Week in Review - March 7, 2014

We are marching through March. Bob came in excited today that he found a daffodil. The promise that spring is coming.

My husband is out of town this week and so the challenge is to keep school routine, the house clean, and eat meals that are not frozen fish sticks. I think I have fed them some good meals this week only fish sticks once and that was for lunch.

We are moving through the Middle Ages and this week read about Marco Polo, Sir William Wallace & Robert Bruce, Dante Alighieri, and the The Aztecs. After reading about Sir William Wallace and Scotland we had to have a tea cake. I did ask Bob what side he was on. He decided Scotland because Carolyn is from Scotland and Carolyn likes Nutella and shares the Nutella with him when we stay there. All part of his plan to get Nutella on his bread.

We moved to north Africa in Geography. This week it was Sudan including a bit about South Sudan. Did you know that the ancient name of Sudan was Kush?

Bob had art class this week. They are working on Seuss inspired artwork and there will be a prize of a gift bag of art supplies so he is working on his drawing. I received a nice note from the teacher, "You have a special son. It was a pleasure having him in class." It is encouraging getting notes like that.

We have not had math wars this week. Since I have written in the past about math wars, I thought I should report that this week there is math peace. We have found a way that is working right now. He does his lesson and all the problems he can and then sits down with me and together we grade it and review/re-do the problems he got wrong.

Bob read The Rescuers this week. He shared how the book is different from the movie. He did say that he liked the book better. He also told me that he was surprised that the book didn't win any awards as he thought it should have.

I found Miss K on the sofa reading Henry and Mudge. She is still at the stage of reading aloud so it is fun to listen to her read. I do have to find a way to get her to stop skipping the little words.

Miss K finished her Explode the Code 1 1/2 book today. She was quite pleased to finish the book. I like Explode the Code for phonics reinforcement. I think Miss K also does good with workbooks. She can see what needs to be done and do it.

This evening we had to go downtown and we found this glass artwork by Dale Chihuly.

That about wraps up our week. I am not sure what we have planned for the weekend. I have a few projects that I would like to work on but we will see what happens.

Do you have any signs of spring?

Beth

Special Needs Children and their friends

"She is my friend." 

Seeing a photo of a girl her age, Miss K will declare, "She is my friend." Miss K loves people. She remembers people's names. She remembers various details about people's lives, things I don't even think about.

She is high functioning and verbal though we are continuing to work on slowing down so people can understand her. She is aware of what is going on and wants to be part of life.

I was thinking about some of the friends in her life that had loved her and are her good friends.

Faith was in Classical Conversations with her two years ago. I was the mom who made sure I knew where Miss K was because she had a tendency to wander. Faith was the same age and she would invite Miss K to play with them during the lunch break. She included her and also helped to steer the play to something that Miss K could join in. They would play duck, duck goose because Miss K knew how to play that.

Sometimes I had to step in and tell them what she wanted to say or help guide them in an activity that she could understand. Encourage your children to invited the special needs child to join and teach them they might have to adjust what they are doing.

Megan is another friend of Miss K's. Megan went to the same church they played together some. Megan is the one friend that Miss K talks about visiting when we go back there.

She made friends in our travels this summer and she still talks about her friends. She remembers details like where they live, what toys she played with, what we did with our friends.

We have been in the Northwest for a number of months and has made friends here.

Kara is in her Sunday school class and at AWANA with Miss K. Looking at the two girls they appear as different as can be but Kara will sit with Miss K and patiently help her find the passage in the Bible.

Lizzy is in Miss K's ballet class. Miss K and Lizzy have common scars -- both are heart babies though different surgeries. Lizzy loves Miss K and Miss K loves Lizzy. Everyday I hear the question of when can Lizzy come to play. She is counting the days until next Thursday. I think both girls are excited and enjoy the time together.

I am so thankful for each of these girls and the friendship they have shown Miss K. Miss K's live has been blessed to have these friends in her life. I trust that the girls' lives has also been blessed.

You can help you child to invite and include a special needs child. Your child might need to slow down but the joy is worth it.



Beth

The names of the girls have been changed.

"I'm As Tall as you."

Miss K loves to tell you, "I'm as tall as you." Then she will use her hand to draw the imaginary line on an angle so she is as tall as me. She will do it with her brother and daddy as well. It isn't just a once time thing but almost daily or even two or maybe three times a day she will realize that in her mind she is as tall as me and then she will tell me.

She told me this morning, "Look, I am as tall as you." I looked down at her as I pondered how often I measure myself against someone else thinking, "I am just as good as they are." or "I am better than that." I am using the wrong standard to measure. I am measuring based on what I see in others and I should be measuring against what God wants me to do or be. That changes how I compare. I am not as tall as I think.

Now I have something new to ponder when Miss K tells me she is as tall as I am. I will pause and think how I measure to God's standard.


Beth

Chinese Dumplings

I love Chinese food which is a good thing since I lived in Asia for so many years. I will admit that for a long time if we wanted Chinese food we just went out to eat. Near our apartment there were lots and lots of little restaurants. I didn't cook Chinese food at home.

One of my favorite things to eat was dumplings, jiaozi. Dumplings were a cheap lunch when I was working there. Just down the street from the office was a dumpling stand. On the sidewalk they had some carts that had boiling water for boiled dumplings, shuijiao and two places to fry the dumplings. At a small table was a bowl full of dumpling filling and usually grandma and another lady would sit and make dumplings.

For about 50 cents I could get 10 dumplings and if I wanted I could add a bowl of sweet and sour soup for about 30 cents.

One of my friends taught me how to make dumplings gave me her recipe.

2 pounds ground pork

medium head of cabbage finely chopped

2” piece of ginger finely chopped

2 inches of green onion finely chopped

6 tablespoons soy sauce

2-3 tablespoons sugar

Chop the cabbage as small as possible. Sprinkle some salt on it and let sit for at least 10 minutes. 

Slice the green onion and chop the ginger.

Stir-fry the green onion and chopped ginger in a bit of oil until golden brown. Turn off the heat add 6 tablespoons soy sauce and 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar.

Add to the meat mixture. Then squeeze the water from the cabbage and mix thoroughly with the meat.

Put in wrappers. I have bought my wrappers at Chinese grocery stores or you could make your own. 

To boil – bring a pan of water to boiling and then boil then they float and allow to float for 3 minutes.

Fry – heat a small amount of oil in a pan, add the dumplings, fry on one side and then the other. Add about 1 tablespoon of water, cover and allow to evaporate.

Serve with a bit of soy sauce to dip them into. 

This makes about 60 to 80 dumplings. I will often just freeze them and use them later for lunch. Just cook frozen allowing an extra minute or two. 

This is one of our favorite Chinese recipes and one that reminds us of our time in Asia.

I am linking this with www.benandme recipe round-up.

Beth

Math Update

I wrote an update on Math-U-See Alpha Math in October. Since that was almost 5 months ago, I thought it was time to give another update. We are just about finished the addition section.

I continue to like Math-U-See. There are times that Miss K does not want to use the blocks but being the mom that I am there are times that I make her use the blocks. If it is facts that I think she should know I won't force the blocks. I can tell that the blocks do help her processing and thinking.

Getting her to do more than one page is a challenge. A page is about 8 to 10 problems. The lesson is really designed to be two pages. Considering that there are 12 pages to each lesson that takes us quite some time to work through a lesson.

It is slow. Sometimes slow is good and sometimes slow is not good. In this case I think we are going too slow and things are being forgotten.

Looking back maybe we should have pushed knowing the facts for the lesson before moving on but then the concern is would we have moved on.

We are taking a bit of Math-U-See break and switching to Horizon's Grade 1 book and using the Math Review Box.  The Horizon's book is giving some of the principles that she needs to know from a slightly different angle. This is also introducing some new concepts as well.

Learning to count with tally marks.

Does she have the ability to learn her math facts? I don't know. She is able to remember all kinds of information so until proven otherwise I am going to push and she what she can learn. The other day she got almost all the problems that we were reviewing correct. Then today she was forgetting them.

One of the things that I like about Saxon is the calendar. Since our Saxon is in our shipment I had been writing some things that I wanted her to copy or fill-in. I have switched and have her copy some of the facts. It is math copywork.

At times I do question and wonder if I should have done something different in teaching her. Maybe we should have had the math review box a year ago. Maybe I should have used something else? You know all those second guessing questions.

At this time we are taking  break from Math-U-See, working on learning the facts, and moving through Horitzons.

That is math with Miss K. Some days for me it does involved banging my head on the table not literally but figuratively. This is where it is slow and steady and look for progress.

Any tips for learning math facts?

Beth

Happy Birthday to You, Dr. Seuss

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss. We celebrated early but did not eat green eggs and ham. We celebrated with a cake but a rake. We celebrated with friends because that it the way we celebrate.

I planned ahead and reserved books from the library. I don't think we have a single Dr. Seuss book here in the house. We had books about Zooks and Yooks. We had red Swedish fish but no blue fish. We had one fish and then two fish.

We baked a cake which was a group effort. Miss K was very excited to help. She loves birthdays, cake,  and celebrations. She helped to make the cake. It was so rewarding to hear her read the box and tell me what we needed to add to make the cake.

The hat shape was handcrafted by Bob. He looked at a photo from the cake a few years ago and went to work with the knife. He even mixed up the icing and started to ice the cake but then asked me to help around the edges as it was crumby. That is just were you put the icing on a bit thick to cover all the crumbs.

This afternoon we had the party. We had a time of reading books. We read quietly and then some of the kids read a book aloud. I have to say that some of those books are long.

There are quite a number of Dr. Seuss quizzes that you can find online. We had teams and asked some of these questions. Miss K even got a few of the questions right. Do you know how many books he wrote? Do you know crows name in Fox in Socks? Do you know who eats their bread butter side down?

Then I asked the kids to pick a book and copy a picture from the book. Miss K was hard at work copying from Maybe You Should Fly a Jet! Maybe You Should be a Vet!

Bob and the older girls were busy drawing.

Bob's preferred medium is pencil. I do think this thing is quite impressive. I don't remember what book he was copying from.

Since no party is complete without cake, we enjoyed our cake and ice cream.

It was a fun day and we did not eat green eggs and ham. We did not eat them for breakfast. We did not eat them for lunch or even brunch.

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book? I think mine is the first book he wrote, To Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street partly because I remember my mom reading that to me as a child.


Beth

Week in Review - February 28, 2014

It is hard to believe that it is the end of February already. We are in the mid-year slump. You know when the newness of the books, curriculum has worn off. The pencils no longer have scent of freshly sharpened pencils. The crayons are no longer brand new but rather broken pieces. We have not yet received the end of the year excitement. Instead we are plodding along in the middle of books.

We had some tough mornings this week. It might be the time of year and it might be the continual transitional living. One of those mornings we just paused and talked about things we miss, things we have here, and things we are looking forward to once we move. The last two Tunnock's Tea Cakes helped -- it was something we remembered, something we had and something to look forward to when we move. For my kids what is not to love with a shortbread biscuit, a meringue like a marshmallow and then chocolate covered. This was a treat that they got when we were in England. I might have to go to World Market and see if they have more.
 

In history this week we are continuing through the Middle Ages reading about Frederick II, St Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, and The Great Khans and the Mongol Invasion of China. Whenever we touch on Chinese history it is always a highlight. Today we remembered how when we visited the Temple of Heaven there was Mongol writing there as well as Chinese.

We returned to the Memoria Press Geography this week beginning North Africa. I am looking forward to learning some things about that part of the world. We enjoyed our time in Asia Its People and History. You can read my review and sign-up for the giveaway here.

Bob had art class this week and was working on some pastels. I am really pleased with the class. The teacher varies things from week to week.

It was a typical week for Bob not much exciting happening. I am still trying to figure out how many cool mom points I earn by allowing him to have some of the bones from the turkey carcass to sit on the counter for about 5 days. A certain boy wanted them for some experiment. How many points did I earn?

Miss K is reading so much more. A couple of times this week I found her sitting and reading a book. I love the learning to read stage where everything is read aloud. She loves Dick and Jane, Henry and Mudge and Angelina Ballerina.

Making shapes with toothpicks and marshmallows. 

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday today. Miss K was very excited for that event. We had to tell her that Dr. Seuss was not coming; we would have cake but no presents.  

We have a tea party tomorrow afternoon. Miss K is excited. The boys are going out and going bowling.

That about wraps up our week here. How are you surviving the mid-year slump?

Beth