Crazy Sunday Afternoon

Sunday afternoon was ...

• white knuckle driving
• a subterranean maze
• a jar of blood
• a mechanical man who removed his head
• a bull's glowing head
• superb music
• giant rats
• prestine tile
• dress up
• no nap!
• marmalade sandwiches
• reciting poetry
• nose-bleed seats
• windowless, soundproof rooms
• a fistful of human hair twisted and tied in knots
• a really expensive chandelier
• imaginary money
• a lame man emerging from seclusion
• masses of blue shopping bags
• a beautiful princess trapped in a chair for hours on end

... all on the spur of the moment.

This Sunday afternoon we went to the Theatre District's Open House. That is, Sparkle, Glitter, and I went. Wander didn't think that he would be up to all the walking involved. It ended up being a *lot* of walking. We criss-crossed the parking center going from one theatre to another on the opposite end. We hiked up miles of stairs from the depths of the parking center to the heights of the balcony in two theatres. We got pictures with characters from The Nutcracker. We got to tour one theatre and sit in the really, really, really expensive seats. We got to see the dressing rooms of the stars. We got to stand on the stage. The girls got to play dress up with actual costumes from a ballet. We watched a wigmaker plying her trade. We listened to a small jazz ensemble in a cozy theatre and a full orchestra in an expansive concert hall. The girls drank it all in. Our discussion about expected behavior in the drive down paid off. I had to threaten to leave only a few times, and the girls survived five hours with no snacks or drinks and only one potty break at the end.

I was really tempted to buy tickets to the ballet. They were selling package deals at an awesome discount. However, Wander says that weird things are going on at his work, and his surgery was really expensive, so I didn't. Maybe next year.

We didn't get home until supper time, and I really didn't feel like cooking. So, we went out to eat. (Hey, I didn't spend the money on tickets.) It was Wander's first time wearing shoes and going out of the house since his surgery.

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Photos:

Some of the crowds ...


The view from the really expensive seats ...


My dancers with their dancers ...


Playing dress up ...


Glitter dancing on stage ...


Sparkle reciting her poem very quietly ...

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Explaination:

white knuckle driving: I hate driving downtown, even in the relatively little traffic found on a Sunday afternoon

a subterranean maze: the parking garage

a jar of blood: a prop for one of the shows; the kids got to stick their fingers in it.

a mechanical man who removed his head: The Nutcracker freaked Glitter out until he removed his mask.

a bull's glowing head: a volunteer had a "Carmen" t-shirt. I pointed it out because we had recently listened to some themes from the opera during morning music

superb music: symphony and jazz ensemble

giant rats: from The Nutcracker

prestine tile: The girls thought the restroom was the cleanest they'd ever seen

dress up: the girls got to try on real costumes

no nap!: Glitter's real reason for wanting to go on the trip

marmalade sandwiches: The girls pretended to drop marmalade sandwiches over the balcony. (I had just read them that part of "A Bear Called Paddington.")

reciting poetry: I had Sparkle practice a poem on stage

nose-bleed seats: The only seats available upon our late arrival to the symphony's concert

windowless, soundproof rooms: the dressing rooms for the stars of the shows, complete with pianos and toilets!

a fistful of human hair twisted and tied in knots: wigmaking

a really expensive chandelier: in the Green Room

imaginary money: Glitter gave a salesman imaginary money to buy imaginary tickets

a lame man emerging from seclusion: I bullied Wander into go to the restaurant with us

masses of blue shopping bags: given out free to everyone who visited the open house

a beautiful princess trapped in a chair for hours on end: a ballerina posing for pictures

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math is yucky

Math is Sparkle's worst school subject. I thought she had been chugging through her lessons okay, but it turns out that she's been faking it. I only just now found out when playing a board game with her. She spent the whole game sneaking the answers. Now I have to figure out how to undo the damage. Sigh.

Real dance class

For over a year, Glitter has watched her sister go do dance class every week. For over a year, Glitter has peered through the window at her sister's dance class. For over a year she's played dance class with her sister at home.

The dance studio doesn't take students until they are at least three by the start of the school year. As soon as Glitter turned three she started asking when she would have her own dance class. She pulled her socks up as high as they would go and pretended that they were tights. She found dress up shoes and pretended that they were dance slippers. She made the electronic keyboard play songs and danced to the music. She practiced her sisters dance recital routine with her and memorized it on her own.

This past summer as soon as she heard that I might consider starting her in dance, she started begging for dance class in earnest. I waited until Sparkle was five years old and out of preschool before starting dance, but it was a different situation with Glitter. I saw that the studio would be offering a class for Glitter's age group back-to-back with a class for Sparkle. I secretly registered Glitter as well as Sparkle for fall dance.

Then last week I told her, that she would start dance class with her sister. I took her shopping for tights and a leotard. She was thrilled. She was overjoyed. She could talk of nothing else. Wherever we went, whoever we saw, she would announce that "I have *real* dance clothes and I'm going to *real* dance class." She told the man standing next to us in line at the post office. she told the cashier at the museum. She told the mom in front of us at the grocery store. She told the neighbors when we saw them at the mail box. People that she would normally be too shy to even say "hi" to, got to hear her wonderful news.



Finally the day of anticipation arrived. After all the hype in her mind, I wondered whether the actual dance class would fall short of Glitter's imagination, but I need not have worried. She has a wonderful teacher who is awesome with young children. There were only four little girls in her class. They got to pretend to be kangaroos and jump around. They got to wave squares of colored fabric as they danced around. They got to rock baby dolls asleep. Whatever the teacher did, Glitter copied as fast as her little mind could follow. She was incredibly obedient and attentive to her teacher. (I've never gotten anything close to that level of obedience from her!) I was so happy and proud of her.



Now I have two dancers in the family.



P.S. After Glitter's dance class, we had to wait during Sparkle's dance class. Glitter kept her dance clothes on and pranced around the waiting room. Some big girls arrived and warmed up for their class. Glitter started copying them and they found her cute too!

Glitter's New Teachers!

Today was open house at Glitter's preschool. She'll be attending two days a week. I was delighted to find that she'll have the same teachers that Sparkle had when she was three. They're the same teachers that Sparkle had when we first brought Glitter home. These two ladies genuinely love all their students. I know that Glitter will have a wonderful year with them.

Fashion Show

Sparkle's Miss Manner class was about fashion and beauty.

First the girls got facials and their nails done.


Meanwhile Glitter played upstairs, as the weather was too yucky to go to the park.


Then the girls had a fashion show. Sparkle was too shy to stand up in front of the everyone until Glitter came up with her. Glitter had been watching the entire class in awe and was thrilled have her sister as an excuse to participate.

Waiting on Wander

Wander is taking a two week break from work. On Monday he had surgery on his foot to remove a spot of skin cancer. The girls are getting good at waiting around in Doctor's offices. We'd been waiting for only a few minutes when the girls started walking the room, counting, one, two, three, four, five, six, etc. They remembered when I had them count how many steps it took to cross the room in the other doctor's office. Only, they didn't it know it was just to pass the time. They thought it was fun.


I also got to test out my new portable colored pencil caddy. The girls really enjoy drawing. Sparkle spent a long time getting her drawing of the sitting just so. Glitter scribbled as usual.

Then Sparkle was delighted to find two Van Gogh paintings in the waiting room. She recognized them as Van Gogh's based on the picture study we did last week.


Then it was time to take Wander home. He's been hopped up on pain meds that don't work. He's also roaming the house on a pair of crutches. He thinks it's funny that his crutches are taller than I am. Luckily the doctor got all of the cancerous cells out, so he doesn't have to go under the knife again. He's recovering well and even was able to read the girls their bedtime books tonight.

Picture Study

When I was at the homeschool convention, I picked up the book "How to Use Child Size Masterpieces" by Aline Wolf. It gave me new ideas of how to do picture study. Previously I'd done more of a Charlotte Mason approach, which involves observing similar pictures together so that the child can see similarities in the pictures. The Child Size Masterpiece method has the child start working with sets of similar pictures with sets of totally different pictures so the child can see similarities and differences.

I decided to build my own collection of child sized masterpieces. I got public domain images of works by famous artists and had them printed at Sam's Club for thirteen cents each. (Far cheaper than buying the actual books!) I also got only one print of each painting, as matching identical paintings is too easy for Sparkle.

Here's our first time using the photos. I selected twelve prints by four totally different artists and had Sparkle sort them. She found the activity easy, but it was still hard enough to be fun.


Then we played the observation game with one set of paintings. Sparkle picked the Van Gogh paintings, because of the "In the Garden With Van Gogh" board book that we picked up at The Huntington four years ago in California. Then I had Sparkle pick out one print to use with the "Picture Study" notebooking page that I got from http://notebookingpages.com/. Finally, we set the three Van Gogh pictures on display in the hallway.

I'm feeling optimistic about this method of picture study for the coming year, combined with the picture study that we'll be doing with out homeschool group. I see myself getting lots more thirteen cent prints.

Restarting Teatime

I'd been lax with schoolish things over the summer. This past week we restarted some of the fun activities: teatime and nature walks. Here we're enjoying some leftover birthday cake and getting ready to hear some poetry. Our nature walk is described on my other blog.

End of Pool Season

It's the end of pool season for us. Public school starts tomorrow and the neighborhood pool will be closed. Wander has been taking them to the pool every evening that the weather has been clear.

The girls have made an amazing transformation over the summer. They started the summer afraid to do much more than sit on the steps during swim lessons. They close the season swimming on their own. Glitter refuses to even wear her flotation vest anymore. Sparkle swims all over the pool with assorted other pool rats that she's made friends with. Glitter swims back and forth between the steps and Wander, often pushing him away if he tries to help when she doesn't want it. Both girls will fearlessly jump into the deep end of the pool and swim to the edge by themselves. Their technique leaves something to be desired, but they have fun anyway.

Oil Change

Here are Sparkle and Glitter running around like nuts while waiting for an oil change at the dealership a couple weeks ago.


Sparkle and Glitter were fascinated at how the cars were lifted into the air and the oil pouring out.

Miss Manners

One of the moms in our homeschool group offers a Miss Manners class for our young girls during the summer. Don't they all look beautiful in their dresses? Sparkle has really been enjoying these classes. She's trying to pass on what she's learned to Glitter, who still chews with her mouth open and does somersaults while wearing a dress.

Looking at Bugs

A few days ago I smacked a mosquito on my arm at home. It wasn't completely squished, so I decided to try to get a closer look. My camera could get only a mediocre picture. Then I asked Wander about his microscope. Turns out he had three: two toys, and one old relic that he rescued from the garbage at work. The toy microscopes were pretty useless, but the old relic still worked!

Smashed mosquito as seen through camera


Wander looking through toy microscope


In anticipation of our homeschool group's nature club, I also picked up at pen-size"microscope." It works surprisingly well for its size and is just right for taking out and about.

fear of bugs

This afternoon a mosquito got in the car with us. We were all buckled in when it decided to land on Glitter's leg. Glitter is afraid of bugs. Sparkle and I both urged her to smack it. Instead she shrieked and whimpered and stuck her leg straight out and held her hands as far away as she could. Sparkle waved her hands around as close as possible, but couldn't reach from her seat. Then the mosquito flew off for a while and then returned to Glitter's ankle. That bug bit her three times before she got up enough courage to swat at it. Unfortunately she missed. We finally arrived at our destination and the mosquito escaped when I opened my door. Apparently Glitter was afraid that if she hit the mosquito, it would bite her hand. Poor girl.

thunderstorm 1, thunderstorm 2, thunderstorm 3

We're in the middle of a thunderstorm, and instead of turning off the computer, I'm blogging aboug it.

Yesterday I taught Sparkle how to count the seconds between seeing lightening and hearing the thunder to determine how far away the lightening is. Today, she started counting on her own.

Depending on how fast Sparkle counts, the lightening is between half a mile and two and a half miles away.

Glitterism

In Glitter's own words: "An apple is not a hat. An apple is big and a hat is big, but a hat is not an apple."

Magic Books

At the library today I told Sparkle to get enough books to last for two weeks, as we won't be going to the library next week because Wander will be having surgery to remove a cancerous spot from his skin.

In response, she picked out five Magic Tree House Books, four Magic School Bus books, a biography, a science book, and three other random books. Sometimes I don't think that she really examines the books at all. She just grabs books in the series that she likes. Once she even grabbed two copies of the exact same book; I made her put one back. Another time she gathered every single book in a series that she could find, leaving a huge bare spot on the shelf. The biography an and the science book are a new thing that I'm doing. I don't require her to read any of the books, but I figured that if I require her to check out at least two non-fiction books, that ups the chances of her reading them and learning something. Sparkle also got to check out her first book that she placed on hold. She was thrilled to find the big envelope with her name on it in the area for picking up holds!

Glitter dutifully picked out her two board books. I'm looking forward to when she is responsible enough to check out more books. We couldn't find her two books from last week before going to the library. After we got home, I hunted for them and found them buried in a rarely used magazine rack across the room from the box for library books.

Babysitting Neighbors

One of our neighbors decided at the last minute to take his wife out for the evening, so I'm babysitting. The house is a mess. There are toys everywhere. The kids are happily drawing.

Museums

This morning we met up with other families with children adopted from China at the local science museum. The museum is closing soon and we have a membership, so we tried to squeeze in another visit.

There is a little gift shop at the entrance of the museum, and everything was 50% off. There were a lot of toys and kits and rocks. I picked up a sheet of several rock samples to put in our nature display. I also picked up some "Smithsonian Handbooks" on insects. Since we started out nature display I figured that we needed some field guides to help identify and learn more about all the creepy crawlies that Sparkle catches.

Once inside the museum, it was depressing seeing how many of the displays are either being dismantled or are already gone. It is oddly disconcerting to see partially disassembled dinosaur skeletons lying on the floor.


The geode (and rocks and minerals) display had never been completed, yet was already starting to be crated up. Sparkle surprised me when she was looking at a large piece of quartz. She commented how it was pointy like the other rocks. I hadn't gotten around to telling her about crystaline structure yet and she was coming up with this stuff based on her own observations. That's the type of learning that I'm striving for in my homeschool, yet I'm amazed when I hear it.


The bug display was still there, with its Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Yuck. I took out our magnifying glasses that I'd been lugging around and handed them to Sparkle and Glitter. Instantly all the other little girls wanted to look through the magnifying glasses too. I got out my newly acquired book, looked them up, and read to Sparkle about it.


The museum visited with the customary playtime in the dig pit. The girls happily dug around in the fake dirt covering and uncovering bones and filling and dumping buckets.

We splurged and had lunch at the food court with the group. Then as everyone split up, we went to the Children's Museum, which is also closing, and played there for a few minutes. The girls got their faces painted. Then it was home for naptime.

My blog is different from Wander's

Wander writes his blog to entertain his readers. He is quite good at it. He won't post something unless he thinks his readers will find it amusing or entertaining.

My blog is different. My blog is more of a stream of consciousness. I write my blog for myself, not anyone else. So I don't care about grammar or coherency. I'll write a blog entry even if it doesn't have pictures. I might add pictures later when I finally download them from my camera.

Language Arts Overboard

I tend to go overboard on things. If one is good, then three must be better. Or in the case of language arts programs, even more. I have more language arts books than I have fingers. And I don't use any of them.

Most of the books were from PaperbackSwap (practically free). The remaining ones were purchased used for half the cover price or less, often only a couple of dollars. Also none of the books are full language arts programs; most cover only one topic, such as spelling or grammar.

Even though I don't directly use the language arts programs I have, I couldn't have created our current language arts programs without them. By reading over the other programs and comparing them, I was able to find out what topics to teach, what order to teach them in, and different ways to present them.

Also, I got some of the books knowing that I wouldn't use them for years. However, they give me a roadmap of where I'm going. Language arts is Sparkle's strongest subject, and I want to make sure that I stay at least one step ahead of her.

Glitter sits

This morning Glitter and I ended up going to church by ourselves. Since it was just the two of us, a we entered the building I told Glitter that she could pick where we sit. She took my hand and confidently led me all the way down the aisle to the very first pew. Eek. Normally we sit further back in case we need to quietly slip out to go potty or in case the kids act up. This was a pew with no escape route. I carefully exclaimed to Glitter that if she wanted to sit here, she would have to be on her best behavior, no squirming, no talking, etc. She agreed and we settled down. One benefit of sitting in the front was the Glitter was able to see everything that was going on. To my relief, by the time Glitter started to get squirmy, it was time for the collection. Glitter was thrilled that she got to hold the basket and was content for a while. Then during communion, she was fascinated by the seemingly endless parade of people.

After mass, there was a blood drive. Normally either Wander or I would give blood while the other parent watches the kids. I wanted to use Glitter as an excuse to not donate blood, but I inexplicably found myself walking over to the blood drive. There was a long line of people who had come over right after mass, and I was at the end of line. I asked myself what Glitter would do while I donated blood, and the only thing I could come up with was that she could sit next to me. What was the chance of that? Yet, Glitter sat patiently as I chatted with her during the wait to be screened. Then when I was screened, she had to wait quietly on the other side of the partition. Although she sat most of the time where she couldn't see me, she did peer around the corner to watch the finger stick for the iron test. She asked if it hurt. I told her it hurt a little bit. Then she asked if I needed a bandaid. I nodded and pointed to the bandaid ready and waiting on the table. Then there was the wait for an open table. I wanted to get one of the tables on the sides so that Glitter could sit next to her.

Then there was the long wait for the actual donation. That's when I played my ace in the hole. I told Glitter that she could ask the helpers for a bag of cookies and eat it next to me. She very prettily went up to one of the volunteers and asked for and received the desired bag of cookies. She came prancing back and exclaiming how she had said, "thank you." After eating all but one of the cookies, she announced that she was saving the last cookie for sister.



Finally I was done bleeding, and ready to get my own bag of cookies. We went home Glitter handed the last cookie to a very pleased sister.

The whole process was three and half hours. A long time for a three year old to be still and quiet without any toys. I was amazed and pleased with Glitter's behavior. I don't think that she could have done it if her sister were with her.

Homeschool Convention

I'm home from a local homeschool convention. I had a wonderful time and learned some neat things and am really excited about starting the new school year. However, I am also exhausted. I'm not used to spending so much time on my feet, and I skipped lunch to shop.

Wander was wonderful and even took a day off work to watch the kids so that I could attend the conference during the day on Friday. Out of all the workshops I attended, I got to listen to two really great speakers, and had to endure only one awful one. I also got to spend hours browsing the exhibit hall convincing myself that no, I don't need to spend the money on that really neat thing.

I also visited the booths for several language arts programs and got to investigate them. As a result I am feeling even more confident that my homegrown language arts is just right for us, right now. I also got a better feel for how the language arts program can grow and expand to the next stage. Furthermore, I was reminded of all the wonderful reasons why I chose RightStart Math, even though I don't enjoy teaching it.

I have a lot of ideas that I want to try out, and a lot of projects that I want to do. I'm looking forward to the new school year.

Here's a picture during a slow time when most people were in workshops.

Map of Texas

This morning Sparkle had a piece of paper and was drawing as usual. She doesn't like me to see her drawings until she's ready, so I had to pointedly look away when walking by. However, a bit later, she was waving the scrap of paper in my face. Instead of another portrait of the family or a picture from a storybook, I immediately recognized the shape of Texas. Sparkle had drawn a map, including Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. She even labeled the states with their abbreviations and colored them in different colors.

Sparkle then spent the next several minutes running back and forth between the living room, where she was coloring, and the sitting room, where the map hangs, filling in additional states. I offered her a clipboard so that she could draw in front of the map, but she explained that she liked the exercise from running back and forth. Okay.


I have no idea where she got the idea of drawing a map, or why she chose to do it. I'm just pleased that she spend her time doing something enjoyable and educational.

Kayaking

Wander took the girls kayaking on a local lake this morning. It was Glitter's first time on the kayak. The last time we tried getting her into the kayak she was much younger, hadn't had swimming lessons, hated the life-vest, and refused to get in. This time she loved it.

Sparkle sat in the back of the kayak, and Glitter sat in between Wander's legs. I stood on shore and took pictures. While they paddled around the lake, I sat on shore and made a feeble attempt at drawing an entry for my nature journal.



The sky was overcast and the water had smooth ripples. A dog wandered around nearby. There was a lone white duck off in the distance and a flock of ducks hunting for food on the other side. A few boats appeared in the distance and crossed paths with our kayak. A family with an aluminum canoe put in closed to where I waited. A young family with twin toddlers walked by and I could hear them chattering in what I think was Chinese. I think he said something about me drawing because I heard "hua huar" which, I think, means "drawing picture." I smiled up at them and said "Ni hao."


After a while Wander brought the kayak back and the girls drew while he loaded up the kayak and gear. Water had seeped into the kayak and the shorts of both girls were wet. Sparkle kept giggling as she drew and wouldn't let me see until she was done. Turns out that she drew a picture of her wet shorts.

Kindle

Wander has a hard time picking out presents for me. For my birthday I made it easy for him. I told him that I wanted a Kindle. I'd been debating whether to get the large or small version, and ended up opting for the small version, because the large one is obscenely expensive.


One of the first things I did with the Kindle was to hack the screen saver so that it would display my pictures instead of the authors.

Then I went on a shopping spree for free books. When I got to about forty books, I decided that I had better stop, as it would take me forever to read them. I also converted a book of my own. A while ago, I downloaded "Raggedy Ann Stories," formatted it in large print, and printed and bound it for Sparkle to read. However, printing and binding a physical book is a lot of work, and doesn't allow for easy changes if you discover an error too late. How nice to simply have an electronic version of the book that can be updated on the fly. The book converted nicely, including table of contents and pictures.


One of the features of the Kindle that I liked was the ability to adjust the print size. Sparkle is capable of reading longer works than she usually attempts, but doesn't of the vast expanse of tiny text unbroken by pictures. With the Kindle I can give her books at her reading level, with the font adjusted for her eyes.

Sparkle loves reading from the Kindle. She has even inspired her sister to sit and "read."



However, make no mistake. It is *my* Kindle, not Sparkle's. Oddly enough, one of my favorite uses of the Kindle is during Sparkle's spelling lessons. I put her spelling sentences on it once a week, and then I don't have to print the sentences or hunt up a scrap of paper during the week. If she wants to use a word that I don't know how to spell, I just look it up in the built-in dictionary.

I'm experimenting with the getting a field guide for the Kindle to take on our nature walks. However, so far I haven't found a free one that I like with lots and lots of pictures. The versions of "Handbook of Nature Study" that I've found for the Kindle have horrible formatting and are missing the pictures.