iFest

We had a BLAST at the insect festival on Thursday.


I'm really shocked at how fearless and awesome Sasha is about bugs. She will touch ANYTHING. No matter how eww-ish it looks. Why yes, that is a giant hissing cockroach in her hands. And a smile on her face.



It was really neat. They had all these displays up, all kinds of bugs to look at. Living and non-living. Even glasses to see the light and color pallette of a praying mantis.












This was the coolest thing, they poured wax down an ant hill and it hardened in all their tunnels and made the coolest coral like design. I just thought it was so beautiful seeing it like that. It's hard to see though, behind Sasha.










They all had a great time. Sasha even spent her own allowance to buy herself an "iFest" logo tee-shirt. I should really get a picture of it. Until then, here she is shaking her tail to communicate like the bees.

Puppy Update

The dog is fitting in wonderfully! She has a few lessons to learn, like how to actually scratch and assertively let us know when she wants out. All in all she is really fitting in well though. She is such a sweet, relaxed, gentle dog. I can go out to check the mail without her leashed and she just hangs out with me. The girls can carry her all around the house and she just hangs out with them.



Malia saying "Look, tree pose!". As long as there are no sudden movements, she's really ok with anything. Almost ragdoll like in the arms of someone who has love to offer :)

Visit From Paka

Got a wonderful, albeit short, visit from paka :) He came with a bag of Naartjie clothes for the girls *THANK YOU ROCHELLE!* and yummy halloween goody bags filled to the brim with candy. The girls thank you guys for the candy ;o)

Apple Season

I can officially say that now that I have *real* apple cider simmering on my stove with fresh spices and orange zest. Yes, I finally found old school, unprocessed, unpasturized, preservative free apple cider locally.



So, the smell of fall is finally here. I dread what follows, but I sure do love this season while it lasts.



Sasha went with me today and I bought plain donuts to go with our apple cider. The girls said "what? No sprinkles?" *sigh* I sure hope that they can some day appreciate the simplicty of plain donuts and cider. Who knows, maybe that "some day" will be tomorrow :)

The other day after school work we made some caramel apples.

Razorback Soccer

Girls went to the Razorback women's soccer game Friday night and again today. After the game today they hosted a little workshop for the kids to get out on the field with them and play- it was really sweet.

Eliana taking over the ball


Malia lucked out in getting to play with her absolute favorite player, the goal keeper Britni. Oh what a thrill that was! (Malia is in the pink hat)

Overflowing School Room

It is amazing how fast our *once minimalist* school room became, well, what it has become. It is a wonderful problem to have, as far as problems go.

Really, I'm incredibly amazed at my ability to step up and get organized. I love organization, I'm just usually pretty lax about providing it :)

I know we need to get some school shelves, but I'm kind of waiting to see what things we need every day and want out so I can plan what sort of shelves to get. I don't have a ton of room for a ton of shelves, so I want to use as little space as possible while getting the job done. And I really want to keep much of this down on the kids level.

The room at a glance


The back wall full of all our curriculum basics:


My little spot at the table, with the math manipulatives easy to reach behind me


The "board"


Eliana working. Their clip boards at the end.


The clip boards each have a list of papers on them. Things the girls need to be responsible for initiating and handling. Chores, their school subjects to do each day, their reading charts, a personal goal they are working towards, things of this nature.


Then along the side wall we have
The library basket, and relevant book basket. The full basket are our books, the empty is where library books usually are. Today they are in my car waiting to be returned. I try to keep both full of books we need to reference and books that relate to subjects we are covering at the time.


Then we have the supply baskets & folders. They each have their own school supplies to be responsible for. The folders are to keep work/art that they want to come back to.


Then easy readers, buddha board, and more math manipulatives


Only kind of related- our behavior chart. X's are placed on their name when we have talked about a problem and come to agreement about future behavior and the discussion is temporarily forgotten ;o) Good citizenship, consideration, helpfulness can earn minutes. The minutes can be used for computer time or things like one-on-one time with the new dog.


These cards have their bedtime tasks on them. As you can see with the two on the right top, they can be flipped over when a task is completed. This is so they don't need nagging or reminders about what tasks they are expected to accomplish at bedtime. Malia has graduated, so just the younger two have visual reminders now.

Oh No :(

Sasha went in about a week ago for a GI test. She's been complaining for about 2 years, that is at least when I started taking her to the doctor for these chronic tummy aches. At first they thought it was her kidneys and after a few specialists that was ruled out. Then they said it was probably just her nerves, because a lot of kids this age are starting to make relations and understand thing beyond themselves and it can cause a lot of anxiety for a time. When we went back yet again, they realized that what she was describing sounded like reflux and they started having her try different reflux medications.



They were right, it did seem to be reflux. The medications only mildly masked the symptoms and she still complained almost daily of tummy pain. Falling asleep has been especially hard.

So after all our medicinal options were exhausted they decided to send her in for GI to see if they could figure out the root cause of all this pain. Unfortunately, it show an obstruction (a foreign object) in her digestive track. Probably something she swallowed as a toddler. Ugh. All this time, and there it is... something that could have made her life dramatically better had we only done this test sooner.

So she is being referred to a surgeon. The obstruction has obviously had years and not managed to pass, so the doctor thinks it will need to be removed via surgery. :(

I'm very glad that she will not have chronic stomach pain anymore, but I really hate what it is going to take to get there.

We Have a Name

We have had a hard time naming our new dog. We had a lot of names to choose from- Pixie, Inca, Velvet, Dragon, and Luna to name a few. It seemed like any name that one or two people loved, one or two people also really disliked. Dathan and I were helping think of names, but were leaving the final call up to the girls.

This morning we found a name that everyone likes ok and they decided (about two minutes ago) that it should be so.

Saki!

PUPPY!

We did it, we took the plunge and got a dog. She's a 5 year old Shih Tzu. She was a kennel dog, kept for breeding. I think she spent most of her time in a confined space... and without a lot of human interaction. They kept her up to date on her shots and she seems well fed, but she is extremely under socialized.

It was so sad when we went to meet all the pups, I was completely unprepared. I don't know that I'd ever met dogs that under-socialized before. They were *terrified* of us. All of them.

So this particular dog, she was scared too... but she was also creeping as close as she would dare, attempting to smell us. And her tail was down, but it was wagging. Most of them had their tails up and under them, touching their bellies.



So really, we took a huge gamble. I just thought, even with a puppy you're taking a huge gamble about what type of dog you were going to get. Still, I felt sick to my stomach all day on Thursday wondering if i had made a terrible mistake.

The girls have all been AMAZING with her. She has a real, real, real calm disposition and it has a calming effect on them. They are so gentle and so patient. She really seems to be making a lot of progress. Our biggest problem is crying at night. Now that she has us, she doesn't want us out of her touch- much less sight. She is glued to my heals if she isn't cuddling one of the girls on the sofa.

We got her Thursday afternoon and on Friday night she picked up a toy, and I praised her for getting it and then wiggled it around and she got it again and I praised her again. I wasn't sure if she would learn to play- but it sure seems like she might! Sasha will be so tickled if she learns to fetch!

She lets us all pet her and pick her up, but if we move towards her she backs up and cowers. Even with her wagging tail, she is afraid of our initial approach. Once we're touching her though, she turns to mush. Her first night here she even rolled over and let Eliana rub her belly while we were reading at bedtime. She has never even shown any irritation with the girls, just uncertainty upon first approach.



I really think she is adjusting quickly and I love her disposition and gentle nature. I've been taking her to soccer with us trying to help her get used to seeing humans right from the start and the girl doesn't even need a leash. I put her on one because of her skittish nature, afraid a dog might spook her, but she walks right beside me and lays by my feet and doesn't move the whole game. Just watches everyone like a very good girl.

We're still thinking of names. Top choices right now are Inca and Pixie... but we haven't found a "perfect for her" name yet.

Imagination Village

Some pictures from our new little cooperative we are building in Siloam Springs. It has been fun because the kids have gotten to be a part of the process from the beginning and are getting to see what it takes to run a cooperative. Fun stuff like picking a name for the co-op, all the way down to cleaning up at the end of the day.

Our first week (pictures borrowed from another parent):








This last Friday (pictures from my cell phone):
History class was about ancient Greece




Eliana didn't want to "wear a sheet" so we tried to adapt her cleopatra outfit, hehe, but she did love the "short, round hair-do's" she saw while we were researching costumes together, so we gave her some pin curls.


Trying to picture how the Greek people saw the Greek gods, each seated on their own thrown, upon Mount Olympus:

Arkansas Virtual Academy

We are going to give it a try. I'm really not sure what we will think, we have heard such mixed reviews. I don't think we can really form our own opinion until we try it for ourselves.

If you're not familiar, ARVA is a public home school of sorts. It is a public school, but it is a learn at home curriculum. You are sent a big box of materials and books (for free) and assigned a support teacher. They have group events like pictures, holiday parties, field day, and so forth. They also have an alliance with the local public schools so that our kids can go to the school for certain arts like orchestra, band, drama, etc. http://www.k12.com/arva/

We will see how it goes. I feel like I need help now that I'm doing 3 different lesson plans for 3 different grades every day. I've never really done the whole "big box curriculum" before, but I absolutely need to create more peace and less chaos in my life. The more I can delegate to someone else, the better.

bummer

I clicked one little button and all my formatting went to pots.

Guess I need to fix that =P

edited to add:
I guess it was time for a facelift anyway. The girls like things more colorful, but it is taking my eyes some getting used to. Enjoy!

Announcing

www.maliashiori.blogspot.com

PUPPY FEVER

We have puppy fever, officially.

All was well, really it was. We talked about the responsibilities of dogs and the girls all decided that picking up poo from the yard was simply not worth the benefit of having said dog.

That all changed abruptly on Thursday with a knock on the door. The teenager across the street brought a dog over that she feared would be hit or lost.

And she left me with a dog in my arms. A sweet, gentle, cuddly, adorable Shih Tzu. The most well behaved dog I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Not wanting to leave her alone I took her to the soccer game with me that night. She sat there, no leash, just sat on my lap and wagged her little tail whenever someone came to greet her. Never heard her bark the whole time she was here. A seriously wonderful dog.

Too wonderful to be a stray. With the help of a neighbor, we were able to find her "for real home". She went home this morning. Oh the girls were heartbroken. Eliana cried the most, she really really wanted that dog to stay. Sad as they were, they were so very mature about it. They gave her a sweet goodbye, and off she went. Maybe we can puppy sit her some time :)

This is Chloe :)

Polvorones de Caneles

Because "Cinnamon Cookies" just doesn't sound fancy enough :)

Had a good time making polvorones this morning! The girls love cooking and baking, and Malia's current passion for anything Spanish is contagious. The girls are currently watching a video about Puerto Rico while the cookies bake. Yesterday we (Malia!) fried up sopapillas. It was the first time I released my over-protective clutches on the pico and let her actually FRY something. Why yes, it did almost kill me. She was so proud of herself though, and I was glad to see her growing up and capable. It is funny how nervous hot oil makes me, I'm pretty sure it made Dathan far less nervous than the knives I've been letting them use for years.
Anyway, tomorrow: Dulce de Leche. oh.my.yum.





All she needs is a raised eyebrow


What??






DIG IN!