November 30, 2015

Let the Advent begin


 

 

I have totally forgotten to order the traditional three purple and one pink Advent candles.
The candles this season are going to be crème color and maybe next year too, since I've bought a bunch of them.
They look pretty anyway and serve the purpose of reminding us this special time of year.
The Jesse tree is also in place and the tradition of unwrapping a Christmas story everyday is very popular with Kubus this year. He treats each book as a present :)

There is chocolate Advent calendar to open tomorrow ( more secular approach but delicious ) and different feasts to celebrate this Advent season, starting with St. Andrew today !
I am glad we have one, saint in making, Andrew at home:)

Kinga.
 


November 29, 2015

Warm, Black Friday...

...which we preferred to spend outdoors due to the lovely, balmy 62'F.
It let me capture fading signs of Autumn.
I'll see you next year, you browns and oranges, reds and yellows; my favorite colors!

 








 
 
 
Kinga:)


November 26, 2015

Thanksgiving 2015

The Thanksgiving day was rather uneventful.
Everyone of us woke up at the different time of the day, feeling quite rested.
The teenager took the longest to get out of her cave. I wonder if all teenagers do that.

We didn't have to get ready for Thanksgiving Mass today; our parish celebrated one last evening.
It was a beautiful Mass of Thanks. I think everybody felt a tremendous gratitude to God for all the blessings in their lives. I certainly  did...

Today's morning I spent cooking. I would lie if I said that my girls were big part of preparations. They were not!
I guess it is partially my fault, I could do better job enforcing the rules in our house.
But honestly I don't think they are so excited about Thanksgiving dinner anyway.
As long as they eat something that they like ( we serve ribs, since nobody is crazy about turkey ) and have sweet dessert, it doesn't matter how many thanksgiving prayers we say, or past Thanksgiving's Days we are reminiscing, or having history lessons, or just simply stating what are we thankful for,  the holiday doesn't seem that important.
They just enjoy the days off from school and extra time to have fun.
They are for rude awakening one day, those girls of mine...

Kubus tried to help me a little but just as we sat for the dinner he ended up having a tantrum about the thanksgiving theme books that we were supposed to read. When I wanted to do it, he wasn't ready and when he was ready it was time to eat. And because one can't reason with a five year old after a threat of sending him up to his room without the feast, he finally settle down for ribs and sweet potatoes.

I did not serve the traditional food, but they were ribs, and mashed potatoes. They was sweet potatoes casserole and green been with mushroom casserole.
For dessert we had pumpkin and apple pies.

The Cowboys were losing big time, so Andrzej picked up some European soccer on TV.
Zuzia played with her bunny, Kiki did her usual thing and Kubus played with his trucks.
I enjoyed reading a book.
I like those calm days of no rushing. We are not a big shoppers, so no early rising for us on black Friday.
Andrzej has a day off and since the weather is going to be glorious for a late November, we will hike somewhere tomorrow.

We will enjoy while it lasts, because everything what's good ends quickly :)




 
Kinga:)


November 22, 2015

Hello "H"

We had finished the "H" week some time ago and slowly going through "I".

We will take break from Alphabet Path during Thanksgiving week due to the holiday and due to the pile of Thanksgiving theme books waiting to be read!


Practicing letters
 
Picture dictionary

H is for a house,

 


and helicopter,
 
 
 

and human body,
 

horses,

 honeybees,
and honey cookies!

 
                                                                              Kinga:)


November 13, 2015

Great "G" !

 
Yes, we are still doing it!
By "it"  I mean the Alphabet Path program.
Kubus doesn't seem to be as enthusiastic as on the beginning but he tries to be obedient (from time to time) and participates in learning.
I have recently discovered that he doesn't need much anyway.
He has already known his letters, numbers, shapes (including octagon) , and colors.
His main passion are the trucks and he knows names of different kinds of trucks and recognizes them easily.
Who would have thought there is a feller buncher truck and delimber???( I don't even know if I spelled it correctly. )
 
The biggest thing that he surprised us with, is the fact that he loves educational dvd like " Meet the phonics" and "Meet the sight words".
The way the sounds are taught is so efficient that Kubus started reading sight words! Yes, he wants to do it on his own.
 Zuzia is very much impressed and said that he is ahead of the kindergarteners. Let's hope he won't get bored next year!
 
As for now we still chose to have some fun even though it might not live up to my expectations and planning :)
 
Writing "G"
Using geoboard
Learning Geometry 
 

Garbage trucks of course!
 
Goats and Giraffes at the Zoo



The wonderful world of geography
( I'm serious about it , one of my favorite subjects !)
 



Gardening; planting garlic :)

And few other Gg!


Kinga.