The Lego festivities continued yesterday, with the Sunchild building some creations for the Lego Club's 'Cool Creations' site. I have not figured out how to link to it yet, but when I do, I will post links here.

He now has his own page there where he can view his submitted works. He also enjoys browsing through the other models that members have submitted. Who knows? Maybe one of his submissions will get published in the Lego magazine someday...  

The Sunchild is fascinated with one of his new Christmas gifts: Snap Circuits Jr., by Elenco. This was a present from his Grandpa, and boy, was it a hit. We have worked through quite a few of the experiments so far, and learned about differents kinds of circuits: open vs closed, series vs parellel, and things like resistors. I think I am learning a lot from this toy too!

Life is getting somewhat back to normal, whatever that means. There are new things to play with, stories to read, and thank you's to write. In fact, the Sunchild came up with a grand plan today, as the tedium set in around thank you #3, "Why don't I just write this once, and then copy it & mail it to everybody?". Considering today's letter took almost 45 minutes to complete, I thought we could work with this idea. I promised him that if he made it nice & legible, we could use it as a card for everyone, and he could address & decorate each one individually. He thought this idea was great, and proceeded to make a very nice letter. I kept the orginal for his homeschool notebook.

Today, we are photographing his Lego creations so that we can post pictures online at his blog, Sunspot. He hasn't posted much there yet, but I sense an upswelling in enthusiasm. He also wants to send his photos in to Lego club, and that is very exciting.

Now it is time to get to work on Sunspot. 

Merry Yule!! The season is upon us, with all of the bustle that it entails. We have been crafting up a storm. I had several gift projects in the works, and the Sunchild came up with a good crafting gift idea as well. We had a good time planning our giving.

We got a tree this past Sunday. I had every intention of going and cutting our own, but the one place that I knew of was closed! We bought one from a local nursery, and had a blast decorating it. The apartment smells wonderful.

The arrival of an influx of mail began last week, with cards from all over the country. The ones with pictures are the best, because we get to talk about who they are, and what he remembers about them. They are all hanging around the apartment, adding to the holiday cheer. In one of them, from my Nana, is a check made out to the Sunchild. I explained that it is customary to sign the back of a check in order to trade it for cash. He found this inspiring enough to be open to the idea of working on handwriting every day. I know that I can use the practice as well!

We celebrated the Solstice Eve, as both of the working members of this family had outside commitments on Yule itself. We agreed to open one present each, and save the rest for Christmas, when we can spend the whole day together. M & I exchanged blades from the Japan Woodworker. M picked out a beauiful kitchen knife for me, and I had ordered a carving set for him. The Sunchild opened his Taka Nuva that I found on ebay last month. Considering that we had an troublesome week with the car, it was nice to have a little celebration together.

We have had 3 snowstorms since the week of Thanksgiving, and it isn't even Winter yet! Today, we finally got out into it, and went sledding with our friends. We had the sledding hill all to ourselves, and it was packed down well, yet not icy at all.

The boys had a great time, although we didn't get any action pictures, as I was too busy sledding, myself.

There is nothing like an active day in the snow, when you are dressed just right, and moving enough to stay nice and warm.

The sledding hill is rather steep, but the Sunchild dove right in, and chose the disc sleds, because they went the fastest. I can't wait to go again with Papa. 

We had a crafty sort of day today, while we listened to Native American folktales. The Sunchild made his first sewing project. The embroidery hoop made it pretty simple, and he quickly learned to pay attention to where the thread was so as to avoid loops around the hoop itself.

He eventually dismantled the pipecleaner part of his project, as he wanted to use them to make a crown. I hemmed his little sampler, though, and intend to keep it with his other homeschooling materials. 

We have been combining math & literacy skills in a fun and holistic way. The Lego fascination continues, and we have built a nice castle, in an open, dollhouse style, so that he can play the inside from the back, yet the outside appears fortified. We reorganized the playspace, once again, as well as his Papa's workbench area. The house feels more open, and everybody has enough space to follow their creative muse, without infringing too much on everyone else.

While we play Legos, draw, write, and craft, we continue to listen to stories. Today, Fireside Tales- More Lessons From the Animal People, is playing, which is a collection of Native American Stories. I also spent some time requesting a nice spectrum of additional resources from our local library today. Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, Arabian Nights, Hanukkah Tales, and Stories from the Old Testament, are just a few of the titles that we are looking forward to hearing.

Somehow, we are tapping into the ancient Bardic tradition, learning the stories, following the storylines, contemplating cause & effect and the laws of karma, as well as learning the same tales that children around the world have grown up with. I feel that this is excellent preparation for reading and writing, and is developing his love of a good story, while improving his memory and filling in a bit more of his world view.