Thursday, October 24th - Passport Club: Russia! and Karate Belt Testing

After a night of virtually no sleep thanks to a very unhappy and uncomfortable baby, and a middle-of-the-night bed visitor named Lincoln, it was time to delve deep into my rapidly depleting energy reserves and host our Passport Club: Russia gathering!  It went really, really well and I was impressed with how attentive the kids were and how willingly (okay, minor bribery was involved...) they sampled the Russian snacks I provided.  Everyone did a very good job on their presentations as well and enjoyed the Russian children's game we played outdoors after lunch.  Another successful Passport Club in the books!  To finish the full day off, the kids had belt testing at karate in the evening and now we have three Orange Belts!  Congratulations you guys!!

Sometimes he wakes us up, pillow and blanket in hand, other times I simply wake up to find him already wedged between us. 

The baby was up from about 11:30 p.m to 9:20 a.m. - fun times!  I just stuck her in my wrap and got busy laying everything out for arrival.  To start,  I had coloring sheets and cups of crayons for the kids to design their own matryoshka dolls (otherwise known as Russian Nesting Dolls).

I had a "little kids" table set up for the smaller kids (Lincoln, Judd, Charlotte).

My Russia board, with presentations, craft supplies and the little set of nesting dolls the kids had painted the day before.

Friends began arriving and coloring.

I presented on the Russia Board, and I feel the kids did their best job yet of listening!  It's really neat to see their growth, month-to-month, with listening, presenting, and Q&A skills.  Afterward, it was snack time - I decided to do Russian food at snack time and simply provide pizza for lunch.  This worked out well, and the kids were pretty brave in trying the various foods, including caviar!

Judd and Lincoln both tried the caviar and both summarily spat it back onto their plates, lol.

There were also strawberry-filled blintzes, chunks of karavai bread, special chocolate treats, Russian pear soda and more. 

I'd had a difficult time choosing a craft because there were just so many options!  As I scoured Hobby Lobby one afternoon I came across these paper mache eggs and thought it would be really fun for the kids to create their own faberge egg masterpieces.  They turned out well - the kids painted the eggs, then let them dry during presentation time and went back later to finish them with jewel stickers.

Kids (and moms) seated for presentation time - they were actually seated facing the sofa, but turned around for Lincoln's presentation which utilized the TV for pictures (because daddy helped, and he's fancy like that~).

The moms had taken turns holding Waverly for me during most of the goings-on, and I was finally able to take her back in hand for presentation time.  Because I think it's fun and the kids always like it, I always try to dress natively for whatever country I'm hosting.  Bright and flowery dress for Brazil, borrowed a sari for India and this time I wore a long, flowing white skirt, black peasant blouse and a black & white platok on my head.  Waverly thought this was most unusual ;-)  The girls also dressed Russian-peasant-girl-esque with long flowing skirts and loose tops.

Lincoln presenting on Snow Leopards and AK-47s (because awesomeness).

LOTS of questions from the audience, haha.

Victoria did a great job presenting on the Karakurt Spider, and didn't even giggle one time on the last portion; it noted the rare bite side effect of spontaneous dancing that has been recorded throughout history.  Earlier in the week, she would bust out laughing every time she tried to say it! hehe

Scarlett also did very well, nailing all of the difficult Russian names!

Snagged a shot of the picnic lunch we had in the living room, although I don't know what prompted the Very Serious faces :-o

The cats had quite the gourmet lunch as we bequeathed the caviar and sprats to them.

After a fun game of Karavai Bread in the front yard, the gathering was officially over, but our friends stayed to play out back for quite a while which was the perfect way to unwind.  N decided to make herself into a faberge egg, which I thought was hilarious and creative :-)

Our friend Julia loves Salty... this is amazing because she used to be terrified of dogs - especially Salty! Now they're best buds and he sticks to her side like glue when she's over for a visit :-)

Ms. Amanda succeeded in taming the no-sleeping-baby and had her snoozing quite nicely.  It only lasted for an hour but it was still a welcome break for my tired arms!

When everyone left, I had the chance to take a couple of pictures, both of Victoria's work (since it was all I could find).  Here is her colorful matryoshka doll page!

And her designer faberge egg :-)

After demonstrating their skill and knowledge, the kids were awarded their orange belts.  First, Victoria~

Then Lincoln~

Finally, Scarlett~

Terrific! :-)  So proud for them of their accomplishment.

Monday, September 30th

Due to the short week for us school-wise (field trips and camping), I wanted to make sure we had good full school days on Monday and ay; I can squeeze in math and reading on the rest of the days, plus we will listen to our history audio book on our various drives here and there.  All in all, we ended up having a truly great time with our school, the kids had fun playing outside for a while, and we ended the day with a good karate class.

I had to take a quick snapshot of the island counter, because as I was laying out the ingredients for a yummy breakfast scramble I did a double take, noticing the large toy assault rifle nonchalantly resting there.  Ah... life with boys ;-)

Lincoln almost has all the letters in his name mastered!  Today he worked on "O" - I had thought this would be the most difficult letter for him (out of his name) due to the two curves inside of the limited space.  However, he didn't struggle at all with it and "C" remains his nemesis.  He gets so frustrated when he can't write "like mommy" and I'm like, "Buddy, you're THREE.  There's still room for improvement." haha

We spent some time doing bears - I'd put the first part of a pattern together and he'd repeat it two times.  There are bears of several different sizes in the bin, and without me mentioning it he made sure that all of the bears he place matched not only the color pattern but size as well.

When I was pulling out manipulatives, Linc asked if we could get the colored size worms out.  When we'd finished his other work, I let him just play with them and he spent some time sorting them all out by size.  He had different "worm teams," as he explained.  So funny!

The girls did their one-on-one school work with me, and it was definitely time for a tea & story break! 

Our library books for this week - having an abbreviated amount of school days, as well as having a stack of books on Russia (the next country we'll be studying) that we'll be working through, I only pulled seven story time books for us:

"Down Buttermilk Lane"

"The Stranger"

"Too Many Pumpkins"

"The Little House"

"The Lonely Scarecrow"

"Ox-Cart Man"

"Kids Camp! Activities for the Backyard or Wilderness"

During Lincoln's one-on-one time, I often do a separate story time with him.  He really wanted to read "Too Many Pumpkins" and loved it - several times throughout the day he (repeating the book) said, "I really, really HATE pumpkins!" and would laugh.  Then together at tea time we all read "The Stranger" and "The Little House" - as we read the latter, Scarlett said, "Hey, this book reminds me of the Mike Mulligan book."  Very observant!  They have the same authors and illustrators and both the pacing and vernacular are similar.  It was really a good book and the kids felt so sorry for the little, sturdy house.

History time!  We moved on from the first farmers to begin studying about Egypt.  The kids loved learning about the Nile flooding every year and how the two kings of Egypt had an epic battle to determine who would rule all the land (later becoming the first Pharaoh). I thought they might have trouble remembering Upper vs. Lower Egypt since they are seemingly backwards to our mentality with the upper in the south and the lower in the north, however the book so clearly and succinctly makes it known why they termed the kingdoms in that way and the kids grasped it easily.  We did some map work, tracing the Nile and highlighting the Nile Delta, then we read "Croco'nile" which was a charming little book about two ancient Egyptian kids.

While I was reading the story book, Scarlett was busily drawing on the back of her map.  When I was finished, she came to show me her free-hand drawing of the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Nile, and the two kingdoms (see the crowns on the left? one says Lower and one says Upper - next to Upper she wrote "Wun" as in, that king won the epic battle).  She also drew a king sitting on a throne  smiling and wearing two crows, and the defeated king frowning and bowing down to the other king.  I was impressed!  It was like six-year-old note taking, or a nice little summary of the lesson via drawing. 

Once finished up with our school, the kids hurried outdoors and got themselves organized into some sort of farming game.  Scarlett was digging holes while Lincoln and Victoria were finding things to "plant."

Please note that the small black blob is actually a cat sitting on the middle of the pool cover.  I wonder if the cats spend all summer wondering why they can no longer walk on water...? ;-)

Pixie's new favorite place to be in the backyard, because... cats are weird.

The kids came back in after a while and I had forgotten to put the box of BoB Books away, so Victoria decided she was going to teach Lincoln to read while I played pat-a-cake with Waverly.  They stayed in this weird position on the sofa for a long time.

Since he wasn't mastering the concepts quite to the speed Victoria wanted, she figured she should probably go over sight words with him and pulled out the sight word cards and bears for him to match things up.  This ended up with both parties a little frustrated, as obviously Lincoln could not find the words he was being quizzed on ;-p

But Victoria is an incredibly patient teacher, and took him up into her bed to practice some more :-)  Lincoln picked the book to work on ("Frogs") and Victoria would go sound-by-sound and then blend the word.  She could probably actually teach him to read if she put her mind to it.

I had started wondering if the Halloween costume we ordered for Waverly was ever going to arrive!  Finally, it came in the mail and I couldn't wait to put it on her, but she was taking a nap.  I should note here that I put it to all the kids regarding what the baby should dress up as and Victoria thought about it for a minute and said, "A baby bottle!"  That tickled me and so we looked to see if such a costume existed, and of course!

Oh.My.Word.  Too hilarious and cute!  She was not amused :-)

Finally, the kids had a terrific karate class.  They found out that the testing to possibly receive their next belt is on October 24th - they are all excited about this and hopeful that with enough practice they will pass and be able to get their orange belts.  We will see!!

Thursday, September 26th - Passport Club: Argentina

Passport Club day had arrived and we were excited to head to the Kalafut's to gather with friends to discuss all things Argentinian!  The kids were all eager to do their presentations, even Lincoln who had earlier in the week gone back and forth on whether he was actually going to do it (weird for him, but I tried not to make a big deal out of it and ultimately that seems to have been the wise choice since he did wind up presenting).  We had a terrific time, with a really fun story, neat craft and yummy food.  It was also nearly Olivia Kalafut's birthday, and I think if you serve big birthday cupcakes at the end of Passport Club you pretty much just win ;-)  

We had to wrap up a bit sooner than usual though so that I could drop the kids off at home before heading out to participate in a (paid) market research group. Grammie had played with the kids all while I was gone and once I returned she continued to hang out with them outside while Waverly, Jim and I made dinner. Two days with no naps had the kids in their odd I'm-so-tired-I-think-I'll-be-hyper-and-move-at-warp-speed zone, so bedtime came a bit earlier than normal which was nice for Jim and me :-)

Before heading out for our morning, Victoria and Jim took some time to snuggle up on the back porch in one of the comfy chairs :-)  They sure relish these days when daddy gets to work from home and they can see him more!

Lincoln and BearBear snagged the other comfy chair :-)

Mrs. Kalafut, taking a few minutes to do an overview on Argentina during board time.

Judd and Lincoln, hanging out at the little kid table.

The kids all LOVED the story that Mrs. K had selected!

In Argentina, kids don't have the Tooth Fairy tale like we do - instead it's a mouse, El Raton Perez, who children believe comes and picks up the tooth.  The book Mrs. K read was the story of what happens when the tooth fair and the mouse go after the same tooth :-)  It was really charming.  This is one element we never touched on during our studies on Argentina - yet again, another reason why I love Passport Club!

A close up of the board.

For the craft, the kids did mock metal work, using foil. 

Mrs. K wisely had the littler kids tracing work already finished, and they just got to enjoy coloring in the picture - here's Lincoln's finished sun.

Scarlett, finished tracing and now coloring~

Waverly is so fun - she loves watching all the big kids with those huge blue eyes... but again, that cozy hip sling position makes it hard to stay awake too long :-)  I love that squishy face!

N and Victoria's finished suns~

Scarlett's finished sun~

Snack time!

Getting fueled up for presentations :-)

The kids all ready to listen and/or present.  Victoria didn't have a board, as she was speaking on Gauchadas - the act of doing a nice deed for or gifting an object to someone without expecting anything in return.  She decided she wanted to DO a gauchada, so after she spoke briefly on what they are and why they are called what they are called, she had a bag of suckers to pass out :-)

Scarlett, doing her epic presentation on Jaguars.  I plan to get a video recording again this month!

Lincoln's presentation on the Cave of Hands in Patagonia, Argentina.

Lunch:  Mini cheeseburgers, freshly deep fried empanadas, fruit, tortilla chips... a great spread!

After lunch was consumed and cupcakes devoured, Mrs. K took the kids outside to teach them a fun kids game in Argentina.  For the life of me I cannot recall the name of the game, but it involved standing back a ways from a box that had two holes cut out of the front (kid-facing) side.  The kids tried to roll their marbles into the holes.  They really enjoyed it!

Scarlett's roll...

Earnestly willing it to go into the hole (it did not) :-)

Receiving the marble from Mrs. K...

And his roll was closer but also didn't go in.

Now Victoria's turn (after waiting so patiently)...

Nice form! (and a big thanks to Mrs. Lawson for snapping these pics while I was inside tending to Waverly's epic "presentation" she made in her diaper, hehe)

My view from the 18th floor of the Terminus Building in Buckhead, awaiting my turn at the market research group.  It was a really fun and short one, and because I arrived a bit early I enjoyed being quizzed by a fellow mom who was considering homeschooling.  She asked questions one right after the other for about thirty minutes, haha!  Fortunately for her, there is not much I enjoy chatting about more than that particular topic ;-)