India Unit, Books...

First of all, the book Galloping the Globe, which I chose to be the starting point for our unit studies on the countries of the world.

It recommends this, which we had read before and really liked.



That was all I got for the literature section that Galloping recommended.  I of course cleared the library sections for the country of India, elephants, and tigers (which are the animals studied for science).  The most useful of these were:





This one was perfect.  Miss M read it to Miss R, and as usual for the Kratt's, is full of good interesting facts packaged in a kid-friendly way.



This one I read, but didn't read to the girls.  It's very interesting, but pretty long for my school right now.  If we revisit India when they're a bit older this will be great.





Both of the above are good and shortish, perfect for Miss M to read to Miss R, which I find myself having her do a lot, because they both like it, and it keeps Miss R out of trouble for a few minutes, and makes her feel included.

While browsing the library, I found some others that I have found to be very good, especially this first.


It reads very well.  Miss M was easily able to read it to Miss R, and there is lots of room for expression, which she is very good at!

This next doesn't take place in India, but in the spice islands.  But I thought the look and story were close enough...
 

You have to love a good moral tale, and the afterword on the folklore motifs was interesting to both Miss A and Miss M.


Tender story about a baby elephant.

Themes...

This last week, all on their own, the two oldest girls decided to dress in "themes".  Their wardrobe choices are usually eye-watering, often dubious, and rarely what anyone else would choose to wear.  But I try to go by the mantra of "Those who matter don't care, and those who care don't matter" to make me feel better about all the people who look at my girls and wonder why their mother lets them leave the house dressed like that.

 Miss M's heart theme.

Miss A's woodland theme.  Hard to see, but there are deer on the dress, owls in the ears, and wildflowers in the hair.

 Miss M's ocean theme.  All blue and turquoise clothes, coral reef headband, and sea urchin flowers.

 Miss A's lightning theme.  All blue and yellow clothes and bow.

 Miss A's meadow theme.  Butterfly skirt and shirt, green grass shirt, wildflower hair clips.

 Miss M's red pink theme.

 Miss R wore this red shirt to match Grandma.  It was a perfect match- Grandma was indeed wearing a red thermal shirt.  Sadly Grandma did not have orange heart leggings and a fluffy short denim skirt to complete her ensemble...

 Miss A's mermaid theme.  Mermaid skirt and shirt; unfortunately you can't see the "dorsal fin" pony tail sticking up on top.

I don't know what Miss M's theme this day was, but it involved two buns, each with four big flowers surrounding them.  She looked like an errant flower pot.

Snow!

While we were in church today, it started to snow!  (Which made the primary kids about as reverent and still as caffeinated jack rabbits.)  Now, somehow my time in Guam has apparently permanently done away with my cold tolerance.  Although, to be fair, humid Virginia cold is much worse than the lovely dry mountain western cold I grew up with.  So I pretty much hate winter now.  But if it's going to be cold and damp, as it looks to be for the next couple of weeks here in VA, it may as well snow!  After church we dug out the hats and boots, and the girls went out to play.

Yorktown

 Yesterday we took Grandpa for his first visit to Yorktown.

When Grandma and her sisters came for a visit in September we took them to Yorktown as well.  That means that this little girl has been on two very long, very detailed, very excellent ranger tours of Yorktown battlefield.

 She knows all about how tall George Washington was, and has seen his actual tent.

And has explored lots and lots of cannons.

She has been very good natured and very patient.

And probably knows more about history than the majority of American grown ups.

Yesterday she got her Junior Ranger Patch.

New Years Walk

 I wanted to take a nice walk to start the new year, and a friend suggested the Capital Trail.  I had never heard of it (Virginia is not good at organized self-promotion...), but it is amazing!  A new, totally paved trail that runs from Virginia's first capital, Jamestown, past it's second, Williamsburg, all the way to Richmond, the current capitol.  We walked the first two-ish miles, and looped around for a four and a half mile trip.  The girls rode their bikes.  We all had a wonderful time!  Everyone we met on the trail was very friendly, wished us happy new year, and it was a very positive experience.  A few day later B rode his bike most of the 50 miles to Richmond.  That is definitely something I want to do too.

The trail goes past open fields with horses, then into the woods.

It was great getting into some open rural country again.

St. Patrick's Day...

We started St. Patrick's Day with a quiz.  In order to eat the very rare and special Lucky Charms cereal that I had purchased for breakfast, Miss A and Miss M had to find Ireland on the globe and tell me what continent it is part of.  Of course, they all were bedazzled in their greenest clothes, in varying degrees of fluffiness.  After school, while listening to some Irish folk music, we colored Celtic coloring pages, watched a great video about the real history of St. Patrick, (here), and watched some youtube videos of Irish step dancing.  We also tried making a pinterest find, these treats:


which were fairly unsuccessful, but still tasty!  (Next year remember to use parchment under...)  We had an event at the elementary school, so couldn't finish our celebrations until tonight.  Our close friend AN invited us over for corned beef and cabbage.  So good!  Why haven't I been eating this my whole life?  Same with the soda bread.  Delicious.  I made a rainbow fruit salad, and an all green vegetable plate with cilantro lime ranch.

I'm trying!  A month or two ago I would have contributed some sort of really good and really terrible for you baked good.  But cookies be gone!  I am embracing fruit!  And I'm happy about it.  Really.  Oh, except AN made some amazing double dark chocolate cookies that I ate about six of.  Seven?  I wasn't counting.  It's a work in progress...

I asked the girls what they would wish for if they caught a leprechaun.  (We are trying to focus more on our family "spiritual goals", meaning we read scripture stories, sing primary songs, and pray more.  So some wishes may reflect this, since we had just done all those things and the girls were probably still feeling glowey from it...)
Miss M:  1. That our family would stay together forever.  2.  A pot of gold, to sell it for people that are poor.  3.  That the flowers and plants would never die.
Miss A:  1.  A pet cheetah, that is trained.  2.  That Grandma and Grandpa could come for a month.  3.  That I would stay with my family forever.
Miss R:  Too tired from a whole week of late nights to answer.  She was a hot mess.  Maybe another time...

Unique...

You know those get-to-know-you games where you tell something about yourself that you think no one else has done?  I have a new one.  In addition to (1)I have milked a goat, (2)I have been kissed by a giraffe, (3)I have sat in a queen's throne, (4)I have hot tubbed with buffalo, I have now (5)been spat on by a sun panda!

(1)We had neighbors when I was a kid (no pun intended) who had goats, and I did milk them once.
(2)For my eighth birthday my brother took me to the zoo and a giraffe leaned over the fence and swiped me from chin to hair with his big black tongue.

(3)We lived in Spain when I was small and we toured many castles, one of which was in Segovia, where Queen Isabella and Kind Ferdinand (who sent Colombus off) lived.  I sat in her throne.
(4)When B and I were dating, we went for a visit to my friend and Boss BW, up at Flagg Ranch.  We cross country skiied to some hot springs, which were surrounded by a herd of buffalo (it being the only ground free of snow for who knows how far).  They fell asleep while we soaked.

(5)My new niece ST gave our family a zoo pass for Christmas!  We went to check it out.  The sun panda's exhibit includes a tree that crosses the path, and it was right above us.  He stuck out his little pink tongue, and some spit fell on my face!  It was cool...