More Thanksgiving pictures

Will took so many photos, that I have to share more of them. Thanksgiving preparations started the night before, with...

Jaan making cranberry sauce

...and the girls making hats.

Asya and Bogdan made the centerpiece. 

Cute pilgrims

...and indians

Ready for the feast

Bogdan liked all the food, but especially the pie!

We have so much to be thankful for!

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!

Advent plans

I am going back through old blog posts, remembering and getting ready for my beloved time of year.

I have alternated between New Testament and Old Testament (Jesse Tree) focus. This year is New Testament, but I don't want to do the same preschool list I have in the past. Bogdan's still too young for it, and the others might not be too old, but they're old enough to move on. (I think I'll ask them to arrange it for Bogdan in 2014.) So, instead we are going to study the names of Jesus. We'll probably mostly just light candles and read the verse associated with the link on the chain for that day, although some of the ideas at the linked list might work for us. Maybe I'll let them each make their own chain, like this and this? That would cut out nightly arguments about who gets to remove a link.

We'll also have Advent wreath and poem or song and weekly themes, like last year. I think I'll get them each an Advent "journals" to copy or draw or paste something into each night. That's sounds grown-up, and even if it's not right up Jaan's alley, the girls will love it.

2010

And now I'm humming Адвент наступает....


(Edited to add this link: ornaments that go with the names of Jesus, to use if we do this again another year.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

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.

We're here

I keep wanting to write, but I just never get to sit down at the computer. At least not without my squirmy toddler and with my brain still attached.

This has been a rough move: emotionally, because we weren't ready for it, and logistically, because this apartment was just not ready to be lived in. After a full week, we're pretty much set up, though. We're definitely not unpacked, but we're not really planning to completely unpack. However, we now have working water and electricity, and that is very good. Will has worked non-stop to get us to this point.

Thank you so much for all your prayers! Please keep on holding us up here. I'll try to write more... if I can find the box where my poor brain is.