Projects

J's clay project; necklaces made for her friends (there's more, and she's not finished) I know this is probably not Enki approved project (sort of like painting faces on rocks) but J had great fun making them.


W's 1st independent knitted piece (5 rows, 10 stitches/row). Next on the list, a coaster.

Starting to knit

I had some trepidation in teaching my little guy to knit but finally decided to give it a try. I read him the Enki knitting story last night, and viola, he started to knit right away. He was also able to cast on the stitch. I was blown away at the speed he picked up knitting. The knitting story made it fun for for him to remember the sequence. I honestly thought there was going to be a little struggle since fine motor is not one of his strength.

Today we did the recall and the drawing of the story plus the writing of the verse. He is very happy and excited about his new found skill and wanted to knit again this morning. I can however see, attention span is not very long. But for a boy who is just 6, he's doing great.

The upside to this was upon seeing Prime knitting, J knitted for quite a while too.

If your child is starting to knit, a thicker (4ply), 100% wool is recommended by Enki. I ran out so time to get some.

Restful weekend (except sq. dance)

I had my migraines again along with a cold this last couple days so I have been in bed a lot. In searching for some homeopath medicine, hubby found this teapot along with some tea I bought in NYC long time ago that has been forgotten. YEAH!

J and I started collaborating on this hat this weekend. It is good for us to pick up knitting once again. I'm hoping in the very near future, to introduce Prime to knitting.

J also played her recorder. This is a recorder esp. made for Enki education. She is completely self-taught and likes to play Mary had a Little Lamb the best. Next year, I might sign her up for a recorder class. For now, she likes to do her own thing.
See the rainbow on Prime's robe? He was excited to see it shone on his clothes/hand. :)

Daddy also took the kids to square dance this weekend. Prime enjoyed the snack table the most while J had a most fabulous time! She was beaming and laughing the whole time she danced esp. when she found herself a new friend. Even after her friend left, she still danced the night away and found herself partnered with a very tall man. :) Unfortunately, there are no good pictures to show for it as our camera's battery went dead.

Our projects

Prime is really working on his cutting skills. I showed him how to cut zig zag today. He did a good job doing that. We also worked on cutting rounded corners.

J worked on using a knife. She is cutting cheese.

She has taken a liking to playing with cuisinaire rods (she builds with them) and I can see how using those helps her in visualizing math. It also helps me to see where she is stuck and how she is processing the information.

I don't think I posted this... this is J's choir project for 2009 (1st grade).


These are my knitting 201 projects. The first one I worked really hard and even though it is small, it is all correct. YEAH!! This is my second project. I hope to teach J when she is ready and wants to learn. For now, she just likes to play with them.

Enki song and craft

Today is a beautiful day so the kids headed out after breakfast. First they played soccer (Prime loves his soccer class and always can't wait to go back for his next class), then the kids said they are hunting for birds. We filled our bird house with seeds and they went out again. They also made a bird nest using grass yesterday. :)

Then as I was cleaning up, I hear the kids first making bird sounds, then they were singing one of our circle songs. We haven't done our circle for some time so I was little surprised when they sang this Enki 1st grade song. It has a fun movement to go along but you will need at least 3 people to do it.

Anyway, share a clip...


J also tells me she petted a robin this morning. She said the robin wasn't scared of her. So she petted it from "head to body, then the robing started walking away and then flew away. " Lucky girl.

I also tried to make an Enki 1st grade doll yesterday. This is like my teaching prep work. It didn't turn out exactly right, as my yarn is different but I get the idea of how to make one. I also didn't do the 2nd part which is to make a cape for the doll but I think we are good for now. J says when she is done with playing (dolls and panda castle, etc, etc) and eating, she will make one. So I'm not exactly sure when that will be. In the mean time, share few pictures of the one I made.

J is really loving her and carries her around the whole time (for now).

Tid bits from today

J went to her piano class and declares that as her favorite class. She is on her own with the practicing and I have secretly been surprised that she is practicing consistently on her own. Her teacher says she is "soaking it up". Too bad she only has 2 more classes before her teacher will be out of town for the summer. I'm hoping we can catch her sometimes in the summer for a few classes.

J also learned how to purl today. My yarn got tangled up but hopefully we'll be able to do more tomorrow. I also took a knitting class tonight so I might be able to show J a few things I learned at class tomorrow too. I took the class more for her than for me. But I enjoy knitting too, though what I learned tonight was a little tough and takes a lot of concentration. After this class, I'm hoping to take a class that teaches me to knit baby booties and baby sweater. The samples were just darling.

Treat for myself also came in today... "Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day". Hopefully I will find some time to read it soon and make some yummy bread.

"Yoga Pretzels- 50 fun yoga activities for kids & grownups" is a treat for both the kids and me also came in today. I seriously need to get some exercise to have more energy. I think I hold in too much tension and need to learn to relax. Is that weird?

Prime made improvements on writing; technically it was more line drawing (diagonals, from one corner to the middle of another line). It was challenging for him at first which made me think perhaps it was too hard for him but then after a little while, he made great strides and was happy he can do it.

a little bit of this and a little bit of that

Some of you might have already seen this, but Teaching Handwork blog shows you how to do a double loop finger knit. Anyway, I tried it out and it was fun. Here is the link if you are interested.


Here is mine. Kids younger than kinder can do this, so she says. Anyway, my kids want to make it so we went to hunt for some nicely colored yarn for them to double loop. And those are what the kids picked out. Prime's colors are bold and J's color are springy. They haven't made it yet. They came back and wanted to play tennis and got their rackets and balls out. But I suggested they jump instead.

On our neighbor's trampoline. It's still chilly where I live but the sun is nice. They are having a ball. I can still hear them. :) I love that about spring and the pretty flowers which I'm looking forward to seeing.

I also got these seeds packets and hope to plant them. I wonder where I should plant the sunflowers. Anyone know when sunflowers can be planted? I'll have to do some research.


The kids set up outside a local Blockbuster video and sold lots of cookies. J was on the first shift (1 hour). It was really cold so when there was no one, the girls laid inside a fellow mom's minivan. It was a good experience for J as she doesn't talk to strangers and acts very differently if we don't know the person. ( I think this might be my fault, taught her this a little too well).

Pure fun!

We gave Prime my old cell phone, and he has been snapping lots of pictures. I will have to share some of his work once daddy teaches me how to download them. :) There are some really good ones and lots of goofy pictures, like Prime taking pictures of himself, especially parts of his face like just his eyes or his mouth. :) Whenever Prime takes pictures, J never wants her pictures taken, and vice versa. But both kids will let me snap pictures of them to my heart's content for some unknown reason.

The funniest pictures are the ones Prime took of daddy's butt. ;-) Excuse the language, but he chases daddy hard for those and took lots of pictures where daddy was acting goofy and totally acting like a kid . LOL. Yes, this is what I call pure fun!

I'm hoping this virus will clear up soon so we can go outside and have some fun and just do some physical activities. That's where my kids are the goofiest and have the most pure fun. Their favorite game is "red light, green light, little white light". There are many different versions of this game but basically one person says the verse about the colored lights (fast or slow or combo) and turns around to see where everybody is. If he/she catches someone moving upon turning his/her head as they finish saying the verse, then that person is it and they switch place. If not, players advance until they can touch the person saying the verse and then it becomes a tag game. Anyway, we play lots of similar games. Another favorite is the mother protecting her chicks from the old wolf.

The kids are coloring like crazy today again. I hang them on a new hung string (got this idea from another mom- sorry, can't remember who) But I love this idea as it does not require me to buy picture frames and the kids love the fact I'm hanging up. And they come often to look at their picture and read the bible verse which is a bonus.

The one on the string is J's and the raccoon is Prime's.

J is knitting again. :) She has been knitting a few rows on and off. I think the illness has made her gravitate to the quieter activities. I think we will try another knitting class to learn some new tricks.

Here is J's knitted recorder case. This was her 2nd project with the 1st project being a purse. She knitted about 1/2 and I sewed it together. But she picked the button and sewed the button. Our Enki recorder has been sleeping. :(

Also share with you the thing to use that saves you from even the worst chapped lips or bleeding lips (works wonder) for kids and adults: both kids just uses some this morning for their very chapped lips.

This is from Bath and Body Works. I love this brand: C.O Bigelow. I particularly love their rose water skin tonic and cucumber skin tonic for my dry skin. I use it on the kids sometimes too. It works great on them too.

Best pancake recipe and knitting

We have tried lots of recipes for pancakes but this one is everyone's favorite in this house. I found this recipe originally because I had buttermilk left over from another recipe. You actually don't need any maple syrup (sweet enough, I think) nor whip cream necessarily. But the kids still love to add those. I'm actually hoping to borrow this book (all copies checked out currently) and start making some of my bread instead of buying. (That was inspired by another mom's post about "It's all about bread".)

Prime eating his pancake. He ate a lot this morning. This was after he had eaten his normal breakfast. Yet, he still finished all the pancake that was on his plate.

Here is J's scarf in progress. She has not knitted for a long time but this morning after breakfast, she went to knit again. I don't think J is knitter; she is too active; but occasionally she will knit couple rows. :) J and I took a beginner's knitting class together when she was 5. I really enjoyed it and hope to learn more but J is not really into it. Perhaps she will like it more later?

See how long it is? She started in December and has been knitting couple rows here and there. Some rows I knitted and other rows grandma knitted. But about 1/3 of of it J knitted.

J's work in process

J has quite a few things she is working on. She's knitting a scarf for her teacher and it has been slow going. I think this break we had been a little too busy. I'm not use to being out for most of the days but J/W seem to enjoy the outings. They definitely enjoy their each others company. Thank God, we have all been healthy. The kids did not even have sniffle.

J also started writing a story during the break. She got couple drafts. I first discovered the story in her room a couple of days ago, just lots of words but no pictures. Then she got pictures but she said the picture's coloring was messy so she redid the whole thing. Anyway, below you will see a picture of it.


This J's scarf as of today. I don't think she knitted today. She's been busy playing, going out and then playing some more. Knitting obviously is not high on her priority list. :)

This (I think) is her final draft of the beginning of her story."Once upon a time, there was a castle that did not look that good. But they had a lot of fruit. And there was a princess that was beautiful an wise. She was also very, very, very nice......"(I'll have another post if J finishes her story)

start of winter vacation

Due to the snow storm, school is closed which means J is starting her winter vacation today. She is happy she finally have time to do all of the things she does not get to do while school is in session.

So the first order of thing she did was to knit. She says she wants to knit a scarf for her 1st teacher at school, Mrs.T. She also wants to knit a scarf for her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. J. Talk about an ambitious little girl. Let's just knit one scarf at a time. Her goal is to knit 10 rows w/o error every day.



After the snow stopped, the kids went out with their bear claws. Then using the stair case of our deck, they were playing "tubing". :) I think with more snow coming later, there will be lots of time for winter fun. They are already ready to go tobogganing and tubing. J was ready to shovel the snow in our drive way so our car can come out.

Later, they played "digit magic", an Enki math game. It was good practice for J as she had trouble with numbers over 100.