And it turns out...

...the tsunami story may be true - it's at least based on a genuine legend.

Week 27, day 5

Friday: Geography. With one thing and another, I wasn't ready to start school until 11 am, and since I get complaints if we start school in the morning and have to do more after lunch, I simply decided not to start until after lunch. Today we studied Japan. At lunch time, to whet the kids' appetites for learning about Japan, I demonstrated the only origami I know how to do: a paper balloon. I ended up making one for each of P and E, and I taught Ari how to make one as well. I checked out a children's story book from the library about a Japanese boy whose American-born mother introduces the concept of a Christmas tree (decorated with origami cranes). The illustrations were beautiful. We read the book before doing any other school, and I had to keep taking the book away from them because looking at the illustrations kept them distracted while we were going over our memory verse, calendar, and P's reader and math worksheet. We located Japan on the Markable Map, and noted how it's entirely surrounded by the ocean, and thus fish is an important part of the Japanese diet. We read most of the children's atlas page about Japan and the Koreas, which only briefly mentioned North and South Korea and spent most of its time on Japan. We also read "The Giant Wave" in the Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book. It's a story about how an old man who lived at the top of a hill saw a tsunami coming and set his rice fields on fire so the villagers below would climb the hill to help put out the fire and thus escape the tsunami. In the LSBB version, he sees the actual wave coming, but of course in that case there wouldn't be enough time to react. I saw another storybook version in the library in which the old man more realistically sees the ocean being sucked back. The fact that there are two different versions of the story makes me wonder whether it's based on a historical event. The Child's Book of Art has several Japanese paintings, which we enjoyed. We looked at a picture book of Japan from the library, and I suggested that P make her book at that point. She asked permission to do it on Saturday instead, so I'll hold her to that. For dinner, I made vegetarian sushi (no, vegetarians don't eat fish) with rice, avocado, and carrots wrapped in sheets of nori. It's kind of fiddly, but I started getting the hang of it. The kids were pretty good sports about trying it: E looked at it, announced "I don't like that!", and then ate four.

Week 27, days 2-4

Tuesday: Science. Today's theme at Titmouse Club was turtles. Informal survey: does "turtle", to you, connote (a) a shelled reptile that lives in or near water but not a shelled creature that lives exclusively on land, or (b) any kind of shelled reptile? The docent chose (b), and it seems that some of our library books do, too. Other than that, the presentation on turtles was interesting and included a turtle skeleton in a plexiglass box (so that the children could examine it without damaging it) and a live box turtle (which I would have called a tortoise). Although turtles breathe air, they are able to hibernate in the mud underwater for months - how do they do this? Perhaps they absorb oxygen from the water through their skins, and it's enough to keep them alive if they don't do anything. It's similar to the question of how bears can sleep for months without needing water, which I remember being lectured about but not fully understanding in Order of Magnitude Physics.

On the nature walk, the children fed turtles with crackers. There was a water bird - a heron, perhaps - which caught a crawfish while we were all watching. Later on, as we explored a different section of the path, we saw a water snake swimming upstream, and found another live box turtle, which helpfully turned itself into a box by folding up its bottom shell.

Our formal school time went smoothly, but I didn't add any extra science items because the kids had a dentist appointment. Since the dentist is near Bear Creek Park, we stopped there and the kids played for a while. We also briefly looked at their emus, rheas, and buffalo.

Wednesday: Math. Today was another meeting of the homeschooling group I found a month ago. The theme this time was basically the fun one can have by dropping Mentos candy into a 2-litre bottle of Diet Coke. It causes the carbonization to bubble out all at once, resulting in somewhat explosive behaviour. Diet Coke is not sticky, so if it gets on the child who drops the Mentos in, the mess is easier to clean up. The leader had brought about 20 bottles of Coke, so although P was intimidated by the thought, E had a chance to perform the experiment himself. He got some diet coke on his hands, though nowhere else, and felt quite proud of himself. As soon as the homeschooling group meeting was over, it was time for P's ballet lesson.

P is being promoted from the PreK/K ballet class to the elementary group next academic year, and she and her classmates who are being promoted with her are invited to join the "big kid ballet class" on Tuesday next week instead of Wednesday. It'll be a 2-hour class instead of 1 hour, which Ari likes because it gives him more time to go fishing with E, and I like because it gives me more time to run errands.

After P's ballet lesson, I simply had her read her reader and do her math worksheet. I also started printing out a math game, but we only got a far as gluing the scoops to cardboard. We played it on Thursday, and E enjoyed it as well, because addition with manipulatives is just right for his level of understanding right now. It might be a bit simple for P, but she doesn't mind.

Thursday: Bible. This was the last week of CBS until September. The kids heard the story of the apostle Paul's shipwreck. Once we got home, we discussed the story with their Opa, who gave them more details. We went upstairs and played the "Add It!" game I printed out yesterday, using pennies as manipulatives. I played around with making a triangle shape out of the pennies, because I had happened to grab 21 of them. The kids liked this so much, I decided to do the same thing with pattern blocks, and then I got distracted playing with patterns of triangle numbers, perfect squares, and how to make a hexagonal figure with side n inches using n^2 hexagons of side 1 inch (you have to break some of them up into pairs of trapezoids). I played with them for about an hour while P commented, "It's okay, because when Mommy gets distracted we get more time to play." I did explain a bit of what I was doing with triangle numbers and perfect squares, but P wasn't interested for long. If I want to make excuses for getting distracted, I can tell myself that now my kids know that Mommy thinks geometry is fascinating (which they already knew because they see me working my way through Euclid).

Once we finally got started doing school, I introduced John 14:6. We discussed the exclusivity of Jesus' claim in this verse - he is the only road to God, the source and creator of truth, and the one who gives us life (our verse from last week). You can't claim that he was just a "good teacher" without grappling with what he says in John 14:6.

After introducing a new catechism question, we moved on to our calendar, P's reader, and her math 5-a-day. Once that was over, I read the story of Paul's shipwreck from my Bible. The vocabulary is a bit too advanced for P and E, but since they'd just heard the story that morning, they were able to follow pretty well. In the evenings, we've started reading them a passage from Mark and discussing what it means, so they're gaining comprehension that way too.

After school, the kids asked to watch "Cinderella". Although the only computer available doesn't usually play DVDs without siezing up, it did this time. We've decided that watching a video 2 times a week won't kill them, so that's roughly what happens - once on Sunday afternoon, and once during the week. It adds up to about half an hour a day of screen time, which I think is acceptable.

Week 26, day 5 and Week 27, day 1

Friday: Geography. We learned about China. I was able to find two library books at about my children's listening level. After we located China on the Markable Map, we read "The Ivory Wand" from Stories from Around the World and "The King's Hawk" from the Children's Book of Virtues. We looked at the children's atlas page for China, and read our library books. After lunch P made a book with the flag, a map which I traced, and pictures of the Great Wall of China, a panda, Chinese New Year (with a dragon puppet), lots of people, and a person eating rice with chopsticks. For dinner I made a ginger-garlic tofu stir-fry and sweet-sour cabbage with rice. Yum!

Monday: Language Arts. We played another hundred chart game today as part of P's 5-a-day review. This time, instead of simply saying the number she had to colour to make a pictue (a sailboat), I had her count beans. I had prepared bean sticks - popsicle sticks with 10 beans glued to each of them - as well as a hundred flat composed of 10 popsicle sticks glued together, and used combinations of these and individual beans to have her count what number she had to colour in. She found it a bit tedious, but began to recognize patterns ("57 is in the 5 row and the 7 column"). You can see that I'm enough of a math geek that I sneak extra math into the days that aren't officially math days. Hopefully this will rub off on my kids and they'll love it too.

The language arts component of the day went smoothly. P is becoming easier to reassure that she will be able to do various assignments. I'm really glad I bought the Sonlight language arts curriculum, because by myself I know I'd be pushing her too hard and she'd be constantly frustrated with me and herself. When reading her reader, she saw that one of the pages had 2 sentences on it instead of the usual 1, and complained until I told her to just do one at a time, whereupon she did it perfectly. She was also supposed to sort a stack of 12 words by subject (emotion words, names, body parts, clothing items), an activity that we did last week and she struggled with it. She informed me that she didn't want to do it, then agreed to try if I helped her as much as she needed. She then did the assignment with no help at all, and finally declared, "That was fun!" We read a chapter of Little House on the Prairie, and P dictated a report of how life would be different if she lived at the same time as Laura and Mary. The chapter had described how they did their laundry while camping with their covered wagon, and P's report mainly focused on how a mother would solve the problem of a child playing outside and getting dirty. Now that it's properly summer, this is an experience she and I have quite often, but she knew that back then the "just go put it all in the washing machine" solution wouldn't have worked. I feel like she's expressing herself more clearly and systematically than she did at the beginning of the school year.

Letter of the Law

Today, at lunch, we all happened to sit down together (Ari, P, E, both my inlaws, and myself). As is our custom, we all held hands as we gave thanks for the food. When this happens, the rule is that each child is to remain silent and hold the hands of the people adjacent to him/her, which prevents the child from digging into the food before the prayer is over. I had made open-faced sandwiches with peanut butter and honey for the kids, and after the prayer was over it was clear that E had only kept the letter of the law. A groove was evident in the peanut butter on his bread, and a long string of peanut butter hung from his nose.

Week 26, days 3 and 4

Wednesday: Math. Some days, the kids seem to resist me at every step, and this was one of them. We started the day with a game of Uno for E's benefit. His view was that it was fun; my view was that it helped him practice matching colours and numbers. However, after the game it was hard for both kids to settle down into paying attention. It may be better strategy to hold out game playing as a reward for good work. After our review, it was almost time to get ready for ballet, so we filled up the remaining time with "Addition War" - like regular War, but drawing 2 cards at a time and letting the greatest sum win. P found this difficult and thus not as enjoyable as regular War. I had removed all the face cards, but may also remove the 7s, 8s, and 9s to make it easier for her next time we play. In the evening, Ari commented that it sounded like I'd had a hard day with the kids, to which I heartily agreed. He suggested shutting them alone in their room if they refuse to do the things I ask them in school, until they're ready to receive the blessing I'm trying to give them.

Thursday: Bible. This was the next-to-last week of CBS, so soon we'll have more time on Thursdays for school. The kids learned about how Saul/Paul was let down from the walls of Damascus in a basket. I wish I knew where my personal photos from Damascus were, but I did describe to them visiting the traditional site (it includes a piece of artwork depicting Paul landing right next to a sleepy-looking Roman soldier, which my brother and I found a bit unconvincing). I introduced a new memory verse and catechism question, and then E wandered off downstairs. Since I generally include him in our calendar update, I asked P to do her reader instead. When she flatly refused twice, I used Ari's suggestion of leaving her alone in her room to entertain herself. It didn't take more than 60 seconds for her to come downstairs and inform me that, in my absence, she'd read her reader aloud to herself. I don't believe her to be deceptive, and I'm pleased with how well this strategy worked - she co-operated happily the remainder of the day. I hadn't made a 5-a-day worksheet for her, so I had her play with the Think-It-Through Tiles instead. We used one page from the book that came with it (a sequencing activity) and one page I made (an addition activity). I also taught her how to add a sequence of numbers that have differing numbers of digits (for example 120 + 3 + 34) and get them lined up correctly. She struggled a bit with this, so I plan to review it again today before putting it on a 5-a-day for her. When E returned upstairs, we updated our calendar and I read them the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus and of the Great Commission. At the children's request, we also read "Please" and "The Girl Who Touched the Stars" from the Children's Book of Virtues, and I read them the first three chapters of Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (they wouldn't let me stop at just one or two chapters). Stopping and reading a story when the kids start to get antsy is a good strategy, a fact I need to remember more often.

Week 26, day 2

Tuesday: Science. Today's theme at Titmouse Club was fish. The kids learned about some of the differences between fish and other aquatic creatures (whales, octopus), and how fishes' senses differ from ours. They painted pictures of fish to make fish puppets (by taping the pictures to popsicle sticks). On the nature walk, they had the opportunity to wave nets around in the water, resulting in their catching lots of mud. Net fishing requires more finesse than the average preschooler can muster.

Once home, P and E wanted to play with a new game E bought with birthday money from his great-grandparents. Chutes and Ladders has some educational value for a 4-year-old (counting, some adding, cause and effect), so I let them play the game until lunch. After lunch, we played again, and this time everyone seemed to hit every chute, so we ended up starting school later in the day than I'd hoped. While we were in the middle of our review items, my father-in-law came up to tell us that he wanted to show us some pictures of the volcano when we were ready for a break. I used this as incentive for P to stay focused on finishing her math 5-a-day.

The pictures were stunningly beautiful. My father-in-law talked to the kids about how, in some of the pictures, you could see the heavier rock particles raining out as the lighter ones rose in billows of ash (for example, in pictures 12 and 14 in the second link). We also discussed how it was hard for the people and animals to breathe through the ash, but how volcanic ash enriches the soil and helps plants to grow. Once we'd looked at the pictures, I decided to do an experiment with the kids to demonstrate static electricity (to give them some idea of why there's so much lightning correlated with the ash cloud). We blew up a balloon, rubbed it on a wool sweater, and made each child's hair stand up (even B's; he looked on with his standard expression of mild astonishment). I managed to get it to stick to the ceiling as well. I also ripped up a piece of paper into tiny scraps, and combed E's hair with a plastic comb which then picked up the scraps of paper. We tried to actually see a spark by rubbing 2 balloons on the wool and moving them closer to each other, but I suppose it was too humid - in any case, that experiment failed. I couldn't get the balloon to stick to the ceiling downstairs, which may mean it's more humid downstairs? It did pull the kids' hair up, though.

Later on, we read a library book about freshwater fish. The book contained much of the same information as the kids heard at Titmouse Club in more detail, but both kids sat still through the entire book. I was surprised, because I would have estimated it at about 3rd grade level, but when a child is interested in a subject you can never tell how much they'll be willing to concentrate. The book suggested an experiment in which you turn off the lights in your fish tank and the room it's in, and then turn on a flashlight next to the fish tank to see how the fish react. When we did this, each time most of our guppies seemed to slowly gravitate toward the light beam. We have more guppies than we can count. Yesterday the only female of the four we bought in August that didn't promptly turn belly up finally gave up the ghost. However, she probably gave birth to more than a hundred babies over the course of her lifetime (most of which became lunch for their fathers and half-siblings as well as for her), so I comforted a distraught P with the idea that the dead female had lived a full guppy life. Also, a number of the now-grown baby guppies are female, so there's hope that our guppy population will continue to be larger than we can count.