Is It Spring Yet?
While ours friends and family in the South are mostly excited about their snow days, up here in New England we're over it. But it keeps coming! Our library day and Goose's piano lesson had to be rescheduled this week. We attempted to embrace it by using an unexpected snow day to re-watch Frozen. (Cue Bug: "I wish I was Elsa, so I could make all the snow suddenly go away!") Her violin teacher, a long-time resident, assured her that spring should be here in just a few weeks.

Library Day
We didn't have story time this week (due to President's Day, not inclement weather, although that happened too). But we came home with a ton of books!

Mostly, they were random fun selections:
Not a Stick
Clementine and Mungo
Iva Dunnit and the Big Wind
Zara's Hats
Zen Ties
Mirandy and Brother Wind
Babar's Museum of Art
Toot & Puddle: Puddle's ABC

A few from familiar, favorite authors:
The Surprise Party
That Is Not a Good Idea!
Olivia Goes to Venice
Leaf Man

A couple of classic fairy tales:
Swan Lake
The Little Snowgirl

A read-aloud poetry anthology:
Poetry by Heart: A Child's Book (we've been reading a few poems every day; the girls have loved finding the rhyming patterns and figuring out the plays on words)

And Bug decided to attempt another chapter book:
The Boxcar Children (So far, she says she likes it alot better than the Magic Treehouse book; according to Bug, the words are harder to read, but they make a lot more sense--a more challenging vocabulary but with traditional grammar and punctuation.)

Three Rs
For math, we're continuing our focus on math facts (addition for the big girls; number recognition for Goose). The big girls also practiced fractions and skip counting, and I introduced Bug to subtraction with two-digit numbers (no borrowing yet). The girls did quite a bit of puzzle-solving this week too. I printed up some 4x4 Sudoku for them (highly popular) and their Puzzle Buzz magazines came in the mail this week (full of mazes, search & find, word searches, complete the picture, etc.)

For reading this week, Monkey read My First Book of Girl Power, Fancy Nancy: Poison Ivy Expert, and The Surprise Party. Bug read My First Book of Girl Power, then she started The Boxcar Children and got about a chapter and a half in. Goose continued her reading lessons, practicing sounding out skills and added the r letter sound this week.

For writing, all the girls dictated journal entries about our trip to New York City, and the big girls worked on their spellling unit, did a few grammar pages (contractions and adjectives), and completed a worksheet about the beginning, middle, and end of a story.

History
For history this week, we read a bit more in the book about the New York Colony (the handover from the Dutch to the English and the colonists' early struggles for independence from England--about one hundred years before the Revolutionary War). We also watched a couple more episodes of Liberty's Kids (they covered "the shot heard round the world" at Lexington and the Green Mountain Boys taking Fort Ticonderoga).

Music Lessons
Bug was REALLY excited to go back to her violin lesson this week, so she could show her teacher what she'd been practicing and add more skills to work on. Her teacher was very pleased with how well she was doing on the rhythm exercises and her positioning and decided let her jump ahead to start learning the fingerings. He gaver her a few more exercises to practice this week and told her that if she mastered those, he could start teaching her to play a real song, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," next week. As goal-driven as Bug is, I have no doubt that she'll do it--her little eyes lit up when he put that challenge on the table!

Seeing STOMP this past weekend in NYC continues to be a real inspiration for Monkey. She added complexity to her experiments in sound and rhythms thoughout the week. She played with the differences in sound in stomping on hardwood vs. carpet vs. linoleum using barefeet vs. socked feet vs. shoed feet vs. hands (and she pulled Goose into her compositions so she could use more sounds than she could physically make at the same time). She also played with tapping on different objects around the house--cabinet doors, doorknobs and handles, stools, tables, etc. and even added some new beatboxing sounds to her repertoire.

Despite the nasty weather, we still managed to get to church twice to let Goose practice on a real piano before her rescheduled lesson on Saturday. She's been practicing on her paper piano some and I frequently catch her practicing wiggling her fingers one at a time and whispering to herself what notes they play. She may only be four and just starting, but she's already developed a preference for playing the baby grand in the sanctuary instead of the electric keyboard in the fellowship hall. She did really well at her lesson this week. In fact, her teacher decided she would be ready for an additional piano book next week. This week she got two new songs to practice.

Swimming
The girls were not looking forward to their swimming lesson with their teacher this week (poor Goose was in tears--"It's cold and boring!"), but they toughed it out and did everything required of them anyway. They all did fantastic for my day in the pool with them, though. Monkey's confidence in the water has sky-rocketed! She's finally swimming on her own, and doesn't even have to be swimming to me--sometimes she swims from the ladder to another wall or to her kickboard (just doggie paddling with her face above the water at this point, but I'll take what I can get). She also successfully floated on her back solo without freaking out. Goose, on the other hand, is fearless! She can't go very far yet, but she's doing an all-out front stroke with her face in the water. This week she even manage to come up for air and keep going. Bug continues working on her front stroke, back stroke, and diving for rings.

The Big Apple!

We decided to enjoy Daddy's long weekend off by heading to New York City! We left when Daddy got off from work and had two full days to explore the city.

On the ferry at Ellis Island

We started off our visit by taking the ferry to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island had a great audio tour for kids, and the girls were fascinated by whole process of interviews, medical, and mental health exams. We got to go up into the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, but the girls were disappointed to find out they were too short to go up into the crown. They did enjoy the little museum exhibit about the process of building her though.

The girls with the original torch

Up close and personal with Lady Liberty!

That afternoon we headed to the Empire State Building.

The view from the top

The wait to go up to the observatory was made easier by the handheld audio/visual devices: the girls watched videos of light shows the Building has done and of the construction of the Building (including original footage), played with interactive virtual tours about the building materials and the art deco influence in its design, and browsed various photo galleries about the building. Once out on the observation deck we saw two weddings happening, and I'm pretty sure I overheard a boyfriend and a photographer scheming a proposal that was about to go down. (This is what happens when you visit on Valentine's Day!) The girls loved the view from the top! We couldn't actually see very far because of the snow, but it was pretty cool to look down on an increasingly white city.

Before heading back to our hotel we visited the 9/11 Memorial. We had explained this event to the girls before. It originally came up when Bug was looking through her skyscraper book over a year ago and said she really wanted to see the Twin Towers in person some day. She did get to see the new World Trade Center, and we got to see the "footprints" of the Towers (reflecting pools) and visit the survivor tree. (Let's be honest though--at this stop the girls had more fun playing in the snow than anything else.)

At the end of the day, the girls were pretty excited about experiencing four different methods of transporation: a car, boats, trains, and feet.

Everybody loves a Lego Hulk!

Day two was another wonderfully full one! We headed to Times Square mid-morning and stood in line (in 0 degree weather according to the CNN marquee!) to get half-price tickets to STOMP for that evening (totally worth it). The entourage proved themselves great little New Englanders! We had them fully bundled up and they hardly complained at all! (Seriously, all you could see was their bright little eyes peeking out from between the top of their scarves and the bottom of their tobbogans.) To warm ourselves up a bit we dashed into the Times Square Toys 'R Us. The girls were most impressed by the indoor ferris wheel and the huge Lego structures (things like a 12 foot tall rendition of the Empire State Building).


We took the afternoon to explore Central Park. It was still crazy cold outside, but at least the girls could run around and keep warm that way. We checked out the Belvedere Castle (sadly the tower was closed), the Bow Bridge, and the Bethesda Terrace (the tile ceiling in there is gorgeous--the girls were very impressed). Along the way, we saw iced over ponds, a flock of ducks ("Why haven't they migrated south?!" the girls asked. "It's cold here!"), and some ice sculptures.

At Belvedere Castle in Central Park

That evening we went to STOMP! We managed to get some of the last available seats, and they happened to be on the very first row! The girls were enthralled, and I think the performers seemed to enjoy having them up there too--the girls got winks, grins, and even a wave throughout the show. Goose particularly enjoyed the audience participation parts (mimicking the clapping patterns), and Monkey was making up her own shuffle and stomp patterns in the subway stations on the way home (and talked about all the things she bangs on at home to make her own music).

We didn't visit any art museums, but we happened across a lot of artwork along the way: the Statue of Liberty herself, art deco in the Empire State Building, ice sculptures, painted tiles, and other statuary in Central Park, subway stations full of mosaics, a series of huge bird statues made of sticks and found materials like plastic shopping bags and caution tape, and a massive green stick figure statue that appears to be running through a courtyard in the East Village.

Thanks to a quiet holiday Monday, we decided to take a detour on the way home and took the girls through the Holland Tunnel and across the Brooklyn Bridge. In the process we managed to pass through four of the five boroughs.

Unhappy Snow Days
Newly discovered quirk of homeschooling: official snow days are a cause for disappointment, not excitement. In fact, the novelty of snow has so worn off for the entourage that a newly fallen blanket of white on Monday morning was met with outraged cries: "It snowed again?!" You see, when we're actually snowed in we do our formal lessons as usual. What we don't get to do is our usual out-and-about activities--in this case library day and children's choir.

Children's choir at least was rescheduled for Wednesday evening, because the kids are singing in church next weekend. Goose and Bug were fantastic during practice and are both excited about sing with the praise band. Monkey was feeling uncooperative, but I'm praying her sisters' enthusiasm with rub off by next Sunday!

Music Lessons
Bug was beyond thrilled to start her violin lessons this week! She arrived having already memorized the parts of her violin and bow and carefully studied the photos of proper positioning. Mr. D was very impressed. They breezed through what he expected to be the entire first lesson in just a few minutes, and by the end of her 30 minute lesson she was several weeks ahead of where he anticipated! He sent her home with a rhythm excercise involving all four strings to practice, and she has practiced it forwards and backwards at varying speeds. She also studied the photos of fingerings and has been experimenting with that as well.

Goose's second piano lesson was a success! She was shy for a minute or two, but she warmed up quickly this time. She added notes A and E, and learned the beginnings of reading music--where all those notes are on the staff and about quarter, half, and dotted half notes. Dr. J sent her home with four short songs to work on. Of course, we don't have a piano at home to practice on yet, and we can't get to the church every day. So, we borrowed an idea from a picture book we read months ago and a made a keyboard out of construction paper for Goose to practice with. She was quite excited with the finished product!

Poor Monkey was feeling extremely left out since we still haven't located a drum teacher. Instead she and I spent some time looking up videos on YouTube: a beginner snare drum warm-up exercise, a snare drum battle between a couple of middle-schoolers, a Navy vs. Army drumline battle, and a soloist with a full drum kit. Then she spent some time with a wooden stool and a couple of pencils experimenting with her own rhythms and practicing keeping a steady rhythm.

Three Rs
The big girls read lots of Fancy Nancy this week; although, I'll confess at this point I don't actually remember who read which books. I also overheard both girls reading other books on their own and to Goose--that's what I'm calling real sucess! Goose didn't add any new letters this week during her reading lessons, but she's been practicing her letter recognition by finding the letters of her piano notes on signs everywhere we go! (At this rate, I think she might fluently read music significantly sooner than she can fluently read books. I've decided I'm ok with that.)

For writing, Monkey and Bug started a new spelling unit, completed several grammar worksheets (about adjectives, verbs, and adverbs), and all three girls composed stories using the story cards. As part of the story cards exercise, we also talked about how stories have a beginning, middle, and end and practiced identifying those sections in stories they're familiar with.

The big girls continued doing timed drills for math, and even Monkey did a few of the +4, 5, 6 pages. Bug is intent on beating her own time for the harder drills. For Monkey focus and efficiency are still an issue: This week I collected one of her drills to discover she'd taken the time to draw cute little smiley faces in many of the numbers and even turned a 3 into a fire-breathing dragon. It took her forever, but her math was flawless. (Cue Bug: "You're not going to get faster, when you do that.") They also practiced subtraction, fractions, and place value. Goose continues to practice counting and number recognition.

History
We did begin reading a book about colonial New York, but most of what I'd consider our history readings for this week were much more recent than the Revolutionary War. We also read about the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Empire State Building as preparation for our trip to NYC over the long weekend. That trip deserves its own write-up--hopefully to be posted very soon.

New Room!
They don't actually have a new room, but they've officially made this one theirs. I had an idea a few weeks ago that it might help the girls gain a sense of home if we let them decorate their room. Since then we've been on the lookout for materials that reflect the girls interests, and this week we finally put it all together and brightened up the room! Using two calendars and a stack of used coffee table books from the library bookstore, we created posters of the Ninja Turtles, famous architectural landmarks (think Coloseum, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, etc.), Impressionist art, contemporary art, ancient art, and Medieval church art/architecture. (If anyone runs across cheap calendars/posters of the Avengers or the Justice League, let me know. The girls were disappointed not to find any). Of course, during the several hours it took to cut, tape, hang, etc., we talked all about the places and artists we were featuring on their walls. The girls, Monkey in particular, clearly have their favorite artists: They can now identify, based on style, paintings by Degas, Monet, Picasso, and Pollock. We ran across examples of art in several books at the library where they excitedly demonstrated that ability. We also looked up examples of art by the four artists the Ninja Turtles are named after.

Library Day
We were snowed in on our usual library day, so we squeezed in a visit on a busy day later in the week (we decided not to risk getting snowed again next week--it's a real possibility). We discovered a disappointing number of random grown ups hanging out in the kids section and using the computers, so I think we'll try to stick to mornings from now on. Of course, this didn't stop us from gathering our usual large stack of books to take home!
Fancy Nancy, Aspiring Artist
Olivia
Eloise (the girls noted that Olivia and Eloise are alot alike--they both wear people out!)
Walter the Baker
How Do You Wokka-wokka? (a familiar favorite--our copy is packed away in storage)
The Dot
Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the Southwest
A Big Guy Took My Ball! (An Elephant and Piggie Book, and Monkey's personal check out)
Cinderella (an expanded version that takes place in Venice; Bug was thrilled to find a book that took place in one of the cities featured in her poster)

Guess where we're going to visit next?
Liberty
The Statue of Liberty
The New York Colony
Empire State Building

Three Rs
For math this week, Goose continues to practice number recognition up to 20 and she's been practicing counting as high as she possibly can with a few prompts (for the record, counting to 100 will keep a 4 year old occupied for a very long time). Monkey and Bug continued working on drills, and Bug has stepped up to doing timed drills for adding 4, 5, and 6 to single digits. They both also practiced skip counting, subtraction, fractions, and counting money.

Monkey and Bug had been getting bored with spelling and the words just weren't sticking with them very well, so I took advantage of a new feature on one of my favorite educational websites to create some fun worksheets for them. Thanks to Education.com this week's spelling unit involved a word search, crossword puzzle, word scramble, and fill-in-the-blank activity. The girls also did some grammar worksheets about singular and plural nouns, capitalization of proper nouns, and subject-verb agreement with being verbs.

For reading this week, Goose added another new letter: T. She's been doing really well with the rhyming and sounding out activities. This week Monkey read A Big Guy Took My Ball and Fancy Nancy, Aspiring Artist. Bug read a little more of the Magic Treehouse book, but decided she wasn't really ready for it yet (the author used a lot of unconventional punctuation and it's really throwing this early reader off her groove). She finished the week reading Bread and Jam for Frances instead. Both girls do quite a bit of reading on their own too.

History
I forgot to mention last week, but the girls had the opportunity to view some really impressive models of Revolutionary War-era ships (six-foot-long models with accurate rigging and lots of tiny cannons--very cool).

This week we read a well-illustrated chapter book about the lost colony of Roanoke. After learning so much about the Revolutionary War recently, the girls were interested to hear about the challenges of the very earliest English colonies and how it all got started. Of course, the ongoing mystery and theories about the colonists disappearance are also fascinating!

Just Keep Swimming
Swimming lessons were a better experience this week (we missed the last week or two thanks to snow). I was able to speak with Bug's teacher before class about what she's actually capable of, and Miss K challenged her a little more this week. Monkey and Goose had the teacher to themselves this week, and she also stepped up her expectations this week: They both had the opportunity to do a few front strokes solo!

I also got in the pool with the girls an additional day this week, and they are all making progress. Bug in particular appreciates this time to work on the skills she knows she needs to keep up with her peers in her Penguin class in California (treading water, diving for rings, front stroke, back stroke, streamline gliding, side breathing). In particular this week, she was determined to get a ring off the bottom of the shallow end (3 feet deep). She finally managed it by having me stand close to where she dropped the ring, so she could hold unto my leg to keep herself underwater. Monkey and I worked on her ability/willingness to keep her face underwater for more than a split second (she's up to 5 seconds now!) and on floating on her back instead of panicking when I let go (she's now willing for me to go hands-free if she has her head resting on my shoulder). I didn't work on anything in particular with Goose this week, but thanks to a floaty the lifeguard calls a "froggy," she happily swam laps doing the front stroke and back stroke. Her favorite activity is playing fetch with herself with a rubber ducky Bug found in the bin of diving rings. Good times.

We're Getting Musical!
The girls have long expressed some musical interests, and we decided that our temporary stay here would be a good time for a trial run with an obvious "You have to stick it out until . . . " point if it doesn't prove to be a long-term interest.

This week, Goose started piano lessons with Dr. J, a lovely senior citizen with a fantastic basement studio (it includes two baby grand pianos, a harpsichord, and a 1920's Victrola he rebuilt himself, as well as a couch for mom and siblings to wait in comfort). They started off listening to a song on the Victrola and a short piece he played on the harpsichord. Goose was clearly enthralled, although she became suddenly teary and hesitant when it came time to actually sit down at the piano and interact with Dr. J. She was obviously paying attention though: later that day when I asked if she remembered what he taught her, she didn't hesitate to explain that she learned about middle C (to play with her thumbs), D (to play with her right index finger), and B (to play with her left index finger). She even used the edge of the kitchen table to demonstrate the pattern he taught her to play with those three notes. On Sunday we took advantage of one of several keyboards at church to practice on something other than the kitchen table, and she spent some extra time softly plunking out her own tune with notes she "doesn't know the names of yet."

Bug doesn't start violin lessons until next week, but we acquired her rental violin this week. She is SO excited. She already has the names of the parts of her violin memorized, and she spent some time poring over the pictures of kids in proper postures for playing. Fortunately, we've prepped for the fact that this is not the easiest instrument to play, and she definitely seems up for the challenge.

Unfortunately, we're having some trouble getting Monkey started: She's been interested in drums for several years already, but now that she's reached a maturity level that we think would handle formal lessons, we can't seem to find a snare drum teacher in our area. I'm currently in the market for decent lessons on DVD to at least get her started.

The Breakers
Bug recently asked the definition of "mansion," and "really big, fancy house" didn't seem to satisfy her as an answer. This weekend we got to show her and her sisters a classic Gilded Age example, and I think they were duly impressed! The Breakers had a great family audio tour that even kept Goose interested. We were a bit disappointed that the tour didn't include a behind the scenes peek at the servants quarters on the top floor, but the girls seemed fascinated by that aspect of the household, and the ride home involved answering questions like: What did the servants do? Why did the Vanderbilts hire them? Does anybody have servants today? Would our family have servants if we lived back then?

Fire Safety
Thanks to some extra materials handed down from a home schooling friend here, the girls did a little fire safety lesson. I wasn't really involved. The big girls explained "stop, drop, and roll" to Goose and read a rhyme about it. They talked about calling 9-1-1 for emergencies, and figured out the project that came with it. They each had a bag of construction paper cutouts and together they figured out that it was pieces of a fire truck.

(I've no idea why the photo won't post right side up.)