Foolish Orpheus

Last night marked the commencement of the free summer concerts. It was Wander's volleyball night, so I took the girls alone. The gates opened earlier than usual, so we went straight from dance class to the pavilion.

At the pavilion we discovered that there was a carnival of sorts for reading. There were all sorts of activities for the kids: hat making, a book walk, a free book, book log decorating, etc. The tent was crowded and I started to get claustrophobic, so we left to regain the open air.

We found a cozy spot on the lawn and enjoyed a picnic of chicken nuggets, grapes, and bread.


While we were sitting, Sparkle found another girl around her age, and the two of them spent the entire evening in each other's company. Glitter occasionally joined them, especially when she found the other girl was sharing *candy*!



I scanned the program and some of the selections were familiar - we had listen to excerpts from the "Themes to Remember" program that we listen to at our morning music, most notably excerpts from the operas "Carmen" and "Orpheus and the Underworld." When they symphony played the can-can, Sparkle and I couldn't help but (quietly) burst out into the Themes to Remember lyrics ("Stupid Orpheus, lost his wife Eurydice"). I decided that I don't really like the lyrics and that "foolish Orpheus" sounded a little bit better.

The evening ended far too late and the girls were barely able to put themselves through their night-night routine. This morning I am tired and I told the girls that if they made good choices all day (e.g. doing as told and no fighting or pouting) they wouldn't have to do school today.

Despite the late nights and the crazy antic on the hill, I love these summer concerts and plan on going to as many as we can.

metric measurements

This morning I took the girls to the car dealership for some work on the car, so I figured that school was shot for the day. I told the girls we might be waiting for a long time and to think about what they might want to entertain themselves during the wait. Sparkle immediately grabbed a book and Glitter did likewise. Of course, once we got to the dealership, they completely ignored the books and I ended up carrying the books around.

The dealership has a tiny "kiddie corner" with a few blocks and a tv. (The availability of kid friendly entertainment is one of the main reasons why I go to the dealership whenever my car needs maintenance.) It didn't hold the kids attention for very long. So, we started a new educational game with a folding meter stick that I brought. I showed them how long one centimeter is on the measuring stick. Then I challenged them to find things on their bodies that were one centimeter long. Sparkle found her toe, her eye, and some flowers on her dress. Glitter found some flowers on her dress. Then I showed both of them that their pinky fingernails were about a centimeter wide. Then I told the girls to go on a scavenger hunt for things that are a centimeter big. The room was pretty sparse, yet they were able to find all sorts of things that were a centimeter (the size of a fingernail): a thumbtack, the letters on a poster, a torn corner of a paper, a black thing on a piece of furniture, etc.

Then we saw a car-tent just outside the kiddie corner and the girls were instantly drawn to it. I was pleased and amused to see that the girls kicked their shoes off before entering the tent. I don't know if they have internalized the "no shoes in the tent" policy, or if they just look for any excuse to be barefoot. The "find things a centimeter long" game was momentarily forgotten in the excitement of being in a tent and climbing all over the car. Then the girls started to notice things that were about a centimeter in the tent/car and the game started over again. Occasionally they would find something and I would hold up the ruler to verify the size.ate

Then, the awful thing happened. Sparkle wanted to measure something and I wasn't doing what she wanted fast enough, so she grabbed the ruler out of my hand. Crack! The folding ruler broke right at the central joint. At that moment the associate came up to say that the car was ready. The kids marched silently behind me as I paid the cashier, got the car, and drove home.

After we got home, I told Sparkle that I forgave her but that as a consequence, I had a task for her. She was to use the broken ruler and find 10 things that were one millimeter long, 10 things that were one centimeter long, 10 things that were one decimeter (10 cm) long, and 10 things that were one meter long. After she found ten things in each category, she showed me her list and verified that each item was the appropriate size. The task kept her busy and out of my way for most of the rest of the day. Hopefully Sparkle learned several lessons: (1) don't grab things, (2) how to use a ruler, (3) when making a list of items include enough information so that you can identify the items later, and (3) about how long each of the measurements are.

recital

Sparkle's recital was this past weekend. She was thrilled to get to wear a fancy costume, go on a real stage, and wear *make up*. She admitted to me that even though she wasn't always eager to go to rehearsals, it was all worth it.

Wander, Glitter, and I watched the matinee performance. While waiting for the show to start, Glitter surprised me. I flipped through the pages of the program to find Sparkle's name, then handed the page to Glitter so that she could see. Glitter knows exactly two sight words: her name and her sister's name. Out of the mass of names and text on the program, Glitter was able to find her sister's name instantly.

This year's performance was more recital-ish than last year's ballet. The distinctions among the different age groups were more pronounced. It was neat seeing how the girls became more graceful and coordinated as they got older.

The best part of the day for Sparkle was when I got her at intermission and she saw Daddy waiting in the hallway for her with a big bouquet of pink roses. (I insist that she gets flowers and the video; I'm still bitter that I got neither when I was a kid.)




Glitter was enchanted by the performance. Each time the lights came on, she wanted to know if there would be more dancing. When I said yes, she'd settle back into her seat to wait until the theatre got dark again. In two more years it will be Glitter's turn.

In the meantime, the costume has become dress-up and has been worn every day since, often making its appearance before I get up.

nature scavenger hunt

We were headed home, even though we had only just arrived at the gardens. Sparkle had picked up a pebble, only to find that it was a wad of very sticky gum. The heat of the day, and the warm breeze, and her panicked motions only made matters worse, and she was coated in a cobweb of gum from her fingers to her elbow to her hair and across her face. I picked out as much gum as I could with a tissue and we had just thrown the tissue in the garbage.



As we were walking back to the car, I noticed the director of children's programming headed our way with some papers in our hand. (This is the same friendly guy who spend a quarter of an hour discussing snakes with us a few weeks ago.)

Turns out the gentleman was designing a scavenger hunt for the gardens and needed someone to test it out. We happily obliged as he tagged behind us taking notes where he could improve the scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt led us through the paths of the garden and had us find several different plants and other features.

The scavenger hunt was far more than a list of things to find. The paper had detailed directions on how to progress from garden to garden with something new to find in each garden. For each item to find, there was a brief paragraph telling something about it - how pitcher plants work, why there are dots on the bottoms of fern leaves, what all the words on the plant sign mean.

The scavenger hunt took over an hour, and the girls were constantly sidetracked by new finds: a water snake by the pond, turtles and fish in the pond, a caterpillar hanging from a tree, a leaf that smelled of ginger, the nearby creek, the spray watering the plants, stairs leading to scenic overlooks, etc. Halfway through Glitter melted, so I hoisted her up onto my hip and continued on.

I was pleased to find that the girls already knew where most of the spots were (the maze, the gazebo, the water wall, the herb garden, etc.), and I could send them running off to the next spot while I tested out the turn-by-turn directions on the paper. The last item on the list was a peppermint plant in the herb garden. You couldn't see the herb garden from where we were standing, but I told Sparkle that the herb garden was where the garlic chives are, and she ran ahead and found it on her own with the rest of us trailing behind.



By the time we were back at the entrance of the gardens, the heat had baked the gum in Sparkle's hair dry and most of it had flaked off.

I'm not cut out for this

I'd been dreading today and this weekend. There was lots on the schedule. Our homeschool art club scheduled for this morning and the mom who is normally in charge is out of town, so I was supposed to lead the group, as well as bring the prints, music, coloring pages, go-along books, etc. This evening Sparkle has her dress rehearsal. Tomorrow Sparle has her recital. The next day Wander will be out of town all day.

Last night my knee decided to play a trick on me again. When I got up from the sofa I found that it hurt too much to straighten my knee. Thankfully, the last time it happened, my knee got better all by itself, so I wasn't worried, but it put a damper on my activities. (In other words, I got a good night's sleep, because I couldn't do anything else.)

This morning I told Sparkle that, in light of the day's ativities, she wouldn't have to do school, as long as she was a good steward of her time. I figured that I could gather the supplies while the kids played. Alas, it was not to be. Sparkle kept getting into fight after fight with her sister. In desparation, I told her to go do school, to prevent further sibling quarrels.

We finally got out the door and on our way to art club. Halfway there, I realized that I had forgotten one of the books I wanted to bring, but it was too late to turn around. We barely made it to the park before our official starting time. I told the girls they couldn't play on the playground because it is so difficult to call them back, especially when I can't walk well. Instead, I got out one of the books and started to go through it with the girls. I enjoyed discussing the pictures with Sparkle and Glitter and showing them the visual tricks that the artist used; however, the girls kept popping up whenever they heard a car go by. Then the girls drew for a while. Sparkle decided to try to re-create one of the pictures from the book. When she was done, I released the girls to the playground. Then we came home.

Turns out that I shouldn't have worried. I didn't have to do a thing.

Sparkle thinks in words

I was working with Sparkle on math, and she wanted to find out what is half of nine. After painstakingly walking Sparkle through the process to find out the answer using several manipulatives, I asked her to write the answer down. She completely bypassed all my previous instructions about how fractions were written, and spelled out "4 and a half." I suggested that she try writing the answer "the math way" (it would be faster and less writing!), but she declined and I was afraid that if I pushed the issue her brain would short circuit.

New Game

The girls and I came up with a new time-filler game during our nature walk today. I call it "bigger, smaller, next to, near." One of us picks a starting object. Then we decided if we want to find things that are bigger than it, smaller than it, or next to/near the object. Bigger things should include the previous object. Smaller things should be a part of the previous object.

So, one round of the game, focusing on "bigger" went like something like this:
1) that big rock over there
2) the cluster of rocks
3) the cluster of rocks and grass in the middle of the path
4) the whole path
5) the park
6) the neighborhood
7) the town
8) the state
9) the country
10) the continent
11) the hemisphere
12) the Earth
13) the solar system

Another round focusing on "next to" went something like this:
1) the rock
2) the path
3) yellow flowers
4) a tree
5) a rectangular sign

Sparkle caught on to the game pretty quickly, but sometimes had trouble describing what she was thinking of. Glitter had fun too, but would simply shout "I KNOW! I KNOW! I KNOW" and then say something totally unconnected like "air" or "the whole world."

I hope that we play this game again on our nature walks. Unfortunately, I don't think that it will work as a car game.

homeschooling recharged

Wander gave me a wonderful gift yesterday. He gave me the gift of the entire day. I got to spend the entire day with other homeschooling moms at a small homeschooling conference just for Catholics. I got up early and stayed out late. However, unlike the previous Thursday when being away from home all day wore me out; I had no kids and the day was energizing.

I went to the conference feeling pretty good about my homeschool, without a specific agenda other than spending time with like-minded people and picking up a few books. I ended up buying some great books. However, the best resources I discovered were not sitting on the shelves of the vendor's booths. Rather, the wonderful discoveries came from other moms.

The events of the day were rather bland so I won't go into detail.

I am very excited about homeschooling the coming year. I feel like the conference helped me tie together the loose ends regarding which books I wanted to use.

English: MCT LA, Spelling Plus Dictation, McCall-Crabbs
Math: Miquon, Rightstart, word problems
Literature: picture books
History: First Timeline, Children's History of the World
Science: Nature Walks, Building Foundations of Scientific Foundations
Religion: Faith & Life

The above list is just the books I plan on using. It leaves out many of the activities that I consider part of our homeschooling (Anki, morning meeting, library, teatime, etc.).

hanging up clothes

I finally got my kids to hang up their clothes!!!!

Well, not all their clothes, but it's a start.

After the girls wore their new dresses for Easter, we weren't sure what to do with the dresses. The dresses aren't appropriate for everyday wear, or even regular Sunday wear. That means that the girls will probably outgrow the dresses before having another occasion to wear them. After much pondering on my part, and much begging on the girls' part, the new dresses became dress-up.

I set-up a new mini-closet in the playroom for the dresses and their other dress-up which had formerly been shoved in a cabinet.

[INSERT PICTURE]

The rule is that the girls have to hang up their clothes. When they put on dress-up, they must hang up their everyday dresses. When they change back, the dress-up must also be hung. Sparkle and Glitter know that if I find their clothes on the floor I'll confiscate the dresses, so they have been very good about hanging up their clothes in the playroom. Now, their real clothes in their room is another matter.

Fractions

Since starting Miquon math, Sparkle seems to have grasped the concept of multiplication as repeated addition. She struggled a little with the multiplication pages in Miquon orange, but flew through the pages that mixed multiplication with addition and subtraction. Next up was fractions. Oh dear.

It's not that Sparkle can't do fractions. When we're just talking she knows what one half, one third, and one fourth mean. Half is what she gets when sharing with her sister. One third is what she gets when sharing with sister and mom. One fourth is what she gets when sharing with sister, mom, and dad. When presented with cookies, carrots, paper, etc., she can figure out the math just fine.

However connecting symbols and pictures to fractions is a different matter. Sparkle likes making Mac'n'Cheese for lunch, but every time she makes it, she needs me to read and explain to her what "1/4 cup" means. You'd think that after making Mac'n'Cheese a few times she'd simply remember how much butter to use, but no. Every time she reads the instructions and encounters that "1/4 cup", I have to explain the whole process again. I've come to the conclusion that she is not a visual thinker. She can mentally work word problems that she can't draw a diagram for. Written fractions have not been Sparkle's strong suit.

When Sparkle saw the symbols "1/2, 1/3, and 1/4" in her math book and the corresponding diagrams, she got completely flustered. When the math book wanted her to write fractions, she came up with stuff that was so crazy I couldn't begin to figure out how she got it.

So, we set the book aside and I started showing her stuff with the rods and tried to explain the pictures. After a while, Sparkle was beaming "I understand fractions!" I have my doubts about her understanding, but at least she no longer cringes at the thought of fractions.

iPhone

I really like the latest toy Wander got me. It is a new-to-me iPhone. I've spent way too much time these past few days downloading and playing with apps.

One of the first things I did before taking the iPhone out of the house was tape my name and phone number on the back of it. That way if I accidentally loose it, hopefully whoever finds it will know how to contact me and and return it.

The iPhone does't have a sim card, so it can't actually be used as a phone. It's basically an iTouch with a camera.

garden candy

Wander and the girls just got home from the farm and they brought back garden candy: yummy peas!

Prayer

I've starting involving the girls in prayer a bit more now that we have a morning meeting. At first a lot of our prayers at morning meeting centered on our family and our immediate needs and concerns. However, we are working on expanding the scope of our morning meeting prayers. It's nice that I have a set time of day to remind me to tell the kids about situations that could use prayer.

Here are some of the situations where we have been called to pray ...
- Sparkle had as problem with sneaking gum
- Sparkle had to have a tooth extracted
- Wander lost an uncle
- Multiple friends in our homeschooling group have medical issues
- A family we are friends with is discerning homeschooling and asking for our advice.

bad poetry

I'm doomed. I thought that I had outgrown the affliction. I had suffered from it more than most when I was in high school. A few symptoms lingered in college. However, after I graduated, it finally stopped. I stopped writing bad poetry. That is to say, I stopped writing poetry.

Fast forward a few years, and the urge to write poetry has now fallen upon Sparkle. She is in love with poetry and making up rhymes. In an effort to save my ears, I picked up a poetry textbook to use with her. Unfortunately, said textbook has renewed my own interest in writing bad poetry. So, if you have been unfortunate enough to read to the end of this paragraph, I implore you to please go to some other web page before encountering bad poetry.

You have been warned.
**
Gurgle goes the little pond.
Crashing water falls from rocks.
Ripples swirl and dance with leaves.
Hear the way that nature talks.
**

Oh, and apologies for the melodrama in this post. Our house has the misfortune to become infested with not one, but two books in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

I started the above poem while on our nature walk on Monday. I finished it a few seconds ago as I typed it.

For balance, here's a much better poem that is completely Sparkle's creation (except for spelling). This poem was inspired by our poetry textbook and the story "Stellaluna."
****
Owl owl in the dim moonlight
How brave of you to fight
Bats and every other thing
It is like you're king.
****

another poem

Here's another one of Sparkle's poems. I coached Sparkle very heavily through this one. A side benefit of working on these poems with her is that she is starting to understand the concept of revising and that some word choices are better than others.

This poem is based on an activity from our language arts program. The "eep" words came from a list, but Sparkle chose all the words, word placement, and line breaks herself. I helped with some spelling.

** The Chick **

Peep, peep, I'm not asleep
Because you like to keep
Me in a jeep.

The jeep's beep is so very interesting
I do not feel like resting.
****

Easter

Easter morning was still joyful for the girls. They woke early to find the Easter bunny had left chocolate filled eggs through out the house. They also found new sandals and Easter dresses.

I was really sweating the dresses. I was up until 2 am sewing them, I was working without a pattern on really slippery fabric, and I wanted the dresses to be a surprise so I couldn't have the girls try them on. It was my first time making sweetheart necklines, and Glitter's is a bit crooked, but Sparkle's is better. Sparkle has been interested in dresses with spaghetti straps, and she decided that these dresses have "lasagna straps."



We got to mass early and were able to all sit together near the front of the church. This left a lot of time to wait. I don't know why, but I pulled out the rosary from my purse and handed it to the girls. Glitter ended up saying an entire decade of the rosary quietly to herself before mass started.

Easter

We got home from Easter mass to bad news. Wander's uncle passed away last night. Please pray for him.

moon sand

A while ago I bought a bunch of moon sand and a cart to store it. The cart lived in the garage and we occasionally pulled it out to play. Then life got busier, and stuff got piled on top of the cart, so we no longer pulled the cart out. The girls would look longingly at the cart and beg for moon sand, but I'd say no because it would be so much work to dig out the cart.

I finally suggest to Wander that we bring the cart of moon sand into the house, and he obliged. The girls love playing with the cart in the house. I had to remove the umbrella from the cart because the girls kept (accidentally) hitting each other with i, but since the cart is inside, they don't need the shade. I also had to make some pretty strict rules about keeping the sand in/over the cart that the girls try to remember. We've also had a few meltdowns about cleaning up the sand and getting in each other's way, but on the whole the girls have had a lot of fun.

Here is Sparkle cleaning off Glitter's feet after a session of moon sand.

lovely day

Today has been a lovely day spent on the internet.

poem

I was working with Sparkle in our poetry textbook. The assignment was to think of something that makes sounds and write about it using words that contain those sounds.

There were birds singing outside in the backyard so we picked bird sounds for our topic.

With some coaching, Sparkle and I came up with some words with bird sounds.
Then Sparkle picked the most bird-like of the sounds, taking into account meaning as well as sound: tweet, chirp, sweet, flurp, flutter, flitter, twitter, twig, chatter, and cheep.

With even more coaching Sparkle came up with these sentences:
"Tweet, tweet, tweet, there is a sweet bird on a twig."
"Flutter, flitter, twitter, up swoops the bird."

By then it was clear that Sparkle had reached the end of what she was capable of, so I sent her away to the other room while I composed the following poem.

***
Two birds on a twig, how sweet
To hear them twitter and tweet.
They chirp, and cheep, and chatter,
And then away they flutter.
***

When I was done, I invited Sparkle back and I read my poem to her. She liked it.