A Long Week

Remember back when I said I wasn't sure how long the school rhythm would last? It didn't last long. We've been a few weeks now without much schoolish stuff going on. Operation Toddler was great for getting priorities straight, but we were all feeling the lack of...something. E had started to complain about his beloved math, and e whined about how hard piano was. Two things they had chosen to do, and here they were, complaining about it. C and I figured it must be the lack of consistency making it tricky, so I put my foot down and required daily practice. Oh, the long, drawn out fits we had! By the third day, though, they were both smiling. Math and piano were fun again. AND even better, E has decided he wants to do piano again, also! Happy dance.

 

During all this, I got shingles, C got flu mist, G got her tiny toes stepped on, and now both kids have sore throats. What a week!

Lots of house drawing going on around here. This one is by E.

Jack and the Beanstalk, by e.

End of block for e: fawn, bear, U (ooooo, concern for the bear cub), and below is Rapunzel.

And on to e's next block: Roman Numerals! Number One is magical. Contained within the number one are all the other numbers! e loves this concept and has been noting the magic as it appears: one apple, 14 seeds and 8 slices. One leaf, 6 veins. One girl, 2 eyes, 10 fingers, and 25 hundred million hairs.

E built a tipi after reading Tomie de Paola's book about Indian paintbrush.

 

Interesting note- the People of the Plains had relatively small tipis until the Spaniards introduced horses to the Americas. Why? Trees were scarce on the prairie, located only in creek bottoms, and thus the tipi poles must be hauled across the prairie as the tribe followed the herds of bison. Without horses, it was of course the people themselves doing the work....so tipis were only as large as the poles they could haul. With horses, the poles could be twice as long.

 

We didn't think length would make that big of a difference, so we tried it with sticks, measuring diameter of the resulting tipi base, and the difference was striking.

Somewhere in there, e discovered she could read. E may have been the one to give the final push. She's been reading everything in sight.

We have made it to our favorite of all pages in Autumn. We've had storms of rain, foggy mornings, temperatures of mid-sixties, and leaves are beginning to turn! Squirrels are everywhere, digging and chattering and carrying nuts in their cheeks as they scurry past.

More felted soaps are in progress! I'd forgotten how I enjoy needle felting designs.

The children have begun to plan their costumes for Halloween. I'm still not sure how or what we are doing for this candy-we-can't-eat holiday....

 

In Alaska, the university opened its laboratories for kids in costume to explore. Weird sea creatures, dino bones, bats and eyeballs and a 2-headed sheep, giant insects, dissections, skinning and stuffing owls, and more. Costumed professors and grad students answered every question. Pretty much my children's dream come true! They'd ask questions for hours. One time 3-yr-old e stumped the paleontologist! The best questions often come from the teensiest people.

Picture by e.

 

Yesterday we went to Busch Gardens. That was before the sore throats! It was a beautiful drizzly, foggy day without many lines, and much fun was had until we tried for a ride e wasn't tall enough for. Oh the drama... e very much hates limits based on size or age! Plus it seemed the crowd had quadrupled. By the time we got home, I was ready to move back to Fairbanks. Too. Many. People!!