Peroshki Party

Yesterday was spent making peroshkis!

Goose and I (along with eveyone in this photo) are cooks for our Fort Ross class and we

will be eating peroshkis for dinner along with grilled salmon and homemade borscht.

After baking, they will be frozen until we leave on November 28.

We made vegetarian and meat peroshkis for everyone!

The Russian American Company created this "fort" along the coast

in Northern California in the 1800s while hunting sea otter for their fur.

They brought with them Aleut hunters who were experts at hunting in the sea.

Binky is part of the hunting group.  There are hunters, cooks, artisans, gardeners and a militia.

I have heard a lot of great things about this living history program at Fort Ross.

The kids and I are really looking forward to it!

You may have noticed in the first photo a girl with crutches.

Yes, that is Goose.

She fell on her knee while ice skating and can't bend or walk on her right leg.

She is scheduled for an MRI tomorrow.

The orthopedist thinks she tore the meniscus and probably needs surgery!

We will see. 

Goose is dealing with it fairly well.

There have been some tears, but overall she is coping.

She is in pain all the time, but she is more upset about not being able to do

everything she had scheduled in the coming months.

I am trying to keep her

calm and remind her that she will heal.

I will post more after we meet with the orthopedist with the MRI results.

Happy Tuesday!

Geometry

Binky is working on geometry right now.

I made this little graph paper book for him.

We've learned about 90* angles.

Love the smiley face!

And angles of different degrees using a protractor.

We learned how to mark different lines.

And looked at different shapes and all their fun names!

I like "trapezoid."

Binky loves playing with tanagrams.

He will sit for hours making designs and creatures,

like a fish

and a snail.

Both kids like to make mandalas with the tanagrams.

I found  this amazing lesson to make learning geometry more interesting since the kids

already enjoy making their own mandalas.

Even though the kids are 9 and 11, I like to work with them together as much as possible.

It makes my life easier.  When they are getting along, that is!

busy weeks

We have been very busy these last few weeks.

Science classes where we are studying the cell have been lots of fun!

My class was about the plant cell.  We made our own onion slides to look at through the microscope.

This was a lot of fun.  We saw the nucleus in each cell.

We also survived 4 earthquakes!!!

Yes, I said 4!!!

These paintings fell off the wall along with some other frames that broke and

some things fell over.

The first, and biggest quake, was VERY scary!

The kids and I were home and I honestly thought to myself, "This is the big one!"

But it ended by the time we ran into the hallway.  The epicenter was just a couple of miles away, which explains why we felt it so strongly.  I have lived in California my entire life and been through many earthquakes.  This one scared me more than any other!  Goose and Binky were terrified!

The second one scared them even more.  Poor things!

We have definitely been talking about earthquake safety and preparedness all week!

This little guy has been having lots of fun with Cody the dog.

They really have fun together. 

I am surprised at how much Cody loves him!

And no, we don't have a name for him yet.  We can't agree on anything so far.

Any ideas?

More cell stuff with Shrinky Dinks and a mitosis flip book.

Binky loves snuggle time!

I finished this scarf!  It is a Christmas gift for someone special!

And we've been enjoying the season with candles,

cups of tea, baking, and leaf collecting.

Happy Tuesday!