Ancient India

How about a homeschool post?  We are touching on Ancient India for a few days before we get back to Rome.  According to our book, the women of India were the first to use lipstick (but I'm pretty sure the ancient Egyptians did as well).  Men wore nail polish to attract women and show how brave they were.  The older kids were not interested in this style of hands-on history, but Fiona would never turn down makeup.  Ever.  She cannot wait until she is old enough to wear makeup and high-heeled shoes.

Unfortunately, the only color lipstick I have is bright, bright red.  I only have it because we used it for clown makeup last Halloween! 

Daniel is my brave warrior...but being two-almost-three and Daniel, he wanted what Fiona had as well...

...he is a very ugly girl.  When I told him that, he got angry with me and said, "No, I'm a very ugly BOY!"  (He had a bath right away and is looking himself once more)

Fiona is very expressive, both in face and in action.  The black and white edit makes the lipstick a little less...scary...and returns her to a more innocent age.  Some of the pictures I snapped make her look waaaay too old and grown up.  In fact, I asked her to look like a grown up and this is what she did:

This picture is her favorite:

Yikes!

Cuneiform Cookies

Can you think of a better way to learn about the first writings?  (It says Cookies YUM!)

Bountiful Blessings

Fiona has a letter of the week.  This week, she is learning B.  She already knows B, but I'm using this as an opportunity to randomly show words that start with B and have a B sound in the middle.

Like SilverBow Farm.  We also happen to be learning about the first peoples and how nomads settled down in the Fertile Crescent to be farmers in history.

Today we were Blessed to share in the Bounty of SilverBow farm's corn crop.  I called it a field trip because we were to Be farmers for a day!

We went to this farm last year with the church's preschool play program to visit pumpkin patch (that was a lot of Ps!).  The lady who runs the farm was impressed with Ian last year and let him drive the quad!  He was pleased to help out again this year!  We picked corn:

 Lots and lots of corn!  And then we took it back to....

...the garage where we...

 ...shucked...

 ...blanched...

 ...cut the corn off the cob...

 ...and packed the corn into bags...

 ...meanwhile chowder was being made with ingredients fresh-picked from the garden and salmon pulled from the freezer labeled "Blue Moon King."  Her husband caught the salmon on the blue moon last month!  Have you ever heard of a tastier sounding soup?

 The kids were very helpful when we were picking and shucking, but boiling water, sharp knives, and kids don't mix too well.  They got busy...

...eating the raw corn!  Oh, what a heavenly sweet corn!  The corn wasn't our only blessing.  While we were cleaning up, we were told of another picking opportunity...

...Blueberries!  The Bushes have grown wild, so the kids and I Bushwhacked our way through (with Lula in the front-pack), trying to avoid Blackberries.  My smarty-pants kids said things like, "We were farmers, now we are going backwards and foraging wild berries!"

When we were finally tired (okay, when Daniel and Lula were tired) we packed up and came home.  Our grand total was twenty pounds of corn ready for the freezer and five gallon bags of blueberries.  All organic and for the price of our labor.  What an awesome experience!

Ancient Egyptian Mystery & First Week Complete!

After a week reading Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, Ian is happy to announce we have our very own mystery to solve.  I usually read at night while I wait for Daniel to fall asleep next to me.  Last night, I was previewing Tales of Ancient Egypt for next week's literature assignments.  I clearly remember looking at the clock (10:00 PM, if I go to sleep now, I'll get eight hours of sleep), closing the book, stacking it with my other books, turning off my light (is Mark was ever going to get off his computer?), and snuggling under my blankets ...and the next thing I know Lula is crying in her crib and it is 1:00 AM.  I go to her room, pick her up, and turn around.

Tales of Ancient Egypt is sitting on the footstool of my rocking chair!  It is facing the chair, just like I had been sitting there and it set down before standing up.  I have no memory of moving it and I don't think I was sleep-walking...

And now our first week of school is over.  We've managed to catch up on everything that didn't get delivered on time.  Except science.  But science had habitats scheduled and if a Curious George-watching kid doesn't get what a habitat is, they have serious issues.  Some things I learned this week are:

• Daniel absolutely MUST have a nap after lunch
• I should NOT try to take advantage of a student finishing an assignment early to get a head start on the next subject.
• Reading out loud must wait until Daniel is napping (see 1 and 2)
• I really need to take that 10:00 break for my own sanity-but I need to avoid the computer at all costs.
• Putting a movie on at 11:00 will keep Daniel AND Fiona from interrupting. 
• Potty-training during the first week of school is a BAD IDEA 
• Afternoon activities during nap time is also a BAD IDEA
• When 50% of the children are having "issues," everyone needs to take a break

Now I'm off to enjoy some birthday present sewing time...