Back to Egypt

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When I first taught Ancient History to the girls B9 was but a baby or toddler so did not get involved.  I remember when we were making a model of a Roman villa he helped with a few things but his first real memories of history studies are from our medieval lessons.  He found the whole knights and castles thing very enjoyable, every battle, siege and weapon intrigued him whereas the girls wanted to know if there was more to  history than kings and battles.

After we completed our Canadian history studies  I felt it was time to take B9 back to the ancient world.  I  teamed up with a friend and we did ancient history together with our nine year-olds once a week.  We began at the very beginning with some review from Genesis and then moved onto all things Egyptian.

That took us half way through last year and then we moved into Ancient Greece.  Our activities included recreating the Nile River in a baking dish, mummifying a doll, building pyramids, cooking both Egyptian and Greek feasts, creating and modeling costumes or crowns from Egypt and Greece, a mini olympic games, building the Parthenon and making papier mache Greek vases

We do our history lessons when all the older children are at their writing classes and it was  funny to hear them exclaim about B & P’s activities when they returned to the house.  According to them we did far better activities this time around than when we did it with them years ago.  I think they might be right.

This year our little history class has doubled we now have two girls and two boys embarking on a study of Ancient Rome.  Early on they spent some time browsing through a stack of library books looking for topics and activities they would like included in the lessons.   It was an even split between lifestyle and craft activities on one side of the table and technology and construction on the other side.  Already we have created Roman roads from sand, pebbles and concrete, Roman soldiers with bendy limbs so they can be displayed in battle positions and a continually expanding illustrated timeline.

The creative mind of a ten year old boy

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My ten year old boy to be exact.
B10 outdid himself this year in the creative gifts department.  Each member of our family as well as some people outside our family received gifts or cards that he created.

The cards he created for his immediate family were most amusing.  He likes to take well known sites, monuments or paintings, print out a copy then replace the head or one of the heads with a member of out family.  Andrew found that his head had replaced George Washington’s on Mount Rushmore.  L16 became the Statue of Liberty.  He took a different tack with A14 and I; her head was on Mario and mine was on a LEGO character.

He published two books this year, I received his original short story:  Douglas Saves Christmas on a Treadmill:  A Very Merry Tale of Christmas Coffee.  A14 was given the first edition of bOB COM1CZ.

But the industry does not stop there; our family joined another family in hiring a pottery teacher for three weeks in December.  B10 made a couple of lovely mugs for friends of ours and for Andrew he made a coaster and bobble head complete with Andrew’s face.

Christmas notes

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If you look around our home you will see signs of winter and indeed glimpses of Christmas.

When I look out the window I see we have about 10cm of snow on the ground, which seems to be staying.  B10 and the boys across the road have started building snow ramps to toboggan down.

The boots and mitts are congregating near the front door.

We finished up our ancient history studies for the term with the reign of Caesar Augustus so were able to study the biblical account of Christ’s birth alongside what was happening in Rome and Judea at the time.

I am onto my fourth batch of gingerbread (baking not eating); this one is a gluten free batch.  Baking gingerbread is a tradition for me so when I had to go gluten free it was hard to bake gingerbread I couldn’t eat.  However I do get a lot of pleasure from the decorating as do others in the family so I kept on making it.  Last week Gluten Free Girl posted a recipe for gingerbread on her blog so I am giving it a try.

We bought our tree, put it up in the lounge room, decorated it and it did look beautiful.  Another tradition I have is picking a different colour scheme each Christmas and this year’s is silver and white.  On account of our cathedral ceilings and sparsely furnished lounge room we usually have quite a tall tree and this year was no exception.  Our tree was 8½-9 foot tall and quite full and wide also.  Have you noticed the use of past tense yet? Our tree fell over.  Now we have a shorter tree with fewer glass balls on it.  But it is still pretty and stable too which is important.

There are secrets being kept, doors being shut and whispers heard.

L16 and A14 have played carols together several times at church: for the senior’s Christmas Banquet, during the service and at a Christmas concert on Sunday night.

Although I have looked at nativities over the years I have not found one that I really want to own so B10 made one this year from lego.   No shepherds in this scene but three very imposing and intimidating wise men.

I have begun writing a Christmas letter, it seems to be the first one I have written in four years!  That couldn’t be right.  Four years already? Well that just means there is more of our life to draw from. I might get it finished and sent before Christmas.

Andrew has been doing preparation for the Christmas Eve service which is a service I enjoy every year.  It is fairly simple service with carols, a few instruments, this year a children’s story and a devotion.  A14 is going to join him with her violin, B10 is going to help me in the sound booth.  We always end with Silent Night by candlelight.

I have been listening to Christmas music; A Cold December Night by Erin Bode in  particular.

Yes some shopping has been done, a little more needs to be done.  Every year I say I will do it earlier but it just does not happen.  Maybe next year.

I am looking forward to spending time with our family and our friends here.  I am enjoying reading news from family and friends far away and hoping to catch up via skype before the year is over.

I am rejoicing that the reason we celebrate is that God loved us enough to send his Son for us.  He has not stopped loving us and sending us blessings since, but his Son is the gift we really need

Nativity

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I have a post in draft mode letting you know what has been going on in our family lately, reassuring you that we are actually preparing for Christmas. The new header is a glimpse of the Lego nativity B10 made for me. There is baking and decorating happening as well. But while you wait for that, watch this:

Don’t you love that star they are following, and the expressions on Joseph and Mary’s faces?

Created by http://www.youtube.com/user/stpaulsartsandmedia

More summer sewing

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This skirt was another of my summer sewing projects.  A14 is definitely not on a clothing diet.  She has grown so much taller in the last year she needed new clothes for just about every activity.  After much fruitless searching in the stores she pointed out the sort of thing she wanted and we went in search of fabric.  It turned out to be a fairly simple skirt to make with two layers, the top one 4″ shorter than the one underneath.  After her friends had seen it a couple of them placed orders too.  As it is a summer skirt and the ground is now covered in snow, there is probably no hurry for me to fill those orders!

Clothing Diet – a remake

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It has been a while since I posted about the clothing diet.(or anything else!) I did continue sewing over the summer and made a skirt from scratch but don’t have a photo. What is more interesting, I think is this top which was a skirt.  Here is the skirt.  It is a white cotton skirt made from panels of different fabrics.  Some panels are embroidered, others pin-tucked or lacy.  It does seem a little stained in the picture but bleach and sunshine did a great job on that.

I wanted to feature the embroidered panels in the top so I cut my pieces from the bottom of the skirt making the scalloped hem the hem of the new top.  There was enough of the pin-tucked section to cut both sleeves from it too.

I made it in summer, photographed it in fall and finally got around to posting just before winter.

Clothing diet posts:
One
Two
Three

Double digits

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B9 turned 10 this week, making him, of course B10.  As it was a Saturday he was the first one up, it is the only day we can sleep in so we do.  But once everyone dragged themselves out of bed he was able to open his presents and eat egg and bacon muffins that Andrew made.

He left no doubt in our minds about what he wanted for his birthday.  Both boys across the road have one of these and they have kindly shared for the last month and a half.  The three of them have even rehearsed a show together, but it requires them all to have one of these items.  And now B10 has one.  He also has a magic set complete with instructional dvd, some new techdeck and some clever white board sheets that stick anywhere.  He and his buddy across the road had a happy Saturday with the pogos and the mini skateboards before hamburgers and Karate Kid, the new version.  We watched the old version a while back so the kids would get some of the connection jokes.  Well, it turns out that they didn’t really change much  in the remake, but as it was set in Beijing it was fun to watch and remember places we had been in 2008.

The celebrating isn’t over yet;  we have a party still to come next Saturday.

First concert of the season

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At the end of September  Stellae Boreales played their first concert of the season.  It is unusual for them to perform before late October as rehearsals officially start the second week of September.  The performance was a paid gig, the fee going toward the tour planned for next July.  In order to be “concert ready” those who were available rehearsed during the summer.  L16 was one of the facilitators of these rehearsals (along with one of the graduating members who helped lead the rehearsals before leaving for Princeton to begin undergraduate studies there).

In order to provide an hour of music there were a couple of soloists plus a duet by L16 and A14.  The audience were members of the CAPD, who were enjoying cocktails in the balcony while Stellae Boreales played in the ballroom below.  The summer rehearsals certainly paid off, the performance was an excellent kick off to the season for the group which now numbers 30 members.

Afterwards L16 and I went on to the National Arts Centre to enjoy one of the NACO‘s first concerts of the season.  L16’s new teacher, who is the assistant concert-master of the NAC Orchestra, mentioned that Saturday night’s concert would be one not to miss and she was right.   Pinchas Zukerman played both Mozart’s “Haffner Serenade” part of which L16 has performed herself and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.3.

Lit Chat

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It has been a long time since I wrote a book review.  It is certainly not because I haven’t read any books.  I think it is a little like high school English class, getting the book read was never my problem, writing about it was another matter.  I have been reading quite a bit in the last few months, mainly books that our literature group will be reading in the coming year.

The proposed line up for the older literature group to which L16 belongs:

The Chosen by Chaim Potok
I read several of Potok’s books many years ago because after enjoying the first I was drawn to look for more.  I enjoyed The Chosen just as much the second time round. It centres around two Jewish teenage boys, both fine students, sons of fine Jewish scholars.   One wishes to be a rabbi even though his strength is mathematics.  The other wishes to be a psychologist but is expected to take his father’s place as rabbi one day.  Although the fathers could never be friends, the boys become strong friends.
Pygmalian by George Bernard Shaw
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
A great favourite of mine, which I will enjoy reading again from the copy which belonged to my grandfather.
Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
Before Andrew and I had any children we went on a Thomas Hardy binge. We read one after another trading and comparing after each one.
Something by P.G. Wodehouse (We have yet to choose what we’ll read)
The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper
Unwind Neil Shusterman
L15 and I read this dystopian novel last year. It is set in a crowded world where teens can be “unwound” if for some reason they don’t measure up. It is disturbing but watching the main characters fight the system each in their own way brings up many questions which will make our discussion interesting I’m sure.

The younger group which A14 has joined will read the list below:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond Elizabeth George Speares
The Other Side of the Island Allegra Goodman
Watership Down Richard Adams
The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain
Who Has Seen the Wind W.O. Mitchell
A novel by a famous Canadian author which I must admit I had my doubts about until well over half way through the book.  I am not sure whether the group will enjoy it or not.  The book meanders through prairie life and the reader gets to see it through the eyes of a young boy.  Consequently the story rests where the boy’s thoughts rest and passes over other things.  This young boy does do some very deep thinking at times though.  I found it hard to get into initially as it didn’t seem to pursue any of the subplots for long; I would just get interested in a few characters and their stint would be over;  someone else would take centre stage.  Having said that, by the end I had been pulled into the ups and downs, lefts and rights of Brian O’Connal and enjoyed seeing him reach the close of his boyhood.
Treasure Island R.L. Stevenson