Weekly Report: The baby IS the lesson.

Yes...it's all over. It was a bit of a difficult week. Not all bad, mind you. Weaning Anna definitely dominated the schedule though. I thought I was going to loose my mind until Wednesday night. That night Anna slept for more than 9 hours. The next day we battled a bit in the morning. She cried and cried and threw a fit on the floor. Then stopped, looked up at me and then the sippy cup on the table and back at me. She got up and took the sippy cup, and that was it. Eureka!
Of course, in the midst of all this, I am attending to my other three children. Surprisingly, we were able to accomplish some schooling. Once again, I thought of Dianne Hopkin's article, "The Baby IS the Lesson."

We had fun making paper snow flakes this week for family night and cub scouts. The 3D ones are impressive, I must say. Cocoa listed some good web sites, tips and photos of real snowflakes at the Winter Bazaar. Our pretend paper snowflakes seemed to beckon the real ones and late Friday they fell. This morning we watched in wonder as the HUGE, beautiful, lacy flakes transformed, again, our little block into a winter wonderland. I'm thankful for my warm, humble home and oven that cooks toasty muffins and kettle that pours out bubbling hot chocolate. What a treat to watch the dazzling transformation take place in the comfort of my home and with my wide-eyed children. Of course, they were not content to just watch from behind a window. They were out in the midst of it and as I watched them play in the wonderland, it seemed to me I could have been gazing into heaven. (Can't believe I didn't take any pictures!)

Thanks to our dear friends down in Spanish Fork, Jeremy was able to take Sam, Elise and Claire to see "A Christmas Carol" at the Hale Center Theater today. They all enjoyed it. Jeremy said they all did really well. I was especially pleased that 3 year old Claire was able to sit and enjoy the whole thing. This was her first "show".

Sam studied Russia this week. We have some ancestors from Russia. In addition to a report, he helped me make a Russian dinner: Boiled potatos and Piroshki. (meat pockets) Jeremy and I thought they were good, my kids were not as impressed, but they ate them.

Have you ever wondered why purple is such a royal color, favored by kings and queens? We learn why as we studied the Phoenicians this week in SOTW. To make this beautiful purple dye, they collected snails from the sea and boiled them with salt water and lemon juice for ten days. The boiling snails smelled terrible. A popular insult at the time was, "You stink like a man from Tyre." This process was very expensive and only the very rich could afford it, hence, the purple cloth was termed, "the color of kings." We just thought this was so fascinating and tried making our own purple dye out of boiled blueberry juice. The Phoenicians were also famous for their glass making skills. We tried our hand at imitation glass (melted crayons on wax paper). It was eh, not so exciting to do. The finished product looks nice on my kitchen window, though. And we did find some great books and web sites about glass blowing. It would be fun to try some day. (In a shop with professionals there to help)

Here's what the rest of the work week looked like:

Scripture Study: Through 3 Nephi 2.
We all tried to imagine what it must have felt like to be there. To have been anticipating death and then to look up in the sky and see the bright star. Life. What did that day and a night and a day without darkness mean to them? Not only that they would continue to live in mortality, but forever with Heavenly Father when their earthly probation was finished. The promised Messiah was born, as Samuel and so many others and prophesied. We talked about how those that were righteous had every logical reason to fear. They were going to be put to death! Yet, who was "trembling with fear" so much that they "fell to the earth" when the sign finally did appear? The wicked. When we are doing what we should, we have the Lord on our side and we do not need to fear.

Samuel:

• Saxon 5/4 lesson 40. Facts test. Assessment test. Investigation 4--this was SO long! (Capacity, Decimal Numbers)
  
• Language Arts: Report on "Russia"
  
• Spelling: unavoidably, fortune, followed, frightened, different, turned, known, intend, knew, knit, knead
  
• Memorization:.
  
• Reading: Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Midnight Magic by Avi
  
• Journal writing:good
  
• Science: Making Glass, read books about and searched web sites. Watched glass being blown.
  
• Piano: "Lightly Row"
  
• Art: Snowflakes, "glass"--out of wax.
  
• Composer:Mozart
  
• SOTW: Chapter 15: The Phoenicians
  
• Geography: Europe, Russia
  
• Cub Scouts: Snowflakes, learned about Christmas in Japan and Scandinavia.
  

Elise:

• Saxon 2 lessons 35-38. Facts tests Elise is very good at these. I typed the wrong lessons last week! We learned about measuring, one-inch tiles, more about pairs, identifying tens and ones.
  
• Language Arts:
  
• Spelling: bell, tree, Christmas, present, family, Jesus, happy, star, manger, merry
  
• Reading: Maurice Sendak's "Little Bear" books, plus various Holiday books from the library.
  
• Journal writing: good
  
• Science: see above for glass.
  
• SOTW: see above
• Piano: "My Invention" "March on D-E-F"
  
• Composer: Mozart
• Art: Snowflakes, "glass" blueberry dye painting with blueberry dye macaroni frame.
  
• 50 States Book:
  

Claire: Letter J activities. Lots of being read to. Claire is so good at puzzles. I gave her some more challenging ones this week and she surprised me. Claire has been so gracious to let Anna share her bed with her. Anna was getting out of her bed in the middle of the night earlier this week and climbing into Claire's bed with her (on the other end of the bed). That's where she sleeps now.

Anna: Well, you already know all about Anna's week. She is now very good at saying "cocoa". We had a lot of cocoa this week. She can even say "moh.....cocoa" (more cocoa)

Elise, working on her blueberry dye project.

"Glass ornaments"

Kidding around.

Snowflakes.