Gnoming Along

Ok, so now we're really Waldofers - we're making gnomes. This just cracks me up. For our first second grade craft we started needle felting. Nightowl really enjoys it. I'm in the process of creating the four math gnomes to use with our November math block. Nightowl, is making a large, harvesty gnome. More images of the completed project once we've finished and I have a working camera again.

Applesauce and Bandages

For second grade I've divided our year into month long blocks. We focus on a primary subject each month, plus do festivals/holidays, music, form drawing, clay work, painting, cooking and etc. Of course all the subjects seem to get covered - which is a good thing.

For the month of September we're focusing on natural science, specifically the topic of harvest. We've been reading books on harvesting and storing food, Nightowl is attending a class on Permaculture, and we're doing a bit of our own harvesting.

We started with apples. During our first visit to the orchard we got the fever and came home with a bushel of apples. Really, it didn't look like that many apples when we were in the orchard, so we also brought home peaches, plums, cider and squash. Whew. Once at home Nightowl said" "Mommy, this is a lot of apples." And how. So, we decided to learn how to can applesauce. A perfect harvest lesson. We went to our local hardware store and stocked up. Cans - check. Peeler- check. Water bath canner - check. Let's go.

At first it all went well and was very serene. Nightowl liked working the peeler. Bearcub was munching on spiral cut apples, the sauce was bubbling. Then, blam, everything changed. You know how it is with little ones, something just snaps. Suddenly Bearcub was screaming and hitting her sister, Nightowl was demanding justice, I glanced at the clock: "11:30 already! It can't be, it's time for lunch." I shooed them out of the way and tried to quickly finish paring a last batch of fruit, when it happened. My knife slipped and I cut, quite deeply into the fleshy part of my thumb.

Now either I came very close to a nerve or I'm just a big weenie cause I hollered. Blood was flowing down my arm and onto the floor. I grabbed a towel and rushed upstairs. My first thought was to clean the wound. When I did this my head started to spin and my vision began to darken. Not good. I put pressure on my thumb and put my head between my knees.

As my head cleared I could hear Nightowl crying: "Mommy what's wrong? There's blood on the floor."

I went back down to the children and was trying to keep pressure on my thumb when, again, I felt my head spin and my vision started to darken. Not good. I lay down on the floor and put my hand up all the while murmuring reassurances to the girls. I asked Nightowl to bring me the phone (which she did) but I couldn't remember a single number. I broke out in a sweat and everything was tilting; I needed help.

Calmly and firmly I asked Nightowl to please run across the street to our neighbor and tell her that I'd cut my finger and needed some help. Quickly now, Mommy's about to pass out.

She tried. She opened the door. She even went outside. But she couldn't do it. Nightowl has a big personality and lots of confidence - unless she is asked to interact with semi-strangers (for example our neighbors with whom we speak daily and attend the same church- I don't really get this) or do something that puts her in the spotlight (such as knocking on a door). She doesn't even like to knock on the doors of folks we know.

As I lay there with blood oozing out of the cloth, drenched in cold sweat Nightowl came back in, crying. "I can't Mommy. I can't do it." I think I might have asked her again - I don't really remember - but in the end I simply said: "It's ok, honey. Mommy will be alright." What else could I say? And then the adrenaline kicked in, my heart slowed down, my vision cleared and I stopped shivering. Eventually I could sit up. I bandaged my finger. I took several deep breaths. I calmed my kids. I made lunch. I finished the sauce.

Everything turned out ok. My thumb has pretty much healed (I didn't even need stitches, guess I am a weenie). The applesauce and plumb butter are quite tastey. And Nightowl and I learned that emergency plans are necessary. We now have a list of names and numbers near the phone, that she can read and is comfortable dialing. We've spoken with our neighbors and she's practicing asking for help. Eventually we'll practice ringing doorbells. All in all, we learned way more than I ever imagined.

Second Grade Begins

It's hard to believe that it's nearly October! We started our school year on September 1 and the month has just flown by. So far, the best part for me has been my lack of anxiety - I feel kinda seasoned and really happy to be back at it. Our new schedule is working great so far - we've been using it since mid-August and refining as we go. It's going to change on us as Chillymama will soon be working evenings. But hey, we're flexible - at least in theory.

For our first week we did some simple back to school activities to ease our transition. We started by reviewing Nightowl's work from Grade One. For some reason I was surprised by how much joy she took from this activity. She read her books with rapt interest, reciting details from science, reading and math. All of the things we did really made an impression and, of course, that makes me feel wonderful. It's working! Hooray!

After reviewing everything I gave Nightowl a white cardboard portfolio and explained that this is how we would store her Grade One work. I then offered her our beeswax crayons; she could decorate the portfolio if she wished.

She took this task very seriously and spent two entire main lessons working. My only instruction was that she draw in the way we had practiced last year - without outlines. The rest was up to her. To my delight she decorated the portfolio with images from all her Grade One Lessons.



You can see the Lovely Lady, Divide the Math Gnome, the sister from the Six Swans, and an illustration of the Golden Goose. She's really quite proud of this work.

We finished our Back to School week by creating a September Calendar (pictured above - I plan to repeat this exercise each month), drawing up our weekly schedule and by attending our first Coop Class - which was pretty fun. All in all a good start to a new year.

Keeping House

In early August I attended a two-day conference with Barbara Dewey. One of the things I took away from this event was the charge to put one's house in order before planning the school year. I had taken a small stab at scheduling near the end of summer and it had glorious results so I was game. I did some serious thinking about what needs to happen in our lives before schooling. The short list I came up with:

1. Bearcub's nap,
2. cleaning the house,
3. one day to do my paid work (yes, I have an outside job!),
   
4. family time,
   
5. church,
6. care for the pets,
   
7. home cooked meals, and
   
8. a general sense of calm.

Sounds good. Then I looked at our outside activities - for all family members. They are:

1. Nightowl's Violin lessons - twice a week,
2. Horse back riding - Nightowl - one a week,
3. Homeschool park day,
4. playgroup,
   
5. Rehearsal night - me (I sing in a group),
6. Bookclub - me,
7. Bookclub - Chillymama,
8. church committees, and
9. Spanish class - Chillymama

Ok, things are getting full. Next I looked at our weekly homeschooling activities:

1. Main lesson,
2. form drawing,
   
3. painting,
   
4. clay work,
   
5. music practice,
6. Coop class,
   
7. permaculture class,
   
8. handwork/crafts, and
   
9. circle time.
   

Alrighty, there's a lot on this list. But I took small step, started with the first list, and reflected on Nightowl's rhythm, when Bearcub naps and other items that are inflexible (lessons, rehearsals etc.). Then we plugged them into a grid and - wow - we've got time for everything.
I drew up a grid and as one of our starting second grade lesons Nightowl and I filled it in with illustrations. It now resides proudly on our fridge. We look at it every day.


As long as I don't get over zealous we can make it work. Priorities are different for me this year. For example, I don't feel that every homeschool activity needs a product for the main lesson book (more on this in future posts). I'm also coming to terms with cleaning house in bits and pieces. Plus, I now realize that activities don't need to be hours long - some just take a few minutes. And most important: as much as possible I let go of the clock. There are no times on our schedule. I can remember when the inflexible things happen but as for the rest - it fits in as it can. And you know, it's working. I'm more relaxed because there is time, planned time, for everything. That nagging worry of when it will get done is gone. What a relief.

Grade Two Books, Resources, and Lessons

This page is a record of my materials and sources used for Grade 2. I plan to keep it updated.

General Grade 2 Curriculum
Path of Discovery Grade 2 - Eric Fairman
Inspiring Your Child’s Education - David Darcy
Materials from Marsha Johnson - waldorfhomeeducators.com

Math
Waldorf Math Grades 1-3 - Barbara Dewey
Math Lessons for Elementary Grades - Dorothy Harrer
An Overview of the Elementary Math Curriculum - David Darcy

Form Drawing
Form Drawing for the Homeschooling Parent - Barbara Dewey
The Clown of God - Tomi de Paola

Science
Science as Phenomena for Homeschoolers K-8 - Barbara Dewey
The Handbook of Nature Study - Anna Botsford Comstock
Exploring the Forest with Grandforest Tree

Music
Suzuki Violin Method Bks 2 and 3
Wolfhart Etudes for Violin, Bk 1
Rise Up Singing

Crafts
Handwork for Homeschoolers - Barbara Dewey
The Knitted Farmyard - Hannelore Wernhard
Knitted Animals - Anne Dorthe Grigaff

Language Arts
An English Handbook - Dorothy Harrer
Stories of the Saints - Siegwart Knijpenga
The Fables of Aesop - Edited by Joseph Jacobs
Indian Why Stories - Frank B Linderman
The King of Ireland's Son - Padraic Column
McGuffy Readers 2 and 3

Movement
Fly Like a Butterfly: Yoga for Children - Shakta Kaur Khalsa
Come Unto These Yellow Sands - Molly von Heider
The Dance Steps of Hairspray - Hairspray DVD

Books We've Read Together
Little House Series
Martha Years Series
Biography of Martin Luther King
The Incredible Invention of Hugo Cabret
The Wind Boy (2nd Read)
Peter Pan (15th Read)
The Adventures of King Arther and the Round Table

Books Nightowl is Reading
Magic Treehouse - series
The Lighthouse - series
Marvin Redpost - series
The A-Z Mysteries - series
All books by Dick King-Smith (Babe, Sophie's Snail etc.)
The Wizard of Oz
Rainbow Fairies - series
Pixie Hollow - series
Dinotopia - series
Peter Pan
Misty of Chincoteague
Stormy - Misty's Foal
Black Beauty

Summer's End

It's been a busy summer. Nightowl asked that I post a few things as reminders of her fun and learning during these past three months. Bearcub was always along for the ride and had a good time too!

#1 - Chris comes to visit! Wackiness ensues!






#2 - Trapeez camp - Mommy did this too although, fortunately, there is no video record of my performance. This little movie of Nightowl shows her form on the knee hang and the wonderful safety lines that help while she attempts the back-flip dismount - yikes!



#3 - Musical theater summer camp with her good buddy Sunburst. It was their first production. So great!








#4 - Chickens. That single word sums up most of Nightowl's focus this summer. Oh sure we did swimming (very fun), tried gymnastics (a disaster), hung with friends (good times) and a variety of other things. But the best was the chickens. It is due to chickens that Nightowl is learning about caring for the living creatures in her world, learning to read, and attaining a new level of self confidence. Here are a few of pix that she took of foul at the fair.

Pictured: Polish, Buff Orpington, No-Idea


Pictures: Golden Lace Polish, Bearcub preferred the goats


#5 - Pastured Dairy Farm Trip. Very fun. Note that her main interest is not cows.



#6 - Watching the garden grow? It did grow - but not well. We learned that gardens need lots of sun (we only got about 2 hours a day) and lots of water (there's a drought here) and that bunnies will eat just about everything.




#7 - The Michigan Women's Festival. No photos from this but it was incredible - check out their site!


#8 - Bearcub discovered the joys of paint - what an artist!

Spring Wrap-Up

I've come to realize that I will not be posting a number of long posts about the end of our year and spring activities. So here are a few photos and little wrap-up:

We built a bat house and did a fun little unit on bats.



We did more gardening, worm study and created a garden map:



Did a little number line/math stuff - which did not work very well for us. We'll have to try this activity again:



And took a great trip to see the wild butterfly exhibit and gardens:


Busy, busy, busy end of the year.

Grade One - Books and Lessons

This page contains a list of our Grade One books and lessons. Follow the links for more details.

Language Arts
Miss Hickory
Grade One Book List
Reading, Reading, Reading
A Prince of a Tale....And Then Some
Word-Family Town
Learning to Read

Math
Back to School
Math, Baby!
Logic
Math in May

Natural Science
Science (and other subjects)
What I Like About Homeschool
The Drawing Emerges
Making Lasagna
LA Story #2: Flowers, Flowers, Flowers
LA Story #3: The Huntington Botanical Gardens
LA Story #5: The Best Time Ever
All's Fair
Back to Nature
Book Learning
Lasagna Again
Nightowl in Love

Geography/Social Studies
LA Story #4: The Seaside
Flat Nightowl Returns

Wet-on-Wet Painting
Wednesday Watercolors
Family Arts Weekend

Drama/Art
What I Know Now
The Alien Under the Bed
Family Arts Weekend

Form Drawing
Buckeyes
Form Drawing Block 1

Handwork
Craft Log #2
Back to School
Craft Log #2
The New Craft

Music
Two Violins
The Only Subject

Cooking
Making Granola
At the End of the Day

Festivals/Holidays
Autumnal Equinox
Spirits and Lights
Solstice

Daily Rhythm/Schedules
Day One
What We're Studying This Year
What Type of Homeschooling Do You Practice?
Rage
Rhythm
The Most Important Things



Waldorf Books and Materials
Books by Barbara Dewey/Waldorf Without Walls
Waldorf Reading for Homeschoolers
Waldorf Math Grades 1-3
Form Drawing for the Homeschooling Parent
Science as Phenomena for Homeschoolers K-8
Handwork for Homeschoolers
Waldorf Inspired Watercolor Painting with Children

Form Drawing Grades One Through Four
Exploring the Forest with Grandforest Tree
The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales, Pantheon Edition
Cristopherus First Grade Syllabus
Oak Meadow First Grade Syllabus

Seasonal Festivals/Sprituality Books
Circle Round

Foreign Language Books and Resources
Rosetta Stone
Sing and Learn
Teach Me More

Learning to Read

During our final days of first grade we continued our language arts in two ways. The first was a return to the Grimm's Fairy Tales; we read a new tale everyday. The second was to continue our adventures in the Word Family Town.

Nightowl adored the Word-Family Town. She requested it every day during main lesson time. I found this challenging because in my mind we were done with the project and it was time to pack it up neatly in the Grade One portfolio. I'd forgotten many of my original ideas to continue the project. It was time for something new. How wrong I was.

Our revisit to the WFT began with my realization that Nightowl was having difficulty deciphering the consonant blends - th, sh, and ch. As part of our daily reading we had been working our way through McGuffy's Primer. These blends were presented but she just couldn't keep them straight. She needed something else but my very tired brain just couldn't think of something new. So one afternoon I pulled out our town and arranged it on the floor. I told myself that it wouldn't hurt to revisit this project - after all she did keep asking. Maybe Nightowl could find something new. So I stepped aside and let the unschooling take over.

The first thing I noticed is that Nightowl got really into the WFT - literally. She put herself into the town and began playing and interacting with it just like she would her dolls and fairy houses. Only this time her muttered narrative was peppered with spelling out words as the little letter people went through their daily chores of living.

She quietly continued this activity for several days during main lesson time. I held myself back and watched. Then, one evening, we were reading before bed. Nightowl, who likes to watch the pages as I read aloud, said suddenly - ch does not live in the Word Family Town. She seemed a bit sad about this. And then it hit me - really it was so obvious, what had I been thinking?

The next afternoon before getting out the town I sat down with the chalk board and told her the story of how three consonant blends came to the WFT. The story went like this:

One day a hot air balloon appeared above Word Family Town. In the basket were two women one named TH and the other named CH. Their little son SH was with them. All the people of the town came to see as the balloon landed. TH and CH got out and introduced their son. Then they described their sounds to the townspeople.

Short, sweet and it did the trick. Nightowl drew the picture in her book. Then quickly created the stick figures TH, CH and SH. Then the play continued.

The next day I grew curious about how Nightowl was incorporating all these sounds and letters. So I said: "Nightowl did you know that the little son SH could spell every word in the Word Family Town?"

She looked unconvinced.

"Really," I continued, "He had this amazing talent. He told the people that he would demonstrate this talent. He told them that tomorrow morning he would spell all the words from the town. The problem was that he needed someone to write the words as he spelled them." (The letter folk have no arms or hands, you see.) Nightowl considered this new piece of the story and then went off to play in the town.

As luck would have it Nightowl volunteered to be a scribe for SH and the next morning we went through the process of spelling all the words. It was a very test like situation. Me calling out the words.* Nightowl listening to an imaginary SH tell the spellings. Nightowl writing them down. To my delight she spelled all the family words correctly and even figured out a few more difficult words. Success!

Since then her reading has really taken off. She's working her way through all the picture books in the house and reading some simple chapter books. She is even volunteering to read to Bearcub - which is soooo lovely.

So with this I officially ended the final block of our first grade language arts. I put the letter people away and we've taken a break for summer. Of course Nightowl is still reading for pleasure and just a few days ago she looked up from a book and asked, quite hopefully, if the Word Family Town would be in second grade as well. I think the answer to that is quite obvious.

* To facilitate the creation of our town and to come up with our spelling list I used a nifty, and very affordable book/pamphlet from Oak Meadow: The Word Family Reader. This very small book is the only Oak Meadow book that I've used in its entirety and I highly recommend it for this type of activity.

Math in May

I've started putting up my May lessons. However, my attention is somewhat divided between my blog and the community blog I'm a part of: A Taste of Waldorf. So, I've posted our May math stuff there. Check it out: Math: Odd and Even Gnomes.

Little Fiddler

Bearcub's finally found a way to play the violin too. Here she is tuning up for her next performance.

Time for a change

Feelin whacky so I've picked a new look. I'm hoping this will help for organization as well. Hope you like!

This was fun

I tried this after seeing it on Sara's blog and...ta da: I'm a daffodil!

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

Here's the description: You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard.

Nice.

Ok, so I'm a daffodil, sunny and etc. etc. Only, here's my big secret - I only recently turned sunny again. In fact during the end of April and most of May I was down right cranky. That's why I haven't been posting much these days. Nor have I been on the web or reading blogs or anything. I was burned out. Fizzled. Why? The end of the school year, Chillymama quit her job, found a new job, started a new job (with three hour round trip commute - oh boy!), my relaxing hobby stopped being so relaxing, work kept me from sleeping, I am a parent, and etc. etc.

And on and on. One evening, in a rant, I found myself wondering how I got to be such a negative, pessimist. Was I always that way? So I stopped and took a good long look at my over reacting, cranky, drama queen self and decided: If nothing changes, nothing changes. Thus:

• I began focusing on getting sleep - long real sleep. This means no late night computing.
  
• I stopped working at night. I now have a helper who comes once a week, while I'm at home, to be with the kids so I can get a day for work. Miraculous.
  
• I set an end date for our school year, June 6, and we quit completely for the summer: no "lessons," no music rehearsal, no recitals, no planning, no nothing.
  
• I started yoga again (I used to teach...oh, so long ago.)
• I let go of cooking - we still eat wholesome, it's just that now we're on the simple, warm-up plan.
  
• I started biking and recently did a tri-athalon.
  
• I refocused on being with my kids.
• I planned a family vacation.
  
• I started reading for pure pleasure.
  
• I worked on being supportive to Chillymama and her career decisions, rather than harping on what should be happening.
  
• I stopped critiquing myself for every little thing.

Guess what happened? My sunny-ness returned! Keeping the focus on me has, of course, put everything else in perspective. To put it bluntly - it's all about me. Funny, but true. Taking care of one's self is an imperative part of functioning in a healthy way. Now that my perspective is clearing (I'm really not a negative fiend by nature - whew!) life is on the upswing. As a family we've made the decision to: keep homeschooling (seemed a little touch and go there for a minute), work on our relationship with a little outside help, take more time for each other, and say "No" more often if the activity seems like it will disrupt our family life.

I've also noticed that Nightowl has learned an amazing amount this past year (yay homeschooling), that at two Bearcub is not only challenging, she's engaging and loving and cuddly and fierce, and that I create quite a bit of my own stress.

As my sunny-ness returns I'm getting refilled and finding I have a little more to give each day. We did lots during the month of May - that I'll post eventually. Bearcub had a birthday, Nightowl had a birthday, summer camp has started and things are looking up. I'm even starting to think about our next year. I might even make plans - eventually. But for now, my focus is on refilling and rebuilding my daffodilish self - and seriously, my work here is not even close to done.

Nightowl in Love

Well, it's finally happened - in the most unexpected of places with the most unexpected of...um, creatures. Truth. Last Sunday Nightowl became entranced and then fell hard for the fluffy, feathered chicken.

Members from our congregation brought a small selection of animals to church last Sunday. All the kids classes got turns mixing it up with the goats, sheep, ducks, chickens etc. At the end of the service I went to pick up Nightowl from her classsroom. She wasn't there. I finally found her on the playground in a quiet space with a sweet Bantam hen nestled in her lap.

She'd been there since her class visit; she remained there throughout the coffee hour and into the beginnings of the second service. During this time her newfound chicken friend spent the entire time nuzzled in her arms sleeping, pooing (amazingly this didn't faze Nightowl at all), and finally laying an egg (this was quite amazing).

She was reluctant to part with the hen but we did finally make it home. Now we talk chickens, chickens, chickens morning till night. Nightowl wants chickens and (luckily??) our city code allows urban chicken farming - up to five hens on a city lot.

So we are now researching chickens, coops, chicks, safety, feeding, 4H and etc. Plus we've had a family talk about caring for animals and responsibility. Add this to our complete dedication in supporting our eldest - whatever direction her interests take - and you get the fact that we are considering chickens. We've decided that if Nightowl can show us that she can take some responsibility for the pets we currently have (two dogs and three cats) then maybe when she is 8 or 9 we'll consider getting a coop that will be her primary responsibility.

She's gung ho. She's taken over the cat care. She doing a daily cat box cleaning and is responsible for feeding and watering . So far she is quite cheery about it. This is good for me too as I am glad to shift that responsibility. So, we'll see if the romance lasts beyond the next few days or weeks. But for now she's pretty content with her dreams of future chickens. I keep overhearing the comments she makes to herself: "Won't it be great to have fresh eggs?" "Maybe the coop could go here." "In the winter I'll have to dig a path to the coop so that I can make sure my chickens get enough love and attention."

Ain't love grand?

The City Chicken
The Path to Freedom
Backyard Chickens
4-H USA
The Banty Chicken

Real Moms

Wow. I've been tagged. And until now I had no idea that it was even possible - or what it meant. So. Here's the deal: We overworked, overloved, tired, fabulous mothers are reading the blogs of other moms. Then we tag them on our blog and create community and etc. Fun.

Ok, so here goes: I'm a stay-at-home, homeschooling, running my own business on the side mom! Ha. I have wonderful moments, the all too real mom-flab, sleepless nights and cozy mornings. It's a good thing.

I tag the following mom's: Schooling from the Heart, Amy's Mama Journal at BlogSchmog, Big Mama, and Wife Mom Maniac.

Lasagna Again

Springtime now. Time for planting. True to the promise our layered lasagna garden has evolved into rich, black earth teaming with worms and other assorted creepy crawlers. The hay and mulch layers work wonders at retaining moisture.

This week we began planting with a few perennials - black-eyed susans, peonies, crazy daisies, coneflowers, and coreopsis. We are mostly interested in seeds and will begin planting those in May - once all fear of frost is gone.

Regarding our tree nursery - sadly we had no success. The seeds in cups did not work for us. But we are undaunted and will continue with other planting experiments.

The new craft

This Christmas Nightowl received a wooden-peg loom from Santa. On Tuesday she asked for a new craft; out came the loom.




Day one. Beginning the pouch-purse project.









Day three. It's been hard to put this project down. The work is frequently punctuated by comments of "Isn't it fun to watch me do this!"

Reading is also covered here as Nightowl is working on deciphering the directions. Lots of new vocab such as weft and warp.

Word-Family Town

Ok. We completely borrowed this idea from Sara over at Schooling From the Heart. The idea of creating a Word-Family Town to facilitate reading and spelling was just too delicious. It's been really great. Nightowl loves it so much that my two week project spiraled into four. I did not take into account Nightowl's capacity for detail - my mistake. So here it is.





It all started with a story and a house. The story of the "AD" house and all the consonant friends who come to visit. Nightowl made the house and I started making the friends. From there it blossomed.

Future plans include: directions through the town, a town-wide spelling bee, and a visit from the "Article Gang" (a, an, the...).

The only subject

It seems, despite our Waldorf blocks and unschooling meandering, that our one, main, true subject is music. We spend inordinate amounts of time on music. It permeates everything. Everyday Nightowl plays her two instruments: violin and piano. Her "pencil and paper work" often relates to music theory - intervals, note reading, music writing. She also makes up songs, sings, and dances.

We use tunes to remember math and use note values for simple addition and subtraction problems. We sing songs to remember reading skills and create simple words out of various notes. We play music games such as music note go-fish.

Music also helps her to forge relationships with other kids in group class and gives her a taste of the traditional classroom dynamic. But most of all she plays. And plays. And plays. She is now playing occasionally with with an accompanist. For this task we've asked for help from our lovely friend Bob, who is a wonderful piano player, loves the children, and loves to perform. Aside from a sweet little duet, this relationship has many other wonderful benefits - friendship, family-fun (our kids play with his kids etc. etc.) and the kudos of other great adults in our girl's life.

Here they are in their first recital. Awesome.

Flat Nightowl Returns

For geography we've jumped on-board the Flat Stanely train. Flat Stanley is a children's book about Stanley, a little boy made flat when a bulletin board falls on him. Other than being flat he is fine. As a flat person Stanley finds it is easy to travel via mail; he gets mailed on a vacation to California.




We liked the book and the idea. So Nightowl created a flat version of herself and we shipped Flat Nightowl off to Hawaii to visit her Aunty Kathy and Aunty Jane. She recently returned with souveniers, stories and pictures. The real, non-flat Nightowl is keeping a book of her travels as well as fun facts about the places visited.




At the moment, Flat Natalia is touring the Big Apple with our friends Margaret and Aliza. We've been studying up on NYC in preparation for her return as well as making travel plans for the future.






Photos top to bottom:
#1 Boogie boarding at Hapuna Beach
#2 Touring the volcanoes with Aunty Jane
#3 A narrow escape from the mighty Marlin
#4 Visiting the Orchid Market