The Shoemaker and The Elves

We studied Germany in our NOW time, so I planned to read some of Grimm's Fairy Tales for our FIAR. Now, there is not a Grimm's story in the FIAR curriculum. But, the concept is not difficult to follow. We bought a copy of The Shoemaker and The Elves. Retold from the Brothers Grimm and illustrated by Jim LaMarche. The inside flap says...

In midnight visits clothed in mystery, a pair of elves restore a poor shoemaker to prosperity. Here is the classic tale of elfin magic that generations of children have loved, made new by an artist of international acclaim. Jim LaMarche's stunning paintings, reminiscent of his earlier work in The Rainbabies, tell a tale not only of midnight enchantment, but of generosity and virtue rewarded.

We loved reading this every day. In part, because the kids were delighted with the imagery. We made cute little shoes for one of R's dolls. I can't remember where I found the pattern, but I saved it. (I just need to learn how to attach the pdf here.) This helped the kids to visualize how the shoemaker cut flat leather, and that was shaped into a 3-D shoe.

The kids wanted to try out the sewing machine, so we made up some beanbags.

We talked about helping those in need. And discussed how the elves no longer helped when the mand and his wife had plenty. The husband and wife weren't angry that they had lost their free labor. But, "They lifed a long and happy life."

We did Domino math. And we discussed doubles, as the patrons had paid double the value of the shoes. The man starts with enough leather for one pair of shoes. When he's paid double, he has enough money to buy the leather for 2 pair of shoes. Then four more pairs.

Travel--Napa

L traveled to Napa on January 2nd with his Nana and his Great-Gramp. They stayed for a few days and flew home on the 5th. Here's his story...

This week, I traveled 3 different ways. After Christmas, we drove in a car to Napa. I was with my Nana and my Great-Grandpa. On the way, we saw hawks sitting the highway signs. And we saw 1 crane on Bodin Island. We drove over 3 bridges and even stopped for a draw bridge. The middle of the bridge lifted like an elevator. It seemed 100’ high. The bridge lifted so a huge boat could pass. The boat was carrying like 139 packages. They looked like huge boxes. Actually, they were trailers from 18-wheeler trucks. We got to Napa just in time for dinner. Since we drove Great-Grandpa’s car, we needed another way home. I took a bus to the airport.

Then, I flew on an airplane for the first time ever. My dad and T were there to pick us up at the airport. It is so fun traveling with my Nana.

The Netherlands

A. taught on the Netherlands. L. was still in Napa with Nana, so only T was there for the NOW time.

The flag... I love this collage with different scrapbook papers. They were pre-cut and the kids had to match #1 to #1 spots and #2 to #2 spots and #3 to #3 spots. This was a good craft for the kids. The kids could use red, yellow, and blue wherever they wanted on this grid to make a Mondiran style art piece.

The kids also planted a tulip bulb in a pot to take home and watch sprout. And the kids sampled some Dutch carmel cookies that A. was able to get at Trader Joe's. This was T's favorite part of Holland.

Christmas Party

We hosted the Christmas Party for our NOW group at our house. We had a lot of fun, but I didn't get many pictures. We made wrapping paper. We have a tile floor in our garage with a coin pattern. We used muffin tin rubbing crayons on a 36" wide roll of paper. The rubbings came out beautiful and each kids took home a 10' roll of wrapping paper. We made Salt & Light candles. I colored salt with food coloring. I just added a few drops to the salt in a ziplock and squished it around until it was well blended. The kids layered salt in small glass jars and then we added a tea light. I had a verse about being Salt & Light printed to a card that was tied around the candle. The kids took these home as a gift they could give. We made Candy Cane ornaments. The kids stacked red and white tri-beads on pipecleaners. Then we hooked the end like a Candy Cane. We read the Christmas story. I used What God Wants For Christmas to tell the story to the kids. I found color pages from each day for the kids to take home. We ate lunch and decorated cupcakes.

Paddington Bear

This week, we studied Paddington Bear FIAR style. I wanted a book to go with Great Brittan, and we had read all the Mr. Gumpy books (a FIAR suggestion) before we started homeschooling. This turned out to be a fun week. Paddington was one of my favorites as a child, so I enjoyed sharing this with the kids. Actually, these books were all mine. My mom brought them over from her house so we could enjoy them. I found this cute craft to make with a toilet paper roll. And we sampled marmalade sandwiches with tea. My childhood stuffed animal joined us during our read-aloud time. I love L's writing here. This was a fun week. I'm glad we had an "easy" week since we were already in the throws of preparing for Christmas. Lots of cookies were made. =0)

Great Brittan

C taught about Great Brittan to the K-kids, but we had colds and had to miss our NOW time. She dropped off a packet, and we were thrilled to be able to spend several days on this. The map of Great Brittan. Scottland in the plaid, Ireland in the green, Whales is appropriately a whale, and England is farmland. Some American/British language differences. The pieces that make the Union Jack, the British Pound and some coins, a collage of stamps. The flag of Whales. The Cross of St. Andrew is the flag of Scotland. The cross of St. George is the flag of England. The Union Jack and a London collage. People from England love tea. A British person drinks about 900 cups of tea each year. We had our own little tea party today.

Madeline

Instead of reading one Madeline story for our FIAR book, we checked out Mad About Madeline; The Complete Tales by Ludwig Bemelmans. It was so fun to read each story several times. It's hard to see here, but L added a dark sky and raindrops to this scene. I've found it's much easier to read to my 3 if they color as I read.

We practiced counting by 2's. We divided things in 1/2 (2 straight lines). L cut veggies for our dinner...in half. Then we put one in the left pile...one in the right pile until we had 2 straight lines. Then we counted 2, 4, 6, 8....

I got a great travel map of Paris from AAA.

We laid on the floor and I quizzed the kids on map skills. L has N,E,S,W down. And he quickly explained how you could tell what was a river...where there was a bridge...and where there were green spaces. This map also has great axons of landmarks.

We ate at Crepes de Paris. It was fun to enjoy the bistro atmosphere. It's great to reminisce too. M and I lived in the loft apartments when we were first married.

We also watched Ratatouille. And I printed some pages from their online activity book. It was fun to color the city of Paris...and the kids loved the rats. We used glitter glue to add sparkle to the City of Lights (you can't see the sparkle when I scanned the page).

France

A taught the K-Kids about France today. She had the kids arrange their chairs at the front of the room and they pretended they were in an airplane flying across the Atlantic. This was L's favorite part of the morning. The colored the French flag and a map. They were impressionist artists and copied a Monet painting. Here's the original.

L's art.

T's art.

And they read Madeline's Christmas. The boys really enjoyed this because we've been reading Madeline all week!

Cranberry Thanksgiving

Our FIAR book for the week of Thanksgiving was Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin.

This was a different week for us as we tried to finally return to normal school days at our house. That just wasn't to be. Instead, we were reading CT at the Dr.'s office waiting for a cast on Tuesday.

The science element of FIAR suggest making Cranberry Bread to understand the chemical reaction.

Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread

2 c. sifted a.p. flour

1 c. sugar

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1/2 t. baking soda

1/4 c. butter

1 egg, beaten

1 t. grated orange peel

3/4 c. orange juice

1 1/2 c. light raisins

1 1/2 c. fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped

Sift flour, sugar, b.powder, salt, and b.soda into a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add egg, o.peel, and o.j. all at once; stir just until mixture is evenly moist. Fold in raisins and cranberries. Spoon into a greased 9x5x3 loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 min., or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack. If you choose, you may substitute cranberries for the raisins to have an all cranberry bread.

Recipe tested by the Food Department of Parents' Magazine

M and I were in Massachutes during October (cranberry harvest) for our honeymoon. We visited a Cranberry Bog when we were there, so I had these photos to show the kids.

I found this rocket kit that used baking soda and vinegar. (I bought the rocket at Marshall's on clearance for $4 though.)

M took the boys to the empty school yard across the street on Friday for the launch.

The boys learned about the gas that is produced when you mix baking soda (alkaline) and vinegar (acid). This same gas creates bubbles in the bread batter. Those bubbles are caught as the bread bakes...giving loft to the loaf.

Thanksgiving Feast

Today, the day before Thanksgiving, we celebrated with our 2nd annual Thanksgiving Feast at C's house. The weather was gorgeous. And the company was even better.

C had planned a million crafts for the kids. So fun. The boys made pilgrim hats and Indian head-dresses. C had white bonnets for all the girls. There were beads to string, teepee's to make, boy and girl pilgrims, and even canoes.

At the outside tables, there was coloring and stamping and stickers. I colored too =0).

This year C even gathered leaves from her neighbor's yards as well as her own for our leaf pile. I love the photos with leaves in mid-air.
There weren't many pictures with Ty. He was hiding his cast.

Lunch was the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Each mom brought something...and the kids at least tried some of it all. Ty doesn't like gravy?! Go figure. Luke needed more gravy, and he loved the stuffing. I brought pumpkin and apple pies. Luke had wanted to make apple pie like on his first day of school. Ty got his cast on Tuesday...so there went our pie baking time. Luke did say...store bought pies are good...just not as good as homemade. Maybe we'll get to do this again next year. I sure hope so.

Papa Piccolo

We read Papa Piccolo as our FIAR book this week. It was written by Carol Talley, and illustrated by Itoko Maeno. Inside the cover of this book, there are great descriptions of the Italian images. The maps, the images, and the Italian words and phrases really capture the reader. And considering how important kitties are to my kids, this book was really enjoyable to explore.

Inside the front flap of the book:

The lion is the emblem of Venice, but the common cat rules its narrow streets and alleyways. A prince among these feline rulers is Piccolo, and what a fine life he leads! Especially after dark -when the streets are full of possibilities!

Then, one night, piccolo makes a discovery that threatens his carefree life and his independence and starts him on a new and special kind of adventure.

In these pages, you will also meet Caesar -Piccolo's older and somewhat cynical friend, and Sophia -the shoe shop cat, to whom Piccolo turns for advice when his life takes its unexpected turn. And you will meet two irresistible kittens -one spotted and one striped- who need a home and who help Piccolo discover his own tender heart.

Illustrator Itoko Maeno, who first visited Venice in 1977, returned to that city -which many call the most beautiful in the world- to capture its watery magic for this story. Her enchanting renderings of the canals, markets, crooked byways, boats, and bridges of Venice and her wise and witty portraits of its two and four-legged citizens will delight children and adults alike.

At a time when we are recognizing the need for boys as well as girls to develop nurturing skills, Piccolo appears as a welcome model for all children.

As a mama to 2 boys, I had to include that description. This role of Papa Piccolo in this book was a great example to my children. We played with our kitties lots this week. And we had spaghetti for dinner. Our favorite pizza comes from a family owned restaurant where I grew up. Now, the kids understand what gondolas are. If you're in La Mirada, make it a point to stop by Gondola's Pizza.

I just happened to get a thank you card in the mail with this image. I wish I was crazy enough to take my kids to Long Beach to see the canals and gondolas there.

We used watercolors. These are 30x40 Strathmore Paper with Nicholson's Peerless Transparent Water Colors.

Italy

S went to Italy last fall for her birthday/anniversary. She LOVED it and was so excited to teach the kids about it. I usually copy L's work if I only copy one sample, but today I'm sharing T's work. He's working really hard on writing for being only 4!

The kids glued together a flag of Italy.

And they learned about different cities of this boot shaped country.

There was too much to scan it all. But really, think of all that we owe to the Italians. Inventions, Music, Art, Architecture, Pasta! The boys favorite part of the day was the Gelato taste test! Even the little ones and the moms got to sample too. Thanks S!

The boys LOVED learning about Fiats, Maseratis, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris. Especially T! He is obsessed with speed. =0) He might be my little race car driver.

And for a craft, the kids made mosaics. I only have photos of these still wet. They're already out in my yard...and it's too dark to go get new photos.