January 27- February 2, 2014- Four Inches of Snow...and T-Shirt Weather

This week, Sugar Bear worked on mastering some advanced "yoga" moves. He was very pleased to be able to balance on his head and lift his arms up without falling over- occasionally he would do an accidental flip, and that was hysterical. I mean, when's the last time you did an accidental flip?

After we retold our Super Sam story of the week from our curriculum using figures, Rainbow Girl took Super Sam to the farm to play with the animals. He had conversations with the different animals and then played a balance game with them. 

The following morning, Rainbow Girl and I started working on her new workbook. We are generally not workbook people, but this is the first year that I have to submit a standardized test to the state showing Rainbow Girl's progress. This workbook is a first grade test prep book for the test that she will be taking. She has had a delightful time working on it, and much to my delight has had very little trouble with any of the topics. 

We do lots of math throughout the day, every day, but very rarely will she see problems written out as tests write them out. (2 + 7 = ) I was worried how she would deal with that, but before prepping her, I wanted to see what she would do. She absolutely understood the problems and came up with the answers with very little difficulty. 

The next topic she worked on was reading comprehension. Every week we read a story in our curriculum, and discuss and retell the story throughout the week. So, in theory, we have been working on reading comprehension, but just like the math, I was not sure how she would deal with it in a standardized test format. Once again, she did great.

That day and overnight we accumulated four inches of snow! I know, not a lot for many people, but a lot for around here. After breakfast, we had a treat of "snow cream" with our strawberries. 

Vegan Snow Cream

4 cups of fresh untouched snow

1/2 cup almond milk

1/4 cup sugar

splash of vanilla extract

It was delicious, and a very special way to have our morning snack.

In the afternoon when the temperature rose above wicked cold, we went outside to play. Paka (my dad) even came over to play.

That night, Rainbow Girl had a fever. This was the beginning of the cold that Sugar Bear is still working on getting over a week later.

A couple of days later, all the now was gone and it was 64 degrees outside. We took advantage and spent a few hours outside. Sugar Bear picked quite a large stick as a flag for his sand castle. Who am I to tell him that his flag of choice was too big?

"Moooooooooom! Please stop taking pictures!!!"
(Also, poor guy had a fever at the time.)

Goodness.

While Rainbow Girl got over her fever very quickly, Sugar Bear's lingered and his cough just got worse and worse. We ended up having to miss our co op's Candlemas/Brighid celebration that we had all been very much looking forward to. They had a spiral walk and floating lanterns. We decided to celebrate Candlemas in the next week when everyone was feeling better.