Creative Kids

Today was a really fun day!

Daddy is out of town on a little business trip this week, so we've been having lots of good "Mom & the Kids" quality time while he's gone. I decided to make today--our last day before he gets back, and also the last day of our school week--a special day. Yesterday morning, I gave the kids the invitation above, inviting them to "Be Creative Day." It said to wear their smocks for school time and plan to get a little messy creating with me. They were, of course, super excited!

This morning after breakfast, I sent them to their rooms for about 30 minutes while I got everything prepared. I set up different "creating stations" around our living room; there was a painting station, a drawing table, a building station, and a "get creative" station (for everything that didn't fit in another category). I don't have "before" pictures of the others, but here's the building station.

Each station (except the building one) also had a list of suggested projects they might want to try. I walked through the stations with them, and then turned them loose to create. We had so much fun making different things, trying new ideas, and just having fun together. I can't count the number of times one of them told me thank you for having "Be Creative Day."

Here's Lee Anna doing a tape resist painting project. They all three did one of these, and I love how they turned out!

Sawyer took breaks from drawing and painting to do some building (as I suspected that he would). This creation doubled as a jail for some Lego bad guys, and also as a home for some popsicle stick puppets that were created during the day.

One of the biggest hits of the day was this web site, which has simple tutorial videos for drawing lots of different animals. They all took turns choosing animals to draw, and even Sarah Claire was able to do a lot of them. I predict that they'll be visiting this site lots more in the days to come.

We made a couple batches of play dough, and then used some other props to make play dough people and monsters. 

This guy was one of my contributions.:)

When it was time for lunch, all of our tables were covered with "creating" supplies, so we had a picnic on the floor (eating anywhere can be fun if you call it a "picnic!"). 

Then, after some more creating, we took a smoothie break. We are loving all our fresh fruit this time of year!

Here's the completed gallery from the day. They each filled up a whole shelf (plus some) with their creations! They are all arranged and ready for Daddy to admire when he comes home tomorrow.

Lee Anna's favorite drawing was this koala she's pointing to. I'm not sure I have a favorite--they each made so many fun things! It was a great day of making memories, and we all really enjoyed it! I'm guessing this won't be our last "Be Creative Day."

A Walk Through History

One day this week, we had to make a visit to the embassy to renew Sarah Claire's passport, so we decided that since we were already going to be out and about, we would make a field trip day out of it. When we finished up our embassy appointment, we grabbed a taxi and headed over to a neat historical area of the city.

There's an old market area that has been around since the 1300s that is still very active with all kinds of stuff for sale, so our first stop was at our friend Mustafa's beautiful glasswares shop. I had something in mind for a piece of our bedroom decor, and knew that Mustafa's shop was just the place to find it. His store is full of gorgeous (and cheap!) glasswares, like perfume bottles, drinking glasses, decorative pieces, and tons of Christmas ornaments. With some trepidation, we took all three kids inside the store and let them help me look around for the right pieces. I was pretty nervous the whole time, but we found what we were looking for and made it out of the store without any broken glass!

That was the only shopping I needed to do, so after that we walked through the market area to a street just on the other side of it that dates back even further than the market area. This street was the main street of our city about a thousand years ago, and because it led to the palace, was the site of fabulous parades and processions. The kids had fun picturing the "Prince Ali" parade from Aladdin as we walked down the street.

There are some really impressive old buildings lining the street, so we admired them and heard some neat stories from our tour guide (a.k.a. Daddy) about how they came to be. He may have taken a tour group or ten down this street in the past.

The kids did great, but weren't really up for hours of touring, so after a brief walk down the main street, we turned around and headed back. It was a fun outing, and we ended it with lunch at a place that's a little newer to our ancient city--Auntie Anne's pretzels. We love this city and its crazy mix of old and new!

School Days

Tonight I just have a few random photos to share from some recent school days.

One day the girls decided to surprise me by dressing as "twins." Sarah Claire even wore her pretend glasses so she would look just like her big sis. 

 See, they matched from the back, too!

 Here's Sawyer hard at work on a math assignment...

and Lee Anna doing schoolwork in her favorite spot, "her" desk in the corner of the schoolroom. She has become remarkably independent with her schoolwork, which is wonderful since I've got two others who still need a little more attention and reminding to stay on task!

 Here's my little kindergartener having some letter fun with play dough,

showing off yet another completed workbook (have I mentioned she's flying through most of her KG stuff?), 

and posing for a pic after she surprised Lee Anna by reading this book to her at bedtime!

And I included this last picture because I don't have any others from our favorite part of the school day: Read Aloud Time. When everyone has completed their written work (math, handwriting, lang. arts, etc.), we all meet up on the couch for a snack and some reading together. Apparently, Sarah Claire had my phone with her during Read Aloud Time one day and snapped this picture of her snack. It may not look special to you, but those mini marshmallows are sent with love all the way from America! We can't get them here, so it's a super special treat when we get to have them!

And that's a little peek into our school day. Maybe I'll give Sarah Claire the camera again soon so she can document some more school day fun!

Our Littlest Reader

Since we've been able to get settled into our new home and back into the swing of homeschool, Sarah Claire has been really making huge strides with her reading. It is so much fun to see the new world of words opening up to her as she learns to make sense of them all. She breezed through her kindergarten readers in a matter of weeks (the photo below was her finishing the last one of those), so we've moved on to the first grade set.

I set up a little incentive program for her as she read through the first grade book. For a while, we were having serious drama every morning at breakfast as she lamented the fact that she had a Winnie the Pooh bowl to eat her cereal from. She calmly and rationally explained, frequently through tears, that Winnie the Pooh is not her favorite Winnie the Pooh character, but Piglet is her favorite because he is pink!

We don't have a Piglet bowl (and I'm not even sure there is such a thing!), so I finally told her that when she completed the entire I Can Read It book, she could go to the store with me and pick out a new breakfast bowl to eat from.

She read several stories each day, excitedly marking them off on her chart, as she counted down to "New Bowl Day." And today she finished the book!

She and I made a special trip to the store, where we didn't find a Piglet bowl (surprise, surprise), but we did find a lovely pink princess bowl that even came with its own spoon. She loves it!

So she brought it home and took it for a little test run.

I'm so proud of my little reader!

An Educational Adventure

Last week, we had some special visitors and got to take a fun vacation educational field trip to an area that the kids and I have been learning about all year. Mimi and Papaw joined us at our home for a day, and then we all flew together to Luxor, Egypt, where we could see firsthand some of the temples and monuments that were built during the Ancient Egyptian periods we've been studying since September.

But first, before we began our vaca...er...field trip, the kids had a special concert to present to Mimi and Papaw. We called it the "Twinkling Stars Program," since all three of the kids performed Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in one form or another. Lee Anna played it on her violin (after only 3 lessons-not bad if you ask me!), Sawyer played three variations of it on the piano, and Sarah Claire sang it for them. If you'd like to see the videos, they both have the entire concert recorded on their respective recording devices, and I'm sure they would be more than happy to share it with you!

After a full day of unpacking their suitcases and playing with the goodies they brought us, we headed to the airport and made the trip to Luxor. We decided not to use tour guides at any of the sites we visited, since 3-year-olds typically aren't quite as interested in historical details as tour guides would like them to be. Instead, we had a great time walking around and seeing things for ourselves, recognizing shapes and symbols and statues that we've read about during the year, and trying our hand at being ancient Egyptian statues (can't imagine where they got that idea!).

How did we do?

I took this one (above) because Lee Anna knew that the object behind her is the combined crown representing Upper and Lower Egypt. Imagine how big the original statue was for just the crown to be that huge!

After all those silly poses, we didn't do so well at getting a good regular family shot. But you can see the size of the columns inside the Karnak complex. I promise that is not Sawyer's regular face! (click on the photo to enlarge)

Here we're on the tram getting ready to ride out to the Valley of the Kings. We had to leave our cameras behind once we got out there, so I don't have any pictures of what we saw inside.

Sarah Claire and Mimi did a quick study of the guidebook so they would be prepared.

In addition to all of the historical education we got on our trip, we also got a little lesson in aeronautics! We arranged to do the sunrise hot air balloon ride that flies over many of the ancient sites. It was beautiful and a highlight of our trip.

However, to our great horror, just days after our return, we heard the news that a balloon on the same tour we took had crashed, killing nineteen people. We are so grieved at the tragic accident and have very heavy hearts for those who lost loved ones or were in any way involved with the crash.

By God's grace, our trip five days earlier was beautiful and peaceful. Here are some photos that we took while sailing through the sky.

See the balloon's shadow?

There were small holes in the side of the basket--made as steps for climbing in but also perfect for the kids to look out of!

Here we are safely back on the ground at the end of our ride. If only I had known then how grateful we should be! We have been sobered this week by the fresh reminder that we are not promised tomorrow. Every single day is a precious gift for us to enjoy!

While the trip did have its educational moments, we also did a good bit of relaxing. The swimming pools were way too cold for any of the adults to enjoy, but the kids stayed in until their lips were blue! Then they got out only long enough to warm up and jump back in! Our hotel was beautiful, with lots of green grass that was a special treat for us to see (and walk in!), and it even had a small petting zoo with rabbits and donkeys and camels and pelicans. The kids were thrilled with that!

We had a wonderful time and came home refreshed and relaxed and ready to get back to work. Thanks, Mimi and Papaw, for coming to see us and taking us on our educational adventure! It was a treat!

We're Smiling!

Can you guess why we we're all smiling around here?

We are officially finished with our 2011-12 school year! Second grade and kindergarten are in the bag for these two. Today was our official last day. We've been winding down for the last few weeks, but today we really finished everything up. 

We finished our last two read-alouds--A Little Princess and a wonderful biography of Gladys Aylward. My goodness, that woman had some adventures! We probably could have finished the read-alouds a little sooner if I hadn't had to keep stopping to wipe my eyes and swallow the lump out of my throat. I just love that my kids are being exposed to such wonderful stories--fiction and non-fiction!

We celebrated with a special End-of-the-School-Year lunch, and then a surprise trip to a new little children's museum that just opened near us recently. "Museum" might be a generous term. It's really just one big room, but they had lots of fun, educational activities. First the kids got to go "shopping" in a big fruit and vegetable market, then they had to weigh their food to determine how much it costs. Since they see these kinds of scales used regularly, they loved getting to do it themselves.

When they had finished shopping, they put on doctor's coats and stethoscopes and played doctor with a big skeleton. Then when they finished that, they got to build little cars and towers out of some special building blocks. And all that playing cost just about $5 each. We will definitely be going back there!

And, since this will be my last school-related post for a while, here's Lee Anna's last writing assignment of the year. Her assignment was to write a story about a trip into space. Enjoy!