Getting ready for the new school year: Maria

Guest post here from Momma!  We're busy getting ready to begin school next Monday.  I've done a lot of planning this summer, but there is still some organizing and other preparations to take care of this week.  I have to put away old books, organize new ones, plan activities for the little ones during school time, put up some bulletin boards, print some papers, pick up library books, prepare notebooks, find the top of my desk...I'm sure I'm forgetting something.



Today I gave the kids this quick activity to do to give us something to remember about their likes and dislikes, handwriting, and drawing abilities at this age.  I'll post one each day for a different child. 

Here is Maria.  She will be in 7th grade this year.  You can click on the link on the right side of the blog to see her curricula for this year if you are interested.

Since you won't be able to read this little picture (maybe you can click on it to see it larger), I'll type out her answers below.

Maria says that she's 12 years old, but she's a few weeks ahead of herself.  She will celebrate her birthday in less than 3 weeks!

Her favorite color:  Blue

Her favorite season:  Summer because "it's not cold and our flowers bloom."

Her favorite saint:  Mary because "I was named after her and she was closest to Jesus."

Her favorite song/hymn:  "Sing of Mary"

Her favorite subject:  math, science, and history

Her least favorite subject:  "don't know"

What are you most looking forward to learning this year:  history

Her hobbies:  "sewing, writing poems, drawing, learning things that Mom doesn't teach, reading...(maybe there's something I'm forgetting)"

I asked them to draw their favorite things in nature.  She drew a cat and said, "animals" and a flower and said, "flowers."  You'll have to squint really hard (or try clicking on the picture) to actually see her drawing :)

Giuseppe

Now that Giuseppe is thirteen months old he's starting to do several new things. Giuseppe is walking almost all the time and has added new words to his vocabulary. He has started saying Mommy instead of Mama, says Cati's name, and calls me Ra Ra.  He also knows cracker, cup, yogurt, bear, and baby.  He also learned that if he "asks" for things he'll usually get them.  The picture below was taken at Dave and Busters where he tried to play a couple of games.

These two pictures was taken at the Tellus Museum where Giuseppe tried a few activities.

Now Giuseppe's trying out swinging like the rest of us.  I think he liked it.

Giuseppe also tries to play Wii like his brother.



Elena

I apologize again for not writing for a while.  It's hard to remember.


I've put Elena as the title for this blog post because the major things that are happenning around here are related to her in some way.

Papa's started to take the little ones (Chiara, Elena, and Giuseppe) on walks recently.  Somtimes we all go and sometimes Elena takes a baby.  I think that Bity Baby is her favorite.

Giuseppe got a bit tanned from the walks (not that he actually walks).

Now look what this girl managed to do!  I don't know how she did it.  She went to the bathroom where there is apparently nothing sharp and got a deep cut on her chin.  We went to the pediatritian and the pediatritian couldn't decide what to do so then we went to the ER.  At the ER they put glue on her cut which came off it a few days so now she's using band-aids.  Mom got some with princesses on them because she's started liking princesses lately.

Here's Elena again.  It's hard to have something big that doesn't have anything to do with her, isn't it?  Today she brought Bity Baby to the zoo and showed her the animals.

  
Today we saw some ducks wandering around the zoo.

From,
   Maria

Our Geography Art Work

Sorry that I haven't written back in a while but I keep forgetting.
Recently we have been doing art in the evenings and one of our projects is drawing the state bird or flower for the state we're studying in Geography.  Our first bird was the Chickadee.  It is the state bird of Maine.  This was a picture we were using.  I didn't use it but I did get one of my ideas from it.

This is Cati's Chickadee.

This is Teo's Chickadee.

This is my Chickadee but the blog refused to turn it.

The next picture we did was the Mayflower.  The Mayflower is the state flower of Massachutsetts.  The Chickadee is the state bird of Massachutsetts.  This is Teo's picture.

This is Cati's picture.

This is my picture.  I like to play with shadows.

The next state we did was Vermont but I'll let you get the rest of the information from Cati's picture below.

This is my picture.  In the back I put the state flower of Vermont.

I don't have a picture of Teo's.

From,
   Maria

Tonight

Tonight we had quesadilla for supper.  Recently my rose bush started producing bigger flowers so I cut one to bring inside.  Unfortunately, some quesadilla got on the rose.  Do you think that rose quesadilla tastes good?  I don't know but quesadilla and spinach just tastes like quesadilla.  Maybe its the same with rose petals.  I'll ask Cati about it...

CATI THE CATIPILLAR!!

Hey, Cati, what's up with that spinach leaf?

That's an odd way to eat a spinach leaf.

Uh oh, she got antennae!  Is she a victum of an unknown disease that makes you look and act a bit like a caterpillar?  Maybe we should call the doctor if it gets worse.  Right now it's OK as long as it's not...

CONTAGIOUS!

Oh no, it's a family of catipillars!

Oh no, now they're growing more arms!

AND MORE!

I think this is VERY, VERY serious.

From,
   Maria

(Isn't it surprising how far your imagination can go?) :)

Our Evaluations

Today we went to get our end-of-year homeschool evaluations done.  It was taking place at the park this year.  The park had a lot of cool things but most of us prefer the swings.  I don't know why I like the swings but I took Elena because she wanted to swing too.

Poor Chiara!  She can't swing so she pushed her swing.

We enjoyed our afternoon at the park.

From,
  Maria

Catch up post #4: Citizenship

Last Friday Papa became a US citizen.  We all went to Pittsburgh for the ceremony and we arrived around nine o'clock.

But, the ceremony didn't start until 10!  We thought it would start earlier.  Papa had to do some things in the courtroom first.

The picture in the front of the room is an old picture of Pittsburgh.

This is Papa right after he became a citizen.

After the ceremony we went to the zoo in Pittsburgh.

This time Matteo, Chiara, and I went into the goat pen and petted the goats.  We all petted the goats but we didn't a picture of all of us petting it at the same time.

From,

   Maria