-toes gets harder, etc. As the detectives become more skilled, the sounds become quieter and trickier.

5. First Sound, Last Sound (G for L, pg. 66). Kids get a piece of paper with two columns: one labeled "First," one labeled "Last." A bowl of little snacks act as the tokens. Mommy gives a word, "dog." Ask where the 'd' sound is--first or last? If they place their tokens on the right column, they keep the snack. If not, Mommy gets the treat!!

Closing Out the Week

Well, I'm not going to lie; it was harder to manage both Bible School and Flip Flop Scholars at the same time than I thought it would be. I think I will have to reschedule Distinguished Drawings for a later date. We actually did work through most of the objectives, but admittedly, a bit half-heartedly.

The take-aways:
1. Kids under 5 cannot do the tracing activity. I was shocked! Even the five year old struggled a bit. This game is where you draw a shape and the kids keep outlining it until the whole paper is filled in. I was shocked at how hard his was for them.

2. The simple drawing book I mentioned? Great. I will definitely save that one for future use!