Tuesday, December 05, 2023
Stake Dance
Mandela Effect re: conversions, transfers, etc.
Today Alexander chose to do his science reading with a laptop open beside him so he could verify facts because in his book he read that baby hedgehogs were called hoglets and that didn't feel very true to him because while he's heard of piglets, he hasn't really heard of hoglets before. But the internet confirmed that baby hedgehogs are often called hoglets and he felt better about verifying that fact.
Benjamin, meanwhile, was perplexed because in a math problem he solved a few days ago it said that $1 was equal to ¥90 and today a different math problem told him that $1 was equal to ¥80. We researched a bit about how exchange rates change (usually once per day) and what factors might affect that change.
In fact, today $1 is worth approximately ¥147.
Monday, December 04, 2023
Homemade ornaments
I didn't take many pictures while we were working on our Shrinky Dink ornaments this evening because I was so busy working on my own...and trying to keep Phoebe from wreaking havoc. Here's one of Miriam putting some Mod Podge glaze on Alexander's ornament:
Two year olds in tutus
Phoebe has discovered the joy of tutus. She has found so much joy in them, in fact, that she needed to wear one to bed last night.
Saturday, December 02, 2023
Making Christmas
Miriam baked cookies yesterday, experimented with flow icing last night, and this afternoon she whipped up some buttercream and allowed her siblings to finish decorating the cookies she had leftover. The cookies turned out great (I'm sure Miriam has pictures of her beautiful creations on Instagram) and the kids had a lot of fun together.
Thursday, November 30, 2023
Really instructive
Two stories
There are a couple of funny stories that I wrote down on Facebook, which I neglected to record here, so I will put them here as well. The first is from two weeks ago when Alexander couldn't live without his emergency paperclip supply. He took a paperclip to co-op. He took a paperclip to church. He had to have paperclips on him at all times!
Alexander: See this paperclip? I can use it to unlock the bathroom door! So if it ever gets locked with nobody inside, I can be the one to let people in!
Me: Well, hopefully that won't happen *too* often.
Alexander: Yeah.
*****Later*****
Me: *knock, knock* Hey, who's in the bathroom?
Bathroom: ...
Me: Nobody. Okay.
Alexander, brandishing paperclip: I can fix that.
Me: Thanks, buddy. Hey, are *all* the bathroom doors locked?
Alexander: *looks sheepish*
Me: Okay, how about we unlock all the bathroom doors and use the paperclip only in case of actual emergencies. We don't need to fabricate emergencies, okay?
Alexander: *walking around wearing a necklace of paperclips*
Me: Huh. Nice necklace.
Alexander, patting his necklace: For emergencies.
*************
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Christmas Trees
Andrew took Miriam to a musical rehearsal on Sunday evening, so while I was home with the rest of the kids I pulled out our new little Christmas tree (another Buy Nothing Group score) and set it up in the basement. Rachel and I also lugged the parts for the big Christmas tree upstairs (but we didn't put it all together until Monday) because I wanted to get to a box of Christmas books that was behind the Christmas tree.
Phoebe was so excited about the Christmas tree. Zoë taught her how to be a "present" under the tree.
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Jack-o-lanterns
We put up our big Christmas tree yesterday (and a small Christmas tree on Sunday evening), so I thought it was only fair that I post about carving pumpkins on the afternoon of Halloween. Because we did that.
Andrew got three big pumpkins for the kids to carve. We paired up and made plans together: Rachel and Miriam, Benjamin and Zoë, and Alexander and me. Andrew focused on taking care of the seeds while Phoebe busied herself by getting into everyone's business.