Kindergarten Week 10

A few things we did this week...

We went to a screening of Snoopy: The Musical at Vidiots. The movie is only available on VHS, so Vidiots made it part of their VHS Vault series.

Before the movie started, we had donuts for breakfast...

After the movie, an animator who worked on the Peanuts movie and is currently working on the Lego movie sequel taught us how to draw Snoopy and Woodstock. Here is Gemma's drawing...

We baked an apple pie...

We made a vodka and coconut oil pie crust. I used this recipe:

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pats
• 1/2 cup cold coconut oil 
• 1/4 cup cold vodka
• 1/4 cup cold water

Also, I precooked the filling. I used twelve (there were supposed to be fourteen, but my husband ate two of them) Sensyu apples. I sliced and peeled them, and mixed them with cinnamon and sugar. Nothing else. I cooked that in a pot until the apples were tender and the liquid was reduced to a thick syrup.

Our finished pie...

My husband liked this one! Yay! :) The recipe is a keeper.

We listened to Maestro Classics' The Nutcracker, while putting together a pinball game (Pinball Science). The only flaw in the design is with the flippers. The first time you push them, they become disconnected. I solved this problem with zip ties. It works, but it's not as smooth as it should be.

We carved a pumpkin. Look at that determination.

We carved an owl jack-o-lantern from a stencil. It was non-scary and had a difficulty rating of one out of four pumpkins. It may have only had one pumpkin, but it took a long time to carve. One forgets just how long it takes to carve a jack-o-lantern...

Gemma did a short division riddle page by herself, while I was at work. 

Question: Which monster wears the largest shoes?

Answer: The one with the biggest feet.

We re-read chapters of "Nutcracker and Sugardolly" from My Book House. I'm not sure what the appeal is, but it's one of her favorites. There was also a bit of Little House on the Prairie, Prince Caspian, and Training Hearts.

She read several books on her own, including a couple of Beatrix Potter books, stories from the Walt Disney Classic Storybook, and chapters from earlier Life of Fred books.

Gemma started Book C in piano. The song of the week was "Brother John."

She ran around at the park, wearing bat wings with friends.

She watched the 1960s musical Oliver! over three nights, and now goes around saying, "More?!" and singing "Oom Pah Pah!" 

Recently, she's also been adding the adverb "recently" to every other sentence, whether it makes sense or not. It cracks me up. 

She did Duolingo four days this week! They've added a new Bots feature, in which Duolinguists get to have text conversations with characters like Roberto, a pizzeria owner, and Gabriella, a taxi driver. Gemma doesn't want to do the regular Spanish lessons, but she asks to do Spanish conversations with the Bots. Duolingo isn't the ideal way to learn a foreign language, but it does provide exposure. I feel that, whether she's doing the lessons or conversing with the Bots, she's getting exposure to the language.

Daddy helped Gemma build a catapult.

At our afterschool co-op, Gemma made an apple-print pumpkin.

Daddy took Gemma to a church in Long Beach to make a medieval brass rubbing.

Her finished picture:

At dance class, the got to wear their Halloween costumes. Gemma is the one with the gold crown, stretching with her scepter.

We finished Life of Fred: Honey, and started Life of Fred: Ice Cream.

The other night, right before bed, Gemma said, "Mom, the ceiling has 120 squares on it." I said, "Oh really?" She said, "Yes, because there are 12 squares going that way, so you count by 12s." Then she counted by 12s to 120. Yes, there are 120 tiles on the bedroom ceiling.

That said, here is another of Gemma's drawings:

Ahem. Let me explain. The tall person is the mother. She was playing tag with her children and she tripped over a tree root. She broke her right leg, so she has to use crutches for a month. The daughter is carrying the baby (also a girl).

Gemma had her last swim lesson of the year. She has been a Minnow all year, and she will continue in Minnows in the spring. I talked with the instructor (a substitute) after class, and he said that her biggest problem is that she's not keeping her arm out in front of her when she goes to side breathe. He suggested swimming with a kickboard, and swimming with both hands in front, clapping one hand - palms down -against the other, sort of like tagging oneself in a relay race. Though she didn't progress from one level to another, she did become a stronger swimmer and she enjoyed being in the water.

A cute picture of our Annabelle in her Sphinx pose...

There are a million other things, but I'll close with this CC hack. My friend S gave me the idea to make a poster of our Classical Conversations memory work. It's great for daily review because Gemma can either read the poster aloud, or turn around and recite from memory.