Home School June Week 1

I have been very surprised with how exciting and enjoyable home school has been this first week since summer break has begun. Ella has been motivated and interested and I think it's been quite helpful that I prepared my topics and materials well ahead of time.

Our themes this week were colors and weather.  We had daily math, reading/sight words, ESOL, twice a day weather checks, and day of the week. Ella pretty much knew the days of the week already, so this was just to reinforce the concept.  Our book was Weather Words and What They Mean.  Ella enjoyed some sequential processing games on the computer, used an online beginning reader program, and watched a few videos about weather. Among other things, at the end of this week, Ella is able to read 20 sight words, name the primary colors, say hello in two new languages other than English and Armenian, and spell our last name.

Our sight word kitchen cabinet wall.
Twenty of those words came off
at the end of the week
and nine new ones went up.

Ella also got her very own library card and signed up for our library's All Star Summer Reading program where she can earn prizes for reading a certain number of books.  This week we read The Tooth Fairy Tells All and Brown Bear, Brown Bear along with the above mentioned book.  Ella's teacher sent home a very nice Summer Reading Journal, so we have been writing book reviews as well.

Emilia worked on reviewing letters, painting, standing on one foot, listening to books (Brown Bear), and inset puzzles.  Her expressive language has made leaps in the last six weeks or so and we now hear her using some adjectives as comparatives and more consistent plurals of nouns.  This week she surprised us with sentences like, "Look, two cars, a green one and a red car", "Ella's sleeping!" (screamed toward us from the van's third row where the girls reside while we're driving), and "I want cut knife. No, don't touch."

To show off our efforts, we taped everything we worked on this week to the dining room wall and took a photo to remember it.

And lest you think it's been all work around here, we've had fun, too, visiting the zoo, camping with extended family, having dinner with our cousins, and swimming at home.

Relaxing in the cuddle swing
that hangs in our front room

Field Day

A couple of weeks ago, Rex and Ella had school field trips on the same day.  Ella's class went on a farm adventure.  She was close to losing her mind with excitement.  Rex's class headed to the zoo.  Craig, Emilia and I accompanied him and his friends there.

Ella's picnic lunch:
she's so easy to feed

At the farm, Ella saw, touched and learned about multiple farm animals.  She was brave and milked a goat, brushed a pony, and held a chicken.

Meanwhile, Rex and Emilia had a blast at the zoo.  Rex has improved so much in his ability to walk when held by the hand and stay with an adult.  His favorite thing at the zoo is the carousel.

After the school field trips, we decided to take a family field day to Coney Island where we all had so much fun with the rides for about three hours.

Harvest Coop

For years and years I have wanted to join a farming coop that would deliver or allow me to pick up (close to our home) fresh local produce.  Unfortunately, in any of the previous locations we have lived this was not an option.  Therefore, imagine my excitement when I found out a few months ago that a coop delivers weekly boxes at the office of Rex's cranio-sacral therapist, seven minutes from our house. I immediately signed up for a medium weekly box at $20 and yesterday we received our first one.

We got four kinds of leafy greens, radishes, green onions, beets and turnips.  I will roast the beets and turnips and we'll eat the radishes in salad along with the lettuces.  I might try my hand at making kale chips... time permitting.  The green onions are a favorite for Ella and me and there's no shortage of uses.  I am pleased with what came in this week's box and can't wait for the next one.

Summer's Taking Shape

We are only four days away from the start of summer break, so it's been fun to make plans for those glorious laid-back months.

My mom is here with us for the entire month of June.  We have some fun stuff lined up for the month, including camping and the Bulgarian Adoption Reunion.  We are also hoping that Oma can help us get the 2015/16 fall and winter wardrobe into shape by making adjustments and repairs.  The girls are over the moon excited to have their Oma here.  During June, I plan to do daily academic work with both Ella and Emilia.  She will focus on reading, writing, math and building vocab and Emilia will review her current knowledge of letters, numbers, shapes as well as continue to tackle basic math concepts (see Ella's home school schedule below).

In July, Ella will be attending summer school for four weeks.  She will go to class for four hours each morning and get instruction in math and reading.  We think this will give her a great academic boost for first grade.  For that month, we'll be hanging around at home and enjoying the entertainment offered by our backyard: swimming, swinging, climbing, sliding, running, riding tricycles, jumping on the trampoline, looking at bugs and rocks and leaves... no shortage of things to do.

The first half of August will be true time off for the girls and me.  Craig and Rex will also step away from work and therapies for several days, so we can all kick back together.  We're already looking forward to this special time as a family before school starts again in mid-August.

ELLA'S JUNE HOME SCHOOL

Daily: sight words, math with manipulatives, one ESOL worksheet, weather check, day of the week

Week 1 Theme: COLORS & WEATHER

1)      Daily weather check and chart

2)      Weather terminology

3)      Primary and secondary colors (hands on mixing activity)

4)      Water color activities with weather imagery (rainbow, rain and umbrella, sunset, snow covered trees, etc.)

5)      What’s in the weather today in …?

Books: Weather Words and What They Mean

Week 2 Theme: SEASONS & MONTHS

1)      The months of the year

2)      What happens in each month of the year (cut, glue, draw, write one page per month)

3)      Seasons and what they are like

4)      Which month is in which season

5)      What do you wear in winter, what in summer summer

Books: Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever, Four Seasons Make A Year

Music: Super Simple Songs Month Chant, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPeAo1hz8GA

Theme 3: OUR STREET, OUR TOWN

1)      Explore our street on foot with targeted worksheets

2)      Create map of Ella’s room, our property and our street

3)      What makes a town

4)      Create a town from blocks and other materials

Books: My Town (Young Geography), Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever

Week 4 Theme: TREES

1)      Kinds of trees, parts of a tree

2)      Trees in different seasons (four worksheets to decorate)

3)      Family tree

4)      Outdoor tree exploration (bark and leaf rubbings, etc.)

Books: The Giving Tree & Tell Me, Tree: All About Trees for Kids

Good-bye, May!

If you ask me, May 1 is the beginning of summer.  And with longer days and unseasonably warm temperatures this month, our new yard, since moving here in January, is finally turning into the asset we thought it would be.  The kids play outside every single day and love it.  They are safe and they are having fun.  Craig and I can kick up our feet on the deck sometimes and just relax.

Here are a few pictures from May.

A bowl of grapes for afternoon snack

Off to the swings

The kids enjoy eating outside and I like simple summer meals.

Crockpot pulled pork, rolls, and
quinoa veggie salad

Vegetarian nachos

Chowing down

We opened the pool and have been having some fun in it.

I felt motivated to exercise this month and set a goal of walking a mile a day.  Then Craig put together my bicycle and I started riding it some days instead of walking. I didn't quite get to my goal, but I did walk 17 miles and biked 18.  Since three miles of biking equal about one mile of walking, I am 8 miles short for the month which is okay.

Oh, and we have been twice to pick strawberries at a nearby farm, totaling about 18 pounds.  We've made some jam, but mostly just enjoyed all kinds of treats like icecream and yogurt with fresh strawberries on top, strawberry smoothies, and buttermilk waffles with maple syrup, strawberries and whipped cream. We've had the latter for three Sundays in a row now and Ella is seriously contemplating the question whether she likes this waffle combo better than pizza which is saying something.

Good-bye, May 2015, you've been good to us.

NKOTB

Yesterday, New Kids on the Block were in concert in Cincinnati.  For a variety of reasons, I thought I could not go this time around until Craig surprised Ella and me with last minute tickets in the afternoon.  We had a brief flurry of planning and preparations and then we were off to have some fun.

I wasn't sure how Ella would handle this experience, but she did extremely well, behaving appropriately throughout the concert and even holding it together when she started to get quite tired toward 11:00 pm.  I can only imagine that this was an overwhelming experience for her, but I think she had a good time.

Craig had gotten us fantastic seats in the first row elevated above floor level.  This was ideal for Ella who could either sit, lean or stand without anyone obstructing her view of the stage (or mine for that matter).

My teenage dream...

... still singing and dancing...

... still looking good.

That said, I think I did better.  Sorry, Jordan.

My first ever concert was NKOTB.  Now I can say my daughter's was, too.

Pick-Up Trip Days 22 & 23

October 25, 2014

Our last full day in Yerevan couldn't have been more gorgeous.  In the morning we met up with two other families picking up their children and went to see the ancient Erebuni Fortress.  Since I love history, climbing around 3000 year old ruins and enjoying incredible views of Yerevan and beyond was quite an experience for me.

Some of the ancient paintings still visible on the stones

My mom and Emilia

The elusive family photo

In the afternoon, we met up one last time with Rex's birth family at Lovers' Park.  It's quite a lovely little area as evidenced by at least ten wedding parties taking their formal pictures there.  It seemed like brides and grooms where just coming and going all the time for a good two hours while we were there.  I snapped a lot of covert photos.

See the two brides?
They were taking turns at the best photo spots.

Flower girls

More flower girls.
Can you believe that hair?

Ella amid the rose petals left behind by one of the wedding parties

During all of our meetings with Rex's first family, there had been a particular vibe between his birth father and me.   His pain was so palpable to me that my heart felt as if squeezed in a fist every time I looked at him.  He was not as easily accepting  of the unfolding story as the rest of the family.  I struggled every single time we met to say the right words or to do something to help him, but never seemed to succeed.  At the end of our final meeting though, as I was about to shut the door to the taxi, I purposefully locked eyes one last time with Rex's birth father and that's when he gave me an unexpected gift: he closed his eyes for a second and he nodded to me as if to say, "It's okay, I'm okay, we're okay."  It went straight to my heart, a moment in time that I won't forget when we connected silently and when I believe there was finally peace for both of us. 

Rex and his birth parents

October 26, 2014

We got up at 2:00 am and four airports, three planes and 27 hours later arrived in our home as a family of five.