pueblo, powhatan, AND lakota

I love school projects! OK, I admit I'm a nerd. But what is more fun than making boring old school work come to life with your kids?

Joaquin was only supposed to choose one Native American tribe...but how can you choose just one? So he didn't.

Here's his Pueblo village...painted boxes and popsicle sticks. I think this one's my favorite.


A long house for the Powhatan in winter...the shape of the house comes from a box of butter and half a canister of bread crumbs....yay! for recycling.


And the most unique one...the buffalo jump of the Lakotas. (Our yard overflows with moss which was finally put to good use.)


Could you choose just one?

thank you

It's not 11-11-11...but it's never too late to thank a veteran.
Thank you for all your sacrifices...so my family can sleep in peace tonight.

a spooky halloween!

Old halloween memories are so great.

There was the time my friend peed on someone's porch because she couldn't hold it anymore, and wasn't ready to go home. Or the time I froze as a hawaiian dancer because to wear a coat would ruin the costume.

You don't know this as a child, but what you choose to be for Halloween will be with you forever...although some costumes are more memorable than others.
There were the store bought ones, with the plastic mask that got all wet on your face after breathing in it for a few minutes. My odd choices were Woody Woodpecker, Woodstock (from Snoopy), and a storm trooper, which isn't so odd, except that Juan Pablo just told me that was for boys.

Then there were the homemade ones: a clown, a safari guide, and one of the most memorable--Kermit the Frog (picture a green leotard, green tights, yellow felt collar, and a GIANT green paper mache head. Oh, I hated that head!)

And when I was about three, I was a witch (gasp!). Nowadays, dressing up scary is met with mixed feelings...so when my kids chose 'ghost' and 'witch' this year, my initial response was NO.

But it's true that I'm easily influenced, so when a friend said her daughter was going to be a vampire, I thought, "Why not?"

And when they're this cute....

....and this silly, how could I not say yes?


Now this one, I'll admit, is pretty scary. It's homemade...out of a goodwill sheet...but the idea was from pinterest, of course.


There's nothing better than getting to wear make up at age 8...


...and lots of it!

Practicing his ghost face...and then it was off to the fall carnival.

Are they thrilled, or what? (There are those pumpkins I was talking about.)


Diego discovered party favors and blew it until it fell apart.

And I was shocked, but Joaquin won for scariest second grade costume. I'd warned them well that they would NOT win this year...so when Joaquin did, and Isabela didn't...it was upsetting for her. But she held it together well. I did my best to reassure her, and she agreed it was better for us to be happy for Joaquin, instead of being sad for her.


Diego had had enough by 8pm and was reduced to playing with a toy car in the middle of the school hallway.
And I let him.
He was happy, people were walking around him, so I just went with it.


And my favorite image of the night...waiting in line at the last stop, the giant inflatables.


And I thought I'd share how photo editing can change an awful image into a good one. In the first picture, I forgot to adjust the white balance on the camera.

Do I know what that is? NO.
But it's easy to adjust and makes the colors come out right on your picture. So if you forget, you can turn the picture into a black and white. But don't stop there. Increase the whites of the image by increasing the exposure or highlights. Then increase the blacks by increasing the contrast.
I learned that at Katie Evans Photography and I LOVE IT. Read it.
This image was edited in picnik, and best of all, picnik is free!

anatomy of a school project

All by herself.
Isabela finished her latest school project all by herself.

(I've been known to help a little too much in the past.)

So what does that really mean?
Here's a quick recap:
She laid out her map, every last detail. I debated some of them, but she backed them up with excellent explanations. I suggested chalk pastels instead of marker or crayons, and she agreed. (I sprayed the hairspray to keep the chalk from smearing, and so she wouldn't get it in her eyes.) She decided the symbols for her legend. I tried to change some of them. She stood strong. I helped her spell all the words right.

So did she hole up in her room and complete it without me seeing it? No. And it might have been completely different if she had. But did I draw an example and risk her copying it? No. I gave a little help when needed, but this one is all hers... and it's beautiful.


Now, she WAS up until 10pm finishing her other homework. Time management we'll save for another day.

first days

What an excited smile! First one up. Made his bed, cleaned his room, dressed and ready to go right away. But the waiting got to him.


This one was the last one up...but out on the porch fifteen minutes before the bus was supposed to come, dancing in the rain...she somehow made it out of the house withOUT making her bed or picking up her floor. How does she DO that?


And this one wanted to get on the bus, too. "I ride bus." "I go schoo."


Not yet, Isabela. We still have five more minutes.


The smile is starting to fade now. The nerves are setting in. I'm sure he gets it from me...I get very nervous before doing new things, but after many decades, I've learned to feel the fear and do it anyway (most of the time.) He's still new at this.


He ended up in tears, not wanting to go.


I'd made each of them a heart for their pocket in case they got lonely. By the first day of school, we'd lost all but one. Isabela thoughtfully gave hers up for her sad brother.


I think it worked. He wants to take it again tomorrow.

last days

For our teachers this year, we made these cute tote bags that look like looseleaf paper. The kids drew their design on with pencil and I copied it with a black sharpie. You can find instructions here.


Joaquin always does his best work in his underwear...so he's not in the picture.


Getting ready for the annual squirt down when they get off the bus. Friends let us participate in their neighborhood...it's much better with lots of kids.


Joaquin always gets pretty soaked....


...and this year Isabela tried to get me and ended up shooting Diego right in the face. He was not happy.


But an ice cream sundae can usually cure any unhappiness. Happy end of school!!!

encantados

Encantados.
Botos.
Bufeos colorados.

These are the names for the pink dolphins of the Amazon.

Who knew there were pink dolphins in the world? And how different they were from ocean dolphins?

Isabela and I learned so much about them from this amazing book. It's not your typical boring non-fiction book with facts and figures. It's written as an adventure story with you in the Amazon jungle. You definitely want to check this one out from the library.



I loved how her shoebox habitat turned out. Lots of details from the jungle to the river.



She wanted to make a stuffed animal dolphin so we found this pattern, and she sewed one using the blanket stitch. Very doable for a second grader, although I did help cut them out and tie the knots.


After learning about these, we're all ready for a trip to the Amazon.

limericks

I was reading the kids some leprechaun stories out of this book, A Pot O' Gold, this morning, and we came upon some limericks. There is a city in Ireland called Limerick, but I don't think the poetry is actually from there.

Anyway, we decided to make up our own limericks, which turned out to be a fun lesson on rhyming, patterns (aabba), and wording in poetry and how it's sometimes different than the way we talk because of the need to rhyme.

I thought I'd share them because they were pretty funny.

I went first to show them how to do it:

I once had a girl and a boy,
Who both wanted one more toy.
Instead we said, "Maybe"
And had one more baby,
And now we're all filled with joy.

Then Joaquin made up this:

I went on a boat
And I passed by a goat.
The goat saw me
And climbed up a tree.
Then fell off and went to a vote.

And here's Isabela's:

Isabela's my name
And I played a game.
The cat jumped on it,
And I said, "Darn it."
And my cat I blame.

You can see how the last line of Isabela's had to have the words rearranged in order to rhyme. We also realized we had to rhyme with 'on it' and not just 'it', or else it didn't have the right rhythm....hence the 'darn it', which I actually thought of and had to approve since they thought it was so funny.

Have fun making up your own limerick and share it in the comments!!

snow + school= smiles

fire drill

Last week, Isabela had a visit from the fire department at school.

So yesterday, we decided to have our first practice fire drill in the house.

We are thankful to live in a one story house...so I realize this might not be practical for all families. But it's still a good idea to run through it.
The rules were:
Do not bust your screen trying to get out of your window. It's not a real fire.
Meet at the base of the tree house as fast as you can. It will be timed.

We pretended we were all asleep, then JP hit the button on the fire alarm.

We each had to climb out of our windows. I discovered that one of ours gets pretty stuck about half way up. I had to squirm out on my belly, JP was able to force it up higher.

The first time was 59 seconds.

The second time around, my foot got wedged in the window and I got stuck again! Joaquin said I shouldn't be wearing my tap shoes (a boot with a low heel.) But we were still out 10 seconds faster.

And the kids had so much fun, we did it one more time. This time, we pretended the fire was in the back of the house and we had to get out the front door. Isabela even crawled along the carpet as if there was smoke.

It was fun, but also gave me a great peace of mind knowing they are all capable of escaping on their own.

thankful

We are thankful for sick days.

The third day of fever lingering on, but Isabela and I had plenty of time to make, do and create whatever we could think of.

I started the morning with a short story about Helen Keller that made me cry ...it's from The Children's Book of Heroes. So a second one about the dangerous Minotaur, chosen by Joaquin, quickly set me straight. This is a wonderful book full of inspirational stories, both true and make believe.

With Joaquin off to school, Isabela wanted to do a project. Making a turkey was on her mind, so we searched the internet for good ideas...most were preschoolish and made out of construction paper. But one that caught our eyes was made out of felt, and we thought 'let's stuff him like a real turkey'!

She cut out the pieces and sewed the whole thing by herself...I just tied knots and threaded the needle.


Now we have a beautiful decoration for our mantle...


....and memories of a day together that was long overdue.

lunch trash

School lunch. We all love to visit our kids for lunch. Sitting at the tiny seats attached to the table. The lights being turned off so we're not supposed to talk. One thing that always catches my eye, is the quick sweep of the floor between classes coming and going...and the amount of trash that accumulates. I never really thought about how I could help.

But I just saw this video at a family runs through it and realized my baggies are part of the problem. And cloth napkins at school...ingenious!

field trip

Joaquin and one of his best buddies. The other day, Joaquin said someone was his "BFF" and I told him boys don't say "BFF". Isn't that right? I've never heard a boy say "BFF".


This is a black rat snack. I asked the guy if he ever bit him and he said those kind of snakes are pretty gentle. So I asked, "What would make her bite you?" He replied, "Well, if I were whacking her in the head... that might make her mad."


Didn't the sign say don't climb on the rocks?


Everyone got to touch the turtle...and then get a squirt of hand sanitizer. Whoever invented that stuff must be making a fortune. You can't do anything these days without squirting that stuff on your hands. The lady asked if Diego wanted to touch the turtle. He was sitting right with all the big kids, and of course, I said yes. He stood up on the chair, touched the turtle's foot, and immediately stuck his fingers in his mouth before I could squirt his hand. He's fine.


The friendly goats...

...if that fence were any wider, we might have had a little problem.


It was a gorgeous day for Maymont. A quick trip...they were only there for two hours which included a picnic lunch...minus the thirty minutes they were late...turns out Joaquin got a bloody nose just as they got on the bus and it held the whole thing up. I hope he won't be known now as "the boy who got the bloody nose on the field trip!"

lost tooth

I met up with Isabela at school the other day...her class was in line to go into the library. As I went over to hug her, I caught a quick glimpse of a little smile and it looked different. I pried her arms off me to get a better look, just as her teacher was coming over to tell me she had pulled Isabela's tooth out this morning! It was quite a shock, since it was barely even loose!
Can you see her excitement? She got a tiny blue treasure chest to put her tooth in, and she's now hoping all her teeth will fall out at school.