We've Gone Nuts!

SKY WRITING: First thing this a.m. we headed up the spiral staircase for some math practice. Months ago I'd bought some markers made specifically for writing on windows. I bought them because I recalled CJ's former occupational therapist (and present yoga teacher) had told me that writing on vertical surfaces is good for developing kids' fine motor skills.

First I reviewed the ones, tens and hundreds place values concept with the kids. Then I dictated math problems and had them write down the three-digit numbers and add two three-digit numbers together. I'll be darned if CJ didn't nail each and every one without the need for a prompt of any kind (even when it came to carrying a 1!)

Annabelle wasn't quite as quick to remember the process (we've only done math like that once before), but buy the third problem she was totally up to speed.

NUTTY FOR NUTCRACKERS: A couple of weeks ago at the library, I scored a couple of Nutcracker books as well as a Nutcracker movie. I decided today was the day we were gonna dive on in. I didn't know what I was getting into. ...
We started with "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," a big, beautiful book that was seemingly every word of the (long and rather bizarre) Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann classic tale. Freaky characters included Godfather Drosselmeier (a toymaker with a wig of spun white glass and a patch over his missing right eye) and the seven-headed Mouse King (as if a one headed mouse threatening to eat you isn't creepy enough).

The ink illustrations in this book are colorful and captivating, which was a good thing, considering it took us a full hour to read.

Up next, we screened "The Secret of the Nutcracker."
Boy oh boy, was it quite a departure from the traditional Nutcracker story and the Nutcracker ballet. It centered on a girl named Clara (the name of the main charachter Marie's doll in The Nutcracker story/balled). It took place during WWII, and Clara's father was a POW in a Nazi camp.

Clara lived with her two brothers and her mother somewhere rural and snowy (the movie was filmed in Alberta, Canada). She met a mystical character/creature named Drosselmeyer, who was a human/owl hybrid who befriends and looks over Clara, bringing her gifts filled with magic and hope (including an enchanted dollhouse, which was an element in both books, as well).

In the books, the Mouse King and his army of mice were the creepy nemesis. In the movie, Clara and her family were attacked by creatures that looked like humans wearing a black bear taxidermy over their heads and backs. Oh, and the "bears" were wearing Nazi uniforms. Did I mention it was weird?

Annabelle was totally into the movie; CJ, not as much. However, he kept an eye on it while playing Time Travel Elvii with the Elvis dolls.

After the movie, we read the second book. Published in 2009, it's a retelling of ETA Hoffmann's Nutcracker, this time by an English professor John Cech. It stuck pretty darn close to the original story; the differences were few and far between.

As we wrapped up our 5-hour Nutcracker-related marathon, it occured to me how pleased I am that our current schedule allows this type of learning to take place. Instead of being interrupted or distracted by a rigid standard school schedule (for instance morning recess, set literacy, math, art, PE, etc. times, a rigid lunch schedule, and so on ), we are free to really delve in depth into a topic, letting things take as long as they take and not feeling pressured to move along just because we have to, well, move along.

THE DOG ATE MY PIZZA: At midday I tried to sneak in a shower and maybe, just maybe, five minutes of peace. I have the kids all set up with lunch, water, and a program (the Nutcracker movie) to watch. What could go wrong? ...

Yeah, well, I'm barely wet when Annabelle bursts in the door shouting, "Kirby ate my pizza!"

So I towel off and assess the damage. Fortunately, I was able to cut the canine bite mark out of Annabelle's slice and calm was restored to the campus.

YOGA A GO-GO: Shortly after The Nutcracker activities wound down, it was time to head out to yoga. It occurs to me that at some point I should ask the yoga teacher if there is an older kids' session that maybe we should switch to. As things stand now, during yoga CJ looks like Gulliver and the rest of the class (almost always all girls) look like Lilliputians.

MUZZY's NOT FUZZY: On the long drive (40 minutes) home from yoga, I had the kids listen to the soundtrack from the Muzzy DVDs they watched a few days back. Though they were entirely in Spanish, I'll be darned if they recall what each and every song was about, almost verbatim. I was really impressed.

LIVE! FROM OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: As we were coming home from yoga tonight (around 5:30), I passed the scene of the coyote attack (the place we fondly call our park!). KIRO TV was there with satellite truck and lights. So we turned on channel 7 and sure 'nuff, there's a reporter standing in the park, talking about last night's attack, and how just seconds after pulling up to the park this afternoon, the TV crew spotted a coyote again. They're not sure it's "the" coyote though, as the prevailing wisdom seems to be there are probably a couple of them in the 'hood. A shot I took of the coyote who visited our yard a few weeks back. Apparently he likes our neighborhood a LOT.

I know that there was a Seattle Police Department squad car parked 5 houses down from us all afternoon today, apparently on coyote watch. I'm really not sure why - they can't shoot the thing (unless/until it goes after human flesh) and somehow I'm doubting SPD can relocate one. Like that's covered in the training academy. As proof of my point, KIRO's report included footage of one burly female officer trying to entice the coyote with meat on a leash. That's right, MEAT ON A FREAKING LEASH. Um, what, pray tell, is the plan for when the coyote comes after the bait? Are you going to cuff it and escort it to the police cruiser? No, wait, after it eats the meat, you can hook the leash to the doggie's collar. ...

I told Christian at this point, I don't even want them to catch the damn thing(s), because as long as there's a cop parked on our street, staking it out, the number of burglaries in our neighborhood is BOUND to go down!

DINNER MUSIC: During dinnertime, I thought we simply had to listen to some of Tchakofski's Nutcracker. The first passage I selected was the enchanting and very familair Flower Waltz, performed by the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Eiji Oue conducting. Afterward, Annabelle asked to hear some Mouse King music, so I found the music from Act I, Scene 7 of the ballet: The Battle Between the Nutcracker & the Mouse King. Naturally, there was a marked contrast in tone and tempo between the two pieces. It was clear the latter was written with a battle in mind. There were lots of snare drums, cymbal clashes and other battlefield-like sounds.

After dinner I spied CJ in a corner, quietly playing with the Nutcracker books. "Oh no! Now the Nutcracker Prophecy has been changed!" he declared before mumbling something about there now being two Mouse Kings and that, clearly, meant Big Trouble and upset the balance of the Nutcracker Universe.

DOH!: It was well into this afternoon when I realized that it was Seattle Home School Group's park play day. So, I guess we're not going this week again. So we'll have to go next week. Really. I mean it. ...