Bee Bop Parade

Moving Out and Moving On

2012-01-20T20:36:00.000-08:00

The gal that rented a room from us last month moved out. Turns out, she had no plans on being timely with her rent payments. Oh well... As we say in Russian, что не делается, все к лучшему or as we say in English, it's all for the best.

The best, in this case, is a whole bunch of things. For one, she wasn't that pleasant a roommate to begin with. Second is that her moving out without giving an advanced notice might had been financially disastrous a few months ago, but right now it's just a minor annoyance. Third, we finally have the house all to ourselves. This means being as noisy as we want whenever we want and using the downstairs bathroom (and that's the bathroom with a TON of storage space). Finally, the very best of all the bests of this situation is that the guest room is finally free and can be converted back to what it used to be - a place for guests to sleep comfortably (and for us to enjoy when we have the quiet time).

So we are moving on and I'm working on turning the room into the nicest guest bedroom south of the Mason-Dixon line. I already sold the ugly twin bed and moved a lovely day bed into the room. Plus I repainted the walls so it looks lovely. And I put up new curtains. Next up is a different table and some sort of bookshelves. I'm on a tight budget and so it will have to come from Craigslist or local thrift stores (plus I only have a very small car to bring things in, so it slows down the process considerably).

But I hope to finish most everything in the next month or so and that will include a spruced-up guest bath (although I'm claiming most of the storage space). So start planning your trip down here, y'all!

A Whole Lotta Nothing

2012-01-20T20:19:00.000-08:00

And, at the same time, a bunch of everything. That's what comes to mind when someone asks me how's everything going. Of course, I say it loudly... in my head what with being polite and stuff. But seriously, it's just life as usual in a way. Lots of things to take care of that would be happening even if Chris wasn't deployed.

Homeschool is one. I'm trying to do 4 days a week, but sometimes it doesn't quite work out that way and we do only 3 days. And by 3 days I mean one hour each day, roughly. Sometimes it's a bit more, usually it's a bit less. Is it enough? Well, I checked M's skills against kindergarten readiness standards and he's doing just fine. The only thing he doesn't do well is rote counting to 20, but he can count objects to 15 by himself and to 20 with a bit of help. So I think we're ok for now. After all, he's not even 5 yet. On this picture he's putting together a story using Rory's Story Cubes (I love this game!).

Speaking of counting, he figured out (or maybe overheard somewhere) that if you have trouble falling asleep, you should count. So he counts: "one goat, two goats, three goats, four goats, five goats, six goats, eight goats, nine goats, ten goats. Now, one fish, two fish, four fish, three fish, four fish, five fish. Now, one Wall-E, two Wall-E, three Wall-E, four Wall-E, five Wall-E... five Wall-E plus one. It's five Wall-E and one Eve..." and on and on it goes with all the different objects he can think of being counted diligently to 5, 6 or 8. No wonder it takes him forever to fall asleep.

Another thing that keeps us busy is our weekly occupational and physical therapy sessions. These are working out great so far. M loves his therapists and always asks when is the next time he gets to play with them. And these sessions help. We've got a lot of work to do, but we are moving in the right direction. I get lots of ideas too for what we can do at home and try to incorporate 2-3 exercises into our homeschool time each day (like on the picture above - sensory play with shaving cream). Besides, watching M work during these sessions made me realize just how much effort he has to put into daily tasks that are nearly effortless to many kids his age (not to mention us, the adults). The little dude is working hard all day long even when it's just play.

Then there's my gym. (The picture is from M's work out at physical therapy though since I can't take pictures of me working out. They have these awesome toys and this swing set is just about his favorite). Did I mention that while Chris is away, I get a free family membership at our awesome YMCA? And our Y rocks! And their child care is awesome - lots of toys, lots of individual attention from the caregivers and not a single TV screen (there's a TV in the room for older kids and it's used only for Wii video games). Unfortunately, M and I don't see eye to eye on the kids room idea. And things have been getting progressively worse with how M reacts to separation. So it was either me not going at all or me taking him to my workouts. Except now I can't go to the weights area 'cause it's absolutely off-limits to kids.

So instead I go to cardio classes and yoga and such. M is almost always happy to tag along. Sometimes he tries to join in (yoga class, zumba and step), other times he plays with toys in the corner (toning, belly dancing). Either way, he behaves so well and is so darn cute, that we get lots of compliments from other people in the class and from the (very understanding and supportive) instructors. Plus he loves going to his own classes (where it's my turn to mostly sit in the corner) - kids zumba and kids yoga. His therapists are thrilled and boy, if one day athletes get points for the sheer enthusiasm and energy, he might zoom straight to the top.

All this happens before lunch! (Another picture from physical therapy). After lunch, I try to do some house work while M plays with his toys or watches some cartoons. He just finished watching all 150 or so episodes of the Russian cartoon "Smeshariki" which can be translated as "The Laughies" (not all at once, but over a period of about three months since he only watched 30 min or so each day). Now he's into another Russian cartoon, "Fixiki", but so far there are only 6 episodes available on YouTube. So he also watches the hilarious "Masha and the Bear" series.

As for the toys, M is heavily into rockets, robots and, unexpectedly, garbage trucks. Ever since I showed him a couple of YouTube videos about what happens at recycling plants and how landfills work, he is hooked. You know how intense he can be about things. So we got 10 or so non-fiction books about trash and recycling from the library. His favorite was "A Day in Life of a Garbage Truck Driver". Then he set up this game where he would operate a toy garbage truck, pick up trash and drive it to his Tri-County Landfill toy (Imaginext rules!), operated by his Toy Story 3 characters. On the picture: M built a ramp to help garbage truck get out of the "garage".

The best part is that he is eager to read as long as it's a part of this game set up. He actually asks me to write different words on pieces of paper which he reads and figures out whether to bring it to the landfill, to recycling plant or elsewhere. Love it!

All the while I try to clean, do laundry, take out the trash and compost, tidy up, re-arrange the furniture or, say, paint the walls. Something always comes up around here, like when, as on the picture, M decides to play fort inside the lazy susan and insists on having half of his toys with him.

Then later in the afternoon we usually have friends over. While I drink tea and chat with N, M plays with her son who's a bit older and quite a lot taller than M. They think of themselves as best friends, but honestly, they spend as much time fighting and arguing as playing together. So some evenings playdates have to end earlier than others.

Then it's dinner time and off to bed for M. But not before some more work is done on one of his projects. For now it's usually this cardboard rocket. He drew control panels all over the inside of it. On this picture he's already in his PJs conducting an EVA (space-walk) to repair some minor meteor damage. Note how he's carefully tethered to the rocket so he wouldn't float away. Going to bed means I have to read him 2 stories. Lately we've been reading about Paddington Bear and all the stories in the book are very long. Takes a while to get through even one. And that's how I don't even come downstairs until after 9. Which means I don't get to start work until 9:30 or even 10 (if I still have dishes in the sink and the kitchen is a mess).

Next thing I know it's the weekend and then - another Monday. And that's how we roll for now. And the final picture is of M playing a game he invented and built. It's a Star Wars-themed game where Luke and Artoo get to trap and fight Vader by moving across the board in a rather aimless (to me, anyway) way. And when they do need to wait out, they have special hiding spots where Vader can't see them. That was the first game M came up with and I thought it was pretty cool.

Second Letterbox

2012-01-08T21:08:00.000-08:00

Remember that post about the new New Year tradition and letterboxing? It was another gorgeous day here yesterday (Saturday) and I suggested going on another treasure hunt. M was pretty enthusiastic about it and this time around wanted to take both R2D2 and R5D4 droids with him. So I printed the instructions and we got to the park. This time it was the Veterans Freedom Park in Cary.

This particular box was both easier and harder to find. It was easier because he didn't have to cross dry creek beds or walk on trunks of fallen trees. The entire path was on a level surface just along the wood line's edge.

Yet it was more difficult because we had to look harder for clues. I wasn't even sure which one of the trees surrounded the open area was cedar. M also had to keep an eye out and notice things. Plus, unlike with the first box, he got to do some heavy lifting this time around since he had to pick up a couple of heavy-ish stones.

The reward was very sweet. We got not one, but two stamps! There was a "Moose on the Loose" guest stamp in the box along with the original stamp. Awesome! And, on the way back, M collected some more treasure to take home with us - a few stones, a piece of pine bark and a couple of cedar sprigs so that we remember what cedar looks like for the next adventure.

More Different Homeschooling

2012-01-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

Our winter break is over and a new (calendar) year of homeschooling has begun. To be honest, with all the changes and travel of the last few months of 2011 I scaled down on hs somewhat. In fact, all I had left was math and reading. Everything else was totally unstructured and largely unplanned. It was fun, but I felt a bit frustrated and worried over the lack of accountability on my part.

Besides, as we found out, we have to spend A LOT more time doing physical and occupational therapy exercises daily and it's easier to include them into the flow of our homeschool schedule 'cause then I know they get done.

So I created a new schedule. It looks something like this:

Warm-up - both M's physical and occupational therapists suggested we start all our learning activities with warm-up exercises. Before he sits down at a desk, he needs to get some physical activity to help him focus and get oriented. Sample warm-ups include jumping jacks, pushing a box loaded with books, throwing bean bags at a target, picking yellow Lego pieces out of a corn and sunflower seed mix. Things like that. Oh, and also mazes, scissors practice, connect the dots, dot-dot worksheets, coloring and such.

Math - right now I'm concentrating on teaching M basic arithmetic in the first 10. Yes, still... Well, he does very well with adding and subtracting within the first 5. Then it gets tough. So we're trying a different strategy. He does well as long as he has manipulatives. But once those are removed, he is lost. And I really don't want him to use his fingers to count. So I'm using these lessons now and so far they are working. I try to include as many vision exercises into this as well (and it's the same with reading work), otherwise we simply won't have time to do it all. But I also try to include Moebius Noodles games into our lessons as much as possible. He really enjoys those since they are so different and are so much more game-like than his other work.

Speech - we are supposed to start working with a speech therapist. But for now, as we are looking for the one specializing in bilingual children, I try to do what I can. So we make funny faces and stick out our tongues a whole lot. Plus we learn to form and pronounce some of the trickier Russian words. So far so good. I got M Rory's Story Cubes for the holidays and he loves this game (I do too). He is much more willing to create and tell stories now (as opposed to retelling something he saw or heard in books and cartoons).

Reading - I'm taking it very-very slow here. M loves being read to, but is not too keen on reading. He still mixes up some of the letters, although he can read words up to 7-8 letters in length. The problem is that when he reads, he reads one letter at a time instead of the entire слог. It doesn't make much of a difference with short words, but with the longer ones, by the time he gets to the last letter, he forgets what he started with. Lots of guess work follows... Frustrating to both of us. So we are reviewing the letters and various combinations of vowels and consonants now.

Nature study - this doesn't happen every day. I try to at least discuss the calendar - today's date and day of the week, yesterday's day of the week, tomorrow's day of the week, etc. We also talk about the weather a lot. But anything other than that isn't something M is interested in. The exception is when we go on a treasure hunt and he picks up rocks and pine cones and sticks. He's getting more interested in rocks now too.

Science - I'm determined to try 1-2 science experiments each week, the messier, the better. Last week we made some yellow goop (I still see a bit of it on the kitchen walls) and color mixing.

Art - this must be the hardest of all since M avoids any kind of art/craft work. No pretty colors are allowed (these are for girls). So the most-used colors in our house are brown, green, orange, yellow and red. Sometimes dark blue is allowed. Art for the art's sake only works in theory around here. M sometimes talks about drawing a picture or doing a craft. But in the end, if it's not serving a very specific purpose related to robots, rockets, Star Wars or, lately, garbage trucks, he just say "not now" and that's the end of it. So I try to adapt. Last week we did what was supposed to be a design in foil and that, in our hands, turned out to be a radar.

Projects - these are any and all special projects that M feels he has to work on. One of the projects last week was the Star Wars cargo and troop carrier out of an egg carton (although, honestly, I did most of the hands-on work and M did all the planning and supervising). We also took apart an old toaster to check out what was inside.

In addition to all these activities, M has two therapy sessions each week, one for physical therapy and one - for occupational therapy. This keeps us plenty busy even without extracurricular activities :)

Winter Break Galore

2012-01-01T20:18:00.000-08:00

Even PreK homeschoolers need a break now and then. Ok, maybe not the little ones, but their parents for sure. I know, I do. So I decided that the last week before the New Year was going to be our winter break. Besides, there was so much going on and all M's friends were on winter break and available for daytime playdates...

Fortunately, we live where we live, in Raleigh. So we always have lots and lots of things to do. It's a great place for kids for sure! (Hint-hint: cousins, do come visit us with your little ones!)

Honestly, between getting ready for the New Year (meaning deep-cleaning the house), working out at the Y, having tea with my friend and playdates with M's friends, things are a bit of a blur now. But that's why I take pictures - for some near-term clarity in addition to long-term memories.

We went to the Natural History museum not once, not twice, but three times. Once we went to see Tornado Alley 3D movie (that's the picture of us in funny glasses). M was particularly impressed with all the tornado tracking vehicles 'cause they all had either big parabolic antennas or Doppler radars on them. Now every time we see a news van, he asks if it's a tornado hunter. The second time we went to the Discovery Room with a friend. And the third time we went to check out the Genghis Khan exhibit. M seemed very interested at first, then looked not at all interested except for a couple of instances. Yet later that day I heard him re-telling his experience to a friend:

"We went to see Genghis Khan at the museum. He was this ancient important person and a warrior. But not like a jedi. But he had a huge army like clone trooper army. They all lived in these round houses that they moved all the time. And they had swords. But bows and arrows were a lot more important too 'cause they could shoot far. And they wore these things, like metal shirts and that was so when an arrow hits it doesn't make a hole in the stomach. And they had catapults and these big things to shoot huge spears with."

The weather was warm enough and we went to playgrounds a few times. And when it wasn't all that nice outside, M played indoors with his best friend, George. Of course, there were also new toys to play with after each holiday.

M also explained his theory of everything to me (in Russian, but I'm translating for convenience): "I think, that we and the Earth and the Sun and all the planets and comets and everything aren't real. I think they are toys and a little boy in another galaxy is playing with them."

And he came up with his first real rhyme (in Russian) while walking by a neighbor's house where they still had a big pumpkin by the door: "Страшные тыквы нам не страшны, А даже очень нам смешны".

Finally, on New Year's Eve we went to the Downtown to check out the big tree, the ice rink (it was too warm and the rink, while operating, was covered with a half-inch of water) and the big acorn that Raleigh, the City of Oaks, drops at midnight every New Year. So now M thinks that "Рали - город дубов" and "Когда опускают большой желудь и он касается земли, из него вылетает Новый год".

Our New New Year Tradition

2012-01-01T19:33:00.000-08:00

I don't think making New Year resolutions is all that important (not to say I haven't made some this year). But what I think is important and way more fun is to try something new on the very first day of a new year. It doesn't have to be anything fancy or pre-planned. Nor does it have to be something you've been dying to try. That'd put too much pressure on you to succeed and make it just perfect (or maybe it's just me being obsessive about stuff). I'm just trying to say that it might be better to do something on January 1st that's totally a spur of the moment, something unplanned for yet fun.

Now, I'm speaking with all this confidence, but in fact I only tried what I'm preaching here just once, today. But since it worked out really-really well and I now have 100% success rate, I feel I can speak with much authority on the subject. What is the subject, by the way? Well, it's in the title - family traditions for the New Year.

Specifically, the one unexpected thing we tried today was... But hold on, first, let me mention that it was a beautiful day outside - sunny and warm, with light breeze, very spring-like... So M and I went to the nearby park. There, after getting tired of the "catch-the-meteorite" game, I suggested we dig for treasure in the sandbox. And while digging, M found a cast-out part of some plastic toy that to him looked like treasure.

This gave me an idea and I asked him if he wanted to go on a real treasure hunt. Sure thing! So we quickly returned home where I printed out what looked like fun instructions to a random letterbox. Well, not so random, since we go to the park it is hidden in and M loves it there. So I figured, even if we the hunt turns out a total bust, at least M would get to play in this great park.

But no worries, everything went oh-so-awesome! At the park, I read out the clues and M searched for them. It was awesome, especially once we got off the trail. We felt really adventurous, 20 yards or so away from the footpath. It was M who found the letterbox. He was a bit puzzled that there was no "treasure" there, just a notepad, a felt-tip pen, a red stamp pad and a stamp. But once I explained to him that it was a big game of pretend treasure and we were supposed to use our code names instead of our real ones, he was game.

After replacing the letterbox and carefully hiding it, M wanted to continue searching for more treasure. So we walked all around the park, looking for rocks and sticks and examining quite a few fallen trees. Then we went down to the creek and M explored it for a while and collected some more rocks. He was curious as to where all these rocks come from. And let me tell you, I should had paid a lot more attention in geography classes years ago. At least I remembered that some rocks are igneous, others - metamorphic and yet others - sedimentary (although I think this came from me listening to some of his stories on CDs). Definitely, something for us both to find out more about.

Seeing how letterboxing was such a great success, I will try to make it a regular weekend outing now. But it's not a New Year resolution.

The Stuff M Says

2011-12-24T19:17:00.000-08:00

This is probably of no interest to you unless you happen to be M's parent or grandparent. So it's mostly for my records so I don't forget these things. M's been making just the most interesting statements lately (all in Russian):

Ю. такой щедрый! Он мне подарил столько игрушек! Он - настоящий друг!
Мама, смотри, что я нашёл. Я такой находчивый, правда?
Мы с Ю. - други. А еще мы сыны. Он - для тети Наталки, а я - для тебя.
Мне печально, когда Ю. наказывают. Но я не плачу, потому что я же - джедай.
Не плачь, Ю.! Джедаи должны управлять своими эмоциями, а не подчиняться им!
Меня мальчик зло толкнул и я подвернул ногу и палец. Теперь я - раненый джедай.
Один мальчик толкнул меня, когда я лез на горку. Но я повернулся и сказал ему специальным джедайским голосом - стоп!
Мама, ты сделала две критические ошибки. Одна ошибка - в том, что ты меня за уши потащила в магазин игрушек. Вторая - что ты потратила деньги.
Да, это хорошая игрушка, но меня она не интересует. Меня интересует только все космическое и звездно-воиновское и роботы.
Мама, я сделаю робота, чтобы он посуду мыл и готовил и игрушки убирал и деньги в банк относил.
Я вот тру-тру руки, но они шершавые. Это, наверное, микробы.
Передада, передада! When I ask him what it means, he explains that it means someone who передумал сказать да (changed his mind from yes to no; a flip-flopper).

If he doesn't like how a conversation is going, he says давай лучше об этом потом поговорим.

Мама, а когда Боба Фет родился, у него уже была броня? Нет? А как он ее получил? (Я объясняю, что Боба подрос, много тренировался, а потом, уже взрослым, получил броню). М вздыхает: Как же это сложно! Такая большая разница между взрослыми и детьми!

At a Chinese buffet, M is trying to share his dessert with me. But I'm full and tell him "Thank you! It's so nice of you to share, but I just can't eat another bite". He responds: Это потому, что у нас организм по разному устроен. Дети вот могут есть, а потом вырастают, и уже больше не могут.

Мама, какой сегодня чудесный день! Давай наслаждаться свежим воздухом.
Этот TIE-fighter - на хорошей стороне. Он раньше был плохим, но я с ним поговорил и он перешел на светлую сторону.

And the latest one from tonight:

Мама, что такое ОРЗ? I explain that это острое респираторное заболевание. М спрашивает, а острое это как? Я объясняю, что это когда заболеваешь неожиданно быстро и сразу очень плохо. М подумал и говорит: "понятно. Это острое как если на ежа сел."

Celebrating the Season

2011-12-24T19:02:00.000-08:00

Since we were in NY for the first half of December, we sort of missed out on all the holiday prep. Once we got back, I concentrated mostly on cleaning and decluttering which is all done. The only undecluttered area is M's room, but taking care of that one is kind of tough since, well, he's with me all the time and have you ever tried getting rid of your child's old toys while he's home with you? Talking about Mission: Impossible, they should have Tom Cruise do that for one of the sequels, maybe call it Mission: Impossible - Stealth Trash Can Protocol.

Plus I don't throw old stuff away unless it's in bad shape (which is almost never), but instead donate it. Doing that is also difficult since M goes everywhere with me and he gets awfully suspicious about all those donations boxes. But anyway, I'm getting off track here...

So, the house is mostly clean and ready for the New Year. This is not the most cheerful season for us since Chris is gone, but don't you think we are left to celebrate all the holidays on our own. In fact, we have way too many invitations to various parties, dinners and playdates. Big love goes to all our wonderful friends who might (or might not) be reading this post!

Last Tuesday, on the first night of Hannukah, we went to the Jewish Cultural Festival held in the nearby Cary. I wasn't sure what to expect there, but it turned out great and we had an amazing time there with M. First, he did a couple of Hannukah crafts. Can you guess which ones? Of course, he made a menorah out of paper, silver pipe cleaners and LOTS of Hannukah-themed stickers. He got totally into the craft and only stopped when there was no space left for any more stickers on both sides of the menorah. Only then did he move on to the candle-making craft which he also loved.

We got to the crafts area early on when it wasn't very busy. So by the time more kids showed up we were done and ready to move on to something bigger and better. Luckily, we were just in time for an olive oil making workshop. The moment I saw the hand-cranked press, I knew M would love this presentation. What I didn't expect was how hands-on it was for the kids. They got the front-row seats AND got to help the rabbi press the oil. Along the way they learned about the story and the miracle of Hannukah. Once oil was pressed, it had to be separated. Since we didn't have days to wait like in the times of Judah Maccabee, a centrifuge was used. So the kids ended up with vials of oil that they poured into the cups on the menorah, the wick was made out of a cotton ball and it all worked out beautifully!

Again, M loved the whole process and held his hand up high every time the rabbi asked for volunteers. Also while at the festival, we ran into a neighbor of ours and she invited us for a Hannukah party complete with dreidel games, latkes and Hannukah music. The kids at the party were a few years older than M, but he did just fine and had a lot of fun there. Now he thinks that Hannukah is an awesome holiday and we need to do it more often!

We also started getting ready for the New Year which I, as someone who grew up in Russia, consider one of the most important holidays of the year. And since New Year prep is much like Christmas prep, we got ready for that one along the way. First, we decorated the gingerbread house.

Actually, this year M did most of the decorating. I just put the house together and made the icing. And since it came in a wonderfully simple to use and organic kit, I can't take any credit for this. Except I made it a lot less organic by giving M some jelly beans, gummy bears, mini marshmellows and chocolate chips for decor. Wait, chocs were organic, so there, it's a mostly organic house.

Then we went to the Farmers' Market to buy a tree. We managed to find one small enough to fit into the trunk of our KIA Rio. Or maybe it says something about how spacious that trunk really is? Nah, it's a pretty small tree! I put up the strings of lights and M did pretty much all the rest of decorating work. I did help him with a few ornaments that were either too tricky to attach or had to go up high. He was so excited about the tree and kept saying елочка! я тебя так люблю! сейчас вот наряжу и тебе понравится! спасибо, елочка, что ты пришла к нам! (New Year tree! I love you so much! I'm going to decorate you now and you'll like it! Thank you for coming to us!).

We also went to a New Year party at the local Russian school. The party was open to all and we were told that all kids would get little gifts from Father Frost who was supposed to appear at the end of the party. Now, Russian New Year party is not just a party, it's a concert where kids from the school perform songs, dances, and skits. M was a bit bored with that. But then all the kids were asked to come up to the stage and read a poem or sing a song for the Snow Maiden and M practically ran to the stage. When it was his turn, he stood up in front of the audience of about 100 people and in loud and clear voice ringing with enthusiasm read the little rhyme he chose and memorized all by himself: Экскаватор ров копает. Сто лопат он заменяет! (Excavator digs the ditch. It replaces 100 shovels! - yeah, I know, it doesn't rhyme in English, but in Russian it does). For this he got a great round of applause (I think it was because a) quite a few people in the crowd know him; b) he beamed with happiness; c) he didn't mumble or shout into the mic and d) the rhyme was mercifully short (this was like the second hour of the concert and everyone was a bit tired)).

I thought M was going to be most interested in Ded Moroz. But turns out, it was the Snow Maiden who truly made an impression. Must've been her all-white and sparkly dress and a white-fur hat. M later kept talking about her, but said that "she behaved oddly. She went into the hallway and disappeared". I explained that she had other parties to go to. Then M thought about it a bit longer and said "Mama, I think the Snow Maiden really likes it when it's clean and neat and all is in its place". I asked him why he thought so and he explained that it was her beautiful all-white dress that gave him this idea. Not too shabby.

Ok, well, I'm totally running my mouth here... Today, on Christmas Eve, we were going to see our friends for a celebration and a playdate. But their youngest is sick and we didn't go. Instead, I took M to jump on inflatables as a reward for behaving so well and doing all the chores. And then we went to see our other friends...

My Son's View of Things

2011-12-16T19:22:00.000-08:00

M loves taking pictures with a camera. We have my little digital point and shoot which isn't such a great camera. But it's light and easy for him to operate. Plus I won't feel terribly upset if he breaks it 'cause it's not that expensive (although at some point it was).

He takes pictures with it whenever he can. It's a challenge for him 'cause his hands shake pretty badly (we are working on this and some other issues with an occupational therapist, but so far have seen little improvement). So most pictures come out blurry. Yet sometimes he takes pretty good pictures and I love looking through them and seeing the world the way he sees it.

This is me. I was super busy sorting through the old issues of the Russian Life magazine. It's a very blurry image, but that's how most of his photos come out. Makes me really appreciate what it takes for him to concentrate on keeping his hands steady.

This is one of his LEGO Heroes from the Hero Factory. He LOVES the cartoon (we found it dubbed in Russian) and can assemble the toys by himself (again, no small fit for him).

This is the bear from Toy Story 3. M didn't care much for the movie, but is absolutely taken by the Imaginext toy called "Tri-County Recycling Center". This is his second Imaginext toy (he got a shuttle launch pad last year for the holidays) and he LOVES them. He plays with them almost every single day. Lemme tell you, when you find a toy that entertains your child every day for a year, you don't feel bad at all for shelling out $$$.

For all y'all non-Star Wars fans, this is a TIE fighter. We found this vintage one at the flea market. Not exactly a bargain at $20, but again, something M loves and plays with a whole lot. Now, in the Star Wars bad guys use TIE fighters. But M will explain to you that he actually talked to this particular TIE fighter and explained to come to the good side. So this is a reformed TIE fighter which makes it very special and unique.

Holiday Season 2011

2011-12-16T18:56:00.000-08:00

Is it holiday season already? I seriously can't tell. First, it's very warm here, in NC. We've been running around in light sweaters for a couple of days. Then it started to rain, but it's still warm. No snow, no ice, nothing. We went to a Christmas tree farm today to walk around. It was nice, but felt more like an early September outing. Last year at the same time at the same Christmas farm there was a bit of snow on the ground, the pond was frozen and it was cold enough to wear hats, gloves and warm jackets and still get cold.

Third reason it doesn't feel like holidays yet is that I haven't put up any decorations. Part of it is that we just got back from NY. But part of the reason is that I really don't feel like dragging all these decorations down from the attic, unpacking, then packing back after just a few days. I'm not being lazy either, just overwhelmed.

Forth, and main, reason it hasn't felt like holidays yet is, of course, Chris is not going to be home. Just doesn't feel very happy about it.

Of course, we're going to do something. Tomorrow we plan on getting a very small New Year tree. We talked about decorating it with all sorts of edible things - popcorn strands, cranberries, nuts, dried fruits, candies, etc. Needless to say, M is very excited about this idea and has been asking me to put this tree in his room. Yeah, right! But at least I'll be spared the trouble of getting the regular decorations from our tiny attic where I always bump my head on the roof beams.

I was also thinking about putting together a gingerbread house and will get a kit tomorrow. M loved this activity last year and can help out way more this year. Except I'd decorate it with Hannukah colors and with chocolate coins and pretzel stars :) And we'll play our Hannukah CDs and drink hot chocolate or maybe spiced apple cider.

So as I mentioned, we just got back from NY. You'd think that being there, I'd have more time to update the blog. Nope. Besides, there wasn't much going on apart from the usual hanging around the grandparents' house, helping Grandma with baking and building toy airplanes with Grandpa. The main events of our 3-week long stay were:

1. The Thanksgiving dinner with the family - my aunt Sofia hosted and it was great as usual. It was very nice to see my oldest cousin and his family since they live in Ohio and I don't get to see them often.

2. We took a train to Hoboken, NJ to spend an afternoon with my brother and his girlfriend. That was exciting since it involved a train ride (M kept taking pictures with a cell phone to, as he explained, "remember it all for later"), playing with an awesome chocolate lab who's super smart and awfully cute, enjoying a gorgeously-decorated Christmas tree and getting gifts.

One of the gifts was Myachis (just google it). They are like hacky sacks but aren't exactly. We had lots of fun practicing all different Myachi tricks. Finally, my bro and his girlfriend invited us to a Vietnamese restaurant. Needless to say, after an afternoon like this M fell asleep on the drive back and didn't wake up until the next morning.

3. We went to a trampoline place nearby, in Valley Cottage, called BounceOnIt.Finally, there's something in the area that is fun for both the kids and the adults. These are not inflatables, but real trampolines. So adults can have just as much (or even more) fun as kids. The place is great and I hope they stay open so we can go back whenever we're in NY.

4. M got to spend a lot of time with his second cousins. He really loved playing with them. At first he was concerned about the youngest one 'cause he thought she'd break his toys or chew them. But she's a big 2.5-year old now, so that was ok. And then, she's into all the silliness M is into - running around the house, screaming, hiding, jumping, laughing. So they had a jolly good time. But he also loved spending time with his oldest cousin who is now 7. Although the games weren't as wild. Instead, they'd try playing a board game or "do chemistry" with vinegar and soda.

5. We went to Brighton Beach, as usual. This time M walked all around and didn't complain about being tired. Nor was he a pest when it came to me browsing books at a bookstore there (usually he starts whining after the first 2 minutes there). He even got his wish of playing on the playground there and running on the beach. Plus we ate at a really nice restaurant, called "Tatiana" (delicious, but expensive).

That was such a wonderful trip with the grandparents, that M said that he wanted to spend his birthday on Brighton. His plan was we'd go there, he'd get a pastry, would walk around some, get a toy from the toy store and then we'd all go to a restaurant for some fried calamari. Funny story about calamari. In Russian the word is кольмары and sounds much like комары, mosquitoes. M never ate calamari before. So I asked him if he wanted to try and he thought I was offering him fried mosquitoes.

Math Fun and All

2011-11-20T17:22:00.001-08:00

Another week is over and done with. Lots of things happened, mostly me getting sick with some cold or something (still recovering from it). Plus we traveled to NY to spend upcoming holidays with the family. Since homeschooling and work from home allow lots of flexibility, we plan on staying in NY for a couple of weeks.

Since I wasn't feeling well, we didn't do as much school as planned. Still, the little that we did was fun and M kept asking for more, especially more math. In addition to our math and logic worksheets, we explored color gradients, guessed patterns with the help of a talking turkey, and built lots of cool stuff with the magnetic shape tiles. For more details on these and other games, head over to the Moebius Noodles blog.

But mostly it was all about free play, especially closer to the end of the week when I was a) too sick to plan much and b) too busy preparing for our trip. Fortunately, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and warm.

We went on a very long walk to the park by the Art Museum. I love this park! There's really a lot for kids to do there even though there's not a single playground structure in sight. In addition to lots of walking and a bit of running and rolling down small hills, we played in the sand, played "find a letter and jump on it" game, discussed sculpture, and observed a cute little snake.

And the yard was covered in leaves. So we racked them, put them into a pile next to our compost bin (for future use), then created a different pile on the soft grass. That's where M spent a few hours one afternoon jumping, digging, flipping, rolling and swimming in the leaves.

Wake Med Surgery Open House

2011-11-11T18:51:00.001-08:00

Last weekend we went to Wake Med hospital for a Surgery Open House. It was awesome. They set up 5 operating rooms, each for a different surgery. There was a neuro surgery OR set up for tumor removal. There was a heart surgery OR set up for a bypass surgery. There was a bone surgery OR set up for knee replacement (gruesome, I tell ya). And finally, there was an ENT OR set up for tonsillectomy.

Of course, everything was hands-on. We were welcome to touch pretty much everything, including some very expensive equipment. M got to play with the knobs on the heart and lungs machine and try pushing the button on the electric saw used to cut through the rib cage.

Wait, didn't I say there were 5 rooms? Yep, the last one was set up for robotic surgery. Which is not a surgery done on robots, but the one done by robots. And there was a real surgical robot in there. And the kids got to try their hand at controlling it!

Oh, and we were given a tour of the OR, including pre-op rooms. During the tour, kids got to make a little craft - they decorated breathing masks for anesthesia with stickers. M decorated his mask with smiley faces and said that these were germs. Back home, I heard him explaining about the mask to his favorite R2-D2 (yeah, he's got more than one): "See here, Artoo, I'm going to take you upstairs for the night and I'll put this mask on you and you'll fall asleep and won't be scared of anything and won't feel anything".

First Two Weeks Are Over

2011-11-11T17:33:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it's been two weeks since Chris left. It seems like it's been at least a month. But at the same time, how can it be? After all, we are crazy busy here. But here we are, 2 weeks down, 50 or so to go.

As I mentioned, we've been exceptionally busy. Mostly because we are still in the process of establishing a new schedule and routines. Mornings are pretty much taken care of at this point. I even get to stay in bed until shortly after 7am (compared to 6:30ish when Chris was home). Today was absolutely amazing, record-setting morning - my early riser slept in until 7:30am! Yeah, it's a fluke, but oh what a nice surprise! So, what's my secret for staying in bed for so long? Well, it's all about snacks and snuggles. Every night before going to bed, I bring a small snack upstairs, usually some dried fruits. This way, there's no more "Mommy, I want to eat breakfast" at 6am. Plus I let him snuggle in my bed and build a nest out of all the pillows. And now that I revealed my secrets and bragged about my superior problem-solving skills, I've probably jinxed it. Better prepare for a 5:30am wake-up tomorrow.

(This is a portrait of me as a mermaid, in case you're wondering. Why mermaid? M figured it was easier to draw a fishtail than a dress).

After breakfast and a quick clean-up it's time for homeschool. So far we do math and reading in a pretty formal sit-down and work way. To my great surprise, M likes math a lot more than reading at this point. He's also making some good progress in it. We are still staying in the first 10, but are about to move on. One interesting thing that I noticed is that he does really well with arithmetic as long as there's a story behind each problem. So, we explore all the different ways of building a two-story Jedi academy with 6 training rooms. And we figure out whether the astronauts collected odd or even number of moon rocks. And we learn combinations theory through Sandwich Recipe game. And we do some Jedi mind tricks that include subitizing (estimating quantity without counting) and "follow-the-leader" Lego builds. If you are interested in more details about different math games we play, start reading my new blog, Moebius Noodles.

Reading is a struggle for now. He still loves when I read to him and asks to be read to a lot. But trying to read by himself, even very short words, is a struggle and a chore. Except when the words I write are downright silly or scatological in nature (yep, he's big on toilet humor right now).

Going to the YMCA is a part of our routine now. I wish we could go daily, but even 3 times a week is a struggle for M who still gets very upset about being left in the childcare room. But honestly, I love the childcare at the Y. First, when we come in, the staff-to-children ratio is pretty much 1:1. Second, there's no TV in the room. Third, they actually play with children, read books to them and do crafts. Fourth, they give them healthful snacks at around noon.

A free membership at the YMCA is one of the benefits for families of the deployed soldiers. And it's absolutely awesome! The Alexander Y is our nearest branch and is the nicest in Raleigh (and quite possibly in the world!). Awesome childcare. Cardio classes starting every 30 minutes or so in 2 studios. Indoor track. Racket ball courts (gotta try that out). An indoor pool! So far I've started with cardio classes (belly dancing on Mondays, toning on Wednesdays and Fridays) and some free weights. But I think I'm going to add some swimming to the mix too. And on weekends, M and I go to family yoga, family Zumba and to public swim. Seriously, I'm in love with this Y!

Evening routine is still a work in progress. We have a friend who's about M's age. So the last couple of weeks the two would spend pretty much every evening playing together (not always peacefully). Unfortunately, the boy's family is relocating in a month.

In other news, I think I mentioned that I'm cleaning up, decluttering and re-organizing the entire house. My plan for the first two weeks was to fix the family room. Well, that's done now and looks nice and neat. Putting toys away takes only 5 minutes even after the wildest playdate. But I also cleaned up the entryway closet and the secret junk closet in the upstairs closet. Next up is organizing the paperwork. And that's what I'll be doing tonight.

Send Off

2011-11-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

Chris came home for a week before leaving again. So we didn't have much time really for anything. Instead, we tried to pretend we were on a little vacation. Which meant we ate out a lot and took M to all sorts of fun kiddie places, like a place with lots of inflatables and also to a pumpkin patch.

Oh, and we also did some last-minute garden chores. It might seem weird to spend so much time (half a day) clearing the front yard and planting some strawberry plants. But really, we had a blast! It was a perfect stress-relief.

Then it was time to drive to Greensboro for the send-off ceremony. That part pretty much sucked 'cause I hate saying goodbye when I'm the one staying behind. And I really don't like ceremonies.

But there were some good moments, like when we went to an arcade place near the hotel.

Next day M and I dropped Chris off (another goodbye, arghhh) and drove back home. So now we're back and settling into our new routines. Not to say that our new routines are all that different from our old routines. Mornings are different though 'cause usually it's Chris who gets up early with M, helps him get dressed and fixes him breakfast. Now it's my job and, predictably, M wakes up as early as ever (around 5:30am on most days). So I'm trying to teach him to either play quietly in his room or come stay with me, but also quietly. Yeah, I know, it's a steep learning curve.

But overall we've been terribly busy. Thankfully, M is getting way better at playing by himself. Plus he's just so funny now. Which makes things a lot easier. Including preparing for Halloween. We put up some homemade decor and even though the weather was horrible (cold rain), this little Boba Fett went trick-o-treating.

Catching Up

2011-10-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

We've been back in NC for some time now, but things got off to a shaky start what with Chris leaving for training again and with my surgery. So that explain the yet another long break between the posts.

Things are almost back to normal now:

I pretty much cut down on all the detailed planning for our homeschool that I did for the first couple of months. It's mostly because apart from math and reading, nothing else tended to happen as planned. M sets up his own pace here. I figure, since he follows along with math and reading, I can reciprocate by following his lead in all the other subjects.

At this point our daily school work looks something like this:

Math - first, we do 2-3 works sheets of logic and reasoning problems. He's working through a problems marked for ages 5-6 now although it's definitely not effortless. Since many of these problems require connecting the dots, drawing circles, coloring and otherwise putting a pencil to paper, he gets to work on his fine motor skills.

More Math - then we do "counting math" for 10 minutes or so. We are still staying within 1-10, but mostly working with numbers between 5 and 10 - adding, subtracting, even dividing. Also working on the concepts of odd and even, zero, and half of something (works so well with M's current interest in matching quantities of just about anything to his age, 4.5). We still use a lot of manipulatives for this math.

Reading - I'm grateful for a Russian cartoon called Smeshariki. M loves it (ok, I do too 'cause it's so funny). More importantly, he is a lot more willing to read now. The key is to have a reading primer book that's built around the cartoon. Thankfully I do have this book (having borrowed it from my cousin). So every day we practice reading two-letter combinations and then move onto longer words. M is a bit more fluent now, blends much better and is not particularly scared of long words. At least he was fine reading "воронка" and "мухомор" and a few other longish words. We are even trying some very short and simple sentences now.

More Reading - generally we end up our school with a reading session where I read chapter books. It can last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, depending on M's mood. He always loves this part of our school. The coolest part for me is that now he recognizes small-print letters in the books and points them out to me. He can even read some of the book titles, especially if they are short and the typeface is simple.

Everything else - this includes building with Legos (he actually prefers little blocks now and is not very interested in Duplos at all). Or it can be tinkering with his rather large collection of spare parts and junk. Or it can be playing with an even more sizable collection of rockets and robots. Starting this week, it's all about making decorations for Halloween.

Other than homeschool, he goes to soccer once a week and loves it so far. We also go to playgrounds, have playdates with his friends, and generally fill up our time with all sorts of interesting things, such as going to a Lego festival (actually, Chris took M there since I was in the la-la land thanks to Percocet).

Thankfully, Chris took quite a few pictures plus M told me all about the gigantic Lego StarWars sculptures. I think it was seeing these sculptures that made him re-consider Legos as a building medium. Before the festival he wasn't too keen on Legos. But afterwards, if he gets a new idea for building something (like every 5 minutes), he says that he can do it out of Legos. Because, as M put it, "you can build everything with Legos".

Finally, he's back to the idea of being an astronaut. Which means wearing his space suit, helmet, gloves to the playground and carrying an American flag ("so I can stick it into the ground like astronauts on the Moon and my friends will understand then"). So after running around the playground for a while and sliding down the slides, M decided that it was time for him to fix the rocket (the big slide). So here you see him clinging to the side of the rocket, trying not to float away into space while performing extensive (took him like half an hour) repairs on one of the boosters.

World Maker Faire 2011

2011-10-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

We went, we saw and we loved it! And I can't believe we almost didn't make it to the Faire. Our plans kept changing, but as I mentioned before, all's well that ends well. So here we were, in Queens, going to see... Actually, we weren't sure what we were going to see. Except we knew there would be robots there.

Sure thing, almost right at the entrance, there they were. And the best part was we could touch them, pick them up for a closer look and even play with them!!! Pretty awesome, right?

Most of them didn't resemble people, not even a little bit. So when M saw this little guy, he was practically jumping for joy.

But the fun didn't stop there. First, we came across AnnMarie Thomas' Squishy Circuits. And she was there her own self! A while ago we made a couple of circuits and played with them. We built a couple of circuits using just some LEDs and a motor. So while at AnnMarie's display we concentrated mostly on the motor and the buzzers. This was one of the busiest displays too. One of the things that I really liked was that the Squishy Circuits seemed to attract just as many girls as boys. Also, kids were very active and unafraid to try things. After all, most of them already had plenty of experience with playdough so this probably didn't seem like a whole new thing to them.

All in all, M got to play with quite a few toys and kits aimed at teaching kids the basics of electrical circuitry. The one that really stood out, IMHO, in addition to the Squishy Circuits, was this one above. Basically, it's just black conductive paint. This particular paint is specially formulated to be non-toxic and washable. So you paint with it, wait for the paint to dry, then hook up a battery to one end and an LED light or a buzzer or whatever, to another end. Or you could paint little (or big) wooden blocks with it, attach some mini-LEDs, mini-switches, etc and turn any block set into a circuit-building set. Pretty cool!

Over here on the picture the paint was used to draw pictures of musical instruments. Then kids could play music just by touching the pictures.

I was very happy to see Thinker Linkers at the Faire. M already played them at our local Maker Faire where he spent quite a long time building some very large and complicated structure. This time he was more interested in finding more robots. Still, he stopped by Thinker Linkers area and worked with Chris on assembling "a house for a robot". I really hope Marbles, our local kids museum, will add a huge mega set of Thinker Linkers to its collection of building toys! And if not Marbles, then maybe Durham's Life and Science Museum then even though it's a drive for us.

In the spirit of the Faire, we made not one, but two things - an LED throwie and this recyclables weaving craft. Guess which one took more time, more components and was more complicated?

And while you're guessing things, guess who in our family has the biggest head. Oh, but before you fall of your chair laughing, I am much taller than this in real life... at least 3 inches taller. Ok, maybe 2 inches. Still...

This was just about the best part of the Faire. Or at least right up there with all the other awesomeness that was going on. You see, the Faire was happening at the New York Hall of Science and the ticket to a Faire included admission to NYHS. Let me just say, if you are looking for something kid-friendly and amazing to do in NYC, put this destination at the top of your must-do list. Just make sure to leave plenty of time to explore the place.

NY - Pictures Only Edition

2011-10-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

I am hopelessly late with this post, so it's going to be pretty much pictures only.

So this one is of M on a deck a couple of days before Hurricane Irene went through the area.

And this one - a few hours before the hurricane. Notice the difference? Yep, this gave us (mostly Grandma, really) something to do. We (mostly she) were busy clearning the yard and lemme tell you, it never looked this nice!

Then there was also plenty of baking with Grandma (she's trying all those no-gluten recipes). M actually created his own recipe for a crispy cracker-like bread and mixed dough. Then we baked it and, surprisingly it was very good!

We did spend a few days post-hurricane without electricity, which at my parents' house also means without water. And M did get sick. But all's well that ends well. So we celebrated with a little get-together.

Also, grilled with Grandma

And tried out Uncle's motorcycle

Then one day, tired of staying in and our the house, I offered M a trip to the Bronx Zoo. And he said "NO WAY!". And that's how we ended up at the Intrepid instead.

And it was a huge win for all of us (Grandpa, M and myself) since we all enjoyed it. First, we looked at all the airplanes on the flight deck

Then we climbed all the way up to the captain's bridge for a nice view of the Downtown.

We then went to the lower decks where there was a museum with a very hands-on area for children (and yes, their parents). And as it turned out, there was a life-size model of Mercury landing capsule, complete with all the buttons and switches and all that. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you can guess what M was busy with for the next hour or so.

Nothing else could match the excitement of the capsule. Not even going onto a real submarine!

And the next day we also went fishing with Grandpa. Let me tell you, last time I went fishing, I was like in elementary school and it was boring. But this time we went to this little pond full of sunfish and in 4 minutes we caught 4 fish.

They were tiny and we were too glad to release them back. M liked fishing, but not the fish themselves who seemed to scare him with all the flapping and jumping. Plus they were cold and wet and slippery and overall not very pleasant to touch, as M noted.

Moebius Band Strikes Again

2011-09-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

There are just a few hours left in the Moebius Noodles fundraiser. We do need the last-minute push to make it happen and I'm asking you to take a quick detour to our Tipping Bucket page.

We're finally back in NC. But before we left NY on Sunday we went some place super awesome that I had no idea about. Specifically, we went to the New York Hall of Science in Queens.

It was a totally unexpected thing too since I had no idea there was much in NY outside of Manhattan (ok, Brighton Beach and the Bronx Zoo being notable exceptions). The reason we ended up at the Hall of Science was that the World Maker Faire was held there.

I'm going to do a separate post about the Maker Faire. It's simply too awesome and needs plenty of space of its own. But there, in the Hall of Science, in between Physics and Life Science was Mathematics section. And it opened up with a very large Moebius Band. And let me tell you, it was a huge hit with the younger crowd since they could push the big button and watch the arrow make its way all around the single surface of the band.

The whole scene reminded me how much fun math can be when it's hands-on and game-like. So I keep my fingers crossed for the Moebius Noodles project. Every child should have a chance to play with math, whether they get to go to the New York Hall of Science or not. Help us make it happen.

What is Moebius Noodles

2011-09-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

I really hated math when I was in school. Ever since that first word problem about 3 pipes filling a stupid swimming pool, it was boring and hard to understand. I tried to avoid it whenever I could.

Avoiding math was a miserable experience. And not the one I wanted for M. So I was excited earlier this year to take a course offered by my friend Maria Droujkova. The course was all about how to introduce math concepts to young children in a non-scary and highly engaging way. It is also about giving math-shy parents a second chance at succeeding at math.

In case you want to check out some of the games we played in the Moebius Noodles course:

And here's the link to more Moebius Noodles math games.

And now Maria is working on publishing a book and building a community around this novel idea of showing the non-boring, intuitive and fun side of math to both kids and parents. Does this sound like a great idea? If yes, then please support it by dropping a tip into Moebius Noodles tipping bucket and spreading the word. But please hurry since there are only 6 days left to raise the money.

Another Trip to NY

2011-09-04T17:01:00.001-07:00

Oops, it's Labor Day weekend and I haven't posted anything new in a while. Which is too bad 'cause we've been pretty busy and lots of interesting things have been happening. For example, once again we are in NY visiting my parents.

We drove up here almost 2 weeks ago. That was an eventful week for all of us. It started with an earthquake in Raleigh. Then we were busy packing and preparing the house for Hurricane Irene. Then it was time to drive to NY. Once again, we chose the backroads over I-95, partially because we wanted to make it a 2-day drive, not 1-day. It's more relaxed and more pleasant that way.

Driving through the mountains in western VA we noticed something great, the Blue Mountain Brewery. It was about time for lunch anyway and the place looked amazing - fermentation tanks with local brews, a huge veranda with fantastic views, a promise of cold fresh beer and locally-grown organic food.

Afterwards we pressed on and in another hour or so arrived at just about our favorite stop of the entire trip, the Frontier Culture Museum. Let me tell you, it's worth a trip in and of itself! I think this was our 4th visit there. So we figured we'd spend just a couple of hours there this time. I was actually a bit worried that our stop would be too short since, as it turned out, the African Village was closed in preparation for Hurricane Irene. Well, we ended up staying there for not two, not three, but almost five hours!

In fact, the visit turned into a great treasure hunt game for M. He found lots and lots of little treasures - a bit of washed wool, a feather out of a rooster's tail, wood shavings, a real iron nail that was made just for him and many many more exciting things. He petted a cat, fed chickens, tried his hand at carding, weaving, getting water out of a well, playing Jacob's ladder, etc. In short, it was awesome.

After a night in a crummy Best Western somewhere in Frederick, MD, we drove to Hershey, PA. I've been meaning to take M to Hershey for a couple of years. This time we were going for sure. Nothing could stop us, not steady rain nor threat of a downpour from the approaching Hurricane Irene.

I didn't realize how huge Hershey was! There's a ton of stuff there, in and around the factory. You can spend a whole day having fun and then, on Day 2 hit the Hershey amusement park next door. But we only had about an hour or so.

What I had in mind was to go on a little 15-minute World of Chocolate ride and create our own chocolate bars. Of course, the exit from the ride was through a gift shop and so it took us some extra time. But then we were on our way and arrived at my parents' house just 3 hours or so later.

32 + 1

2011-08-26T21:14:00.001-07:00

Another thing that happened in August was my birthday. Yes, again, it was that time of the year :) Chris made me a cake with a thick layer of chocolate frosting. Yum!!! Being frugal-minded, I was firmly against buying new candles and went with whatever we had left over from other birthdays. That's how I ended up with the "32+1" candles instead of a proper "33".

Homeschooling Report - Month 1

2011-08-26T20:30:00.001-07:00

I realize it's been forever and a day since I last posted anything. Well, there's been so much stuff going on lately that August was pretty much a blur.

We just finished our first month of homeschooling and, based on the experience, I already adjusted the plans for the second month. It's definitely a learning experience for both M and myself. Some worries I had prior to starting out never materialized. For example, I was afraid M would hate worksheets, but he doesn't. Some things that I thought he would be interested in, such as our geography lessons, he has no interest in.

Here's what we normally do:

Math Games - starting our days with math is working out really well. We usually play a simple, usually hand-drawn, game. For example, a game where we take turns rolling the dice and placing glass marbles on the sun rays.

Math Worksheets - last month M did 2-3 worksheets every other day. This month I will try daily worksheets and will concentrate more on logic and fine motor skills ones (i.e. mazes)

Math Lessons - we are using Al Abacus from The Right Start Math. It's a bit of a slow going right now. We usually go through the entire lesson one day and then review key parts the next day.

ABCs - right after math we usually do our reading lesson. The first part consists of reviewing a letter of a Russian alphabet. I'm using this really fun primer, "Учимся читать", and I like it so far. M seems to be ok with it although he's definitely not excited. He's doing a fabulous job figuring out first letters in words, but last letters are still very challenging. However, he blends sounds much better now.

ABC Games - these are simple games for reading and writing that I put together for him. For example, we played a "letter chain" game where I named (and wrote down) an object in the family room, M circled its last letter and then had to find another object in the room that started with the same letter.

Reading - boy, we've been reading A LOT lately. This is M's most favorite "lesson" by far. I was thinking we'd be reading fairy tales or short stories, but M chooses books for his story time and so far he chose to read "Девочка с Земли" [Girl from the Planet Earth], "Приключения Незнайки" [Adventures of Neznaika] and "Карлсон, который живет на крыше" [Karlsson-on-the-Roof]. These books are rated for elementary school-aged children, but M loves them.

Art, Science, Geography - I haven't been very successful at any of these. So next month we're trying something different. Instead of having these as separate activities, we will incorporate them into math and reading lessons.

Starting Homeschool - What Level Are We?

2011-08-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

We've started our first week of more official homeschooling in August. I figured, 4.5 years old is just about the perfect age to start getting ready for an Ivy League school.

All kidding aside, I'm pretty relaxed about the whole academic performance thing. And no, I'm not trying to make a genius out of my child. What I'm trying to do is to get across an idea that learning can be a lot of fun and do it in a very informal way.

This semester I decided to concentrate on Russian language (reading), maths (counting, arithmetic, basic geometry), and geography. Along the way I'm hoping to work on M's fine motor skills and a few other things.

We're starting pretty early because in September we'll be in NY for a few weeks and I want to get some routines established before that. Also, we simply couldn't wait any longer and that goes for both of us, honestly. Seeing all my prep work, M'd been asking me if we could start school right away.

So I created a schedule back in July. But now after a week of actually doing it, I'm already making big changes to it. I expect that I'll keep adjusting it as we progress. For example, the first day we did all the activities back-to-back with just a few breaks. But later in the week I adopted a less overwhelming approach. Early in the morning we'd do the math and reading work (which would take about 20-30 minutes total). Then we'd spread all the rest of the fun stuff - science, sensory play, geography, some writing games - throughout the day. It seems to work better that way and doesn't even feel much like school, just like a really fun play.

I also made some changes to the activities themselves to adjust for M's current interests. For example, the last couple of days he was busy painting a wooden rocket. He spent quite a lot of time on it too, working mostly independently (even getting the paint of the top shelf and pouring it carefully into the paint cup). So I cancelled one of the art activities.

Math games we play had to be adjusted as well. But more about that a bit later. Also, our daily story time is taking much longer than I thought it would. That's because right about the time we started our lessons, M got really into this Russian sci-fi book for kids called "A Girl from Earth" [Девочка с Земли]. The book is really for 8-10 year olds and I'm not exactly sure how much of it he really understands. But he loves it!

So his vocabulary now includes such words as "индикатор" [indicator], "грузовой отсек" [cargo hold], "бандит" [bandit], "склисс" [skliss, an alien flying cow], "звездолёт" [starship], "кают-компания" [mess hall], "отражатель" [reflector] and many many more. He also is busy playing out some of the parts of the book (and a cartoon based on it), such as buying the indicator from a giant snail, fighting space pirates, loading the flying cow into a cargo hold of a spaceship, etc, etc.

Back to homeschooling through... This week we

played a bunch of math games
practiced basic math (subitizing to 4, addition, subtraction to 4, sorting, grouping)
reviewed letter "A" and found it in a lot of words
identified beginning sounds of words
read A LOT of the "Girl from Earth" book and "Dad, Mom, Grandma, 8 Children and a Truck" book
built short words with magnetic letters
made playdoh and played with it
did a couple of science experiments
did art - sun art, tennis ball toss art, and paint with marbles art projects and painted a rocket
learned what a map is
learned a whole lot about Thailand, including tasting some jackfruit (never again!)

And, for Friday field trip, we went to a planetarium!

Some people asked me if I'm teaching M at a preschool level or above. I honestly don't know. Some of it seems to be totally preschool stuff, like most of our art projects and most of letter-learning activities. Math is a bit more complicated since he is working on addition/subtraction. Besides, I don't have a very clear idea of what they teach in preschools here anyway since it kind of varies.

I'll post more on the math and reading later.

Heat Wave

2011-07-30T20:01:00.001-07:00

The weather is scorching hot here. Last weekend we disregarded the heat and went to pick grapes at a vineyard about an hour's drive away. Actually, we hoped to pick grapes, peaches and apples. But turned out that peaches were all killed in the late spring frost and apples weren't quite ready for picking.

But the grapes were excellent.

We picked a lot of grapes and also had some grape slushies. These are always great!

The entire last week we mostly stayed indoors. This weekend we thought about going to a lake, but it's been record heat today, so we tried staying indoors as much as possible. Except, of course, at some point we went to Target and got a slip-n-slide, which was, conveniently, on sale.

So the rest of the day was pretty great. We set the slip-n-slide in the shade and ran it for a little while. I think Chris and I enjoyed it just as much as M did.

Star Wars Playdate

2011-07-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

It's been super-hot here every day this week and we've been trying to stay indoors as much as possible. But Monday wasn't too bad which was great 'cause that was our official Star Wars Playdate day with our homeschooling group.

Let me just say, the mom who came up with the idea did an amazing job organizing the whole thing. They even had time to bake Star Wars cookies!

We all got together at a local park. Everyone was encouraged to bring their Star Wars toys and dress up. M finally had his dream realized - all his friends brought their light sabers and were allowed to have as many battles as they wanted. Aside from almost non-stop light saber battles, there was some hard-core jedi training. It included Nerf gun practice, insignia making, light saber crafting, learning to navigate dangerous fog-filled jungles of Dagobah.

The capstone of the event was an epic battle - all the little kids against 2 teenagers who volunteered to be the bad guys (in exchange for a chance to handle dry ice).

It was super awesome! It also helped that a day before the playdate I scored this paper mask of Darth Vader for $0.25 at a Kids Exchange Sale. M was so thrilled. He put the mask on right away and walked around the house, breathing noisily and humming the Imperial March which is, of course, Darth Vader's theme.

He wore the mask as the playdate as much as possible, but insisted on being on the side of good. You see, his Vader is a rehabilitated one who's nice and even "helps Mama wash dishes".