Holiday Break!

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The New Student

Last night was their passion project presentations. The kids did a great job "teaching" Grandma and Pop Pop about cheetahs, snow leopards and macaws.

Before their presentations E said, "Grandma already knows all about animals because she works at the zoo. But Pop Pop only knows about medicine so he'll be learning new things from us."

Poor Pop-Pop, being a pharmacist just isn't as exciting as working at the zoo. But at least he now knows something about three animals. Well keep working with him and hopefully he'll learn some more.

Presentations

Today is the big passion project presentation day. Grandma and Pop-Pop are coming over for family dinner and then they'll watch the kidlet's presentations. The kids are very, very excited and have cleaned up the first floor to get ready.

They've kept everything they are doing in their presentations a secret so the excitement level here is high. I'll post tomorrow on how it went. Cross your fingers for them!

The mystery has been solved

I did almost all of our Christmas purchases online again this year so we've been getting tons of visits from the UPS man and our mailman. The mailman puts the boxes by the garage with our bundle of regular mail, rubber banded together, sitting on top of the box. I generally send the kids out to get the mail each day. Lately they'd come in with wet mail and I just assumed that they'd dropped some pieces on their way back from the mailbox.

Friday I found a box by the garage door but no mail. Instead, the mail was in the middle of the front yard. I thought maybe with all the snow and ice, the mailman just sort of tossed it there so he wouldn't slip and fall on our driveway.

Then yesterday the doorbell rang, it was the mailman. He had a box and a bundle of mail. Wet mail.

He said, "Did you get your mail on Friday?"

I said, "Yeah, it was in the yard but I found it."

He said, "Well, that's not where I put it. I think your dog has been running off with it!"

?????

Apparently, as the mailman was placing the box by the garage with the bundle of mail sitting on top, the dog grabbed the mail and started running. Wet mail.... oh, now I get it, doggie slobber.

Lilly, our dog, couldn't have been happier! Everyday this nice man has been visiting her and bringing her a new toy! Not standard dog fare, but hey, she doesn't turn down a gift no matter how weird it is!

The War Is Over

The Greeks won and Troy has been sacked. We finished the Iliad today. The version we read was a condensed kiddo version by Kingfisher. I skipped over most of the gory middle part and today we read the last chapter which was about Paris shooting an arrow through Achilles' heel and killing him.

E was especially fascinated by this. There was a picture in our book of Achilles' mom, Thetis, holding onto Achilles as a baby as she dipped him in the protective waters of the river Styx. The picture clearly shows her holding him by his heel, thereby leaving that area of his body unprotected by the magical waters. E thought of other ways Thetis could have dipped Achilles without leaving a weak spot. It was fun to listen to her creative ideas like putting him in a basket with a lid and dropping that in.

L loved the part about the Trojan horse being pulled into the city with the dangerous warriors hiding inside. Over the weekend I found him sneaking into my office to take the Iliad down and reading it himself. He really enjoyed this story. In fact, they are acting it out as I type this in the other room. N is Odysseus and L is Achilles.

I loved how it gave us a chance to talk about how "Good" guys may not always be good and "Bad" guys may not always be bad. Throughout the Iliad they found themselves rooting for Greeks one minute and then for the Trojans the next. They saw how the heroes and gods had huge character flaws and sometimes act horribly. This was the first book they've read whose characters had a mixed bag of traits like that. Now that is a life lesson!

One of my top goals in their education is to provide pegs for them to hang future knowledge upon. Homer, Greeks, Trojans, Achilles' heel, Trojan Horse, Zeus, Poseidon, Odysseus, Paris, Helen , Hector. CHECK!

Put Your Elf Ears On

As we continue to homeschool there are certain times of the year I feel guilty. I'm sad that they don't have class parties. Isn't that silly? I get like this on Halloween, Christmas and Valentines day.

Thankfully my friends and family swoop in to make me feel better. For example, on Valentine's Day, my good friend Sandy has her kids make my kids a valentine. N, E and L make them a card too and enjoy the surprise waiting for them in the mailbox. Also, our local homeschool group has a big valentine party but we just haven't made the effort to attend. On Halloween, we go over to Shawn's cousins and have fun trick or treating with their family.

However, the biggest event of the year happens today. It is Aunt Patti and Uncle Jerry's Elf party! The kidlets get to spend the day with their Aunt and Uncle and do crafty, holiday things to give Shawn and me for Christmas. I'm so thankful she does this. They are incredibly excited and while they are being little elves I get to attend the Quilter's Day Out program at my local quilt shop!

An entire day around fellow quilters working on my stuff without interruptions. All the while knowing my kids are exploring their creativity and that the HUGE mess they're making is in someone else's home.

Sigh.... heaven.....

Party!

Today RocketMan finished the Beta level of Math-U-See and GooseyGirl started subtraction in the Alpha book! We're going to celebrate by making brownies and watching the Polar Express while the snow comes tumbling down!

We are supposed to get 6 inches today so after the movie party I'll be doing laundry. It is amazing how much work is involved in getting three kids out to play in the snow. Between the piles of clothes to wash and the floor that will have to be mopped after their icicles melt, it is hard to have the childlike enthusiasm for snow when you are a grownup.

Oh, well, I get warm brownies with ice cream tonight while snuggling on the couch with my munchkins. What could be better?!?

Ahhhh, amour!

My girl, E, hates romance. She gets positively embarrassed whenever Cinderella kisses Prince Charming or Belle dances with the Beast. She normally hides behind the couch or puts her hands up to her eyes to shield her vision. Lovey dovey stuff makes her so uncomfortable.

Today after she read her chapter from Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, I noticed she was super squirmy. She finally said, "Mom, I shouldn't have picked that book to read."

When I asked her why she rolled her eyes and started smiling uncontrollably. Her hands started covering her eyes and then she told me. "They fell in love with the King of Spain! They are writing him a letter to tell him that they are American girls and they want to marry him!"

I couldn't help but giggle at how uncomfortable she'd become just thinking about this potentially embarrassing situation for Betsy and Tacy. I guess it shows that she has established empathy for the characters of her book enough to be uncomfortable by their school girl crushes.

It started me thinking about my schoolgirl crushes. I was over the moon for John Stamos. He was on General Hospital and was, in my youthful opinion, the absolute most amazing man on the planet!

Who was your crush?

Abracadabra

I remember the days when we'd choose our restaurants based on the food and wine list. Now we base our restaurant choice on which one has kids eat free night and which one has a clown/magician. Our current favorite is Chili's. Monday night they have a magician who does great balloon animals.

Last night we met Shawn up at Chili's for an enjoyable family dinner night. The food is great, the beer is cheap and the magician is friendly. What more could you ask for?

When the magician approached our table he asked each child what balloon animal they'd like. E answered, "Cheetah". Lickity-split, she had a cheetah. I can see the magician is on auto-pilot. It was probably the tenth cheetah/tiger/lion big cat balloon animal he'd made that night. He turned to L next and asked him what balloon animal he would like.

"A swift.", said L.

"A what?", said the magician.

"A swift.", said L.

The magician, thinking he'd just save that one for last, looked hopefully over at N and said, "What about you? What animal would you like?"

"A kiwi.", replied N.

"A what?", asked the magician.

"A kiwi bird, they're my favorite.", said N.

At that point the magician, looking for some help, turned to me and I looked at L and said, "How about a swan or a parrot, L?" Thankfully he agreed and the magician made a really nice swan for L. You could tell he was still mulling over the Kiwi request so he started asking N what a Kiwi looks like.

"A kiwi is from New Zealand. It is nocturnal and doesn't fly. It has brown feathers and they have a really long beak.", said N.

E then piped up, "They use their long beaks for smelling. They are really good at smelling to find their food."

The magician was still stymied and got out a black balloon. "How about a penguin?", he asked N.

"No, thanks. I want a kiwi", N told him.

So this magician, who by now should win the Kindest-Magician-of-the-year award, somehow takes a balloon and crafts a bird he's never seen or heard of before.

N was very polite and thanked the magician but as he walks away, N says, "Mom, this doesn't look like a kiwi!"

Everyone's a critic, right?

Ho, Ho, Huhh???

We took the children to visit Santa over the weekend. He and Mrs. Claus hosted a doughnut breakfast at Shawn's church and the kids have been making their lists in anticipation of the visit with the big man.

Last year was the first year the kids were really dialed into the whole magic of Christmas thing. Christmas morning they came down the stairs to find the cookies eaten, the milk drank and a HUGE mess in the refrigerator. Apparently, Rudolph and the gang got hungry and started poking around in the frig. There were bits of carrots and celery everywhere! We thought the magic reindeer food we sprinkled on the front lawn would be enough but they must have come barging into the house looking for more. The kids were amazed at the mess and talked about how Santa must not have been watching the reindeer very closely as he was putting that train under our tree.

I really hadn't thought much of it until yesterday when we went to see Santa. RocketMan, my legalist son, was waiting patiently for his turn talking about what he wanted for Christmas. Soon it was his turn and up he marched to sit with Mrs. Claus and Santa. I guess RocketMan was nervous. Suddenly he turned on Santa and started accusing him of severe neglect in a loud harsh voice.

RocketMan heatedly berated him as he said, "Santa, you better watch those reindeer more this year. They made a huge mess in our kitchen and we had to clean it up! It is was not nice! You need to be more careful with our things. The reindeer are your job. Don't let them make another mess this year!"

Santa sat in stunned silence but luckily, like any good wife, Mrs. Clause saved him. She said, "Oh, sometimes they do make a mess but the best thing is to leave the carrots out on a plate for them so they don't get in the refrigerator."

Santa recovered from his shock and asked RocketMan, "What toys would you like this year, little boy?"

RocketMan dismissively said, "You'll get my list. I'll mail it on December 12." Then L walked away.

Luckily the other two children were a bit nicer to this icon of Christmas cheer and didn't make me feel like we had completely failed in my parenting skills!

Note to self: Don't allow RocketMan unsupervised time with magical creatures.

I'm thinking the reindeer need to make an even bigger mess this year as a sort of protest. Maybe carrots in RocketMan's bed? What do you think? Any ideas?

Homer (not Simpson)

Today we started a new read-aloud book, The Illiad. Or rather, a version of the Illiad that is made for young kiddos. It is published by Kingfisher and lives up to the quality of their other books.

As I started reading it RocketMan was sitting in his chair doing a coloring page. However, as we got further into the chapter he kept getting closer and closer to me as he was wound up deeper into the story. By the end of the first chapter he was sitting in my lap in rapt attention. What a wonderful version of this classic story!

GooseyGirl's eyes started dancing when the book introduced us to Paris, Prince of Troy. She said, "Momma, that's how they got the name for that French city... from the Greeks!"

Does anyone know if that is true? I told her I'd have to look it up because I have absolutely no idea if the two are linked.

UPDATE: This is a quote from Story of the World Volume 2 "The land of Gaul, just north of the Mediterranean Sea, was invaded by barbarians called the Franks. THe Franks were made up of several different tribes. And they didn't regard themselves as barbarians. As a matter of fact, they claimed they were descended from the ancient inhabitants of the great city of Troy." However, the city is named after Gallic tribe called the Parisii. They lived there 3rd century BC. Ahhh.... now we can sleep tonight. But it is a cool little connection isn't it?

The important thing about...

We've been working on their Passion Projects today. They've each chosen an animal they are passionate about and are researching that animal in preparation for their presentations. Today they worked on how to distill information down to the "important things" to remember about a subject. I asked them to randomly pick something they loved and write down the important things about it. They were so cute I thought I'd reprint them here.

Here's BirdMan's:
The important thing about birds is that I love their songs. They are so cute. It was so lovely when I meet them. But the important thing about birds is that I love their songs.

Here's RocketMan's:
The important thing about running is that I get some excersise. It makes me feel good. It makes me healthy. It makes my body move. But the important thing about running is it makes me feel healthy.

Here's GooseyGirl's:
The important thing about Cats is that they help me feel better. They are colorful. They have cute kittens. They are soft. But the important thing about cats is that they help me feel better.