Enter November

Here are the pumpkins the kids carved (with Christian's help) this weekend.
IN NOVEMBER'S GUSTY GALE: First thing this morning, I asked the kids if they knew the date. I figured this would be an easy question. "Everyone" knows Halloween is Oct. 31 and that's the last day of October, right?

Well CJ remembered that yesterday was Oct. 31, but he guessed today to be the 32nd. Annabelle let him know he was wrong, that no month has more than 31 days. So she knew it was the first, but neither could remember the word November. I remedied that by pulling up "Chicken Soup with Rice" on YouTube.

Now that they both knew it was November, I asked them what they recall as being special about that month. Naturally, I was expecting something about Thanksgiving or Veteran's Day. What did I get. "Is it called "NOvember because you don't do stuff you don't want to do in November?" CJ asked (seriously, I think). Um, no, CeeJ, that is NOT what November's about. ...
Clearly it wasn't our most stellar 'school day' start.

DAY OF THE DEAD: Once we got into our November groove, the kids did recall that the day after Halloween is La Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead.

Fortunately, a couple weeks ago I picked up a book from the library on the holiday:
"Day of the Dead" part of the Celebrations in My World series.

It's a wonderful resource - 32 colorful pages filled with detailed-but not dry-information. We had no problemo powering through the book.

The kids were reminded that the Day of the Dead is not about being afraid of spirits (as is the case on Halloween, hence the hiding via masks and costumes). Rather it was about celebrating dearly departed and welcoming back their spirits for a short visit.

The book explained that the holiday is a blend of more than one culture, and that it was heavily influenced by the Mayans, who believed that adults who died had to go through nine levels of the underworld. There, challenges they faced included a fierce jaguar and icy winds. I told CJ that sounded like the makings of a cool video game. After we finished the book, we hopped online and searched for a "Day of the Dead" video game online and we found none. I told CJ I think he needs to design one.

SKULL DUGGERY: Skulls are a huge part of Day of the Dead decorations of all kinds, and so I thought we should try our hand at drawing some.

I found a skull drawing tutorial on YouTube. It was completely wordless - we just had to watch and follow. The kids learned a couple of important things today. First, that when drawing with pencil, it really helps to have a light touch at first, as that's much easier to erase later. Second, they worked on smudging and shading with pencil lead today - good techniques to know. Here's a closeup of CJ's...
They were each pleased with their final product.

SUGARY SKULLS: Not ready to settle for sketching skulls on paper, we also put to use a great pair of skull cookie cutters I bought a month or so ago.

The kids were instrumental in helping mix up the cookie dough - they read the recipe to me off the computer while I mixed it up in the kitchen. It was a good reminder regarding the IMPORTANT differences between teaspoon and tablespoon and how to properly read fractions.
They rolled out and cut out their skulls. After they had sufficiently cooled, we broke out all the colored sugar goodness I have stashed all over the kitchen and we all went at it.
ARTS IN THE AFTERNOON: One of the Day of the Dead customs we learned about this a.m. was the "Old Man Dance" or La Danza de los Viejitos. It starts with dancers stooped and moving slowly and then they apparently recapture their youth and dance up a storm, only to slow down again in the end.

We found a nice example of the La Danza de los Viejitos on YouTube, with some street dancers in costume performing it. The kids got into it, getting up and dancing along with the music for most of the clip.

The kids completed most of their Musikgarten homework this afternoon. First, they transcribed "Hot Cross Buns" onto lined (staff) paper). Next, they had to draw a picture that reminded them of the character Molly from "Cockles and Mussels." Boy, did CJ not want to do that drawing. Not sure what his reluctance was. He finally soldiered through, his picture taking all of two minutes tops (a mostly stick figure pushing a wheelbarrow that's not even touching the ground).

Annabelle took more time. When I asked her about her drawing, she sang, "She died of a fever, And no one could save her, And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone. Now her ghost wheels her barrow, Through streets broad and narrow, Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

After the pencil to paper portion of music, the kids got out their glockenspiels. The challenge was to play "Mouse, Mousey" perfectly by ear. I let them take turns. They had to stop as soon as they had a mis-hit. That made the exercise a lot of fun.

Annabelle finally had a clean run and CJ was oh so close, but then he lost focus and it all went to hell, basically. We never did get through it before it was time to go to ballet.

CJ GEMS: When Annabelle was in the shower this morning, CJ said, "She's been in there for 10 minutes. That's twice five minutes! That's 600 seconds!"

Nice to hear his math at work!

CJ also took some time out this afternoon to tutor me in how to make a smiley face on the computer. (Of course I knew how to do so already, but kept my mouth shut.)

CJ showed me that you use "the two dot thing like after someone's name in a play (dialogue)" followed by "the thing above the zero." I was also coached that you have to turn your head sideways to see the smile, and that "you do the opposite," or the above the 9, for a frown.

I asked him where he learned that and he said a YouTube video. I swear, everything's on YouTube.

BEE PREPARED: It's not unusual for CJ or Annabelle or both to migrate upstairs to our room at some point during the night. Always, always, always, Annabelle remembers to bring with her whatever thing or things she took to bed with her the night before (a stuffed animal or two, usually). The other night she not only brought her slippers up, but she carefully lined them up outside our door, so she'd have them in the morning. I don't know how she has the presence of mind to do such things from a dead sleep.OLD BUDDY FROM THE WEB: CJ has been asking me for days/weeks to post this creation that he and Annabelle made using the Sonic Character Creator tool they found online. So here, after much ado, is Mecha Man.