Wednesday, November 29, 2006

-The girls played with the nativity set, acting out the story of the nativity many times over using the ceramic figurines.
-We talked about the meanings of the words "popular", "including" and "eject".
-Read the story of the annunciation to the girls and looked at pictures painted by master artists depicting the annunciation.
-Sang Christmas songs that mention angels. Astrid especially liked "The Angel Gabriel" which was very fitting.
-I dug up a blank tape and we recorded ourselves singing "The Angel Gabriel" and "The First Noel". The girls recorded themselves saying various tongue twisters and rhymes and singing songs.
-They continued to play with the nativity set for a very big chunk of time.
-They helped me make pancakes for lunch.
-Baked oatmeal cookies.
-The girls danced and sang along as I played piano.
-They played with their little swan figurines.
-Elizabeth came over to babysit the girls and AJ while Jason, Gerald, Annette and I went to see a movie.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

I'm getting all behind again. Don't know if I'll be able to keep this up, although I hope to. I'm still going to try!

On Saturday we went to see a musical production called "Cinderella" which Astrid was enthralled by. The next time we see a play, she told me, she wants to be on the stage though, rather than in the audience. This does not surprise me. Perhaps we'll look into getting her involved in some sort of theatre group at some point.

We've also been spending a lot of time making our Christmas presents. This has been very enjoyable for all of us.

On to Today:
-Drove Jason to work. Did the grocery shopping. Drove to every fabric store in Kingston looking for cotton jersey that could pass as some sort of skin colour (tan, peach, brown, anything). That mission proved unsuccessful. I'd like to make some dolls as part of our home made gift extravaganza, but not particularly ones with blue or grey skin.
-The girls helped make pasta and beans for lunch.
-This afternoon we got out our Christmas decorations, which Astrid has been asking repeatedly to do for the last week or more. The girls set up the nativity set and chose where to place other decorations. We sorted all of our Christmas tree ornaments into different boxes depending on who they belong to.
-Swimming lessons. The girls wore their goggles tonight, but Astrid still would not put her whole face in the water. Muirgen did!! Astrid is making progress in this department though. Last week she stood right under the shower after swimming and let some of the water get in her face. This is a big step for her. It seems the girls have inherited Jason's extreme discomfort with water, particularly in their eyes.
-Astrid talked to her Oma on the phone, filling her in on all we've been up to lately.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

-PEG.
-The girls played together with the cranium game. Astrid made up a code for each letter of the alphabet and did a couple of the other activities. Muirgen spent most of the time drawing on her face with the marker and just watching Astrid.
-I read the girls a big stack of story books while I was knitting.
-We talked about how bees communicate with eachother and how they make buzzing noises. The girls found it very fascinating and somewhat hard to believe that they don't communicate by buzzing, but by dancing.
-Muirgen had a nap (she's sick) while Astrid helped me make stuffed mushrooms, scrambled eggs and salad for supper. Astrid is at the place now where she's generally more of a help than a hindrance when she joins me in my activities. The years of encouraging her to "help" before her helping was all that helpful are paying off. Tonight she crumbled the bread for the mushroom stuffing and chopped all the veggies for the salad while I got the other things ready.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

-Shopped for groceries and some supplies for the Christmas gifts we plan to make ourselves.
-Got started making some gifts. (I'll post about them after Christmas - don't want to give away any surprises!)
-Swimming lessons.
-Jason read Astrid a story from the Princes and Princesses book.
-Astrid told me all about how she used to be an evil woman, but one day she found some ducks and began helping them and, by doing so, turned into a very good woman. She had a beautiful ring which she showed to everyone she met, including some princes and princesses. She asked each of the princes if they wanted to marry her and the princesses if they wanted to be her best friend. They all did because she was such a nice person and the didn't know she used to be evil. So she chose a prince to marry, thereby becoming a princess with secret powers. She told no one about these powers except for her mother and her husband. Tomorrow, she told me, she is going to have a baby. She is going to just come home and push out the baby in one push without having to take off her clothes because that is how her births always go. I asked her how she could accomplish this. She said it's because of her secret powers. There won't even be a hole in her clothes from the baby passing through them! This story was based on something she had acted out by herself earlier in the day. It was quite entertaining to hear about!

Monday, November 20, 2006

-Walked downtown to do some Christmas shopping.
-Talked about the meaning of the term 'Fair Trade' - what it means, why we try to buy fair trade products whenever we can, etc.
-Wrapped the gifts we bought. Astrid wrote the names on the labels.
-Jul was over for the afternoon. Gerald and AJ stopped in for a little visit as well.
-I found Astrid sounding out the words in a simple board book. She was struggling with some of them, but didn't ask for help, so I left her to it.
-Read 'Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever' and a story from the Princes and Princesses book at bedtime.

Friday, November 17, 2006

-Jul and Clover were over for most of the day. The kids spent the morning playing 'Pirates of the Caribou' - their latest favourite imaginary adventure. In the afternoon they watched a movie from the library about making fairy houses. When it was over, Astrid and Jul drew up plans for their own fairy houses and then went outside and made them in the back yard using tree branches, pine boughs, rocks and other things they could find.
-Astrid watched me doing embroidery and told me she'd like to soon learn how to do it herself.
-Read a story from the Princes and Princesses book.
-Read 'Beauty and the Beast' (not the Disney version) at bedtime.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

-I developed a stomach flu last night, so the girls played downstairs by themselves while I slept in til 12:15. I don't know what all they did, but at least some of it involved play dough.
-We read three or four stories from the Princes and Princesses book.
-The girls played with the train track and various other things.
-I went to bed really early. Jason got the girls to bed and read them a bunch of stories.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

-Worked on memory passage. Astrid recited all the passages she already knows. She decided to teach Muirgen the 23rd Psalm, asking her to repeat each line after her. Much to her frustration (and my surprise) rather than repeating the lines, Muirgen would go on to complete them. I had no idea she knew so much of Psalm 23 already. She seems to have no need to showcase her knowledge, but picks up much more than I realize just from being around while Astrid works on things.
-Girls played with paper dolls.
-Astrid went through our collection of story books and found all the ones that have bears as characters. We read a few of them and then she counted how many bears there were of each colour. I showed her how to make a bar graph showing the results.
-Muirgen played library. She was the librarian.
-Astrid played with some wooden 3D puzzles.
-Girls helped me make tomato and lentil soup.
-Muirgen helped me hang laundry.
-Astrid completed the last 6 pages in her math workbook.
-She drew a picture of baby Jesus in the manger, a horse, the star of Bethlehem and a dove.
-Walked over to Jordin's to take her supper (the soup we made). We stayed and the kids played dominoes and "Pirates of the Caribou" for about 45 mins.
-Astrid showed Jason the graph she made and they discussed it in detail.
-Read a story out of our new library book 'Tales of Princes and Princesses'.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

-Astrid played with her set of wooden geometric shapes.
-The girls played with paper dolls, Ello (plastic building system), train set, block towers, etc.
-They helped me bake cinnamon rolls.
-Astrid listened to a story on tape. Followed along in the book.
-Read a couple stories to the girls.
-Had a conversation about why leaves need to fall off trees in our climate.
-Swimming lessons.
-Jason brought a large isocehedron home from work, which Astrid examined and discussed with him.

-I didn't post yesterday, but it was the municipal election, so the girls came with me to vote. We talked about why we vote, the difference between municipal, provincial and federal government, why I voted for the condidates I did, etc.
-We went bowling with our friends, the Peters,.

Thursday, November 9, 2006

-PEG. The girls reported that the topic of the day was 'Food'. They read 'The Hungry Caterpillar', made pictures of caterpillars, sang some silly action songs, etc.
-Went over to Jordin's for lunch. Stayed til it was time to come home and make supper.
-Read the last chapter of 'The Trumpet of the Swan'.

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

-Astrid coloured pictures in a colouring book.
-Muirgen built a highway out of blocks for her little cars and trucks to drive on.
-Astrid put on 'Peter and the Wolf' - a CD where each character in the story is played by a different instrument in the orchestra - and danced, acted out and played tambourine along with it.
-The girls built a bus out of chairs which they filled with dolls and themselves.
-They helped me hang laundry.
-We baked honey harvest muffins.
-Astrid wrote in the discovery of King Tut's tomb on her timeline and drew a picture of King Tut as he looked in his mummy wrappings and death mask.
-We talked about the differences between how the Incas and the ancient Egyptians prepared and buried their dead. Discussed which way we thought was better. (We both prefer the Inca's method).
-Read a story book to the girls.
-Read a bit of an introduction to sound and light. Discussed what sound and light actually are. Did a couple little experiments to help us understand how sound vibrations and shock waves work. 1. We folded papers in such a way that when we brought them down quickly through the air from above our heads, the sound of them unfolding made a "bang" to demonstrate how a shock wave works. 2. Felt sound vibrations made by our voices by touching our throats and also by singing into a plastic bottle. 3. Tied a spoon to a string. Banged it against the metal table leg and compared the way it sounded when the finger with the other end of the string tied to it was placed in our ear compared to when it wasn't. Talked about how the sound is not as loud and clear when it travels through air compared to when it travels through a solid object (in this case, the string) right into our ear.
-Astrid chopped up the veggies that we put in our Pad Thai for supper.
-Read two chapters of 'Trumpet of the Swan'.

Monday, November 6, 2006

(Oops! I've been neglecting my posts here lately. I've never been very good at things I need to do every single day. Let's see if I can get back on track).

-Drove Jason to work. Picked up some socks for the girls (which they were both in need of) at Zellers and then did our grocery shopping. Astrid wrote out her list in the car as we drove Jase to work. It included broccoli, tomatoes, beans and milk.
-Went to the midwives'. In my MW's office is a basket of stuff for kids to play with. It contains a blood pressure cuff, a stethoscope, latex gloves, a pinnard, a tape measure and a few other things. The girls pretended Muirgen was pregnant and Astrid examined her as the MW was examining me. She took very accurate measurements of Muirgen's belly, which was quite enlarged due to the "baby" stuffed up under her shirt.
-Muirgen built trains out of blocks and played with her little cars and trucks.
-On Nov. 4, 1922, archaeologists uncovered the tomb of King Tut in Egypt. Astrid and I read about King Tut and his tomb in our children's encyclopedia and looked for Egypt on the map. On the internet, we looked at photographs of things uncovered in the tomb and pictures taken during the excavation. We found a site that has a virtual tour of the tomb, which Astrid LOVED. She spent a long time looking at the different rooms that made up the tomb. When we picked up Jason from work, she told him all about it.
-Read two chapters of 'Trumpet of the Swan'. Had a long conversation about many of the things we've read in the book. She was particularly interested in why someone would clip a bird's wings, how this prevents them from flying etc. We talked about why people keep animals in captivity and the benefits/risks of captivity vs. freedom for animals as well as for ourselves, imagining what it would be like to be confined to our own property for the rest of our lives.