Homo...what?

How much structure does a 5 year old need and what is considered to be age appropriate? The other day in the library I came across a book "What your first grader needs to know" and looked through it. The minimum standard does not seem to be a lot. We have covered a lot of topics with the girls just by reading books, some topics we have not came across just yet. But I do not see the reason fro worrying or trying to "catch up". They will know the names of the constellation eventually, or who Vasco da Gama was, and so on. I do try to expose them to as much information as possible, to see what interests them and takes on their attention, what makes them to be passionate and excited. Because when I see their eyes light up, I know that's when the learning is happening.

I haven't talked to Ivana about vowels and consonants (maybe I should, though), or as a matter of fact about many other rules that are believed to help your child learn to read. But what I'm trying to do is to pay close attention to the discoveries and observations that she is making on her own and then "feed the fire".

The other day Ivana wanted to write a thank you letter to her cousins for coming over and bringing a yummy chocolate cake. I love when she initiates something like that, because then I look at this time of her sitting down to write as the moment to apply her knowledge she had acquired to something meaningful, rather then doing tedious writing exercises from a work book.

So she started commenting on some words from her letter, like"wood" and "would", or 'dear" and "deer", how they sound the same but are spelled differently. And today I decided to introduce her to a new word "homophones" and came up with a longer list of these kind of words. We sat down on a sofa, and while I was nursing Milana kind of "worked with" the list. There was no need for me to explain to Ivana as she had made a discovery a day before all by herself. We came up with different sentences, she practised writing them. We had fun and she was excited to see so many words that can be a bit tricky, as I call them, that's when Tata came home she was very eager to teach him about the homophones.

And Mirek's reaction was , "Homo...what was that?"

Now... I'm sure the term "homophones" will not stick around in her little head for a long time, but I have made sure she had gotten that "extra serving of baby spinach salad when her body was craving iron", if I might use that kind of metaphor... I just satisfied her natural curiosity.

Ancient Rome.

It always starts with reading a book. And since we read a lot in this house, the girls are wonderful at coming up with different ideas and entertaining themselves.

Today we were reading a book about ancient Rome. It's a book for a bit older kids, but we managed to sit for a while and go through a couple of pages before Ivana and Leona were ready to do a fun activity. First, we came across the page where they described how Romans were using the mosaics to decorate their homes and there was a suggestion to try to make a paper mosaic. I did not have to ask my girls twice. Off we moved to the table and started cutting the construction paper. Ivana wanted to make a tree and Leona settled for the fish I drew for her. We picked three colors not to make the project too long, but still to have a nice colorful picture.

It turned out to be a very time consuming project. Leona did not have the patience to finish her design up, and Ivana was ready to give up half way. But I'm trying to teach our oldest to finish what she'd started and I offered her my help. The project was coming along faster when we decided to stop putting glue on each separate square of paper, but instead put glue on the design itself and then quickly arranged the squares. Ivana's interest in finishing up returned as she was able to see the result faster, as at her age the project is mostly about the result. She did a great job and later showed it to Tata with pride.

Then we read up a bit more on the Romans, and the the girls wanted to have their lunch lying down, like the Romans. It was not going to happen, however I allowed them to have their banana snack the Romans' way. But first, Ivana asked me for a bed sheet so she could really look like a Roman woman wearing her toga and sandals.

We went for a walk and Ivana picked some kind of dried plants to try and make the papyrus. She let the stems soak in the water for a while and then tried to weave them together. Of course it did not work, she was a bit disappointed but quickly get over it and comforted herself saying that one day she'd go to Egypt and get that special plant to make the papyrus (we'd watched a program about ancient Egypt a couple of days prior and they'd mentioned the papyrus making process).

In the afternoon we sat down to do our writing exercise with Ivana and continued with our theme of the day. She wrote these sentences:
-Ancient Romans decorated their houses with mosaics.
-The Romans spoke a language called Latin.
-The Romans wrote on papyrus.
-At parties the Romans ate lying down.
-The Romans wore sandals and togas.

That's why we love to read books as they can be extremely inspiring and help to create an all day learning experience without any formal setting, in a natural and fun way.

Storage boxes.

I came up with a great idea! As I am a neat freak and like the things organized it was driving me nuts sometimes to see the girls' toys all piled up together without any system. They would come to me and ask where their tea pot was, or doll, or some other toys that I had no idea about. And all these little things that are always lying around and everybody step on them and they end up in the garbage. We made food with Ivi and Leona from a dough, they got a beautiful tea set and a baking set for Christmas, and again everything was all over the house.

When clementines were in season I kept the boxes having a smart (I think so !) idea of decorating them and using them for storage of little toys. And they are just perfect! The boxes are not too big, they were pretty easy to decorate, and you can stack them up.

Here's what we did:
-ripped the cover paper and cleaned the sides of the boxed from the glue;
-painted the inside and outside with bright acrylic paints;
-took decorative napkins and separated the fine top layer with the design, then glued them on the box with the Mod Podge Glue.

And that was it! You could use any napkins with any nice designs. We happened to have the ones with roses, fruits, flowers and bugs. Now in the evenings the girls put their toys away into the boxes, satisfying my freaky desire to have things neat. I know, it's all about what we as parents want!

Daddy is fun!

It was so wonderful that Mirek was able to stay with me for almost two weeks after the baby was born. I tried to get a lot of rest, did minimal cleaning ( just closed my eyes when going to the bathroom), avoided cooking complicated meals for lunch or dinner (ate a lot of leftovers and cheese sandwiches, sometimes cereal for lunch)... I had been sitting on the same spot on the sofa for hours at a time (so that my bottom would get numb) nursing Milanka and just gazing into her beautiful face and stroking her soft and plump cheeks...
And Mirek was spending a lot of time with the two big sisters. Taking them sledding and skiing behind the house on a septic hill, reading Czech books, and just having a lot of fun. That's his thing... He is a lot of fun to be around and Ivanka and Leona really loved him being at home all this time.
He's been back to work this week and we surely miss him! I've attempted to drive with the three of them and I think it went pretty well. On Tuesday I took Ivana to her dance school, and on Wednesday we went to the homeschooling coop that she enjoyes going to very much. It was very refreshing to see our freinds again after such a long break. I guess we are more or less back on our feet with the things we used to do before Milanka was born. Have not done the grocery shopping with all the girls yet... Maybe I'll wait a bit longer with that as I'm not looking forward to nursing the baby in the supermarket!

Lady hats.

Since I've been preoccupied with the baby for the last couple of days and not spending enough time with my two big girls, yesterday we did a fun project together. We had "Ladies only party". There were no guests invited, just me and them but we had a good time anyway. First, we made and decorated hats from the paper plates, then we painted nails, then we had tea with some cookies, and finally the girls made a stage performance. The little one was sleeping for an hour an a half, and we managed to do everything we wanted to.
Now it's all about finding the time...and learning again to do a lot of things with one hand...and giving Ivana more responsibility to take care of herself, her younger sister and helping me. I feel a bit unsettled for now, and a lot of times unaccomplished when the day turns into night, but I know it's only a temporary feeling. For now I just can't stop counting my blessings...