Monday, March 31, 2014

day 34

Monday. The day after Viola was born. Ollie managed to do his homework. The excitement of the baby and asthma and me being busy has keep Lotta a bit low key... but still trying to read and making progress.

homeschooling article in the times

Here is a parenting blog with like 200 comments.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

baby Viola, number four, born


day 32-33

Weekend. Still no baby. Jas' birthday. Ollie made a movie with Leo and Lotta. We went to Chatham. Went to the library, bookstore, Ralph's. Asthma improving but still a problem. 

Saturday, March 29, 2014

T'was the Night Before Tuesday

Lotta held the phone (camera). Ollie directed and edited. One fun night, done in an evening.


education and buildings

Why does education make people think of a building? True, you can walk into a building a learn something but you can also walk out of a building and learn something.

Friday, March 28, 2014

day 31

Choir, computer science, calligraphy, art project, playing wit the doll Lotta brough. Lotta was sick. Leo showing how strong he is by picking big kids up. Leo drawing pictures. 

Thursday, March 27, 2014

day 30

Lotta and I used the rhyming flash cards to make silly rhymes. Ollie used the map history of Europe to find locations in time and research some basic facts about that place at that time. Ollie read his vampire book with a lamb on his lap. Lotta read Little Bear and did more multiplication. We played with letter tiles games to practice spelling. 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

day 29

Went to the dentist in Catskill village, nursed the sheep. Went to piano, did some school work. 

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

day 28

Tuesday. Lotta was still miserable. Leo went to Hawthorne Valley. Ollie went to consortium and got complements on his fine work. Meanwhile, one sheep, the blue one, (like the one below) had three babies, triplets, and they were all small and died, born dead, she didn't even lick them.

This brings to mind the oldest book in history, the tale of Gilgamesh. Why? Wait a second.


Monday, March 24, 2014

day 27

Monday. Ollie did a report for consortium, a scathing critique of an excerpt from a book he did not like. Lotta was miserable due to a bad night of asthma. Leo went off to Oma's and made a nice book. Excellent soup!


Sunday, March 23, 2014

day 25 and 26

Weekend. Stuff happened, I suppose. Magic at the library, pony care, sheep I guess, baby any day, etc. but only one picture and it's interesting.



Friday, March 21, 2014

day 24

Homeschool group day, Friday. Drawing in class, doing puzzles in Spanish, playing games, Java programming class, calligraphy, friends came over to play afterwards. Ollie and Roxy found a hand-sewn (binding by hand) leather bound dictionary of the bible published in 1832 and some other very old books on our shelf. 

Thursday, March 20, 2014

day 23

Read a book about a jumping and skipping frog in Spanish and Lotta said, "That's not a pirueta, this is." And spun around. Tulip sighting! Popping up! Game of writing a sentence and passing the paper back and forth to add to the story. In the one I did with Ollie, we folded the paper so the previous writer couldn't read what the other one had written, but we gave a very short synopsis -- two words -- of the hidden paragraph. Ollie's edited essay from yesterday, on Jane Goodall book. 

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

pie charts from pi day

Here are the results from pi day:

day 22

Our cat was back, not eaten by a bobcat. Got final results for the Math Olympics team: HENAA did fantastic and is the top 25% nationwide of a very competitive group of kids. 

Beana (grandma) came and read her book. She's writing yet another great one on her own naughty childhood. Leo made a card house that stood up all day -- because he used some blocks to reinforce the body. And thinking about the coming baby: it would be a shame not to walk around the house and find dolls lined up, construction projects in the bathtub, and magic cards in progress. We have at least 12 more years to have all that stuff around, given the coming Viola Pazzitas. Leo did a portrait of his grandmother. Lotta and Leo went to piano. Sue, the teacher, makes the hour fun and they never lose interest -- and if Leo falls asleep and Lotta gets to sing, that's fine too. I saw a sign at the supermarket I wanted to show Ollie, vis a vis his garbage project. Ollie wrote an essay on a chimpanzee. Selfie with Leo. 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

day 21

Tuesday. Today Lotta went to Oma's to work on the same project Leo did on Monday. Lotta had balley and Ollie consortium. A bobcat (I think) came last night and we think it ate our cat. I saw the bobcat run in the moonlight last night and Ollie saw it hiding in the bushes from the highway on the way to Albany in the morning. We also heard it scream like a person, and Gustov chased it away.

Monday, March 17, 2014

day 20

Leo went to his grandmother and worked on a surprise for his Mom when the baby is born. Lotta did her work, writing yet another letter to poor Lily, more multiplication and reading. Ollie wrote an essay on the constitution and did other like homework and then Lotta and I went on a bike ride to the still frozen waterfall. Also, we got Ollie's book for his Women's History class starting on Friday. I wrote a story and made Lotta read it as I wrote it. She had trouble with "optimist" and I think I misspelled it. 

Sunday, March 16, 2014

day 19

Sunday. Although a Sunday, Lotta and Leo and I went to the Kite's Nest open house. I can't really remember Sunday so well now. Oh wait! Ollie and his friend went ice skating on our pond -- which is unbelievable for this time of year -- and then played magic at the Kinderhook library.  Sunday night magic here. 

Saturday, March 15, 2014

day 18

Today Lotta had ballet and Ollie went to his writing class at Art Omi. The rest of us went to a sheep symposium. Alcibaites is supposed to get drunk at a symposium, but not this one.

We split up -- Aenne went to the lecture by the vet, Ollie went to the overall class and I went to genetics and breeding. When we came out, I asked Ollie what he learned.

"That we're doing everything wrong."

 "Yeah, I learned the same thing," I said. "And what did you learn?" I asked Aenne.

 "That we shouldn't have sheep."


Friday, March 14, 2014

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

day 14

Tuesday. Aenne's birthday and academics took a back seat. Bees survived winter. Lotta KNIT a hat for the baby and drew a story for Mom's birthday. Leo was complaining he was tired then a fever busted out in the afternoon. Mom and baby look good for birth. It was warm and we had a picnic and walked around Hudson after the appointment to see the baby with ultrasound.

Our bees survived this terrible winter and were buzzing around today!


day 13

No pictures today. Ollie wrote a piece on paper and in Sibelius, Lotta went to Kite's nest and Leo went to Hawthorne Valley. We played hearts... In progress, the piece:

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Saturday, March 8, 2014

day 11

Saturday. Ollie went back to STORY at Art Omi. Lotta went to ballet and a birthday party (all girls, Leo cried). But Ollie, Leo and I went to Hudson to buy a birthday present for Aenne and have pizza. 

Friday, March 7, 2014

day 10

A Friday. Normally I would go with all the kids to Albany but Lotta had a horrible night of asthma. Ollie did his classes-- yoga, java programming, math olympics competition (last one of the year), choir, while Leo went to Oma for a few hours and Lotta was miserable. Leo said, "Why aren't you flexible, Daddy? You don't do yoga. I want to do yoga my whole life."


Thursday, March 6, 2014

day 9

Thursday. I will have to leave for work in the afternoon.  Stuff needed cleaning up from the previous night.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

day 8

Two more baby lambs were born this morning, probably around 5 AM and I found them a 7.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

day 7

Tuesday.

Leo went to Kindergarten in the AM. Before he left, we talked about why we have winter while the southern hemisphere has summer, the angle of the beams of light and the absorption of heat.

Monday, March 3, 2014

day 6

Monday: Leo went to his grandmother's in the AM and Ollie had a lot of consortium homework.

Lotta read with Aenne before she went to Kite's Nest:


Saturday, March 1, 2014