Checking-in

Wow, am I a bad blogger this year :D

Our January was very challenging indeed, we managed to do school, read a lot and learn about a new country, but there were difficulties such as two new additions to our busy household- my sister came to visit and brought her sweet but demanding cat with her. Kids are overwhelmed with all the attention (5 grown ups around them) and so am I. I'm not sure I can do inter-generational household again. We had a small crisis regarding D. learning Russian, while his ability to write improved, his willingness to read it diminished, we tackled the problem, but I still have to remind him to speak more, and push him to find an appropriate word instead of just switching to English. Boy, am I grateful we homeschool, I don't think I'd be able to raise kids bilingual if I had to compete with school so much. Our math activities suddenly became "too easy" (c) for D., I'm trying to be more creative with our activities,it's trial and error so far. D. enjoys roller-skating classes, he's getting really good and asking for inline skating hockey classes (we'll see). He also continues his clay classes and learns piano with grandma. Baby C. started pre-school, she's slowly learning to read now, turns out she can count pretty well and knows her colors (oh joy of having an older brother), her English is far superior to D.'s at the same age (which is one less worry for me I guess).

Books we read in January can be found here.


Plans for February are to learn as much as we can about Ireland, to re-organize our home for leaving enough space for everbody, to re-think our math curriculum. I also need to find French curriculum for small children, D. keeps asking to learn and I need more structure in our lessons.

the best season of all- days 8 and 9

We had another lovely day yesterday- our friends invited us to a roller skating lesson for kids- it was so much fun! It was a first time for D. and now he can't wait to go back for more.

We made our traditional Cranberry Muffins (they were gone before I could take a picture :D)

We read some more winter poetry in Russian yesterday.


Today D. was in co-op all day and afterward we went and got our tree! We decorated it more sparsely this year to leave room for some more hand made ornaments that will be created. Kids are naturally very excited and this year little C. could really help with decorating.

No baking today, thanks to my friend who brought us a cheesecake :)

We read  "Little tree" by E.E. Cummings from our Christmas book.

Kids are in bed now and I'm ready for my holiday movie. Today it will be :
You've got mail

Week in review

Another week has gone by. It seemed to be a long one.
We finished cleaning up after a small renovation project in our home.
Monday: Went to the Museum of Nature and Science - they have fantastic Dinosaur expo now -complete with enormous T.rex skeleton and very realistic moving dino-robots and of course D. enjoyed Space section immensely.

Man on Mars in Space Odyssey expo

Also on Monday - Trick-or-treating  (C.'s first time too:)).

Clay class on Tuesday.
Preparing for D.'s first science fair (through our home option school) next week on Wednesday.
And the final highlight was a special treat yesterday- we saw  amazing "The Lion King" show in the Denver Center for the performing arts. Me and my husband saw this musical 7 years ago and wanted to see it again ever since. For D. it was first major theater experience. The show was absolutely spectacular- music, costumes, performance-there are no words to describe the beauty and excitement.

It was not a budget trip for us, but it was worth every penny.The show is targeted for kids 6 years and up (due to some scary special effects as it is stated in the brochure). C. stayed home with grandpa, which made me feel guilty at first, but later we all agreed it was a wise decision. I think for smaller kids it would be hard to sit through 3 hours of performance (it was hard even for D. and he was pretty tired after the show. The RTD train ride to the city was another special trip for D.- he hadn't been on public transportation since we left San Francisco (he wasn't even two then).
Today was a whole day in our co-op- what an amazing science teacher they have there! We are all very tired and ready to relax a bit during week-end.
Speaking of relaxation, lately I was surprised to find that even home schooled kids sometimes need help unwinding. As I've written before this year, 1st grade, is much harder for us, maybe because we are trying to continue with our pursuits in raising bi-lingual child, maybe because I also need to review my approach to organizing our days. Be as it may, D. is often really tired and wound up. I found this website that have some great advice on how to help a child to relax, I thought I'd share it here in case somebody needs it too.  Tree feet exercise and Turtle Walk were most helpful these past few days.

Happy halloween

First of all Happy Halloween to those of you who celebrate today.
We went trick or treating for the first time ever,  at first D. didn't want to go, changed his mind after the first funny bunch showed up at our door. Got A LOT  of candy, gave a lot away. Fun night.

What a busy weekend it was.
Mom's birthday, she's 50 and more beautiful than ever, I'm so thankful that we can be together at last without having to cross the ocean. Lots of love, Mama!

My dad bought a TV (which we were free of for three years and don't really need lol), so we had to move around  the furniture which in turn offended the cat and he had to find a new shelter. He kind of failed at first and was quickly found.

Also just found out about  Art Every Day Month challenge via tenacious lace. It sounds really interesting, I think I will definitely try it.

Background noise for the weekend : Ronan Hardiman -Whispering wind

Newest fan of Harry Potter :)

We are huge fans of Harry Potter series in this house. Until yesterday "we" meant only me and my husband. Yesterday D. saw the first movie. I'm still not sure if he was mature enough for it, he sad it was "a little bit scary". He enjoyed it a lot though, we will introduce the book next year perhaps. The reason why we showed him the movie is because we bought this Lego playset (yay Borders 40% off coupons!) and couldn't wait till Christmas.This play set is amazing, complete with little details such as owls and cutest mushrooms ever.

The best thing is that it is the only set that includes all of the three  main characters (which other set don't, Harry is always there but either Ron or Hermione are missing). We had so much fun putting the set together, sharing the instruction booklet and playing later.

 Another reason why this moment was so special is that I have discovered the series when I was expecting D.. Now that I can actually share it with him makes me happy and sad- time really does fly.