Ancient History and a Lizard

We have been getting back into the swing of things with school.  All subjects are going really well for the most part...all except math.  Math seems to elicit whines and moans and complaints.  I cannot understand it.  It was both Todd's and my favorite subject.  What have we done to have kids dislike it?

We are studying Ancient History this year.  We started off with nomads and how they slowly turned into farmers in the Fertile Crescent.  For one of their projects, the kids had to build a nomadic structure using just pieces of wood and an animal skin covering (red sheet for our purposes...).  We had saved some tree branches for this project, so the boys got to work building and rebuilding and tweaking their dwelling.  They had a good time with it.

After school was done for the day, all three kids went back out to the "fort" and added to it - using duct tape.  There was a steep drop in "authenticity points."  They duct taped the heck out of it until there was no more duct tape to be had.  Unfortunately, we learned the perils of duct tape the following day when they were playing in their fort.  Henry came running inside bawling because there was a lizard trapped on the duct tape and Josiah had tried to rescue it, but had pulled off its tail and it was bleeding.  So, for the next 20-30 minutes I tried to rescue this poor lizard from the duct tape.  All 4 legs were trapped and they were really stuck.  Eventually, he did make it off the tape, but when he ran off he clearly had issues with two of his limbs.  I felt pretty bad for the guy.  We spent the next 20 minutes taking all the duct tape off the fort so we didn't have a repeat incident.

We also read about ancient forms of writing - Hieroglyphics and Cuneiform.  Each child got a piece of clay and was able to carve their names in cuneiform.  They had a lot of fun making them and they turned out better than expected.

We are also studying botany this year.  We have all enjoyed it so far.  We first learned the difference between vascular (plants with tubes) and nonvascular (no tubes) plants.  Moss fits into the nonvascular category.  We went outside and the kids observed the moss, touched it, and wrote about it in their notebooks.

We also did an experiment about how moss soaks up water.  We spilled water on the table (something we are very adept at around here) and put a corner of a paper towel at the edge and watched it soak up the water.  So now every time someone spills around here, which happens to be several times daily, the kids yell, "Moss!" and get a paper towel, put the corner in it and watch it soak up.  With the amount of times they've done that this week, they should remember how moss drinks water for the rest of their lives.

In their free time this week, the boys spent a little time sumo wrestling.  Caroline was their ref.  "1, 2, 3, Sumo!"

The boys also choreographed a play called, "Slap Me."  They walked in the room, tore off their shirts, twisted them up and slapped each other with them.  It was when they tried to rip off their shorts/towels that their show got axed.  I seriously have no idea where they get these ideas.

Todd's cousin Cheryl sent us a whole box of sprinkles, which was a little like Christmas for our Caroline.  The boys immediately claimed the tissue paper and box.  Henry was cutting up the box into squares and wrapping them in tissue paper.  (Someone's getting a cool gift for Christmas.)  Josiah took the tissue paper and tried to make a Halloween costume.  They are suckers for the wrappings.  Meanwhile Caroline wasn't too happy that we didn't make a cake this weekend so that she could try out her sprinkles (or that we wouldn't let her have a bowl of sprinkles as she does at Sweet Tomatoes).

This Saturday, the church where the kids went to VBS was having a movie night with popcorn and candy.  We only had two children that made it to the movie because one child had a lot of incidents and accidents all day long.  The final incident was him kicking his sister in the face because "I didn't see it [her face]."  Really??  It left quite a red mark for a while.  So, we went without said child.  When we got there, Caroline sat front and center.  (Many more joined the audience after this picture.)

As the movie went on, the kids got cold sitting on the concrete floor, so one child sat with me in the chairs and Caroline sat on the carpeted floor in a different area.  The carpeted area had far fewer people and Caroline quickly struck up a friendship with a little girl also named Caroline.  They were chatting the whole time, dancing a bit, sharing food, the whole nine yards.  When we left Caroline said they were best friends.  It'll be a fleeting friendship as we won't go back to that church until next summer, but the fun seemed mutual.

Our church had Promotion Sunday today.  All the kids were able to go up to their new classes.  Caroline was really excited to be in kindergarten.  When we picked her up she said, "It's really different."  Actually, it's really not all that different in what she does, it's much the same just in a different classroom.  Henry was all smiles when we picked him up.  He still had a few friends in his new class, so he was happy.  Josiah was probably happiest of all because now that he's in 4th grade, he no longer needs a security tag.  We don't have to pick him up as long as we have a meeting spot.  We decided that today we would meet at the fish tank after class.  As we're departing at drop-off, Josiah whispers to me, "Can I take the elevator?"  Uh, no.  Glad you asked.  After class it was clear that the fish tank was quite the popular meeting spot as 10-12 other kids were waiting for their parents, too.  Josiah said that he wanted to meet in a different area next week, an area that has chairs because he wants to sit down.  It's tough being in 4th grade.

This week CC begins.  The kids are excited to see their friends again.  There's a lot of talk around here about what their first presentation will be about.  Apparently, "What I Did Over the Summer" isn't exciting enough.  We shall see what they finally choose.