Halloween Scenes

Maybe it is a credit to Sandy, but our Halloween this year was just about perfect weather-wise. It was cool enough to rule out shorts, but not jacket weather. Normally it's still hot this month, but we have had 3 days straight of low temps and open windows. It's been fabulous and I hope it lasts another day or two! I can't hope for much more than that!

Costumes this year were less involved than in years past.  I purposely waited until 1 week prior to ask for suggestions and then limited costume supplies to what was already in the house.  A little friend outgrew this Cinderella dress a few weeks ago.  Natalie was pleased :)  And in keeping with the Cinderella theme, the pink pearls were "borrowed" from her sister.

A princess.  I totally did not expect Annalise to buy my suggestion that she wear this fancy hand-me-down (not pink or purple), but she was delighted and thought her purple crown would match perfectly!

It took a little arm twisting to get Caleb to dress up this year, but once he got the eye patch on he got into character.  He didn't offer a suggestion, so we scraped together a pirate from assorted discards and hand-me-downs.

Our church had a "harvest festival".  I donated this to the cake walk.  Caleb wanted very much to win it, but it was not to be.  I copied it from Hello Cupcake by Karen Tack.

Natalie with her catch :)

Pumpkin gutting.

Popcorn balls - more fun to make than to eat evidently.

Good night!

Sandy

Our class elections will have to wait.  Enrichment was cancelled today because of Sandy.  The public schools were already out for a teacher work day, but I know they would have cancelled too.  However, yesterday was really when we got the brunt of it and today was extremely mild by comparison.  I am not going to complain though.  I really needed the break - because not only was today a day off, but I don't have to do class prep for next Friday!  The whole fall has felt too busy to me and I don't like being too busy.  Every free minute has been taken in planning and preparation for something.  I've started to resent cooking, something that doesn't usually bother me.  So I know I'm spread too thin.

But, there are only 3 weeks left in enrichment and next semester, I am not teaching a class.  Plus our "summer vacation" is planned for January and February.

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Earlier this week...before Sandy blew in...we played with water balloons. 

And they fit in with our lessons just fine, Caleb's math this week has been about adding 3 numbers. :)

Pets

While not specifically "American", the My America lesson deals with pets this week.  We are going to hold a class election for "best pet".  I'm looking forward to the campaign posters already :)

Meanwhile, Caleb's ants arrived this week:

A birthday gift.

Side view - I thought this style ant farm was unusual.

The kit included a long plastic stick and instructions to stick it in the sand and make the initial tunnel.  I'm not sure it was really necessary.

The ants got to work fast!

This is not our frog, but I think it's the same kind.  This one was hiding on our trash bin.  See the big toe pads?  Cuban tree frog for sure!  It's body was about 3 inches long.  We also spotted the tee-niniest frog I have ever seen in my entire life.  We had this plant in our front garden that was getting too big and I was suddenly struck with the determination to get rid of it.  I shoveled it up and Caleb knelt down for some reason and shouted that he'd seen a frog - I am not even slightly exaggerating - 3 of them would have fit on my pinky fingernail.  TINY!  We tried to catch it, but could not.

Mako in his old age has grown increasingly disobedient.  We've been putting toys on the couch to keep him off at night, but I don't like that so I tried this idea I found online - the cans have nuts and bolt in them - and it totally didn't work.

And besides the dog, the frog, and the ants, we have fish, 3 snails, a superworm, and a whole bunch of (temporary) crickets.

The Ten Commandments

Caleb broke half of them in about half a second.

Annalise's Birthday

Against our wishes, Annalise turned 5 today.

(Hey Meredith, do you recognize the pitcher?)

In honor of her birthday she wore 4 different dresses.

Despite the wipe board, today was not Wednesday!

Birthday BLT and BBQ Chips

Stencils - a present from a friend.  Rain boots - a present from Mommy and Daddy, something she has "always wanted".

Serenaded by our neighbor/friend.  Now both C & A want to play the violin.

Overview of the Cake - Annalise told me a month ago she wanted a cake shaped like a 5.  Since she is prone to changing her mind, I decided not to ask her twice!  She loved it :)  It was just one 13x9 sheet cake, but making it into a 5 made it look much bigger.  And since the sides were not as high as the middle I had to use a horrendous amount of icing to even out the top!

Annalise is a funny kid - she has very un-kid-like cravings.  Tonight she ate a huge bowl of salad, her favorite dressing is Asian Sesame Ginger.  She squeals with joy when I buy prunes.  For her breakfast, she prefers to have a fried egg.  She is also a smart kid.  She has taught her self about half of the phonics handbook already.  She begs for worksheets, loves to compete with Caleb over who can get the most math fact cards right, and memorized all the Sparks Awana verses even though she's still in Cubbies.  And she is a sweet kid.  She tells me, "Let's have a girls day out" which she means she just wants to stay home and talk or play a game.  Sometimes she is so overcome with love, all she can do is hug one of us and say, "I love you."  And while so much of her is a mystery, I understand that part of her completely.

Honorable Mentions

Here are a few recommendable books that I have found while preparing for the My America class.  These did not make it into the lessons because they were a little more than I needed, they are better books than most of the ones I ended up using...at least so far.

The Hatmaker's Sign is a story claimed to have been told by Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Jefferson when the continental congress made many revisions to the submitted version of the Declaration of Independence.  It is clever and makes a point - kind of what I imagine Benjamin Franklin to have been himself.  It is understandable for kids, but I thought it would be too confusing to explain to a group.  I read it to our kids, they liked it, but I don't know that they really grasped the whole intent of the story.

This book I really liked.  I saw it on the shelf at the library and grabbed it on my way out.  You really could have a lot of fun with this book if you had a group of older kids - say about 5th grade.  It has activities like acting out the battle of Cowpens and making your own tricorn hat.   It was great for me because I was able to read it and get a good overview of the Revolution in whole.  Being for kids, it was about on my level for history reading! 

I didn't read this book in class because I read it twice at home and cried both times.   It's the story of two boys who are fighting for the Union during the Civil War.  It is dramatic and emotional and based on a true story.  I've read other books by Patricia Polacco and I like her style.

And I requested this one after I finished The American Revolution for Kids.  I have a little more prior knowledge about the Civil War than the Revolutionary War.  This is another one I think would be great for older kids.  You can make your own hardtack and learn the Rebel yell.    Janis Herbert has more books like this - Abraham Lincoln, Lewis and Clark (next for me I think!), and Marco Polo.

All the My America studying has made me a little geeky for American History.  I borrowed the first two episodes on the HBO miniseries John Adams and made Rob watch them with me for date night.  Now I want to be Abigail Adams for Halloween!

Playing Winter

A Glorious Day in My America

Today was a real hint that the dry season is near.  It has been a very rainy summer (even for here), but honestly I'd rather have a hot rainy summer than just a hot summer.  If it is going to be 118% humidity, it may as well rain!  The sun is visibly more to the south and the fence shadow is creeping it way back across our backyard.  The light by itself was a clue.  But for the humidity to drop, we had to wait.  Finally today it did - which made 86 degrees seem so much more amazing than it did yesterday.  The air was lighter and it felt like a hint of old times, I'm just not sure what memories it's stirring up.  The first two years here, I was not able to discern a change in the weather.  It was just too subtle to get my attention.  I guess the light air with the sea breeze made me feel...younger.

In My America we painted.  And we are not allowed to paint in the classrooms, which means to paint I (and a recruit) have to move the tables outside (and the tables are old and heavy), tape all the papers and paint cups down so they would not blow away, and then afterward clean up paint brushes, scrub the tables, hunt for an able looking volunteer to help, and then lug the tables back in.  None of this happens during the actual class of course!  The kids love to paint though and I guess that makes it worth it every now and again.

I felt like the natural place to go after the Civil War was westward expansion.  We sang Home on the Range and talked about pioneers.  And then we watched a video about Johnny Appleseed.  Now Johnny Appleseed pre-dates the Civil War, but he did have an impact on early pioneers.  So that is how I merged the two things together.  Folks, it was either that or make corn husk dolls...with 14 kids...so instead we painted the apple tree perspective paintings I made with C & A a while ago.  They turned out pretty nice. 

This one is Caleb's.  I think it shows that he'd done this craft before.

So we press on - the next 3 weeks have to be election themed and I am stumped, so if you have any ideas feel free to toss them this way.  We've been doing this song thing and I'd like to keep singing, but I can't think of any election-y songs...much less 3 of them!

Sisters

Aren't genes unbelievably bizarre.

They do both strongly resemble other family members.  And even though they don't look much alike, they are very much alike and love to play together.  Sometimes in their pretend, Annalise will call Natalie "darling" or "daughter" so other times Natalie will just walk around calling toys (or me or Annalise) "darling" and "daughter".  No word seems to be out of Natalie's comfort range.  She tries to say it all.

She was also feeling eager to please the paparazzi today.

Lori, I took this picture with you in mind :)  This little dog has gotten lots of love!

Week 6 in My America

This week's lesson went even better than I had hoped.  I wasn't expecting the kids to have as much prior knowledge and that made all the difference.

The song for this week was "Swing Lo Sweet Chariot".  We looked at a map with the states painted different colors based on what side they were on during the Civil War.  I briefly explained the conflict, I really did not want to get mired down in fighting and death with kids this little.  I kept it at:  There were slave states and free states and when Lincoln was elected the slave states decided to break away.  I wanted to move away from the actual war at that point, so we talked about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  We read a book called "The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom" by Bettye Stroud and made a quilt square in the "Drinking Gourd" or "North Star" pattern.

Although I under-estimated how much time I would need for everything, most of the kids were able to complete the craft in under 10 minutes.  I gave them a template like this: 

I also gave them squares and triangles of pre-cut paper - I used mostly scrapbook paper from Joann's.  To minimize confusion I had a baggie for each kid with the right combination of shapes already selected.  I think they look fabulous!

I think the kids really liked making them!

Annalise's class studied muscles this week :)

And for September we very half-heartedly studied Kentucky.  But we know: they have caves, they have horses, and they lay claim to both Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Boone.

For our dinner we had Kentucky Hot Brown Bake.

And for dessert we had Thoroughbred Pie - minus the Kentucky Bourbon.  YUM

Extracurriculars have suffered since PEP and Awana began, but hopefully we will study Louisiana this month.

2 Weeks in My America

I feel like there was a lot of contrast between the last two weeks in the My America class I'm teaching.  Most of the contrast involves communication.  That is, in one class I feel like I communicated the main idea effectively, and in the other I feel I did not.  Here's how they played out.

Week 4's song was America the Beautiful.  The main idea of the class was that America is a big, beautiful and geographically varied place.  Unfortunately I made that concept too complicated.  After we sang the song, I gave all the kids maps of the US.  I had a matching map blown up and taped to the wall and had them copy various landforms onto their map.  I really didn't think it was important that they knew the names or exact locations of these things for now, but I think I made them think that I did.  Many of them were overwhelmed and confused.

Student example - this one copied my map with reasonable accuracy.

This one is Caleb's.  I really like his active volcano and giant palm tree in Florida.

Week 5's song was Yankee Doodle.  In preparing the class, the more I learned about Yankee Doodle, the more I liked it.  It just seemed a natural fit, plus almost all the kids already knew it and that helped give them a reference point for the rest of the class.  After we sang, I showed them a map of the 13 colonies and we talked very briefly about the Revolutionary War.  I showed them this political cartoon.

Of course that sparked many comments about snakes they had seen.  But they understood the idea that it was a symbol.  We moved from the cartoon to Benjamin Franklin, who suggested the turkey as the national bird, but since he was unable to persuade the other founding fathers, we made a bald eagle craft instead.

And here is where the difference between the Pre-K/Kindergarten class and the 1st/2nd class really shows itself.  I didn't have to help anyone trace their hand or cut the parts out.  And they all turned out super.  Even the ones that just went horribly wrong still looked bald eagle-ish.

Caleb's eagle.  The body of the eagle is tracing of his foot.

Another example.

As the classes have gone on, the kids seem to like the singing part of the class more.  I think it's because they know the songs better.