Learning By The Way

Samuel thought up a contest, and appointed me the judge. Everyone was to design an island. Here are three of them.

Elsie made Mask Island (the head shaped one), and due to the two hotels, received the certificate of Best Planning for Tourism.

Toby designed Pirate Island, and got the award for Best Geographic Place names. His monikers included:
The HoHa Ocean
Sinking Sands
Mount Ghost
Mount Skull
The Swamp of Ghosts
The Woods of Death
Lake Tata

Samuel made Cookie Island and was awarded the certificate for Best Use of Desserts in Island Design. (Check out pink, bubbly Soda Ocean, below).

Moriah’s entry (not pictured) got the award for Cutest Island Shape (ahhh, it’s a bunny rabbit!). Peter’s (also not pictured) got the award for Most Interesting Use of X’s and squares. I am supposed to be choosing a grand prize winner, but so far I am stymied.

So much for life returning to normal. Moriah has been sick for a week with an illness that I assumed at first was allergies. As the coughing and congestion increased, and she started a low grade fever, I thought it was the flu. But when I found out that she had been exposed to whooping cough, I realized that she has it. I think all of the children have whooping cough (pertussis), but don’t have the classic symptoms she has.

They have been coping well with the sickness, and have maintained their workbook pages and reading throughout the crazy last week. Since they couldn’t go to the library, I went and picked out extra books for them. I got some DVD’s , too. They have watched two of them- one an IMAX presentation on dolphins, and the other on pirates. There has been a renewed interest in dolphins in our house since Peter got a dolphin toothbrush. The DVD was very good, and had some fascinating dolphin facts.

The saddest thing about them getting sick is that they likely will not be taking fencing and ballet classes. Ah, well, there is always next semester, if they don’t recover soon enough.

Samuel drew this picture, imagining a place with only straight lines and right angles.

Moriah has been having a telephone Bible study every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She calls my mother (her Grandnumer) and they spend some time together in God’s Word. It has been wonderful. They are doing a topical study about trees, and how they are used as a picture of various things in the Bible. At least, that is what I have been able to gather. For the first time, I am in the position of trying to ascertain what Moriah is studying.
“How was your Bible study, Moriah?” I query.
“Nice.”
“What did you talk about?”
“A verse.”

Elsie asked if she could have a study with grandma, too, so she started her own study after Moriah’s yesterday. She is very excited about it.

Elsie was prescribed her eye patching regimen over a month ago, and I hadn’t gotten everything together do it. But she started yesterday. She has to be patched for 2 hours every day, and one of those hours she needs to spend doing close work. Yesterday, I read to her from Happy Birthday, Molly. It is an American Girl book that she got from the library. She did a little coloring, and spent some time knitting with Aunt Raquel. Then hurrah! she got to take the patch off. One day down, an indeterminate vast number to go.

These pictures were both drawn by Peter within the last week. The scary-beyond belief-snake-haired-being gave me quite a start when I looked over his shoulder. “Who is that?” I asked.
Peter pauses “Ummm..I don’t know.”
“It’s not me, is it?”
Peter giggles. “NO, Mama!”
I am relieved.

I added his pink ballerina picture for good measure, so that you can experience the amazing breadth of his repetoire. And so you don’t think that he is unbalanced.

Last Wednesday, our day took an abrupt turn into the unknown. I had plans. We were going to start research for the children’s project to enter in a Lego/National Trust for Historic Preservation contest, and we needed to buy a present and drop Moriah off at birthday party. I did drop Moriah off at the party with gift in hand, but I did so with 3 Ben-Ezra boys in the car. Aunt Crystal went into labor, and we watched the boys until Friday evening. All our plans were scrapped, and instead our household was sucked into the swirling baby vortex. I discussed labor, analyzed every scrap of labor information which was available, pontificated upon birth, ranted about babies, and threw in some commentary and predictions for good measure. Thankfully, Crystal had her baby, and we are now returning to our regularly scheduled life. Justice Daniel was born 12:32 Friday morning into the hands of his loving family, and there was much rejoicing.

Moriah got to go to the Emerald Tea Room for the birthday party, and had a lovely time with her friends. Our boys got to have their close friends over for a sleepover (for two nights!), and had a lovely time. And of course, the baby was born (did I mention that?) Life is beautiful, God is good.

Just to round up the rest of the day:

Elsie, Moriah, and Peter worked with Aunt Raquel on their Poetry night selection.

Aunt Raquel has been teaching Elsie to knit, and they worked together again today. She started out with Aunt Raquel’s hands over hers, but the last report is that she can do everything but pull the stitch through by herself. Moriah and Samuel are now begging to learn.

We read the next chapter in Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, while enjoying a really excellent berry smoothie.

Samuel wants to start his own Summer Challenge tomorrow.

Toby has succumbed to the same Summer Challenge that Moriah is doing, and has been granted the same prize if he completes it (a book from the Pekin Library book sale room). He did the first page today, which included addition and subtraction, alliteration, and reading comprehension. He needs to read 30 minutes every day, as well.

Samuel and Moriah chose simple pages this morning (they both had books they couldn’t wait to get into). Moriah did rounding, Samuel did multiplication tables. Samuel finished reading the Andolite Chronicles, a library book. Moriah read Two Minute Mysteries, by Donald Sobol. She also started a boxcar children book, Mystery at the Ballpark.

Elsie and Peter have been really enjoying their library books. They have been checking out all the Angelina Ballerina and Miss Spider books they can find. This week Peter chose Miss Spider’s ABC, so he has had some phonics reinforcement when we read it together.

After lunch, I gave Samuel the task of cutting down the tree that tries to grow every year between our backyard sidewalk and the garage. His eyes lit up at the thought of being entrusted with such a satisfying job involving a sharp implement. Toby begged to help, and when I discovered that we have TWO limb saws, I assigned him a different upstart under the deck. They both completed their assignments without loss of blood, and were quite pleased with themselves. Moriah dug up some garlic that had sprouted up in our compost pile, and did some weeding.