Family Schooling Summary

 The weather warmed up enough to melt the snow this week and everyone was anxious to get some outdoor playtime.  The chickens won't walk on the snow and seemed ecstatic to finally be out in the yard digging in the soggy dirt. Happily they are also back to laying 4 eggs a day and letting us know with lots of beautiful "egg songs".

 

Co-op school started again this week. Big sister learned about Chile and Argentina in her Spanish culture class.  I am the asst. teacher in that one so I enjoyed the lesson as well.  They learned that in South America it is warm at Christmas time and so one of their traditions is to put cotton balls on their Christmas trees.  She also had her first Botany and Engineering classes.  We read Molly's Surprise for history this week, worked on 1st grader sight words, and practiced reading.

Brother M loved his Music Makers class.  They made drums.  And in Pre-school Storytime they made Cat in The Hat hats.   He also had Joy School this week. The lessons were on Trust.  An embarassing confession though - I was buzzing around as usual on Thursday helping A do her schoolwork and baking pies while M. was at Joy School.  I looked at the clock several times, but thought I still had plenty of time.  Then I went in the kitchen to check on my baking.  I had been looking at a clock that hadn't been "sprung forward" yet!! I was about half an hour late picking him up. Luckily, he had no idea that anything was amiss and was happily playing with his Joy School friend H. 

Brother S is transitioning away from taking naps in the afternoon. He could still use one, but if I let him sleep he stays up until around 10pm.  This week he conked out in the middle of the kitchen floor while pretending to be a snake. 

I love how creative these kids are. They use their imaginations costantly-- store, hotel, and restaurant are popular games. Number 1 by far though is party planning. They wrap imaginary presents, hang banners, and make signs for daddy to follow when he gets home. (Remind you of someone?) Brothers M & S seem to really have hit their stride and play cars and trains together a lot as well. 

Baby L came down with the sniffles this week. That seems to be all it is so far, fingers crossed. She had some tummy time and is rolling over onto her back. She had her first laugh and is practicing grabbing things.

Sew Special: Cissy Dress in Blue

I have been thinking a lot about how much I enjoy sewing and gardening- and how it is important for me to have that personal "creative time". I found this cool quote in that article I recommended a few weeks back:

God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation. (Pres. Monson, In Quest of the Abundant Life)

My neighbor shared with me an article that talks along the same lines about how developing our personal talents impacts our children.  I found it very uplifting and would agree that I have seen the same things happen in my experience as well. 

Another week, another one of these Cissy doll prototypes. Making this dress 15 times has taught me a ton. I am planning to eventually put the pattern in my Etsy shop as an instant download.  I am also working on a couple other jobs for my neighbor's doll business -- it is keeping my "creative time" full and busy.

Garden Progress: Seedlings

Our friend and fellow garden enthusiast came over to give me a lesson on pruning fruit trees this weekend.  We only did 3 of the 6 trees.  I need to hurry and finish them before it gets warm. I brought in some of the cuttings from our little peach tree to see if I can force them to bloom. 

We are doing a pinterest inspired experiment with the left over end piece of a bunch of celery. We used all the celery and then I just set the end bit in a cup of water.  I am thrilled that it is actually regrowing!  I have not had much luck with growing celery from seed.

My basement grow light has been mostly a success so far. It is huge and so I still have room under it. The only bad part is that I need to get my timer working so that I don't have to remember to turn it on and off. (I finally got the timer I ordered and then realised that it is too big to share a plug with the basement freezer. I ordered and am waiting on an extension cord with ground -- yes, going to HomeDepot with 4 children still sounds too overwhelming to be worth it. 

 About time to thin the broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower.

 The lavender seeds have still not sprouted yet! I am a little worried about them even though I know that they are supposed to take a long time to germinate.

Tomatoes, peppers, ground cherries, and leeks started sprouting this week.

Family Schooling Summary

 Co-op School was cancelled due to the snow and ice. The kiddos were hugely disappointed. Luckily, there were lots of other things to look forward to this week.  Brother M had Joy School one day, free weekly readers came in the mail for A and the neighbor brought over a fun project that is just right for big sister A.  She has been popping beads together in various patterns and configurations all week. I highly recommend these, except you have to be careful to keep them out of babies' mouths.

 They just snap together - no threading strings required.  A took this picture of them.

Since my home school is registered with scholastic and I order books from them periodically, we get free packets of "Weekly Readers" newletters every so often.  I used to love these when I was a kid.  These are normally for second graders, but A has done a great job reading them aloud to me and doing the activities at the back. 

We experimented with architecture using coffee straws, toothpicks, and marshmallows for one lesson this week.

For history we are starting to read aloud the Molly books from the American Girl Company. We found that reading the Kit series was a good way to learn/discuss the Great Depression and I am hoping that Molly's story will help us discuss WWII.

We are working on some temporary sleeping arrangements until we can get the upstairs fixed up for the kids. In the meantime, A and M are sharing the top bunk and brother S is in the bottom bunk.  Leaving the crib free for baby L... yes, that is 4 kids in one small bedroom.   Here is what I saw one night when I went in to check on them. Awwh! I love that they get along so well. They are loving listening to cassettes together as they are going to sleep too.

We had our first playdate with the cousins since our hibernation. Baby S was not sure what to make of cousin E. She is so big all the sudden.

 Cousin E had a similar reaction to L.  Except that she decided to give her a nice slobbery kiss on the head in any case.

Here are the cousins enjoying dinner together at Uncle P's newly stained and finished dining room table.  The grey stain turned out great. 

Someday this will be hilarious

Let's start with a story.  Big sister A recently confessed to us that brother M has been drinking hand soap. After a lot of Q&A with them we learned that brother M decided to mix hand soap with water (several squirts in a cup of water) and drink it so that he would get a tummy ache. Why would he WANT to get a tummy ache? So that he could lay in bed with the tablet and watch a show.  We are still not clear whether he reasoned this all out by himself or whether hints from big sis (who was present at the time of said drinking) were to blame. In any case, new rules about what happens when you get a tummy ache are in place and a lesson on the dangers of drinking/eating non-edibles has been given.  We called poison control just to make sure that he was not in any danger of liver failure or anything.  They confirmed that no, drinking hand soap is not that dangerous and will just "give him a tummy ache". Rad.

Next, a funny joke from today. A has been reading a series of books called The Rescue Princesses. The characters have a secret girl club. Secret clubs are a favorite conversation topic right now. Today at lunch A said, "I am in a secret girl club and M has his secret boy club. Mommy has a secret club for mommies." Then brother M piped up and said, "And Daddy has a secret Daddy Club with all the other sleepy guys."  So clever - Daddy wants to know where and when his club for men who like to sleep meets.   And little brother S has a club for "Light blue baby climbing tree frogs", which is how he describes himself currently.  He wants to go back to the zoo soon to visit his buddies.

Now on to a moment which will be very deja vu for my mom and my little sis. Daddy was working late. I was trying to make pizza for dinner and left the boys rolling out  (playing with) the dough and rolling pins while I responded to baby L's cries for her dinner. As I was in the living room nursing I heard M say joyfully, "We are making it snow!" I jumped up from the couch to assess the damage and this is what I saw:

 

Of course, daddy arrived just as we were about to eat a very late dinner --after I had swept the floor, thrown the kids into the tub, baked two pizzas, and gotten the kids in their jammies; (Big sister A was a marvelous helper with bathing the brothers and helping them get ready for bed).   Note for future reference - wheat flour plus water makes a glue and when dry it is like terra cotta. Big sister was not able to get it all out of S's hair on Friday and Saturday night baths were a nightmare. Through some trial and error I found that olive oil loosened the flour clay enough that I could scrub it out. Baby S was very sad by then and I hope he remembers that playing snow with flour was actually a very bad idea. 

First Lost Tooth

Last night that wiggly tooth finally worked its way out in A's hand. She was super happy and placed it under her pillow straightaway. We were not sure what the going rate for teeth is these days... I said that with inflation it should be about 5$, but we realised that would really start to add up and settled on 1$.

Family Schooling Summary

Big sister A was working on symmetry and shapes this week.  We had to work together to figure out some of the puzzles in her math book.  They can be tricky!

Meanwhile, Baby L was practicing her smiles.  I kept trying to catch her on film and only got a couple decent pictures of it.  

The kiddos each got new lunch boxes this week "for school".  They mostly like to use them for carriers for cars, books, dolls etc. Co-op school starts again tomorrow. Everyone is looking forward to visiting with their buddies again after our 6 week hibernation.  

Baby L went to church for the first time today. She is wearing a darling French dress that Auntie Gaelle gave her big sister A when she was that age.  My how the time flies! 

The two big kids went with daddy to check out "Family Engineering Day" yesterday at the National Building Museum.  They had a bunch of special exhibits and stations for kids.  It was all free and they came back with a big bag of goodies that were handed out. Daddy said that it was packed, but they had a great time doing it.  Here they are on the metro: