Jumbling Towers (of Fun)

Tonight, we played "Jumbling Towers" or better known as Jenga. I brought the game from Target on sale for $2.50+tax. It was a blast. The kids had so much fun. It was hilarious.

Prime was slower to figure the game out, but once he did, there was no stopping him. He was concentrating hard and determined to get the piece he eyed on even if it wobbled the whole tower. :0)

J on the other, figured it out much faster but after the tower tumbled down on her turn, she got a little nervous over the crashing sound of the tumbling blocks and decided to sat out for her next turn. But she loved to watch.

Share some of the best and funniest pictures I took of J and Prime:


Prime and J taking out a block; The blocks came tumbling on J.

Look at the difference between J and Prime. Prime concentrates hard while J can't contain herself over the bubbling excitement. :)

More of J's funnies. :) Look at the happy smiles. The crash was little too loud for her comfort... covering up her ear.

I like homeschooling

After about 2 weeks of homeschooling, this is what J gave me Thursday, 1/29.
Not sure why my hair is sticking out like that. ;- P


These are from yesterday: blueberry pie making as a result of the Enki story "Miss Many More". This is inspiration from another Enki mom. Prime filling up 1 cup of blueberries ; J washing the berries; more measuring by J.

Just so you know, our pie did not turn out as beautiful as it could because I did not "flute" the edges of our pie but it was still yummy and we finished it up in no time.

This is from today. J orchestrated another short show; this time Prime is Moses from the Bible and he raised his staff (a dowel) to part the red sea (silks). :) It was cute.

Books Prime liked

Frances series, especially Bread and Jam; Best Friends for Frances by Russell Hoban

He is able to read the following level 1 books by himself :

1. "What is That?" said the cat by Grace Maccarone
2. "Where's Your Tooth?" by Rozanne Williams
3. "A lunch with Punch" by Jo S. Kittinger

He will read it over and over, to me, to daddy, to himself.

He also enjoyed The Big Honey Hunt By S & J Berenstain

Prime enjoys character books, whether it is Frances, Franklin, Berenstain bears or Batman or Power Rangers. His favorite books tend to be series books. He also love animal books like non-fiction animal books and not books simply with animal characters.

I have tried nature books like Owl Moon or The Tomten and he was not keen on those. The only exception I found was Lynn Plourde series and I think he likes them because there is character in those. He didn't like fairies books like the Children of the Forest by E. Beskow series either except Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane.

Funny Prime

As we were making our blueberry pie today, Prime was tasting everything and he tasted the corn starch before I even saw him do it. And he went, "yuck", 'eh' !! He probably thought all the ingredient tastes good since he tried sugar, salt, and cinnamon. So the corn starch was a big surprise for him. His expression was hilarious. ;-P

How I wish I could catch it on camera. Oh, well.

Relaxing day (and observations )

Today, we had a relaxing day. J still did her morning work and we still listened to an Enki story. The kids are listening to Bimwili, an Enki adapted African kindergarten fairy tale story. Both kids really liked this one although Prime wanted to listen to Miss Many More again. I think he feels he didn't understand the whole story yet.

But since that is a 1st grade math story, I told him to wait until its his time. J have already heard the story and done the summary/drawing for that story. Later today, we are actually going to bake a blueberry pie together. This is will be our first time making blueberry pie, so we are all excited.

I have noticed J seem to be more taken with Bimwili than the Enki 1st grade fairy tale so maybe I will try more kindergarten-type fairy tale stories with her. Perhaps it is the length of the story. I feel Enki 1st grade fairy tale story tend to be long; maybe it is because they don't speak to me and don't speak to J. I don't know. I talked to Beth Sutton, who is the founder of Enki Education, and she suggested that I use the Enki method but use stories that J really likes and try the 1st grade fairy tale once in a while and see if they speak to her or mirror her development.

For Chinese culture today, I let the kids have "sweet water chestnut". This is a candy which is eaten only during Chinese new year. J really like it while Prime not so much. I think he was not hungry at the time so food held no appeal to him.

The Chinese character on the package is upside down and is done purposely so that the lucky will "come". In Chinese, "come" and "down" is similar therefore the up-side-down character of LUCK.

We have also been watching Chinese drama, mostly me. But the kids like to watch too, especially Prime. He understands the least Chinese in our family but laughs the hardest during the movie. He likes to watch people's faces and there is a servant in the movie who always makes funny faces at the bad guys and say funny things.

We also got new books from the library and I will update the list of books Prime and J reads.

The joy of friends

Today, I took J back to her school to attend the "accelerated reader party". This party is from the 2Q where J read enough books and passed enough reading quizzes and qualified to attend this party. The librarian from her school was nice enough that she sent J an invitation to attend the party even though she no longer is a student there.

Anyway, I walked J to her ex-classroom few minutes before the school was over to see if she can stay there for a few minutes while I get out of the school before things gets crazy in the parking lot.

The second an x-classmate of J's saw her, he said, "J, we missed you. When are you coming back?" LOL. Then, before I knew it, a swarm of friends came over and they were surrounding J and doing a big group hug in a circle. It was so touching. I couldn't see J's face as she was facing the classroom. On the way to her 1st grade class room, her Kindergarten teacher saw J and was really happy to see J even though she was talking to another parent at the time. But she held J's hand for a long time. So that was really sweet too! It is such a joy and blessing to have friends. I'm so glad J has so many people who love her.

Here is J's picture from the Enki math story of "Miss Many More":

This is a counting-by story.

Prime's progress on reading

Today, Prime read 3 level 1 books by himself. He actually read the books 2 times each. The first time, I just wanted to see how many words he knows and the 2nd time I recorded him.

Wow, if he continues, he will make great progress. He's been picking up the steam on reading and pours over the books by himself.

Honestly, since J has been home, I have been really busy. Since J/Prime are on 2 different levels, I have spent more time with J recently. But nonetheless, Prime is making lots of progress on his own.

Yesterday, daddy was home and was showing Prime some beads. Daddy said Prime knows how to add and subtract and he figures it out fast. Really? Good for you, Prime.

Games from ThinkMath

Today, we played "games" from THINKMATH. I'm thinking this is probably "classical education" approved since one of the math programs recommended by "classical education" is Saxon math and this is supposedly better than Saxon math.

The 1st game is called "Grid Treasure Hunt" and is played on a 6 by 6 grid with one inch boxes. One person hide a "treasure" by planning where the "treasure" is. Start at the center of the grid on the center dot, the child draw a line from the center dots. The other person tells the child if he is warmer or colder depending if the child is getting closer to the treasure or away from the treasure. Child continues until he finds the location of treasure. Anyway, J had no problem with this one and enjoyed this one alot! We took turns playing.

The Second game is called "Shape Search" where I give an example of the shapes to J; sphere(ball), cylinder(can), rectangular prism (box) and cone (like ice cream cone). Then her job is to find in our house, objects that are sphere, cylinder, rectangular prism and cone. This game Prime also joined in. Wow, Prime was so good at this. He identified objects correctly before J and found many, many examples of each. ;-)

J for some reason was slower than PRIME and she looked hard, maybe too hard. Anyway, Prime was identifying the 4 objects left and right and all correct. Go PRIME!

These 2 games are a preview of what is to come in the next chapter of THINKMATH. J will learn in the next chapter "to give and follow directions on a map, to draw and recognize congruent figures, and to identify and compare 2 and 3 dimensional figures." I told you this math program moves fast but starts very simple and builds on top of the concepts covered.

At the same time, I have had J practice the basic math facts using the Enki verses as well the Enki movements. Maybe later, I will post an Enki math game. FYI- cuisenaire rods is used in both program as a manipulative.

J had great success using cuisenaire rod to help her with addition and subtraction problems from THINKMATH. One thing I remember from "A well-trained mind" by S.W Bauer and Jessie Wise is to let the child use manipulatives to help them between the ages of 5-7 and when they are 8-10 years, they switch into "mental image" mode. And to achieve symbolic thinking, the child will needs lots of manipulate in the younger elementary grades (1st and 2nd grade).

Bits of Classical Education added

We started something new for language arts. Previously, J copied verses from Enki stories and we are still continuing with that but in following bits from the book "The Well Trained Mind" which is like the bible in classical education, I also added copy work from J's current reading list.

Today, she copied from "All of a kind of Family" by Sydney Taylor, a book recommended by Enki. In return, I told her she can skip writing daily journals. But on days she really wants to, she can write journals in place of the copy work but copy work will become a more regular requirement.

I have noticed that as she copies, she is already learning indentation in a new paragraph, spacing behind the start of another sentence, spelling all quite naturally. She is also discovering the importance of paying attention to details which is one of the areas that J needs lots of practice.

Performances by J/Prime

Today, the kids "invited" us to see them perform a short play called "Away in the Manger". I think this is something J came up with while she was playing with Prime. All I heard before the play was Prime saying, "J, you got good ideas". :-)

This is a close up their set up. The "prayer bunny" is in the "manger"(wool stuffing from the other day) and the others are Mary/Joseph and visitors (the doll).


After this, they continue to perform many more songs and even 1 Chinese song. But it's too much to put on the blog. Anyway, J/Prime love to perform at least at home.

For Chinese culture today, J wants to do Chinese calligraphy. I showed her once a long time ago so I'm surprised she still remembers. I might have some photos later.

We also played a game called "Don't eat Pete" and the kids had great fun. We found this game through another Enki mom who found through someone else and hence the beauty of blogging. :-)

J's portfolio picnic

Today we went to J girl's school for "portfolio picnic". We got her work which she did in school and her 2nd quarter report card.

One of the comments her teacher made in J's report card was "She makes a great leader in our classroom." I always felt J had natural leadership abilities. Sometimes, she comes across somewhat bossy, especially around Prime. But Prime knows his boundaries and would not let J push him too far. But at the time, she is "respectful of others and cooperative..." which is another comment made by J's teacher.

One thing that I have repeatedly heard other say about J is that "she is a great helper and a friend to others." I think and others agree that J has a natural motherly instinct and that really shows up when she is with younger children. Young girls are very taken with J and let J holds their hands. J will let them take the lead, watch over them and help them.

Here is a peak at few of of J's work from school. Please click on the picture if you want to be able to see clearly.

About the 1st picture: We did form drawing from Enki for 2 days in September so I was surprised to see it in J's work. ( Form drawing: that's the blue repeating pattern in her picture) She said she drew it so she would not forget. Okay, maybe that is hint that we should get back on it since we now have more time.

The second picture: If I were a president: J wrote, "I would save trees. I would get America to do good things."

Chinese new year continued (day 2)

In China, Chinese new year is celebrated for 2 weeks so I thought I would do something similar and introduce J/Prime some aspects of Chinese culture every day for the next 2 weeks. J even said since its Chinese new year, we should speak more Chinese. Good girl! :-)

I have no idea what I am going to teach them each day yet but I'm sure I will figure out something. But today J/Prime got their $$$ in their lucky red envelopes. They got to pick out their own envelopes from a whole lot of designs. They also drew some symbols related to Chinese New Year, specifically this year- the year of the OX.

Here is a pic of the ox from a Chinese newspaper and is the inspiration of J/Prime's drawings.
First one is Prime's and then J's. For Prime, we looked up some real calf on-line. They both wrote "cow" in Chinese. Prime even wrote golden cow on top of his picture.


Here is the original picture for J's drawing; but she added her own touch. In her drawing, you can see the long braids of the boy and the girl's braids are also down. And notice the traditional-style man button outfit in her drawing (like the one Prime wore yesterday). In J's drawing, the girl's shoe is shown, but in ancient China, you will not normally be able to see a lady's shoe.

Chinese horoscope for fun

My friend Jeanne sent me this and I thought I would post it here for anyone who is interested:

Here is a link to find out what zodiac sign you are if you don't already know.

Year Ahead:
The OX year is a conservative year, one of traditions and values. This is not a year to be outrageous. A slow but steady year.

This OX year will bring stability and growth where patience and diligence pays off.

This is a year of Harvest - when we reap what we have sown. Take care of business this year, do not let things slide.

People Born in the Year of the OX:

Characteristics:
People Born in the Year of the OX are stable, strong, dutiful, reliable, tenacious, practical, industrious, determined, honest, loyal, sincere, persevering and down to earth and tolerant. They can sometimes be lonely but they form firm bonds with home and family. The OX people cherish their private lives and are not usually very adventurous. They can be loners. They know the way to succeed is by a slow, steady, sustained effort. OX people are great traditionalists, they like the familiar.

2009 Horoscopes for Year of the OX

If you were born in the year of the RAT
This year is a stable year for family life and will be a joyful year. Career wise the rats will take on more responsibilities and will feel the pressure of the extra duties. A good year of steady progress.

If you were born in the year of the TIGER:
This is the year for keeping a low profile, tigers. Because of the slow pace of the OX year, it will be a frustrating time for you. You like things to be move quicker, you will need to show restraint.

If you were born in the year of the RABBIT:
The year of the OX is well suited to the rabbit nature. The slower pace of this year will see you spending more time with friends and family. A good year to upgrade your home, or for buying or selling a house.

If you were born in the year of the Dragon:
In business and in romance your word for this year is integrity. Keep your head down and you will make steady progress this year. Established relationships will be comfortable and easy during this year of the OX. A slow but sure progress will be made.

If you were born in the year of the SNAKE:
A very good year for Snakes! The steady pace of the OX year is well suited to the snake person. Act on an opportunity - this is your year.

If you were born in the year of the HORSE:
Although you are rearing to surge ahead, this is another year of caution for the horse. Not a good year to strike out in new directions, consolidate your positions instead. On the brighter side, Love will bring comfort this year.

If you were born in the year of the SHEEP:
The Ox is the direct opposite of the sheep, therefore expect challenges in all areas this year. Keep a low profile.

If you were born in the year of the MONKEY:
This is a year of moderate progress for monkeys. Work will slow down this year allowing the monkey more personal time. It also allows for quality time with friends and family.

If you were born in the year of the ROOSTER:
Great opportunities for rooster this year. A good time to recoup losses. You will make great progress at work, reaping rewards of your labor. Emotional ties bring joy. Your prestige and reputation increase.

If you were born in the year of the DOG:
A year for dogs to keep a low profile. Put more attention into matters at home, spending quality time with loved ones. The simple pleasures will bring happiness this year.

If you were born in the year of the PIG:
A year for the pig to follow his/her instinct, laying foundations for the future. This is a bright and hopeful year for the pig. Do not take unnecessary risks though.

Craft- J sewing

Today is Chinese New Year so to my parents and any one of Chinese ancestry: Happy Chinese New Year!

For Chinese New Year, I give J/Prime option of wearing their Chinese clothes and they all happily ran to put them on. Then since it is Chinese New Year, we read a couple of Chinese books. These are the equivalent of Level 1 books in English. J can understand all and recognize most words in Chinese and Prime can understand some. Any way, they are cute books with flaps. I wish I had more of these for them.

Okay, getting to the real topic: craft. It has been a while since we have done a craft. So today we did a little drawing, cutting and sewing. I got the idea from another Enki mom. Thanks, Jennifer. The book we used for this project is called, "My first Sewing book hand sewing" by Winky Cherry.

J learned sewing for the 1st time and was a very fast learner. She even made the knot rubbing her index finger and thumb. First, she was afraid the needle would be sharp and poke her but I reassured her the needle I'm letting her use is not sharp and will not hurt her even if she did accidentally poked at herself. Anyway, she found out that to be true and was not hurt.

She finished her project: a dolphin stuffed with wool stuffing. After wards, they took some of the wool stuffing and pretended they are blankets for their animal friends. I think J/PRIME liked that part the best. ;-)


PRIME still drawing his little "ghost", J already tracing hers on the felt; PRIME cutting out his "ghost"; J sewing her dolphin.
Here is her stuffed dolphin, sewn and stuffed mostly by J with minimal supervision from mom. She chose blue thread so it does not show up well but I guess that looks more like a dolphin.

In case you are wondering, Prime will finish his "ghost" in the afternoon. Lunch is calling us. :)

Math (ENKI and THINK MATH)

Today, J did a summary of the Enki math story : The Four Friends (4 Process story) and did an excellent job! She also acted out the 4 characters, Paddy Plus, Minni Minus, Max Multiply, and King Dominique Divide using marbles. She really enjoyed that and wanted to do each of the characters. I'm sure that helps her to remember the four process of arithmetic well.

She has done some addition and subtraction problems through THINKMATH, the curriculum we are using in supplement to ENKI. J's school used to use Saxon math, then switched in favor of THINKMATH. I can't comment on Saxon math but I do like THINKMATH.

It's fascinating to see two excellent curriculum using very different methods to teach math. One of the things I really like about THINKMATH is that the parents don't really have to teach the child, or rather I don't have to teach J, she can read the direction and figure out how to do the problems on her own. Most of the time, I just check to see if she did them right. There is also an extra challenge problem to see if the student truly understood and does require more thoughts. THINKMATH also have worksheets for those who are really up for a challenge.

In a short period of time, J has already learned addition/subtraction through number lines, pattern, halves(including fractions), adding by 10 by seeing the "tower" and been introduced to fractions, simple word problems, input/output, money, time and etc all using quite creative methods through the worksheets.

Of course, I love Enki's approach to math as well. The use of stories to illustrate a concept and the creativity in its array of math games is something both children and adults will find fun and challenging.

So what can I say? It's hard to choose, and for now, I will take ideas from both of them. The best part is now that J is home, she actually has time to do both and enjoys learning math. :-)

Drawing inspired by Sunday school

Prime's drawing: the angry people and the happy people in Luke 4:14-30. This is where Jesus was rejected by people in his hometown of Nazareth when he was teaching about God.

I asked him what his drawing is about, and he said his teacher drew "happy people then the angry people and that they are all the same. They are the disciples." Below is PRIME's drawing. See the angry faces? and the happy faces?



Prime also said, in completing the sentence, "Dear God, thank you that Jesus is our savior."
J said, in completing the sentence, 'Dear God, thank you that Jesus is faithful."

Chinese culture

Chinese New Year for this year is tomorrow, January 26th, 2009. For those who are not familiar, the Chinese New Year date changes every year because it is based on the lunar calendar. But is usually in January or February of the year. This year is the year of OX and is based on 12 different animals.

We took out our hand made Chinese lantern which we received a while ago and put it together today. It is an intricate piece of work and the paper is carved by hand. China is an expert at paper carving and some are really major art works with intricate details of landscape and scenery. There are other varieties where it is designed so you can put candles in it. But ours are not. Anyway, to share a few pics with you.

See the hand paper carving? In case you are wondering the Chinese character on the lantern means "luck or good fortune".

The Chinese people usually celebrate the Chinese new year for 2 weeks. If you travel to China during Chinese New Year, you will find most business on hiatus during this time. This is a time when families will gather together to eat (have a feast) and celebrate together. The children usually get "lucky money" in a red envelope with Chinese greeting and wear new clothes. There are usually fire works and people visit each other and wish each other a prosperous new year. This is also a time to remember ancestors and have lantern walk. In major cities in the US, china towns will usually have the dragon or lion dance and a parade.

If you are interested learning more about Chinese culture or its language or if you have adopted a baby from China, here is a website I would recommend. This is where I ordered Chinese text books and Chinese CDs and videos for my children.

Fire and Ice (dog sledding)

Today we went to Fire and Ice Fest. I think one lady is right-there was more ice than fire. ;-) There were lots of people there so I guess we were not the only crazy people who came out in 18F weather, plus windchill, probably only 8F (daddy's guess).

But it was a lot of fun! And between many cups of hot chocolate and free brownies, we made it. Though we left long before the fire works schedule for at night time, the kids were able to ride on dog pulled sled and that was really special. The trainer told us that the sled dogs are actually hot in this weather! Imagine how they feel in the summer. There were also a place for ice skating outdoors but mommy didn't bring our skates. Check out all the fun below! Most impressively, all the events are free. :-) But daddy tipped well.

Horse-drawn rides of downtown; petting a sled dog. J was petting the dog too which is a big step for her.

1)Warming up in the big tent, along with a hot organic Moroccan soup. Yum! This is the veggie/fruit carving at the table. Can you tell which veggie/fruit was used for the animals? We even heard gospel songs as well as other performances in the big tent.
2)Warming up at the fire pit; Prime learned the hard way that standing on the wrong side of the fire pit is a bad idea. All that smoke really hurt the eye/nose.
3)We are next; see the line behind us for the dog sledding? Our toes are freezing. :(

Getting on; here we go! That was so fun! We love it!

1)At one of the dog sled demo-equipment used to for races.
2)Afterward, we went into a heater-equipped tent to warm up. The heat feels so good. Someone even played some Irish music for us. :-)
3)making s'mores at the fire pit

A productive day

So far today has been a really productive day for us. In the morning, J wrote her journal, completed her math worksheets while Prime played.

Then we went to McDonald for late breakfast/snack and they found quite a few friends. They played hide-n-seek in the McDonald play structure with their new "friends" and also played table hockey while I did my bible study.

Then we came home and Prime asked me to read him "The shoemaker and the elves" again. He really enjoyed that story. We also read "The Holly and the Evergreen" for the 3rd time from Enki K nature stories. I made lunch for myself since the kids said they were not hungry.

After that, the kids did some free painting while I did some house work. Then we did our adventure circle. We tried another mom's adventure circle (this is the 2nd time) and the kids loved it. Thanks, Shelly!

J also made a lot of improvement in her coordination. They were always giggling and in such good mood. They loved the finger play. I think that one is really a winner.

After the circle, I read some bible (Proverbs) to them. This is always a good time for us and creates a lot of discussion. Later J did some independent reading and read aloud while Prime played. Then we took turns reading "Best Friends for Frances" to Prime for like a hundred times. He memorized many parts of the stories, and sometimes will voluntarily read couple pages! I was so amazed.

Then I took a little nap and the kids played on their own. After I had my little rest, we all did some chores around the house. For the kids, that means putting their clothes away and picking up the toys. They also have a daily chore which is to take care of Fluffy, our hamster. They clean his cage every few days, and give him fresh food and water daily. Once in a while, the food/water falls on me or daddy.

While I was on the computer, I hear J teaching Prime pledge of allegiance. They are so good together.

This evening, we are planning to go swimming and that will pretty much wrap our day. :) Maybe we will be able to sneak in a family game after the swim and I will get a chance to watch a little TV and read little more on Enki math games. I think that will be fun for the kids.

Sun, icicles, and pretend play

Today is a really nice winter day. The sun is out and the temperature by where we live is mild. I even enjoyed staying outside basking in the sun and enjoying a little sun therapy. :-)

J and Prime are out enjoying this winter day. They are on a mission to battle the bad guys, and the icicles are their weapons......... quick, hide the "magical things" so the bad guys will not find it. Imagination is truly a wonderful gift from God.


Trying to capture a pic of the sun. The melting icicles. Piles of snow - does that not look like a cake for the snow queen?

Their "weapons" and "magical things". The icicles break off really easy and are very brittle.

Shooting at the pretend "enemy", carrying his "weapon"; I love this, mommy!