This week we read another new-to-us book called Another Celebrated Dancing Bear, about two brown bears who are dear friends in Russia, one of whom is a circus dancer. Max, the dancing bear, offers to teach Boris how to dance and the two enjoy hours of dancing with breaks for tea and bread. It's a fun story that LittleBear and I enjoyed (LadyBear enjoyed it the first time, but overall thought it a bit long) reading several times this week.
We hadn't talked about Russia before, so that was definitely a fun addition to our geography studies. I think it blew LittleBear's mind to learn that Russia actually spans two continents. We also talked about things that Russia is known for, including ballet and the music of composer Peter Tchaikovsky. We also had fun watching and dancing along to a few scenes from the Nutcracker (the Russian Dance, the Sugar Plum Fairies and the Dance of the Reeds). LittleBear was interested to learn that boys could be ballet dancers as well as girls.
On the unexpected-but-why-we-love-homeschool front, we also enjoyed two houseguests this week. On Monday, I discovered two very tiny Queen butterfly caterpillars on our almost-dead milkweed outside. Their Momma must have laid her eggs there thinking it was the last milkweed plant around because I checked with the plant nurseries in town and theirs had already been cut back to stumps. The nursery worker told me that if desperate they will also eat fennel, dill and parsley. The temperatures were starting to drop below freezing and it appeared that the milkweed was dead, so I brought them inside and set them up with parsley, dill and the remaining milkweed leaves that weren't all-the-way dead. I also tried re-hydrating some of the leaves, which sort of worked. They definitely did not eat the parsley or the dill, but did eat some of the milkweed and made it through the week until today when we released them back outside (the temperatures warmed up and our existing milkweed plant seems to be sprouting new leaves). It got to the point where they were starting to chew through the stalk of the milkweed and I knew they needed more to eat than what I could give them. So, we took them outside this morning and as of right now they are happily munching away. LittleBear and I decided to name them Max and Boris after the bears we were reading about in the book this week.
Really, I meant to talk about bears, but this was such a fun opportunity that we talked more about caterpillars instead. Oh well, we'll get to bears another time.
Boris (above) and Max (below) thoroughly enjoying their new freedom outside...
We sincerely hope they will make it outside and turn into butterflies!
Other than that, we did our usual worksheets each day...
Enjoyed playing with a set of nesting dolls given to Mommy by her dear friend A. who went to Russia several times...
And enjoyed teaching Orbit all about what we were learning when we needed a break...
This was another book we are excited to add to our library!
Resources and printables I used for Another Celebrated Dancing Bear can be found at:
The Full Nutcracker Performance on Youtube
The Russian Dance from the Nutcracker on Youtube
The Dance of the Reeds from the Nutcracker on Youtube
*My Mother is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Becky Reyher
*Peter Tchaikovsky by Mike Venezia
*Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco
*The Magic Gold Fish by Demi
*Prince Ivan and the Firebird by Bernard Lodge
*Look What Came from Russia by Miles Harvey
*Russia ABCs by Ann Berge
*Clever Katya by Mary Hoffman
Little Kim's Doll by Luc Melanson
Russia in Pictures by Heron Marquez
The Princess of Borscht by Leda Schubert
How the Tsar Drinks Tea by Benjamin Elkin
Story Disk Time!
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