School's gotten off to a good start. We aren't full steam ahead, or anything, but I feel like we are doing enough. I forgot to post "first day of school" pictures last week, when they actually started their classes as Canyon Grove. But here they are a week later, and still liking attending the charter one and a half days a week. In their Epic Day classes the kids are spending the first six weeks learning about Native Americans. They learned rain dances, crushed up herbs that the Native Americans used for healing, and built model houses that the Native Americans lived in.
At Specials Day, their favorite class continues to be Fiber Arts. They each got their own drop spindle and have been spinning wool. And coming up they'll be dyeing thread too. Adelia is especially enchanted with this entire process.
We've been doing some fun things at home too. The big boys have been spending time out in the garage with Aaron. Lincoln successfully changed his bike tire tube all by himself. And Ivan has been learning to cut things out on the scroll saw. I hope every single one of my kids learns to be as handy and resourceful as their dad is.
And some math! There is almost never anything we do in math that is picture worthy, haha! It's not very project or activity oriented, but today Aaron suggested this activity. The kids have been learning about computer programming on code.org, and Ivan was having a bit of trouble with the degrees of an angle. Aaron had Ivan draw a triangle and then cut it into three equal parts and put it back together in a straight line, to show the a triangle's corners add up to 180 degrees. It's hard to see the white on white, but you get the idea. Hooray for dads who know cool things to do with math!
We're still working on our Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe Unit. This week we learned about mood. To show the difference in mood we first read the paragraph where Lucy goes with Mr. Tumnes into his home for tea. The fire is glowing, everything feels warm and friendly and cozy. Then we read the paragraph when Lucy brings her siblings to meet Mr. Tumnes, but all they find is his empty cave that has been ransacked. (This paragraph was the copy work paragraph for the week.) We talked about how even though the two paragraphs were describing the same place, they both felt very different. Since we've been working on descriptive paragraphs, I had them each pick a room in the house and then pick two different moods, they were to describe the same room two times, once using one mood and once using the other. I feel like this stretched them a little bit. I had to help some, by suggesting that they use their senses, what could they see? What could they hear? What could they smell? That made the room feel one way or the other. We worked on this over several days. And will probably work on it a few more.
Boring Room by Lincoln
There was nothing on the walls, the power was out, mom was asleep and dad was at work. It was hot and humid and no fruit was ripe. Nobody could play. It smelled like mildew. The wall is blank and colorless. I feel hot. It is all black and white. Grandma isn't here. All my robots are broken and our trees cannot be climbed.
Exciting Room by Lincoln
There were thousands of things on the walls. There was lots of power. Mom was awake and Dad was home. It was the perfect temperature. Lots of fruit was ripe. Everybody could play. It smells like lemons. The wall was full with patterns and yellow. It was very colorful. My robots were working and our trees could easily be climbed. The T.V. was on and there was cake and ice cream.
Happy by Ivan
Warm and friendly a cuddly little room with two friends. Playful, fun, and clean. A nice day outside, a nice day to play. The two friends did it every day snow or rain or wind or hot, they'd play with happy words and having fun they'd rest at night. Tell jokes in bed day by day their funness spread. Every day they'd get up and play ball and some tag and eat something sweet. Maybe a doughnut or a peach.
Angry by Ivan
Cold, dark and thunderous.Loud, angry, and BOOMING! Fighting, biting. Hitting, spitting. No love, only hatred. No play. People being rude. Threats everywhere. Beat up, arguing, filthy, disgusting. Fights and people beating, wrestling, unhelpful, unwilling. Punching, smashing, breaking everything they see. Bad jokes, bad talk. No play. Bad smell. War and violence everywhere. No peace.
We had our first Poetry Tea-Time of the year! I love Poetry Tea-Time and I wanted this one to be special, so I made a very special treat. Our peaches are ready (more about that later) and I wanted to introduce my kids to one of my very favorite treats...peaches and cream! I talked it up all day. Probably too much. When it came down to it, they weren't all that impressed with peaches and cream. They said it "just tasted like peaches with milk on it." *sigh* But they did enjoy the poetry. We probably spent an hour reading poems aloud. And when I told them I needed to stop and go take care of Ruby's diaper, they continued reading to each other for awhile.
We've done a bi of Nature Journaling as well. I haven't felt up to taking us anywhere, but the corn in the field next door has all been cut down, and the geese and the seagulls have come in droves. I felt like these provided a good source of nature that we don't see all year round, so I sent the kids outside to observe. :)
I feel like Ivan does a particularly good job with his Nature Journal. For one, he really likes to draw, and so spends a little more time on it than the other kids. And for two, he has a way with words. Obviously, he's only 7, so his technique needs improvement, but he has a real talent for rhyme and rhythm and feeling, which are a lot harder to teach than spelling and sentence structure. I love to read the things he writes.
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| "Every evening and morning the field beside our house is full of birds. Geese and seagulls and sometimes black birds. The field is yellow and black and very big! Since it was so big loys and lots and lots of birds came there to eat the worms." -Ivan |
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| "Bright red and yellow and lots and lots of petals. Long and leafy stem. Long and twisty are the roots. Beautiful and sweet. In a group of others. In a little garden with a couple bushes big and near our house." -Ivan |
The kids begged to do an art project this weel so we made Chinese Dragons using our At Home Art Studio curriculum. Here are Lincoln's and Ivan's, I couldn't find Adelia's and Ollie's for the picture.
In other happenings around our house, this happened:
Adelia decided that she wanted to play hair-dresser and use Ollie has her victim-- I mean, client. Ugh. All that cute fluffy golden hair, it'll come back, but I'll just have to wait for it. In the mean time, Ollie is sporting a nice military cut. Good thing he's darling no matter what. And I guess I should just be grateful that Del decided to cut Ollie's hair, rather than Ruby's. Things can always be worse, right?
Speaking of Rue, I can't believe that she only has a few weeks left of being my baby. Enjoy it while it lasts Baby Girl.
I love this crazy family of mine. I'm so grateful for Aaron right now. He's been really stepping it up to take care of the kids. He wrestles and plays with them when he gets home, and takes them outside to do things I can't do, like squat down in the sandbox to build a castle.
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| Typical post-family prayer doggie pile. Or Swan Pile as we tend to refer to it as. |
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| Everyone wants in on the sand castle action when Daddy's building. |
It's the beginning of Labor Day Weekend, and I told Aaron we needed to really crack down and get into gear to get things ready for Cal. We only have a week or two left before he's here. We made up a meal plan and a large grocery list, and Aaron and a few kids tackled that this morning. Meanwhile I stayed home and washed baby clothes and blankets, as well as the normal laundry, so that everyone will have clothes. We got the car seat and the cradle down from the garage rack, and cleaned them off really well and set them up where they go. Aaron spent a good amount of time on the bunk beds, and I canned peaches. Oh yes....the peaches...
The above picture is not even half of them. They decided to be ripe and ready to go before Cal, so I guess the win the prize. Ha! And I cannot bare to see them go to waste. And I cannot bare to not bottle them and go an entire year with no bottled peaches. So here I sit, canning away...
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| Aaron posted this picture on Instagram with this caption: "Krystal is determined to can her way into labor. Which is probably a good thing because I'm not sure what I'll do with 300 peaches if the baby arrives." |
In the end I got 39 quart jars of peaches. All that were on my counter are now bottled. Yippee! It feels like a good accomplishment. There are still at least as many as I've already canned still on the tree, but I can tackle those on Monday. I think I'll do BBQ sauce and Peach Lemonade Concentrate with those.
Tomorrow is Sunday and we have agreed to take it easy and rest. No visting or home teaching. No visiting or home teachers. No inviting anyone over for dinner. Just rest.
Then Monday we'll be back at it. Aaron has the day off, so he is going to finish the bunk beds. I am going to can more peaches. And Monday evening to celebrate being awesome, we are going to do the traditional baby belly painting that we have done with each of the kids right before they were born. We are thinking we might paint a car mat on my tummy. It'll be different than what we've done in the past, and fun. :) Then we'll be ready for Cal, whenever he decides to come.
Oh ya, PS. Early this week I canned about 12 quarts of grape juice, but never posted about it. Our neighbor also gave us a grocery sack full of plums. I wasn't sure what to do with them, since I still have a ton of jam on my shelves. I decided to experiment and make plum juice. I got about 6 quarts of it. I'll let you know how it tastes when we open a bottle to try.
I decided I love juicing with my steam juicer. It's easy. And since my kids and husband are juice-a-holics, I think it will come in really handy.
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