Affection and drama, again

We took the side rail off of Ella's bed. She has only fallen out once. But when I lay down with her, she pretends that she is afraid to fall.

"Oh, no, I gonna fall!" she cries. Then she rolls toward me, throws her arms around my neck and presses her cheek into my face. "I 'cared! Help me! Aaah!"

Then, a moment later, she rolls away, and repeats. I think she would do it 100 times if I didn't get tired of the game! Tima took this picture from the top bunk. Of course.

p.s. As I've been typing, Ella just said, "Ev-wy-body not talking to me! Hey, you have to talk to me!"

Weather

When we looked at the weather in Colorado (during a blizzard) the UV index was 1.

Here in St. Petersburg, the UV index is 0.

Tima's World

After we watched Danya's class performance in the Fall Holiday, Tima decided that the living room was 'his school'. So now, he imagines that the hall is outside, and he walks through it to school. His teacher is named miss Na-na-na. (Yesterday it was Miss Deborah.)

What do you do at school?
"Mostly I do writing, sometimes do gym."

What kind of writing?
"Letters and numbers." (He writes rows of various letters and numbers, which I guess is how he imitates Danya's Russian homework.)

"Everytime I get a new teacher, you have to come over to my school. So you can meet my teacher."

Today he drew a picture of a girl, and said that his teacher wanted him to draw his sister.

Another part of Tima's world right now is the guessing game.

"Momma, do you think I'm going to jump over or sideways around this puddle?"
"Do you think this apple piece has a crack in it or not?"
"Is Annakin going to use his lightsaber or his laser gun to fight General Grievous?"
and so on, more times a day. I've tried many times to say, "I don't know, Tima," especially when I'm in a hurry or busy writing a blog post. But I've learned the fastest way out of the situation is to make a guess, any guess. And if I want to influence the behavior, than reverse psychology usually works. He's much more likely to do what I don't choose. Then he can claim with a smug look, "I tricked ya'!"

"I tricked ya'" is another favorited phrase... usually when he got himself dressed, or made his bed, or something that he usually claims he can't do!

Waves of Irritating Sickness

We are finishing our eigth week of somebody being sick. Nothing serious, no flu of any kind, thankfully. But runny noses, coughs, sore throats, sinus infections, fevers... usually one kid at a time. As of today, Tima is well, Ella still has a runny nose but didn't wake up coughing last night at all, and Danya is 24 hours into a fever with headache and sore throat... Eric and I are determined not to get the latest infection.

I found a beautiful depiction of viral infection on NPR. See the video:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114075029

In my head, there are about five great blogposts... and someday maybe I'll have the time and energy to write them down :)

Running Commentary from the Drama Queen

"You typing on yo-wa pew-ter?" [Are you typing on your computer?] In roomtime, she likes to type on her 'pewter' --an old keyboard.

"Mama!! Pink my fav-wit color!" (Said whenever she sees anything pink... and then she lists about six colors as her 'favorites')

"Ach-ly... I do want do it. [Actually] She likes to change her mind many times a day. About anything and everything.

"Look, Mommy, something funny!"

"Hmmm, let me see..." (She says this while putting one finger to her lips, as she 'thinks' about it.)

"I way mad to Tima" ('way' means 'very')

"I not can say that." (Said whenever she is challenged to repeat anything in Russian.)

"Pa-cee-ba" (Russian, for thank you)

"Pa-ka" (Russian, for 'goodbye')

Overall, Ella is talking almost always in full sentences, and has a lot to say. Her thoughts are expressed as they come, with no censorship (except by interrupting herself!) She continues to be very dramatic. One day I watched her in front of a mirror, placing her arms on a stool. She said with great exaggeration, "My arm... so... tired." At bedtime, she loves to say with great emphasis, in a voice that sounds truly tragic, "Good-bye Daddy."

And my favorite is that she loves to pretend to be asleep, or dead. At indoor playgrounds, she lies flat on her back, arms spread wide, and closes her eyes. I don't mind, as long as the other moms don't get worried and start checking on her!

Recycling in Russia

Can you believe it!!! It's not technically our trash dumpster, but it's actually closer than ours. And next to the dumpster is a yellow bin for mixed containers, and a blue bin for paper products. Of course, half of the contents seem to be trash. I pity the people who have to sort it. But I like it all the same!

Full Disclosure

Just to be transparent- the day after I wrote how much Tima loved school, he declared that he hated it.

He gets frustrated by any writing that is not in his handwriting book. So when the language arts curriculum calls for him to practice his name, address or phone number, he falls apart. And then has a pretty negative attitude for the rest of the time. So, we've been doing those orally, which is better anyway since he needs to know them in Russian.

Tima loves school!

"Pleeeease, Mom, can we please do school?"



Two days the first week, I had meetings in the morning. I wasn't worried about skipping homeschool with Tima. But when I got home, the begging was incessant. So I finally agreed to do school with him. What a pleasure! He loves every subject, every book, and excels at the simple tasks he's doing.



Tima's 'reading' program right now involves learning a new letter sound each week, and lots of exercises with words that start with that sound. We do some creative story-telling activities and name-writing. He has surprised me with his knowledge of the letters--in the spring, he wouldn't admit he knew them all! And he seems very able to hear the sounds, identify which words start with the sounds, etc.



Handwriting is his favorite subject right now. Thank you, Handwriting Without Tears! We're doing a new capital letter each day. I bought the whole package, including the big wood pieces and slate, and though it seems too repetitive, we have the time, so we do each step. This week, he asked Eric to spell out a title for a picture, and surprised Eric with how well formed his letters and numbers are. Amazing how a little practice makes a difference.



Math is still about shapes, identifying 'first' and 'last', counting and learning to write numbers. The workbook (Horizons) is engaging and varied... and so far very simple! On lesson 22, we just started learning 1+1=2...

After about 40 mnutes of those activities, we're done! After doing two hours the last few years with Danya, I don't quite know what to do with the extra time. I feel a little empty without the read-alouds that I've done in the past. But rather than following a program, I let each Ella and Tima choose a book for me to read. Some days I also pick one of the books like the Children's Encyclopedia. And then we play!



Tima has also been doing much more drawing and painting than he used to. His usual pictures are of himself, Danya, Nick and Nate, each with a lightsaber drawn, on bikes or rollerblades, fighting General Grievous. One day, he drew a "Titanic" and wanted me to draw him standing on the iceberg, pushing the ship away.

The Affection Sponge

Ella is insatiable for affection. She can't get enough of being hugged, held, kissed. I spent a lot of Saturday resting because of a cold, and Ella crawled in bed to just snuggle...and stayed for 20 minutes, sucking on her burpie.

Right now, she loves the Corduroy books, and I read them multiple times a day. Near the end of "A Pocket for Corduroy" the little girl holds her bear tight. When she's sitting in my lap, Ella likes me to squeeze her tight in my arms ... and then nuzzle noses like Lisa does at the end.

After the first week of school...

After the first full day of school, Danya greeted me with, "Why do I have to go to school. I don't want to." Oh, no, what happened?

It turned out that he didn't enjoy the classes mostly because the kids are loud and don't listen to the teacher. So then the teacher yells at them. Not a great dynamic. I'm not too concerned, largely because we're not depending on Russian school for long-term academics. He is now sitting in the front row, which will help, I think.

As far as the social dynamics, it's not great, but not bad. When he tried to talk to a few kids the first day at snack time, two didn't answer, one told him to go away, and one answered a question. The boy he often lines up with is Sasha, who he sat next to the first day (see above). Sasha seems to be friendly and sweet.

Every day they have snack time, actually it's breakfast ... the selections have included porridge, cabbage, noodles... and at that time he talks with other kids. They haven't had recess, instead they have breaks in their wide hallway. One day they went outside to draw with sidewalk chalk, and worked in teams to draw houses. That is one the few times they have worked together.

The academic work is quite different than in the States. It is very teacher-directed and not play-oriented. He has a workbook for each subject. For writing, the focus is on tracing lines, shapes and pictures in his workbook, according to the teacher's instructions. In reading, they are learning the alphabet and a lot of vocabulary like the seasons and holidays. There are no letters in the reading book until the 34th page. And in math, there is a focus on shapes, grouping objects according to different criteria, and also on patterns. Patterns-that's the one similarity to what he experienced in American kindergarten.