School this week (concerts!)

I was going to write about homeschool and music school, but I took so long wrestling with this video that it will be all for now. Last night was the music school dance and vocal performance, and the ensemble that Jaan is in took part.

I might be able to post more later. We do have more videos and photos....

A good school week

I can honestly say that almost all of our school weeks are good. Still, I had been feeling off balance for a while. This week just felt better.

Raia finished exactly a week's worth of work--Year 1, Week 17--even though she took a day off on Wednesday. (She was just tired.) Today was one of those fun days where we went on a great rabbit trail, very related to what we were doing. I read one of Aesop's fables to Raia, and she said that she knew it already, so I looked it up in Russian. Her usual Russian reading book now is "Pages from Tolstoi's Alphabet," which includes many of the fables that he translated, but not this one. So, instead of her usual Russian reading, I printed out this one, and she read it. She's still in the beginning of her book, where it's just pictures and sentences, but she handled this reading quite well... and it's more like what is way further on!

Jaan will have finished a week's worth, too, if he comes home from music school in any shape for a little reading... and I think he will. We started Children of the New Forest last week, and he's in love with it already. This is one of the few AO books in the early years that I hadn't read before, and I think I'm going to enjoy it as much as he is.


By the way, I was quite proud of us, because Jaan and I did his music school homework without an internet connection and without any tears, and I even understood it! Memorizing all those intervals really did help with something.


And a note on why Raia already knew her fable: preschoolers in our family listen to audio books almost every day during quiet time. For a while, some of that was Krylov and Tolstoi, and apparently it stuck. I know that some organized AO mothers sort out and read the Aesop fables that aren't covered in Year 1 to their preschoolers. I didn't do that, but it's still working out beautifully. They get some in both English and Russian, and some in just one language. Although, both Jaan and Raia do refuse to accept The Ant and The Grasshopper. It's really The Ant and The Dragonfly, of course! (Fun link.)

Preschool

Raia can read!

In the past week, Raia finished reading her primer! Apparently, we "always" have an award ceremony, a crown and ice cream when someone reaches that milestone. So, that's just what we did last night. We made a crown for Raia. Will presented her with a certificate and the next reading book, and she got ice cream for everyone.

Below is my favorite photo from the past week. Bogdan found a teeny, tiny beetle on the windowsill, and of course he was completely fascinated with it.

While I'm at it, I can give a little school update: Jaan finished Term 1 of Year 3! (I didn't say finally finished. I love that we can move at our own pace.) Raia is already part way through Year 1, Term 2. So, for the second half of our week, we've had an unusual exam week. (Brandy wrote a bit about AO exams a few days ago. I agree with everything she said. Also, you might know the person who wrote and compiled the Bible questions. Um, let's say, the person who is in the process of writing the Bible questions.) We've kept on doing a regular school schedule, and Jaan and Raia also record videos of their answers to a question or two each day. It will take us a while to get through the questions like this, but it is working for this time around. They haven't noticed that they're not getting their usual intense and fun exam week, but a question or two a day is nice and easy.

Jaan also had testing at music school. That was about the only time I feel sorry for homeschooled children. He was very nervous, because he had no idea what to expect. He kept asking me what "testing" means. Cruel Papa said that I should have told him it's when they beat the children or something. But he did fine. He survived and afterwards said that it wasn't so bad.

Evolution

No, this isn't really about evolution, as in evolution vs. creation. I just thought the evolution of this post was funny. I started writing last weekend about school. Then left it open and added thoughts about sleep, and then I looked at the photos we had....

I haven't kept up with my "Weekly journal" school posts this calendar year, but maybe I can start again now. Way back in January I thought I would have some time right after (Russian) Christmas to do some mid-year planning and get started again, but everyone was so tired and grumpy that it was actually easier just to jump into school the next day. Strange, but true: school is very calming and centering for this family of ours!

Still, we've been moving along slowly, and it seemed like we were bogging down a little. Math (which both Jaan and Raia love!) was really getting to be a bit of a problem. So, I made one goal for the week, and wrote it up on a sticky note over our table: "20 min. for math!" I set the timer each day, and it worked. No more daydreaming and dawdling. I think we're back on track there.

Special goal for the next week? I think I'll make it reviewing memory work every day. That's something that has been getting skipped lately.

Also, Bogdan has not been sleeping well lately. Ugh. It's one thing to lose sleep with a little baby who mostly just lies around during the day. It's another to get up with him in the nights and then keep up with him (a full-speed toddler!) during the days. Up until now he would have gotten the Best Sleeper Prize for our family. Not anymore.

Photos: around here March 1 counts as the first day of Spring. We had a special tea that day, with...

Butterfly napkins

And butterfly treats

Since this is about random evolution, something funny that Bogdan does: our printer also has a copier function. Bogdan has figured out which button to push to make that go. When he wants to draw, he'll come running up to the printer, crayon in hand, push the button, and wait for the big "paper dispenser" to spit out a piece of paper for him.

Could anyone following my ramblings here? I hope so!

Weeks 8-9 (and 4)

How's that for a confusing title? I've missed a weeks on my school summaries, and Jaan and Raia are working at different points in their separate years.

Raia is finishing up Year 1, Week 9 now. Shakespeare and Russian history are her biggest favorites, after Bible. She mostly just flies happily through everything.

Jaan did Week 4 of Year 3. He has experienced an Advent miracle with handwriting. After several years of just not really getting anywhere with it, now he wants to write pages of words in cursive. That's usually in the evenings, while they draw/write/paste/color in their Advent journals about the names of Jesus.

And the rest will be pictures. Since they're each worth a thousand words, here are 3,000 words for you:

Advent journals

Getting ready to go OUTSIDE

New pets

Week 7

Now that we're starting into the next week, I can need to think back to last week. Raia finished Year 1, Week 7, and Jaan did Year 3, Week 3. He's moving at a pace of about one and a half week's work every week, so maybe they'll be in the same weeks of their respective years soon. That would be nice. The highlight of the past week was Thanksgiving, though, so I'm not coming up with much to write about from school, although there was plenty. They also learned a lot about the Pilgrims and cooking and such, too, of course.

Reading at the Thanksgiving table

This is related to life and learning: Bogdan is by far our latest to potty train. But, at least he washes his own diapers!

Week 6?

I guess this was Week 6 in our school? I've been going by Raia's readings in order to number our weeks, and she's mostly through Year 1, Week 6. Anyway, it felt really good to be back on our (mostly) regular schedule.

Jaan had a very rough week with music school. He loves piano lessons and his piano teacher, but the group classes are just hard for him. I think we've gotten past the current problem, though. Please do pray for him on Thursdays and Fridays still. School at home went great, as usual. Jaan really does enjoy it. Lately he's been begging for extra math pages. I'd like to write more about how I've changed my organization of his daily/weekly work, but not now.

Raia finally figured out subtraction this week. Well, she's been doing it, but with great fear and not much understanding. This week we started doing it with sunflower seeds: "Minus means eat them!" She's also reading better and better. She's not awake to ask, but I think she would say that A Midsummer Night's Dream was the highlight of this week for her.

Asya has been determined to learn English lately, and her attempts are so cute! She's always asking how to say things in English, and then using her new knowledge, so she's going to make lots of fast progress.

Watching the garbage truck

Bogdan is changing a lot, too. He's saying (Mama, Papa, бай-бай, нет, 'ельзя, ляля...) and signing (caterpillar, more) a few new words now. He's obsessed with dolls--but he plays with them like a boy--and markers.

We're still trying to find our rhythm in this new place, but having at least something of our usual routine does help anchor us. We'll continue easing back up to a full schedule again in the week ahead.

Week 5

I have a lot to write about: Lugansk, Julie's visit, youth conference here, and more, but how about I start with school last week. I doubt that I'll get much farther than that, but we can hope, right?

Week 4 was spread out over several weeks, mixed in with traveling and guests.

One Tuesday we settled in to work on Week 5 and find our regular rhythm again. And it was a good week, even if I still feel like we're a little off kilter. A few favorite moments: I read the story of Regulus to Raia. She understood all of it and retold it well, with lots of feeling about how Regulus had to leave his wife and family. Then she told me, "But it's okay, Mama. If it would have been you, we would all have gone back with you, and all would have been well. We would have died together in prison."

Jaan actually drew a picture for one of our readings this week. That is monumental for him, and I loved it. Parables from Nature probably has the distinction of being the most questioned AO book out there, but it's my favorite. My love of it must rub off on my children, because even though it's hard, they don't mind it. It lends itself to drawing, because even if they don't get the deeper ideas, they can imagine the plants and animals. So, Jaan must have gone back to his memories of Pagoo, because he drew wonderful, realistic sea creatures, and he really worked hard on making them just right.

And now it's already time to start Week 6?

Weeks 3-4

School was different the past two weeks, since I was gone for half of that time. We started before I left for Poland. When I went away, I left math pages and audio playlists for Jaan and Raia for their books that are available that way... and they didn't touch them while I was gone.

Then, when I got back on Wednesday, I needed a nap instead of school, so they each listened to what I had left for them then. Raia absolutely amazed me with her narrations from that: she had six different selections to listen to in a row, so I didn't really expect much back from her, but she did beautifully. I was happiest with what she had to tell me about Beauty and the Beast from the Blue Fairy Book. It's almost an hour long! She contrasted and compared it to Аленький цветочек. Oh, and by the time she finished retelling it to me, she thought that she had listened to it in Russian.

Jaan didn't narrate so much, but he and I did have some good discussions after he had listened to his audio books for a while. He was finishing up Pilgrim's Progress, and he made some good connections between what he had heard and real life. He also just about drowned in homework from music school, but with lots of help from Will and some from me, he seems to be caught up there now.

And then, because I didn't write anything about these two cuties, here's a photo of them from our walk in the park today:

Week 2

I almost forgot that I wanted to post about each week of school here.

Week 2 flew by, mostly without any bumps. Again, Raia finished everything (and begged for more); Jaan is still making progress with work from before. My favorite part with Raia was narrating Damon and Pythias with a doll king and two stuffed animals. Jaan is much more a just-the-facts-ma'am kind of student, so Raia's creative bent is something new for me.

Jaan floored me in math by showing that he already has a basic understanding of negative numbers. He was supposed to write a subtraction with the numbers 5, 4, and 9. Just a regular problem; his lesson had nothing to do with anything below zero. He came up with 5-9=-4, and then he showed me a bunch of other similar problems and how he was figuring them.

Bogdan woke up before the end of school one day,
so he got to watch Raia's Ukrainian video with her.

We could all use your prayers on Fridays. They have traditionally been our hardest day of the week with school. First graders in our family just get a nap instead of school on Fridays, but we don't have any at that age now. This year Jaan also has two classes at music school every Friday. One is piano, which isn't a problem, but the other is solfeggio, a long, baffling class with a very unsympathetic teacher. I have noticed progress since last year, but it's still a rough day!

Week 1: Done!

I would really like to post weekly school updates this year. We'll see if I can keep up with that. I can at least write now about our first week. We pretty much follow Ambleside Online as written, so you can see Jaan's and Raia's weekly lists there. Jaan is still finishing up some of Year 2, but he's also starting into Year 3. Raia was able to get through everything I had planned for her; Jaan still has a little to fit in as bed time readings over the weekend or something. Both loved just about everything we did. The only complaints I heard were when I didn't let them do more... and when we got to today. We were all just tired by today.

Jaan and I especially enjoyed starting American Tall Tales. He and I laughed so hard over the first chapter and then talked about it enough at dinner time that Raia and Asya had to know more. So, I found a little book about Paul Bunyan in Russian, and now Jaan's reading that to them.

I had chosen Lermontov as our poet for the first term of Year 3, and today we discovered that one of his poems is a hymn that we sing at church. So, we'll have to make that the Russian hymn we're studying, even though I had a different one planned.

I'm sure there were some other highlights that I wanted to write about, but they've slipped my mind, so that's all for now.