Ben - I knew she was here because Cattie smells like Grandma.
This afternoon:
Olivia - Why didn't you name me Caroline?!?! (imagine a very dramatic, exasperated voice)
This evening:
Saragh - This will be your 26th anniversary?
Me - No, this will be our 10th anniversary
Saragh - That's 3 and 7, right?
Me - Ummm... (she's five and we've never done math)
And a bonus:
We hear Saragh run outside and a few mintues later, the doorbell rings. When Oliver goes to see whose there, he finds Saragh hiding under a box giggling. Yeah, she's awesome :o)
One of the kings of Crete was named Minos. One day, there was a storm at sea and Minos asked the god Poseidon to bring his fleet home safely. In exchange Minos would sacrifice his best bull. Poseidon agreed, however, when the fleet came home Minos sacrificed the smallest bull. Poseidon was furious so he decided to take revenge.
Minos wife was expecting a baby, when it was born it was half man half bull. The Minotaur, meaning Bull of Minos, was very ugly to look at and the people were afraid of it. It had a nasty habit of eating people!
Minos told Daedalus, who would be called an engineer today, to build a labyrinth that was big, treacherous and so complicated that no one could find their way out. It took many year to complete. When it was completed, Minos put the beast in the labyrinth so it could not find its way out. Minos then demanded tribute from islands and cities, including Athens, in the form of young men and maidens.
The king of Athens was named Aegeus. He had a secret son, named Theseus who grew up on an island called Troezen. Even as baby he was fearless, when Heracles came to their town he laid his lion skin over a chair. Theseus thought it was a real lion so he attacked it with and axe. Heracles said Theseus would be a hero just like him when he’s older.
When Theseus was 21 he left his mother to see his father, Aegeus in Athens. When Theseus heard about the Minotaur he wanted to kill it so he went to Crete. The princess of Crete, Ariadne wanted the Minotaur dead too, because she thought it was cruel. So she gave him a ball of gold thread and a magic sword because it is the only sword that can kill the Minotaur. Theseus went in to the maze, tying the rope to the door knob and unwound it as he walked through the maze. When Theseus got closer, the Minotaur smelled him and attacked him. Theseus grabbed its horn and cut off it’s head.
The next morning Minos went to get the prisoners to put them in the labyrinth and he found their beds empty and a boat missing. During the night Theseus and Ariande had helped them escape and get back to Athens.
After watching this video, Braidon wrote a short paper about the Trojan War (thanks for the idea Jenn M.!). I'm hoping that this will be a weekly project for both boys for the next couple of months. The boys have not really done a lot of formal writing, so I'm also hoping that their style will improve as we go.
The Trojan War
by Braidon Eikenberry
The Trojan war was between the Trojans and the Greeks. The war was ten years long. Zeus called on Paris of Troy to decide who was the fairest between Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite. He chose Aphrodite because she promised him the most beautiful woman on Earth to be his wife. He took Helen of Sparta from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta.
Helen daughter of Zeus and Queen of Sparta was known as the most beautiful young lady in the world. Her stepfather saw how many men wanted to marry his daughter so he held a competition to see who should marry her. The one who won the competition was Menelaus.
There was an epic battle between Hektor of Troy and Achilles of Sparta. Achilles the son of Zeus was made invincible by putting him in a river called Styx, except for his heels. Achilles won that battle because of his invincibility. Then after the battle Achilles dragged Hektors body around the city of Troy three times to show that he had killed him.
Troy withstood the siege for ten long years. The final Greek victory came when the Greeks made a huge wooden horse that could hold twelve soldiers. One night all the Greek ships sailed off so the Trojans thought they had won the war. The Greeks put the horse outside the gates and the Trojans thought it was a gift, so they took it in the gates. The Trojans had been celebrating and became very drunk. While they were asleep the Greeks came out of the horse, down the the ladder, and killed the Trojans in their sleep. Then they got Helen and went home after ten long years.
All of the sudden, the weather here in southeast Michigan has been beautiful, so we decided to start taking full advantage and head to one of our favorite parks to play inthe water and get reacquainted with spring.
We played in the water, got pulled around by dogs chasing birds, found huge branches and set them sail, built fairy houses, laid in the sun and listened to all the spring sounds around us, discovered a huge swan convention, practiced sleeping with one leg up like the swans, and had a group of swan thugs intimidate us (and our dogs) away from them. Then we stopped at the playground on our way back out of the park to wring the last bits of energy out before we headed home. It was a great day! We're all looking forward to going back in a few weeks to visit the little signets that are sure to be hatching soon.
Last week I had great hopes for getting back into a routine and getting back to "school." Well, you'd think I would know better by now. As I was sitting at the table drinking my coffee and alternately reading a book and knitting, the girls sauntered down the stairs and into the kitchen. I cheerfully informed them that we would be buckling down and getting things done today. They un-cheerfully growled at me and I chalked it up to a lack of sustenance so I fed them breakfast. While they were eating, I went back upstairs to get dressed and make my bed, thereby setting a good example of getting back into the routine. When I came back downstairs, this is the scene I found. Olivia decided to write a book, Anna thought illustrating a graphic novel would be a good use of her time and Saragh was designing the ultimate weapon to take over the world (Her words, not mine. No joke.). Well, of course their plans for the day sounded way better than what I had dreamed up. I mean, seriously, if Saragh's going to take over the world, her future is pretty much set, right? It will certainly save on college tuition. It's times like these when I wonder why I ever doubt their ability to navigate their own way in this world? If they can come up with this kind of stuff, it would be almost cruel of me to make them abandon it. So, I definitely learned my lesson, at least for the time being. I'm going to continue to sit back and enjoy the ride they are taking me on.
Olivia started writing her first book entitled "The Missing Tiara". She is currently working on the first chapter after creating a rockin' front cover.
Anna drew illustrations for her own book, most likely a graphic novel.
Benjamin created another HUGE LEGO vehicle. It's so awesome, he looks up pictures and videos online to get an idea of construction and then he disappears for several hours and comes back down with a perfect replica. Amazing.
Braidon continued working on his snow structure, which is beginning to resemble a small city and he also cleaned up the yard without being asked. He's my favorite today ;o)
Saragh did all the things that Saragh does best, no one is quite sure what that is, but she was quiet and engaged and the house is still standing, so I'll take it!
They always come up with activities that are WAY better than anything I could have dreamed up. I love our life and I'm so glad we chose this path!
If you've known me at all for the last few years, you'll know that I have been worried about Olivia reading. After her baby and toddlerhood where she excelled and was often far ahead of her peers (she was speaking in full paragraphs at a year), I assumed that she would keep up that pace as she grew and was surprised when she didn't. Not disappointed, just surprised. I had to learn to be patient with her and let her go at her own pace, because she will accept nothing less.
However, we learned back in August that she had a pretty strong eye prescription and her pervious lenses had not been helping at all. Once we got that issue fixed, she took off like a lightening bolt and is now reading every word she can find. Phonics lessons are almost obsolete at this point. Almost.
Last week while we were wandering around the Henry Ford, she read this sign with almost no help. I know that for some of you, this does not seem like a big deal at all and maybe you're right. But for me, and for Olivia this is huge. This opens up a whole new world to her and to both of us. We can share things that we couldn't before and we can communicate in a whole new way.
Olivia makes it clear, everyday, that she is growing up, with or without my permission. I love watching her discover new things and I can't wait to see what she does next.
It's that time of year again! Not-Back-to-School time!!! We've been doing a few things to prepare for a bit more structure in our learning adventures this year. The kids and I made a plan based on what they want to learn about this year. We all decided that it would be good to have an hour or two set aside each day for some structured learning so that we can all focus. I'll still be available to help them out, answer questions or just listen through out the day, but we all think it's best if there is some time set aside where we're not distracted by other things.
The boys will be learning about World War II this year. We started this last year, but never really focused on it and they are ready to do that now. I've ordered twobookswhich will be the spine of our studies and we'll add other books and activities in as we go. We're also going to do some more formal math this year. The boys are going to try to get into Washtenaw Technical Middle College in a few years and they both recognize that they will need to demonstrate some math skills. So, I ordered The Key to Fractions and we'll start working on that. We'l continue with those booklets all the way through and I think they'll have a good grasp of those concepts at the end. We'll continue on with Spelling Power. This is actually the one thing that the boys really ask for on a regular basis. They are both concerned about being able to spell well, so they look forward to this part of our studies. We're also going to focus on some writing skills this year and I am trying to figure out a way to make that really fun. Any suggesstions would be appreciated.
Olivia is at a 2nd grade age this year and she's still getting comfortable with reading. We'll be working on phonics, math and history this year. She's working her way through the Explode the Code workbooks and really enjoys them most of the time. We will also contiune on with Miquon math, finishing up the orange book adn moving onto the red book. For history, we're basically copying Theresa's plan. We'll use Gomrich's A Little History of the World and make timeline cards, also using the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. Hopefully later on this year, when the reading takes off a bit, she'll start Spelling Power as well.
Anna is just at a Kindergarten level this year, so we're still taking things very slowly. She is very interested in learning her alphabet, so we'll continue working with the Waldorf Alphabet Book and the Wise Enchanter, making her Magical Alphabet Book. I also plan to include some math games, but nothing formal yet.
Today, I'm going to be working on rearranging and setting up our learning room. We're moving our computer in there as a result of the kitchen redo, so we've moved a very cool retro desk up from the basement. I was also completely inspired by this school room and will be putting up rain gutter bookshelves this weekend. I'm planning to arrange the furniture so that I have the one big wall in the room completely free for the bookshelves and Olivia's timeline. I'll be sure to post pics when I'm done!
So what are the rest of you doing to get ready for learning this fall?
Olivia has recently discovered a passion for embroidery. Until this morning, she had been doing lots of free-hand stitching, but she expressed an interest in "doing a picture". I asked her what she wanted to stitch and she told me that she thought a tiger hunting in the jungle sounded manageable. I suggested that she start a tiny bit simpler (like with something either of us could actually draw!), perhaps a house? This was acceptable, so I drew the house on the fabric and off she went! She's almost done at this point and we'll be sure to feature it when it's done.
Anna has been diligently working on learning the alphabet and can frequently be seen drawing in her purple Alphabet Adventure book. For whatever letter we are on (I think it's currently "L") we read the corresponding chapter in The Wise Enchanter and then look at the letter and drawings in the Waldorf Alphabet Book and then I draw the letter in her purple book and she draws pictures of things that start with that letter. We only do this when she initiates it and since we started last fall and we're only on "L", you can see that we're not moving at a rapid pace.
Saragh found some chalk and a stick and was happy for almost an hour. Her chalk and her stick both had names, distinct personalities and malicious agendas for taking over the world. For those of you who know Saragh well, this should not surprise you.
We came inside a little while later and I was almost ready to cave in to a movie (it was quite humid and sticky) when I happened to see Hip Mountain Mama tweet about this blog post. I flew into action and captivated the girls by keeping the end result a secret. When we got out to the front porch, clad in bare feet and paint smocks, I gave them the paint and brushes and then didn't hear a thing from them for over an hour!
Now, that's what I call a busy, happy and successful morning! Today, we're headed out to pick a mega-load of blueberries! What are your plans?
