Twenty Ten

JANUARY (chow-ch-chow-chow-chow): We started off this morning by crafting a January calendar. Of course, this meant reciting the "Thirty days has September" poem. Days of importance we marked included MLK Day, as well as our regular gigs (yoga, music, ballet) and an exciting new addition to the calendar - Tae Kwon Do for CJ on Monday and Wednesdays. This month also marks the first of several "special holidays" we'll call Daddy Furlough Day (City of Seattle employees are being 'given' one day off a month this year in a budget cutting measure).

The kids see Furlough Day as a boon, as it means an extra day a month with Dad around. :) I see the upside, for certain, but also I'm old enough to know it comes with a hit to the checkbook. But I digress ...

DECEMBER REWIND: Before diving into new work, we took a few moments to take a look back at the papers from December that had accumulated in their folders. We found lots of math worksheets (addition and subtraction, story problems, patterns, money values and more), info about hibernation, the Arctic and glaciers. Literacy work included writing about Rudolph, their favorite Christmas ornament and Santa letters. There were also exercises dealing with alphabetical order, a concept we introduced in December. I think this look back gives the kids a sense of accomplishment - and it helps me keep track of where we've been and where we should be going!


GOING FOR BAROQUE: For morning music, we got our classical on. Man, if Vivaldi's Winter violin concerto doesn't make you feel better about the short days and miserable weather, nothing will. We cranked up the volume, had the bass shaking and played it twice - the kids were totally into it, dancing around the house.

According to Wikipedia: "The concertos were first published in 1725 as part of a set of twelve concerti, Vivaldi's Op. 8, entitled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest between Harmony and Invention). The first four concertos were designated Le quattro stagioni, each being named after a season. Each one is in three movements, with a slow movement between two faster ones.

LETTERS, WE'VE GOT LETTERS: Today's literacy exercises included filling missing letters into blanks (kind of like playing hangman) and writing a couple more thank you letters. The kids also addressed a couple of envelopes. They took extra care trying to make their envelope writing legible, as I told them if the mail people can't read it, their lovely little notes won't get delivered.

One of the things we worked on today (and we'll work more on in the days to come) was phonemes (easy for you to say!). For help we turned to Colin the Clam on the BBC's education Web site. He was the host of Sandcastle Quiz. Colin would say words and the kids would have to guess which letters were correct to complete them. For instance, Colin might say "owl" and then choices would be "ow" or "ou." The kids did well at the exercise - in fact, I think the hardest part was them getting used to Colin's British accent!

SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN: For math today, we broke out the brand new The Price is Right game from Grandma and Grandpa. It's a DVD-based game, which is nice for a change. We spend plenty of time on the computer.

It was easy to understand and play and a really great gateway to get the kids thinking about bigger numbers (hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands). For instance, once CJ was supposed to write down the value of a scooter he'd won. I told him to write "two thousand four hundred and ninety nine." He wrote it 2000 400 99, which makes perfect sense, of course. So we talked about ones, tens, hundreds and thousands digits/places. Good stuff to know. As they game progressed, they definitely were getting the hang of writing four and even five digit numbers.

It was funny - while playing you would have thought Annabelle was right there on contestants' row. She would shriek every time a prize was announced, and jump up and down clapping and cheering. (Her enthusiasm paid off. She did manage to win TWO cars during one go-round!)

SWEET SPOT: Sunday, I spied an awesome furniture find on Craigslist - a gorgeous, well-built copper topped bar which could function quite nicely as our kitchen island. At just $150 (it was a recently-transplanted millionaire's cast off. The cars in their garage were worth way more than our house!) it was worth the drive to Issaquah - about 35 minutes to the east. So off we went, across Lake Washington, through Bellevue and to Issaquah.

But wait - what's this I see on a highway sign at the exit just before our destination? Why, it says "Tourist Attraction - Boehms Candies." A CHOCOLATE FACTORY?! Are you kidding me?

Clearly, it was Destiny.
And so we found ourselves at Boehms Candies Inc. The story behind the business is inspired - former Olympian Julius Boehm fled Nazi Germany (by skiing over the Alps!0 and wound up in the PacNW in 1941. He and a friend opened their first candy shop in Seattle in 1943. In 1956, Julius moved Boehms Candies to the Issaquah foothills, where it remains.

The present day Boehms factory looks its age. I have to think that perhaps the grounds are a couple of decades past their prime. IMHO, the phrase "tired kitschy meets Americanized Austrian" might best describe it. ...

By inquiring at the candy store/chalet, we found out that on this day taking a factory tour meant that we could shuffle past windows, on the outside looking in. And so, we did. We saw old pots and burners but, alas, no chocolatiers at work today (not too surprising, really, given it was a Sunday right after New Year's Day).

The most interesting part of the "tour" was seeing some of the molds they use to make chocolate figurines. In the last window we did see a worker - just some young woman in an Alpine-y getup, poking around at empty chocolate boxes.
Despite the disappointments, it still was a boon to have stumbled upon the place, and the kids each got to pick out several chocolate treats to take with, so it's all good! (We're still going to go on a tour of Theo Chocolates - and hopefully see some real live chocolate production, perhaps along these lines ...)

KARATE KID: Tonight was CJ's first martial arts class! I found a class he and Christian could take together, conveniently held at the nearby Queen Anne Community Center. The class ran from 6 to 7 and it sounds like it was all sorts of fun - and a good workout! The teacher is a black belt whom they are supposed to call Ms. Ahn (apparently sensei is a Japanese term, and not used in Tae Kwon Do). (As it turns out, by day, the fourth degree black belt is a financial analyst for Nordstrom.)

They got right into form work and punching and kicking tonight! CJ got to do some of his exercises with the teacher, which I'm sure was fun for him. For CJ's homework, he was asked to find out and memorize the meaning of courtesy. Christian did a quick Web search when we got home and learned that YE-UI (courtesy) is the first tenet of Tae Kwon Do.

TEACHING ME A THING OR TWO: While the guys were doing their thing, Annabelle and I did an aerobic workout followed by Pilates. During the cool down stretches after aerobics, Bee said, "Oh, this is like ballet - Plié second position!" During a later stretch she noted, "This is like the elephant pose," which she knows from yoga. Nice to know these things are sticking with her, and interesting to note the crossovers.

SAY WHAT?: Just before bedtime, while playing with Ninja Turtles, out of nowhere CJ asked, "What does 'prototypic' mean?"