Winter Arrives

ANOTHER DANCING DAY: Annabelle had yet another special dance "camp" this morning. Today's theme: "A Ballerina's Christmas."

Annabelle spent 90 happy minutes dancing, drawing and watching a video. The special classes are always fun for her because she gets to meet new people.

POETRY BY NUMBERS: I thought it would be good to mark the first day of winter with a poem. I haven't had the kids write haikus before, so to help explain what one is, I thought it would be fun to write a haiku about haikus.

Very short poem
Easy and fun to write
Won't you try one now?

We went over the 5-7-5 syllable pattern, and then they took a crack at it. Annabelle whipped one out in short order.

Winter is so fun
I like playing with snowballs
Snow is really fun

Unfortunately, CJ found the process painful. He was so fixated on the 5-7-5, he couldn't think about actual content for the poem. I suggested he just forget about the numbers for a minute and tell me one thing he likes about winter. He immediately said, "Making snow angels." Well there you go, CJ, there's your first line! How easy is that?

Afterward, his attitude improved and he finished the haiku painlessly.

Making snow angels
People having snowball fights
Winter is so fun

While the kids wrote their wintery haikus, I on Vivaldi's "Winter, Allegro" from "The Four Seasons." I love it! If that won't get you going, nothing will!
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I also played an Elvis version of "Winter Wonderland."

TIMES TWO: Our new Singapore math chapter is about multiplication. Hallelujah! The kids were getting really tired of just addition and subtraction.

That said, I explained to them that multiplication is really just addition - but it's a quicker, easier way to add. For instance, 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16, and 4x4 = 16. I explained to them when they have the multiplication tables memorized, they'll be able to solve multiplication problems super quickly. Another thing I pointed about about multiplication is that you can flipflop the order and still get the correct answer. For example, if the problem says 6x3, but you haven't memorized your 6s yet, you can flip it to 3x6 and solve for it.

They whipped through two pages of simple multiplication questions with no problems or errors.

SEASONAL SONGS: Awhile back, I scored a Raffi holiday song book at the library. Today Annabelle was perusing it and decided they should play some carols on their glockenspiels. They plunked around playing "Jingle Bells" by ear, and did pretty well. HI-TECK HIJINX: Today we used a couple of really cool online tools to have some holiday fun. First up, we "Elfed" (or would it be Elved?) CeeJ and Bee. This tool came from the folks at JibJab. We had to select mug shots of each of them, upload them to Jib Jab's site, adjust the mugs for size and rotation, and then we got to choose the type of song and dance we wanted them to do. The choices ranged from country to hip hop to the Charleston. It was great fun! Here's a link to the traditional dance and a video of the elves surfing. By choosing the "Try Another Dance" feature, you can plug the kids' faces into any of the other styles. I think the Charleston was my favorite.

Next, I discovered the Portable North Pole site. Thanks to the folks there - and a little input from a Santa helper - Old St. Nick delivers a very customized video to children in just a matter of minutes. CJ and Annabelle were mesmerized when watching the videos Santa emailed them. (Annabelle's video; CJ's video). I'm so amazed that people are able to produce something like this.

LEFTOVERS: I forgot to include in yesterday's post the fact that the kids got to decorate cookies on the Space Needle Observation Deck. YOGA A GO GO: We did make it down to Columbia City late afternoon for yoga. We went about 15 minutes early so the kids could have a very mini birthday pow wow in the bakery across the street from the studio. Their best yoga buddy's bday is tomorrow.

There was a substitute teacher today. During class they apparently traveled to the moon. I'm sure CJ was Quite Worried as there's no oxygen there, and everyone knows we can't live without oxygen. ...

All of the kids emerged from class sporting bindis. Bee's was on her chin. CJ's was, not surprisingly, on his fingertip (he's not the sticker on your face type of guy).