Donate blood

I donated blood today after a hiatus of four years. I guess that having young children does that to a person. I didn't have an appointment, so it was a long wait. Sparkle and Glitter did a decent job of waiting. There was a station set up with coloring books and crayons, but the kids got bored of that rather quickly. They had some cookies sat with me. Then they went outside for a bit. We also took quite a few trips to the bathroom and the water fountain. I found that getting a drink of water was a good way to pass the time and hopefully thin out my blood enough that it would flow easily.

I requested an outside bed so that Sparkle and Glitter could be next to me while I donated. They pulled up chairs, and Sparkle held my hand the whole time. She was surprised by how cold my hand was. I asked the phlobotomist to show the girls how big the needle was. Glitter decided that it was about as bit as one of her darning needles (only hollow). Sparkle said that I scrunched up my face when I was poked. I still really dislike that part. At least I didn't clot and started flowing well from the beginning. All those trips to the water fountain really helped. The girls were surprised at how dark the blood was - almost black in the baggie.

The girls learned some tidbits of information. They wondered how much blood would be taken. I told them one pint. The girls then showed off their co-op memory work, remembering that one pint is the same as two cups or 16 ounces. The girls also found out that one has to be at least sixteen years old (with parental consent) to donate blood. Then they got to figure out how many years it would be before they could donate. After seeing the needle, Glitter decided that she didn't want to donate, even when she was old enough.

After getting cookies and juice, I drove us home. I was disappointed that there were not raspberry shortbread cookies. Those are my favorite after-donating cookies. This is a really poorly organized bit of writing, but I don't care. It's my thoughts recorded, and that's about all I'm capable of now.

Apparently after I got home, I wandered aimlessly around the house for a while and then lay down on the sofa and fell asleep for three hours. At least that's what Sparkle says. I am quite disappointed that no laundry got done while I was asleep. The kids forgot and had to do it when I woke up and reminded them. On the other hand, Sparkle did make lunch.

Science Fair 2013

I first heard about this science fair back in January. It was the last day of late registration for the workshop about the science fair. I emailed the co-ordinator and the next day drove over to her house to hand-deliver the registration forms for the workshop. Although the workshop was really too long for the kids, I got excited about the idea of doing science fair projects. I also volunteered Wander as a judge. Glitter picked a topic from the list of ideas right away and we immediately picked out books on our next library visit. Sparkle had a harder time thinking of a topic. Nothing seemed to interest her.

We worked on the science fair projects off and on for the rest of January, February, and into March. Then as soon as PSIA was over, I realized that we were behind schedule and needed to kick it up if we wanted to finish in time. The week before the science fair, I canceled all other school (except memory work and piano practice) to devote more time on the project. Who would have imagined that hand-creating titles, typing, copying, and gluing would take so much time? The Thursday before the fair, Sparkle was up past midnight gluing because she didn't want to miss park day on Friday. The night before the fair I was emailing the co-ordinator to reclassify Sparkle's project and arrange for early judging because Sparkle had a dance rehearsal.

The day of the fair we all had to get up early to drive to the campus where the fair was held. I helped the girls check in and get set-up. Wander went off with the judges for their orientation. The girls were among the first judged. I waited right outside the door, chatting with another mom about how we were there just in case a kid had a last-minute crying melt-down. Glitter was the first one out, and she was beaming. A few minutes later Sparkle appeared. A bit later we were having lunch in the car on the way to Sparkle's dance rehearsal. Then after her rehearsal, we dashed back to the fair to get the results.

In this particular science fair the students are first scored independently from each other. Everyone who gets 90+ points gets first place. Everyone with 80+ points is second place. As the students aren't compared with each other for these places, almost everyone gets a first or second place ribbon. Then each grade division has awards for grand champion, reserve champion, best display, best interview, and most creative.

Glitter was in the second of two K-2nd grade divisions and she scored enough points for second place and won best display for her division. Sparkle was in the 3-4 grade division, and she got enough points for first place and won most original for her division.

 

 

PSIA 2013

This was our second year participating in the academic contest that is PSIA. It's 19 different academic tests fro grades 1-8. This year Sparkle got ribbons in Math (6th place) and Music Memory (2nd place). Glitter was also old enough to participate, and I signed her up for Creative Writing. She didn't place in that, but due to another family dropping out she was able to compete in Math and Music Memory. She got 3rd place in Math out of three kids, but she was competing a grade level ahead. She also got 4th in Music Memory, competing two grade levels ahead.

Sparkle was happy to add her 2nd place medal to her collection of medals, but will be unable to go to the State meet because it is the same day as her dance recital.

We had a wonderful team this year, and the other families did a wonderful job of watching my kids when I was busy fulfilling my required volunteer hours. I didn't get a group picture because I was too floored by finding out how well the girls did think straight.

We celebrated by going out to eat, and we even let the girls have sodas at the buffet.

 

Science Stuff

Photos from two Science Museum Days and two Nature Center classes.

Look Ma! Take a picture of me by the giant shark mouth. Does it look like it's eating me?

Oooh, what's in here? I want a closer look.

Um. I'm not so sure about digging through owl puke.

Beautiful big girl, with and without snake.

Beautiful Little Bit. With a cup of newly planted of seeds.

 

Piano Workshop

I took Sparkle and Glitter to a Suzuki piano workshop. It was two days full of music. Wander decided to go on an adventure that weekend, so it was just me and the girls.

In some ways the weekend was really stressful. I had to drive across town to and unfamiliar destination during rush how. I hate driving. I hate rush hour traffic. I got lost and turned around and couldn't find the hotel. It was late and I was so glad that I decided to come the night before rather than the morning of the workshop. Then on the day of the workshop I got turned around trying to find the college and was late arriving. The first class started okay because we were in the same room together. It was the Master Class with a Master Teacher, and Glitter totally lost it halfway through the class. The teacher didn't realize that Glitter didn't know the whole song, and asked Glitter to keep going. Glitter tried and did a wonderful job, but it was too overwhelming and she didn't think to simply say that she couldn't do it.

After that first class, the girls were in totally different classes for the rest of the day. I had to dart between kids and classrooms to get them where they needed to be, and some classes ran long. A couple of times I found one of my kids on the verge of tears because I didn't make it to the door as soon as her class finished and she wasn't sure where to go.

On the other hand, the workshop was a wonderful experience for the kids. They got to see all these other kids who worked hard a learning to play piano. They got to see kids of all ages who were just starting out, who where at their level, and who where above their level. All of us agreed that our favorite part of the workshop was the chamber music class. The kids got to play a song along with a violin and a cello. They learned how to communicate with the other players. They got to hear their songs enriched by the other instruments.

My second favorite class was Orff. The kids got to play on xylophones. At first Glitter was placed in a class with much older kids and it was too hard for her, but she plugged on. The second day I swapped her to Sparkle's class (with permission from the teacher), and it was a much better fit. I think that I liked both of these classes so much because they featured making music with other people. Most of piano playing is a solitary experience, yet there is much to be learned and enjoyed when making music with others.

The kids also liked the theory class. Af first they didn't think they would like it because they don't like their theory workbooks. But the theory class was really simple and mostly involved playing games. Sparkle's class was simple enough that Glitter could follow along easily.

Their other class was Eurythmetics. It was another fun class. Shoes off. Walking in rhythm. Hands and feet moving in time to the metronome. Lots of giggling. Sparkle's class even had balls bouncing around in time to the beat.

 

Oh, Sparkle also found and petted a nesting duck. How does the girl do that?

 

Easter Eggs

We dyed Easter Eggs Saturday evening. We each got to color four eggs. Last year we tried the regular dye with tablets and cups for the first time. The dyes worked okay with no major messes, but the kids kept wanting the same colors and it was a lot of waiting for popular colors to come available. So this year, I bought two sets of coloring cups. I also skipped the decorating kits with stickers, glitter, and other accessories.

Having two of each color worked much better. The wax crayons also worked better this year. The kids got into drawing designs on the eggs and dipping the eggs into multiple colors. The really deep blues and greens are the result of multiple dippings in different colors.

 

Three of the eggs we dyed are hollow, and we will add them to our Egg Tree. We keep our egg tree decorated for all 50 days of Easter, until Pentecost, so we can enjoy them for longer and remind the children that it is still Easter.

Some day I hope to make a Faberge inspired egg. The exhibit we saw at the science museum was one of my favorites.

Glitter turns seven

Glitter had her birthday party at the craft store. She invited only a select few friends. I think that she didn't want to be torn between friends.

We got to the store early and I had to get a picture of Glitter in this adorable window mural.

The craft was a messy one, perfect for my Glitter girl, and perfect for outsourcing. I loved how I didn't have to clean up anything or explain the craft to any kid. The lady in charge showed the kids the tricks to making their designs turn out, while letting them use their imaginations.

 

 

 

Glitter's Shark tooth

Glitter has a shark tooth.

 

 

Glitter takes rehearsals seriously

Glitter takes rehearsals seriously. She wanted to get a notebook to write down her rehearsals just like Her big sister. Here she is looking up her info on the call board and writing it in the booklet I made for her.

 

Inside Glitter's Brain

Sometimes it is fun watching how Glitter thinks.

At dance On Thursday I show Glitter the call board where the rehearsal schedule is posted. I want to teach my kids the habit of checking the bulletin board for important info. I help Glitter find when her next rehearsal is. Then the precious child takes out her phone and tries to input the rehearsal on her phone!!! She navigates to the calendar on her phone and is trying to figure out how to enter an event. (Now, before I get blasted for having a six year old with a phone, it was a gift from Santa two years ago because it was the easiest way to give her a camera which she dearly wanted. This phone has never even been activated and shows the wrong date and time.)

Anyway, I try to steer Glitter away from putting the rehearsal in her phone because, quite frankly, I have no idea how to do it and there are other people who want to see the call board (and they have phones in hand). I give her some lame excuse that I just wanted her to know when the rehearsal is, but she doesn't have to jot it down. The sweet girl just knew that everyone else puts this type of info in their phones, and she has a phone with a calendar, so of course she wanted to act like a big girl too.

Then today on the way to dance Glitter was musing about the size of the theatre and wondered how many people it could seat. When I started talking with her she shushed me saying she was trying to do the math. So, I shut up and wonder what math she is doing. A few minutes later she asks me if 15 time 20 is 300. Um, I mentally double 15 to get 30, and tack the zero on, yes, it is 300. I tell Glitter that she is right. But I am amazed that she figured it out. I only just told this child what multiplication is last week!!!!

So I press Glitter to explain how she figured it out. She doesn't answer for a while, and I get fearful that explaining herself is too hard a task. But then she explains it in a way that makes total sense! First she broke the fifteen into a five and ten. She took 20 fives and figured out that is a hundred. (I think she might have known that it is ten pairs of fives, and each pair of fives is a ten.) Then she figured out that twenty tens is two hundred. Then she added the two hundred to the hundred and got three hundred. Makes perfect sense. This child is still in first grade and a month ago thought that multiplication was a different name for subtraction.

While I am trying to get over my amazement, I realize that I am totally missing the point. Why did she want to know 15 x 20? A few questions later Glitter explains that she was thinking that the theater had fifteen seats in front and twenty on the side. Fifteen in front and twenty on the side? I try to picture the front section of the theater and the side section, and it doesn't make sense. Then I realize that she means fifteen seats across the front, and the 'side' is when you walk down the side aisle. She means fifteen seats across the front, and twenty rows. I ask her if that is what she means, and she agrees. I am so flabbergasted that at the time it doesn't even occur to me to explain that the theater seats are not arranged 15 x 20.

 

 

Sparkle writes and draws

Here are some of Sparkle's journal entries. I had been prompting her to include more descriptive language in her writing and here is the result.

 

 

I love how she drew each letter in the word "snakes" as a snake.

Glitter's Library

Glitter got it into her head to arrange the books on our little purple bookcase as her own personal library. She started straightening the books last night when she was really bored and I refused to let her play on the iPad anymore. She continued the project this morning as I did school with her big sister.

Glitter even added signs and a front desk.

Here is Glitter by the display she arranged and the stacks she made tidy.

 

Here are the signs. Note the opening and closing times. This library even does birthday parties with stuffed animals. Want to know more? Go to the front desk.

 

Here is the front desk. Look at all that paperwork! There is a birthday party sign-up sheet, slips for checking out books, a sign to ring bell for help, and pencils. Oh, and there is a very sweet librarian.

Storytime started at 2:15

 

 

Kids Quilt

I finally introduced the kids to quilting. Over the Christmas holidays we took a break from school and made a quilt for the new baby of a good friend.

Sparkle and Glitter picked out the main fabric, then I picked out the co-ordinating fabric for the sashing. I cut the pieces and explained how to put the pieces together. However, Sparkle and Glitter stitched all the seams. Well, Wander saw the girls sewing and wanted in on making the quilt, so he did one seam.

It is not their first times using my sewing machine, but it was by far the biggest project and they finally started to feel confidant at the machine. I attribute their progress to the sheer number of straight seams the quilt required. I didn't show them any shortcuts in piecing because I wanted them to have lots of practice on the little things like lowering and raising the presser foot, and dealing with thread tails. I also wanted to limit the number of long seams in case I had to rip any stitching. Overall, I am coming to think that piecing a quilt top is the idea introduction to machine stitching.

The design was my original idea. I wanted something relatively quick that looked good without having to match any seams. I am very proud of this design. A side benefit of the design was that it eased the girls from watching the needle / seam line to watching the edge of the presser foot. Soon they will be ready for a regular 5/8th inch seam allowance without an extra guide.

I ended up not using the speed limit feature on the sewing machine to slow down the kids. We kept having brown outs and I would forget to reset it. The kids did great in maintaining a reasonable speed on their own. I also ended up not requiring an extended "no finger zone" on the machine. I let them carefully have their fingers on the fabric right up to the foot, and they were really careful. It is so much easier to control the fabric that way.