Co-op & Puzzles

Our co-op started up again this week.  Living where we do, we have several co-op options.  The one we attend does not burden our schedule because it only meets every other week, and it offers a strong Christian fellowship.  This co-op is mainly for enrichment, so I do not have to orchestrate my weekly lessons around it; it merely provides extra opportunities in a classroom setting.

Last semester Jasper taught the older kids a karate class, but this semester I've organized a Maps through Stories class.  Today we worked on landform terms and ended with the children creating their own playdough maps.  I was pretty pleased with the lesson, except I planned too many things and ran out of time.  The two little girls stayed busy in the nursery just down the hall.  I like that feature too.

Pearl's other classes are literature and art. It seems strange that I should be the one not teaching in the humanities! But I do always read them a story.  

Here are Pearl and Sapphire wishing to record their Valentine treats before they disappear.  Pearl's Sunday School class got entrepreneurial and produced and 'marketed' these to help earn money for the church Building Fund.  Pearl is sure she made the pink one. 

Pearl is a fan of Valentines Day. The girls loved all the cards they received from friends and family.  Pearl joined me and Jasper at the church Sweetheart Banquet where I think she was the biggest fan of the family-friendly version of the Newlywed Game--we came in second, I believe. At one point, when Michelle guessed the right answer, I saw Pearl gasp in pure joy and clap her cute little hands.  How sweet that she threw herself into the game. She said she is definitely going again next year.

And Sapphire has been giving us some interesting days. On Saturday I couldn't find my contacts because she had woken early, and just before waking everyone else up (early) she opened my contact case and fiddled around with the tiny clear plastic lenses.  When asked where they had gone, she said they were in her eyes, and she pulled at her eyelid in a very good performance of how I do it. Fortunately they were old 2 week disposables. They were not in her eyes.  Her education into reality (we *always* see the candy hiding in her hand) is entertaining but exhausting. 

Fortunately Ruby is much less interested in pulling our house apart, though we do save activities with tiny pieces until her nap time.

I heard from her group home in Beijing today. They will be celebrating a 10 year anniversary and asked if we could create a video of Ruby sending her regards to encourage the nannies in their daily ministry of childcare.

These last pictures just show what life is like around here--dressing up in vintage aprons made by my great-grandmother (I'll bet she never realized they make excellent capes, dolly blankets, and head-coverings!) and working on puzzles. 

Very proud she can put puzzles together now too!

Homeschooling Days

Pearl made a sign for the sprouting acorn:  "dont step here tree growing"

If you don't home school, you might be curious about what a day looks like here. For us, it begins with sleeping in as long as possible. Once the girls get to the breakfast table, I begin to break out the books. We're working through a curriculum that walks us through history (still Pilgrims!), writing, English, and manners, but we add Bible readings (reading our way through I Samuel now) and more advanced math.  The internet has taught me how to teach two-digit addition, and she's picked it up pretty quickly despite some kvetching. Pearl tends to like worksheets printed off the internet rather than all the neat interactive math games I've picked up. I'm sure a younger sister will use those.

On Monday we saw a small window of good weather, so we moved purposefully through the curriculum while the little girls played around the house. We were able to go for a family nature walk, during which we identified a Tulip Poplar (and took a circumference reading), shelf fungus, a natural spring, and poison ivy. The little girls preferred the quarried rocks on the road, good for pitching into the creek.

We dropped Ruby off with Daddy for a nap, then I took the big girls to Chick-fil-a and on to the YMCA for home school swim.  Then we crossed the parking lot to check out some books in the library. Pearl read to me and Sapphire "read" to a huge stuffed dog toy that was interested in cows. During my dinner preparations she asked to help, so I decided it was time she learned to work the rice cooker all by herself. She can do it too, and the rice was great.

That evening I attended an adoption-support-group-for-moms, so Pearl enjoyed some biggest girl time with Daddy and watched part of an adaptation of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper. She's really into Errol Flynn right now, and she likes the Tudors (especially Queen Elizabeth I).  Her daddy fears she's going to need a man who will swashbuckle for her in another twenty years.

The next day, Tuesday, we headed to our co-op early. After announcements and opening prayer, we scuttled off to our assigned spots: nursery class for the littlest ones (they worked on the letter "u"), solar system, manners, then drama for Pearl, and I helped with solar system, had an hour off, then helped with karate. Usually my husband teaches that one and I stay home and revise my book, at least this semester that's how we've done it, but he had a meeting all day, so I filled in.  We all had potluck lunch together, the girls played with friends, then we headed home.

The little girls both needed naps (pretty desperately in Sapphire's case), so Pearl and I played around with fabric. We usually skip book work on co-op days, but we still learn other things. I taught her how to make napkins, and she even worked up to controlling the foot pedal and the fabric movement herself. She has lots of Christmas present plans (but these weren't for any of you, don't worry...unless you are aged 5 and your name starts with a B). Her favorite part is snipping the loose ends. Then she hand-stitched a Christmas gift while I was on the phone.

Jumping in the leaves

While I cooked she sort of entertained her sisters. Right now she's tied herself to Sapphire, and they are walking around the house as a two headed monster.

So that's two days of education here.

PS: Sapphire just told me that when her own little tiny baby comes, I will have to take her, (Sapphire) to China to get her (the baby). !

Self-Regulating Scholar

After a less than pleasant school time Monday, I decided to try a chart, something I had been avoiding. But it seems to work out ok. Pearl is able to see all the subjects we need to get through during the day, and if she can complete them she will earn a half hour or an hour of movie watching. If she fails to check out each box, then she misses out on tv time entirely. The two oldest girls are highly motivated by television, alas. The thought of Sapphire watching anything without her gets Pearl moving, which is exactly what I needed to have happen. After all, one of the reason's I'm homeschooling is to instill a self-motivated love of learning in my children.

Here she broke away from her reward to join us for a walk. The girls are wearing their new t-shirts Nana brought home from NYC.  Photographing three wiggling girls is quite a task!

And here Pearl is enjoying some quiet time and her new collection of felt dolly clothes. Thanks so much Mike and Teri for the welcome-home-Ruby gifts! They have kept her busy during the late afternoon again, as her doll talks to her sister's doll about what to wear. I think sorting them is the most fun.

Pearl and I have also been working on Ruby's lifebook.  This is the book that tells Ruby's story from her perspective (as well as we can), and it helps to explain terms like birthparents and adoption in kid-friendly ways. Adoptive families are encouraged to start sharing these terms with their little ones right away, and reading the words in picture books and the lifebook helps build a foundation for conversations whenever the child needs them.

I found ideas for the content online, and I'm just gluing photos and copy in a red 8 x 8" scrapbook my husband's oldest sister kindly found for the purpose.  The page above explains how much Ruby is loved at her group foster home, and how they will keep her photo (in the bottom left corner) on their wall forever. 

Our family will be gathering tomorrow to celebrate my grandmother's life. If you had met her, she would have instructed you to call her Mom-mom. Her she is at my brother's wedding last year, where I didn't realize that another cousin was also bringing her drinks unbidden, and between us we were sort of overdoing it! Ruby got to meet this great-grandmother only briefly before she died after a brief illness on Saturday.  She was 91. Her obituary is here.