Pan di Stelle

Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?  Yeah I know, seriously obsessed with fake food right now.  Made these for a game of Who Stole The Cookies.  Dunno if it will work, will let you know.  Actually I don't care, I just wanted to make felt cookies and a jar.

(wow this picture is crap, i will retake one when i get the chance)

Birthday Cake

It's Marcella's bday and she's in need of some props- so two birds with 1 stone: I 'baked' her a cake. 

 I used left over fleece from when me and Simo were supposed to make those blankets a few years back  and some felt and a tiny piece of velco and wahlah....For some reason I am obsessed with making food right now.

I should try and pattern these things out, but in the meantime I will write a brief explanation.  

Items needed  for felt birthday cake: 

Plate/bowl/something to draw am large circle. 

plastic soda or milk bottle cap or something circular to draw a small circle.

A measuring tape

1 large piece of pink felt (cake)

1 piece of white felt (frosting)

1 small piece of colored felt (enough to make number of candles desired). )

1 piece yellow felt (flame)

velcro for the bottom of the candle
polyester stuffing (i also used the bits left over from cutting the pieces).
Glue

Cake:
Trace the circle on the pink felt and then cut out..  Measure the circumference of the plate.  Measure a rectangle that is the circumference of the plate +  1 inch seam allowance x the height you want your cake (mine is 3"). Take one circle and the rectangle, with right sides together sew. (leave don't forget to start 1/2 in away from beginning and leave a 1/2 seam allowance at the end too).

Icing:  Trace the bottle cap on the white felt.  Each little 'icing' uses 2 circles. You will need enough to cover the circumference of the cake. to sew: Stack 2 circles one on top of the other, fold in half (like a taco) and sew folded edge, tie off and repeat with all circles. Attach circles to the outside of the cake (covering seam).

Cake: Attach the bottom half of the cake.  This is a little harder because you can only pin little pieces at a time (again don't forget about the 1/2 seam allowance on both ends for the side of the cake). Turn cake right side out. Fill cake with stuffing. Close side of cake with some sort of invisible stitch (stitch in the ditch).


Candles:  Use yellow to cut flame shape. Cut a 3in x 2in rectangle, fold in half and sew along long edge.  Insert flame (upside down) into cylinder. Sew around edge (making sure to catch the flame) pull thread tight (gathering edges) and tie off.  Turn candle right side out. Stuff candle with polyester stuffing.  Sew circumference of bottom edge (as close to edge as possible), pull thread tight (gathering edges) and close off. Glue small piece of rough half of velcro to bottom edge of the candle.  Keep going until you finish all of the candles (hopefully the cake is for someone very young or this becomes a long and tedious process :o)

Tah dah.....it's a cakewalk! Buon apetito e buon compleanno!
I'll try and post pictures of drawings to go with this, I just haven't had the chance).

Check out these cakes, they are hella cooler than mine: bella due, sam mclean designs (has awesome felt things), etsy has a bunch of different cakes for sale or you can just google felt birthday cakes and see some crazy cool things for yourself.

Long Vowel Fishing Game

Short vowel sounds are too easy now!  Long vowels are so complicated and hard to teach-and we don't have too many books.  I should have brought more home last summer.  This game is easy to figure out- write the words on one card and draw/clip art the pictures onto another.  And then you just fish the two cards that go together.  I was surprised at how fast Sophia caught on to the long vowel patterns.  The next time I will have to use a font with a serifed 'I'-she had difficulty with that.

Dolly and Ollie

I love Decathlon, it's the chain sports store around here.  Today I got an awesome pair of boots for cold weather and they were pretty cheap!  Yeahhhhhh no more cold feet!

Here are Sophia's dolls, she named them Dolly and Ollie (last name camper) (altho I guess we will have to get the boy some glasses if he is to look anything like Oliver).

Joe and Chris

Sophia has been asking for dolls for a while.  At the LC we are using colored in, laminated photo copies to teach boy and girl.  Effective (but a little sad).  So I thought I'd whip up a couple of rag dolls.  I googled boy/girl dolls- some things were a little funky, so I added the word pattern in there (because i am pretty sure there is no plastic/sex doll pattern on the net-of course I could be wrong).  Anyhoo, that was a little better and i found some really cute things.  I didn't want to reinvent the wheel, so I just gathered up some ideas (they are more or less alike anyways) and threw two together.  I'm in the process of making Sophia's, she is over the moon! Sophia has decided that they will be called Joe (after Auntie Shady's nephew (who really is blonde)) and Chris from Ghost Hunters.

Compliments of Nonna

There were so many things that happened when the Nonni were here I forgot to tell all of them.  I just remembered one:  The Nonna feels some sort of comradeship with me and that's great.  But, to convey this to me, she gives me BackHanded Compliments. (You know, like: You don't sweat much for a fat girl.  She didn't actually say that one to me, but might as well).
The first one she gave was for my cooking (altho I'm sure she didn't eat any of it), she said I'm a good mom, I made a good lunch-too bad I'm so small/short. (BTW she is about my same height-and yes, we did stifle our giggles on that one).
The second BHC was for the fact that my children speak English.  But....the compliment went like this: one time Alessandro (Max's older brother) brought some friends to San Giacomo (their house in the mountains).  This friend was from Italy but lives in England now, but she forgot his name.
Me: Yes, we know him- Ermano.
Nonna: No, no, that's not it...Enrico, no that's not it
Me: Ermano.
Nonna: mmmm...Davide?
Me: Ermano.
(etc., etc.)
Nonna: Beppe (the Nonno), what's the name of Alessandro's friend, the one who lives in England?
Nonno:  What she said, Ermano. Remember we've all gone out before, they know him?
Nonna:  Oh, it's not that I can't hear, I thought you said Germano (which isn't even a name in Italian).
Nonna: The friends of this friend were also from England and they told Alessandro 'Are you Italian, you speak English like a mother tongue' or something to that effect. (Ale does speak a good English, but not MT good. which is not a rip, but it's very hard to pick up exact intonations of another language -unless you live there while young or have a MT parent).  Ale got so many great grades in English when he was young.  He went to live in the States and goes to visit his friend in England.  (All the while I'm sort of getting pissed because Max speaks English very well (even better than Ale), especially not having studied it as much as his brother and Nonna, has not mentioned this once)).  (BTW,  Max won't admit exactly admit it, but I know he learned English to pick up on chicks back when he was a  young teeny bopper ;o)  Anyhoo, the first compliment went to herself: she is a great mom becuase she gave these opportunities to Ale to succeed in English. She went on about the greatness of her other son and then came my compliment:  with Max she had him marry an MT foreigner and therefore she will be passing this gift of speaking English speaking as well as Alessandro to her grandchildren. Muahahahahahaha-if I don't laugh, I will cry!  Thanks Nonna, we couldn't have done it without you!

During their stay, the story (even the Ermano part) was repeated a few more times.  Most of the time I was cordial, but the last time I got pissed-c'mon 5 days with no sleep, I started to lose my patience!  I wasn't too bad, I just told her that Alessandro and the girls didn't learn English because they were more 'portati' (born with natural talents/abilities), but because all (including Max) had/have a lot exposure/opportunities-and that was what I had just spent the week studying! And then I became religious and thanked God/Buddah/Zeus/whoever that there were only 24 more hours left in which I might have to hear the story one more time!

Ian's Birthday

 Today was Ian's birthday party at a nearby oratory.  We were all waiting outside for a while wondering what was going on and where was Ian and why they didn't let us in.  Eventually, somebody did and a while later the birthday boy and his dad arrived.  Ian's littlest brother grabbed a pot of boiling water it poured down part of his face and body last night.  They rushed to the hospital (good ol san raffaele) and Licia (Ian's mom) was there all night with him.  Poor Leon has second degree burns, but they cleaned, medicated and dressed everything and sent him home-but you know how the hospitals work here.  They tell you someone is coming to help you soon, but it takes forever for that to happen. Especially to get dismissed from the hospital. He was let out around the time the party was supposed to start.  Good ol Licia-didn't want to disappoint Ian, so she rallied, gathered her stuff and ran from hospital to party and threw a darn good show!  I've forgotten the name of her character, but the kids loved her and had loads of fun!

 They played toss the pig. Danced. Ran. Giggled. Laughed.

Licia made all the kids balloon animals

And of course, Ian opened presents.

TTC Demos

We have to do demos to show people what the method is all about.  Part of the lesson is big/little- I'm gonna try it mine with a twist (or a fold):

 

The origami elephant is not difficult to fold, click the link for the  how to video. Once you get past the bad fantasy video game background music and the dude's mumbling, it's not so hard to follow. Actually, it's mostly visual, so you don't actually have to understand most of what is being said.

Promessi Sposi -A French Italian Love Story

Maybe I am a short order cook....this morning Sophia asked for french toast for breakfast. And I made some, not only because it's yummy, fast and easy, but last night after the kids went to bed, I made some crema di mascarpone (it's the cream you find in tiramisu, minus the coffee soaked cake..wouldn't want it to be too fattening, right :o) to eat while watch CSI.  There was still some left over, so I voluntarily made the french toast-cuz it seemed like a good idea if I stuff them together.  Uhm, HOLLA cuz that shizznat was hella good!  The French and Italians never got on so well-a total match made in heaven!-now you will excuse me as I go put on my elastic wasteband pants!

Sushi and Wraps

 Last night I made dinner, called everyone to the table and once again Sophia went into tantrum mode...she decided that what she really wanted was sushi.  Aside from me not being a short order cook (just short), dinner was already on the table.  Requests must be made BEFORE the shopping and most of all BEFORE the cooking are done.  And even if they are made, that doesn't mean that they will be granted. But, Sophia ate all the barely beef soup we had for dinner (only because, she thought it was chicken soup with rice, stirring once stirring twice!) - and I am sort of at a loss of what to make for dinner, so as you can see, her sushi request was granted.

 Since I didn't want to be rolling sushi all night long, I had to add something else to the menu.  We have almost a whole head of iceberg lettuce (from monday night's burritos) and  I saw this copy cat recipe for P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps a while back and so I went with that.

I don't think they taste exactly the same, but they were good.  Max loved it and Sophia ate it without too much complaint (which in itself means a lot!). Too bad you can see the bars on our windows, it looks like Max is having a meal at the jail mess hall!

Tea Tales

Sophia's school has a theme that they study every year.  Last year it was Pinocchio, this year it's other cultures.  Today they were teaching kids about tea ceremonies.  When I got to school, the teacher asked if my parents were from Japan. I answered that the relatives from my mothers side are, but even my grandmother was born in the States.  Then she told me that Sophia raised her hand and told the class how we are from Japan and we do the tea ceremony.  The class was so excited to hear about the ceremony first hand, from someone who had actually experienced it.  I was thinking, OMG she remembered  Ryan & Denice's ceremony from last summer? I didn't think she actually paid attention.  Sophia proudly told everyone to do the ceremony: you take a cup and fill it with water, shove a tea bag in and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes.  The teachers rolled over laughing and so did I.  Yup, that's exactly our family tradition, passed down from generation to generation.

Yeah, I know I'm a Bitch...but don't think you aren't one too.

Max and I rarely fight, but when we do it's a doozy! And usually it's over the same thing...someone gets offended when the other person complains.   Today I am the offender and he is the accusee. (You are going to hear a one sided argument, because it's my damn blog.  If you want to hear the other side, please tell the accusee to start one himself, or FB it).  Anyhoo, it's a marital argument as old as time.  I feel it's the old saying: he(she) who is without crap lying around the house (and picks up everyone else's stuff on a minute to minute basis) may cast the first complaint.  It's also that I feel that we complain for different reasons.  If said complainee accuses, it's because I have committed a pet peeve.  And many acts of pet peeves are committed when I am trying to multitask 1,000 things.  My argument: many times my asking someone to do something is misconstrued as a complaint, and therefore if I don't 'complain' it won't get done and I will have to do it myself.  Anyways, case and point: today's argument was because I left apple core on the table...but we were in a rush, I was planning the weeks meal (so we would only have to go shopping once)/checking what items were missing (cleaning stuff/ziplock bags/etc)/preparing the diaper bag/getting the reusable grocery bags ready to go, all while eating. Now in the complainer's defense, he was dressing the baby (because I asked/'complained' that she wasn't already dressed, it being 1 o'clock and me having been at a meeting all morning)-so he couldn't have done any of the other tasks while I was eating the apple. But given my past history, I was a bit busy-I didn't realize I had left the core and would have picked it up when I saw it (for example, when we got home and laid the groceries on the table I would have seen it was there and picked up the apple core).  Now really the meat of the argument is this, when Max complained that I left the apple core, I immediately pointed the finger at him and complained about stuff he does (or does not do) -for example the dishes from Viv's lunch that were not washed and put away-and of course added that there are many things I do without complaining and then I put up the hand and said I didn't want to hear his explanation/why i shouldn't point the finger back at him, I should just not complain plus I threw in a 'Oh no you di'nt' and a three finger snap with a head twist- and that set him off. Needless to say, he took off with Vivienne and left me to do 'whatever the hell I wanted to do' and so I began to make a big ass pile of crap I do without complaining, with a sweetly sarcastic sms about the pile.  Yes I know that was a bitchy thing to do, but come on, don't tell me you haven't either done it or tempted to do it too, so don't judge me!  (BTW-it's now 3 days later and the pile diminished, but never got down to zero-of course I ended up putting the rest away myself).  So, I do want you to know, that Max does so many things for us, like he is the bread winner/takes care of electronic purchases and mishaps/cuts grass-and I do thank him and appreciate it.  However, if you want to complain about me, when you can, you have to do a lot more of the everyday things around the house! Why is it that men need to be praised for small things tasks that they do and you know that they only did that task because you had to nag to get them to do it (nor will it be repeated - until you nag again). 

Now I know I've pissed off Kevin-go ahead-comment and defend your friend. (Kevin is Max's pro bono advocate- and despite being my friend since middle school, he has made himself Max's co-conspirator and therefore, my archenemy :o)

TTC Day 5

 Last day of lesson - obviously since I was doing the lesson I couldn't take any pictures, so I used the props on Sophia and Vivienne instead.  Made the bear hats and little tails (used tape to stick them on), painted noses and then crawled around and acted out the poem.

 

For the boat poem, I really couldn't think of a game and we were supposed to have at least 1 within the 2 lessons.  I went with memory game, but since I knew that since it's been done before, I had to present it in a way different from any other.  I found a website that had different ways to make memory games (of course I can't find it to link, sorry).  This lady had made the background out of construction paper and the pockets out of wrapping paper, laid contact paper over the whole thing and carefully cut slits over the pockets.  You know how to play the rest. I didn't have any of the things to make that (except xmas wrap)  I was already sewing, so I decided that I'd just do the same thing but with felt and fabric.  That took care of the vocab...now we needed to do the poem.

The kids love to go in the laundry basket, I just grabbed a couple of wooden spatulas and shoved a rolling pin under it (a dowel would have been better) and wahlahhh a boat to row.  Sophia said it wasn't a boat without a flag, so we added one on (made out of a straw and paper), but she is covering it.

There were lots of amazing projects.  When I get a chance I will blog about some of them too.

The week was intense, but amazing.  I know some people complained too much to do, in too short of a time.  But, the intensity of it all created a comradery and I feel like I've gained 12 new friends.  Plus I really couldn't have the Nonni at our house any longer, they were a great help, but I need my house back! 

The Italian/American War

Dear Kharma, WTF???? After 5 days without sleep, I was really looking forward to getting more than 40 winks in tonight.  Instead, Miss Sophia needed some attention and we ended up ioki karaoke'ing  Lady Gaga songs until 11ish (we only stopped because I started falling asleep while singing and she was getting annoyed with me).  And really - I'm okay with that.  I can deal with getting to bed later than sooner.  But it is now 4 AM and I've been up with a teething child and indigestion (mine, not hers) for more than an hour!  There are 3 other adults in the house - all of them sawing logs like they are outlawing sleep tomorrow.  (Really, Max did wake up for a few minutes, but only to disagree with me about Viv being awake due to teething - I'm going to put it down to him being half asleep (lucky him, half is better than nothing) and the fact that his nipples are not teeming with pain from just being treated like a chew toy).  I would so wake his ass up, just for that stupid comment and make him take care of her, but I can't sleep from indigestion and thirst anyways!  The Nonni are great and I'm glad (and really very appreciative) that they are here, I wouldn't have been able to take the course without their help - that said, the Nonna is over the moon that she gets to cook for us.  Unfortunately, now we've unleashed a monster, because now she feels comfortable cooking in our kitchen. That might be okay, but she's not that great of a cook, I mean she was at one time I'm sure, but she her taste buds are gone by now.  Tonight for dinner she made some pasta with a sausage tomato sauce. Sounds good right?

The Nonna has used more oil in 1 week, than we use in 1 month! (I had half a bottle at the begining of the week, they bought this one because the other one ran out).

 Too bad it looked like a red version of one of those ocean lamps (you know the ones made of oil and blue water- when you tip it back and forth it makes waves-like the ones in my stomach right now) and it had more garlic than sausage (the latter ingredient, in itself not being easily digestible) and  she accidentally added too much salt (and let me just say, the margin between 'too much' and 'just right' was VAST-(hmmmm, I think I see an English lesson in there - when I get to the chapter about teaching 'too much' I'll just bring in some of this sauce)).

(The Nonni are gone, so won't hurt anyone's feelings. I shot this picture as visual proof)

To make up for the over saltiness, when she cooked the pasta she didn't add salt (Italians salt the water and to give the pasta itself more flavor) and that might have done the trick...but once again, proportions were misjudged (actually I doubt it, but I'm just trying to be nice-I'm sure the Nonno complained when he ate the same sauce at lunch time. Otherwise, the Nonna would never have noticed) and I ended up eating 4 sad little penne pastas swimming around in a cesspool of red colored oil and hunks of  heavily seasoned ground up carcass. What I am trying to say, is that there was too little pasta to make up for the saltiness of the sauce. Yeah, I know I could have just said that the first time and not have been so snide, but I am tired and suffering from indigestion, remember??? Don't judge me!  That was not the drop that broke the vase (the Italian version of the straw that broke the camels back) - I gracious ate my four little pastas and with each bite, I was thankful I was nearing the finish. I should say, aside from the saltiness, the taste wasn't too bad, but I could see the oil and taste the garlic and since I was tired and wanted to go to bed immediately after dinner, I really didn't want something so heavy inside my stomach).  Just has I lifted my heavy hand holding the last forkful of pasta to my mouth and finished the last bite- the Nonna proudly asked if I wanted some more.  Stifling something between a groan and laughter, I once again mustered up all the graciousness I could and declined.  We've all seen Italian parents on TV, always worried that the kids aren't eating enough. The next step was the song and dance we do, the Nonni went down the list of other things I could eat.  Did I want some cheese?  More bread? Perhaps some prosciutto?  The Nonno asked me if I wanted the last half of a sad, over boiled and grey piece of fennel, lying in a shallow pool of it's own watery juices. Again, I nicely said, 'no grazie,' I just wanted to be done and go to bed.  Just as the words came floating out of my mouth, I hear a PLOP and look up to see the Nonna finishing the motion of serving me the last of the sauce that was left in the pot and saying, she was sorry she hadn't cooked enough and anyways, there was too little of the sauce left, not to be finished. F*******CK ME!  Now what the hell do I do?  I tried to hold back the tears of tiredness, as I did not want to add any more salt to the sauce and did the only thing I could think of doing:  I picked up my fork and grabbed the sad grey fennel (which btw, is the Italian version of lima beans or Brussels sprouts, kids here hate it. It's not like the fennel served in the States, it's larger and has across between a licorice and celery taste, but nearly as strong.  It's not my favorite, but usually I don't mind it.) and ate it with the damn sauce, praying that it would help drown out at least some of the saltiness. And here I am, 5 hours later, suffering indigestion and an insatiable thirst.  It feels like there is a war between the Italian food and my American stomach...guess who is losing.  It's getting harder to write with Vivienne squiggling in my arms. I think she is tired enough I am going to go and try and dump her back in her bed.  If she ends up crying, I swear I am just going to lie in bed feigning sleep, turn up my iPod and not so gently kick Max until he wakes up and goes to get her.  But, I'm sure that will never happen, this crap only happens on my watch for some reason.  Curse you Kharma, curse you!

 

Time warp: it's now saturday and i've had time to clean up a little.  I  found out that they left us with 3 boxes of pasta-so it's not as if there was no pasta in the house, I have no idea why the Nonna only cooked such a small portion.

TTC Day 4

 Max didn't have the tie I wanted.  He used to have this ugly red tie, we couldn't find it, I must have finally made him get rid of it.  I was going to try and find one at the school and find some shorts too, we got told off for using things from the school prop closet.  I didn't realize we weren't supposed to, I saw other girls rifling through the stuff, I only borrowed that pair of shorts and I told Isabella because I had already done it and didn't have anything else to replace it.  We got in trouble because most of us were unprepared that we would have projects as homework and most of the girls that came from far away didn't have supplies at all. Nor were we told we couldn't touch the props, I wasn't doing out of respect for other peoples stuff, but when I saw others doing it, I figured it was okay.   To make matters worse I couldn't find my pen and I needed some paper because, when  I ran into Francesca at the Cadorna station and the lightening bolt struck.  I realized on the train that I had forgotten about doing the the stacking cups.  Anyways, I decided to make origami balls in 4 different sizes and draw the bears on the outside.  That's always a hit with kids and then even if they crush them, I don't care its just paper.  The stupid balls were a hit!  Thank god, because the rest of my idea was rather weak.  I also forgot to paint the hands/faces before the 'kids' went to go look for the clothes.  Oh well.  Lucky me my the first part of next project for EFI is Teddy Bears.

even later than much much later: it's so late now, I can't even think.   Luckily Max is home and he's going to take care of the kids and I can get an 'earlier' start.  Just documenting my thought process so I can be clear on stuff.  My project is a little poem about Teddy Bears and how they crawl about and you have to be quiet.  I know I need to do something about noise and then go shhh, but I've worked so hard on my other ideas I haven't got the will or organization to find something.  I went downstairs and opened up one of the unpacked boxes, I knew there was some flannel.  I was hoping to find the stuff I used for Max's hat and scarf a few years back, but there was only a small piece of white and random stuff left over from when Simo never finished her blankets.  Well now I have a use for it.  I'm in the process of making hats with teddy ears (modeled after a hat Karol had given Vivienne), the idea to make a cute little tail popped in my head, so I can just cut out a circle, sew around the edge, pull the ends of the string, stuff it and wah lahhh a cute little tail and then  black on the nose and we  have our cute little teddy bears and then we can just act out the poem.  Note to self: remember to be dramatic, so the kids get it.  Okay for project two, it's a  poem about kids on a boat.   We have to have a game in at least one of these projects, I can't think of anything, I've surfed the net on a thousand places and can't find something that I can make relate to the theme - I'm going with the memory game, but I need to present it in a way that is hopefully totally different from anything Isabella has seen, or it won't work.  I've found this site where they made pockets out of wrapping paper on poster board and the pictures were hidden inside.  My version I will sew some pockets out of felt (from the crayon bags) and attach it to the bright yellow fabric left over from those crowns from Sophia's 4th birthday party. Sophia and Viv often use the laundry baskets as boats, so I'm going to shove a dowel underneath to make it rock and then use the spoons as paddles (again stuff that they do) and  while acting out the poem with them.   I know that my weakness is the dialogue part-how do I get the kids to talk?

TTC Day 3

Ugh! Lesson was a flop!  What I ended up doing was flashing the cards, acting them out and then trying to recycle the play dough and play a scultionary (like pictionary but with play dough) .  I'm scanning and writing all this stuff to document my thought process for my own future reference, so I can remember what did and didn't work.  This first scan is of my stick figures to see exactly what the motion is of the sport.

 You know that Anna Laura Cantone and the Lauren Child authors are my favorites.  So I looked at their books and tired to convert those sticks into that style. 

I wanted to bring in props items you use for each sport. like a swim cap and goggles, a basket ball (we have a mini one with a spiderman hoop) but, we haven't got a soccer ball, what do you use for running? sweat bands?

I thought about having the kids make a simple kite (you can do it with a plastic bag and some sticks and tape or glue).  But that just focuses on one thing. Sophia has a kite, but would real kids tangle up the strings?

The sculptionary thing might have worked, but not for this activity-i needed something more related to prompting kids to say 'he is ... ' and the sport.

(OMG -this is terrible Sophia is sitting on the couch playing and  she asked what's that, indicating the pictures. I told her my drawings and asked what they are doing - and that prompted her to say the exact sentences of what I was supposed to teach....I should have kept it simple! damn!)

I have a million things to do tonight.  I feel so tired and overwhelmed.  Max is working until midnight.  I've already tried to put Viv down once, luckily Sophia went to bed without a hitch.  Tonight, the Befana is supposed to come and leave presents or a lump of coal in kids' socks.  She went to bed because she wants something good and doesn't want (what she calls) cold rocks. (That's her little kid vernacular after processing my answer to her 'What's coal?' question. I had told her 'Coal is something like rocks to make fire').  Vivienne, on the other hand, has decided she is going to be a pain in the ass.  Usually we just throw her in her bed, she cries for 2 seconds and then we don't hear from her until morning .  Even if she wakes up during the night, she will usually just cry herself back to sleep.   Not tonight.  That's probably because, the Befana only got presents for her sister.  (I'm getting home too late and have too much homework to do, so I sent Max to do the task.  I know it really doesn't matter, Viv won't know the difference.  It's more for Sophia's sake. How do you explain why only one daughter got presents and not the other.  It's not right and I don't want Sophia thinking that she is more special than her sister-and she's not.  We (er the Befana) love them both equally.  Luckily Max got books and couple of Littlest Pet Show animals and not clothes.  This year somebody is just going have to explain that the presents are for both of them ). But I digress, back to the kids going to bed.  Vivienne, on the other hand, has decided that she has spoiled us enough and tonight she is going to put up a fuss.  I'm sure if I just stayed with her for a few minutes and cuddled her, the problem would be solved, but I'm so agitated and overwhelmed by what I have to do tonight, I think I would probably transmit some of these negative emotions and just make the situation worse.  I've sucked it up and decided to ask the Nonno if one of them could just hold and cuddle her until she falls asleep.  I know that they are over the moon, as they don't agree with how we put the kids to bed anyways.  So now dinner has been eaten (a whole other story in itself) and dishes are done and the kitchen is cleaned.  I'm trying to write my TTC essay.  It's really not that hard, I'm sure Isabella just wants us to cover the topics she talked about and she if we can apply them to how the HDEE method works.  The problem is, I was up so late last night.  By the time the time I got home (and listened to the Nonni's detailed account of how the day went- everything from playing, every morsel that they did or did not eat and how many bowel movements occurred-pardon the pun but, I shit you not on that last part.  Nonni and preschools do that here, all the kids are like the Last Emporer.  There is a Pooping Chart at a lot of schools and it has the kids name with, the number of times they've pooped and whether or not it was 'caca bella' (beautiful poop) or what have you.  At least the teacher's don't have to save it, sniff it and then tell the parents what's missing from each kids diet.  But if the kids do a good poop, lots of parents make a big deal out of it, so it's not that far from where the monks adorn the chamber pot with flowers and do a little jig around it.  Thank God Soph's preschool doesn't do that.  But once again, I digress... So, where was I? I've lost my train of thought.  Oh yeah, luckily I can just go back a few lines and read.  Anyhoo, by the time that I heard the account of the kids' day, spent some time with them, ate dinner and cleaned up, it was late and I couldn't concentrate.  I written the first paragraph like 50 times, I just can't get the words to come out.   Plus the Nonna keeps coming by and adding details about the day and asking me stuff I really don't care about right now.  To make matters worse, she is deaf as a door nail.  I have to keep repeating myself.  Each time my sentence gets shorter until I'm just down to a monosyllabic response and my voice gets exponentially louder, so that by the fourth repetition, I am frustratedly shouting loud enough for all the people in China to hear. When Max or the Nonno do this, she gets pissed and does the 'You don't have to shout, I'm not deaf' thing.  With me, she tries to be a bit more polite and always explains, it's not that she can't hear, it's that she can't understand the words. Let me translate that for you:  it's because I'm a foreigner and she can't understand my accent.  Aside from the fact that I've been told that I don't have a strong American accent (not bragging, just stating a fact that will go along with a future story, that I don't have time to tell now), I'm really not sure which part of SI or NO I pronounce incorrectly!

The flat next door was up for rent when we moved in, but a few months later someone else moved in.  The subject came up in conversation about our new neighbors a little while later.  Ever since the Nonno has talked about how he wants to rent the place, how it's too bad he missed out on the opportunity. Well not to be cruel, but we're not.  They are really sweet, but I could NEVER live with them within such a close vicinity!!!!!

So now, the Nonno is sitting on the couch behind me with Vivienne on his shoulder. Clearly both are sleep. Me: Nonno, you can put her in the bed.  Nonno: What? Huh? Oh no, I'm going to wait until she's in a deep sleep, otherwise will wake up when I put her down.  All I can do is shrug my shoulders, turn back to the computer screen and try and concentrate.  Things are quiet for a minute, but of course their breathing gets heavier and heavier and it becomes more distracting.  Me: Nonno you can put her in bed now.  Nonno: 'Ma, voglio aspettare finchè si dorme bene, bene'.  Which means 'I want to wait until she in a deep deep sleep'.  And repeat the same scene a few more times with their breathing getting louder and louder.  Any deeper of sleep and both of them would be in a coma, so finally I am like Goddammit: 'NO-NNOOOOOOO (said as if they are two separate words) I can't concentrate could you put her in bed PUHLEAAASE'.   And of course he says 'Oh' and teeters off upstairs.  Why didn't I just do that the first time?  Now it's way after 11 and I have hardly written a thing and I still have my EFI project to do.  I fizzled out on the last project, Isabella was not impressed, I know I need to kick it up a notch, but I am just too tired to do anything.  As I've said before, I'm not one of those people that work well under pressure, I need lots of time to think things through and work out. That is, unless, I get lucky and get hit with a random lightening bold of an idea.

It's much later now, it must be three-ish: I've finished my essay, I was going to leave it all choppy with my half written ideas,  go to bed a bit earlier and fix it in the morning, but I've decided to finish up just now instead.  It's so late, I can't get up any earlier than 6:30 or I won't have had slept at all.  My project is for 3 year old EFI kids, the pages I got are to learn about a family members (the teddy family) and clothes.  I'm thinking about stealing the stacking cups from Sophia and attaching pictures of the four family members on, with the Papa Bear being the largest and down to the little brother bear.  I don't know, it's not that great but I'm out of energy, esp the creative kind.  So for the clothes part, I'm going to paint the kids to look like bears or paint their hands to be a bear hand puppet, (I know that some kids don't really like this. Sophia hated having her face painted at this age, but we're actually all adults pretending to be kids and so no one will really care) and  (then I've stolen some clothes from the kids' dress up box: a bright pink barbie dress, because i know that that's a favorite here and that expandable bright shirt my mom got for me in China. (Sorry Mom, I've never worn it, it's not my color and when I put it on, I look like some weird, out of water puffer fish.  But it's not gone to waste, the kids use it all the time ) and some random shoes, socks and etc.  I couldn't find any shorts since we have none in the dress up box and the kids stuff summer stuff is put away.  I'll hide them in obvious places and have the 'kids' be the bears hunt for them (the verbs are really shop and put on-but I can't figure out how to work that into the game).  I wish I could find adult sized clothes, but I don't have enough time or stuff at hand.  Since I need to create dialogue I'm going to hold up the stuff they bring and repeat/try to have them repeat the name of the item when they hand it to me. Hmmmm, if I paint the kids faces to look like bears I can have them put on the items to be the Mom (purse), Dad (tie), boy (hat), girl (hair bow)-but it's not that great of an idea because only the sister and brother put on the clothes in the story.  Anyways, I gotta ask Max for a tie in the morning.

TTC Day 2

OMG what a day! I went to bed too late last night, I didn't realize my iPhone was running low on juice and it turned off in the middle of the night.  I woke up totally late and Max ended up having to take me to metro station closer to the city.  The projects were fun to see, lots of people had great ideas, some people are still trying to figure stuff out.  Yeah, the teacher liked my project/presentation.  It was using play dough to make a monster and learn the parts of the body.  I gave each kid a hunk and they could make a body, then I would prompt them 'Would you like to make some eyes, how many do you want?' and they had to say 'May I have 3 eyes?' etc.

We also did our demo lessons,(to show parents/kids how lessons are and if ).  The demo is standard, everyone has to do the same thing, but of course we all put our individuality into it, so it never comes out the same from person to person. We have to do an introduction in Italian and then we go into English.  I am very nervous because I don't like to speak Italian in front of groups of people.  I know that my Italian is pretty good, but I'm still not that confident when I am the center of attention.  We were split into 2 groups and I volunteered to go with Lorenza the head of all MFs in our area, who also was doing the evaluation, because I don't know her.  I think I would feel more self conscious in front of Isabella.  I was nervous anyways.

On the home front: All the Nonno has been talking about is taking Sophia ice skating.  I keep telling him, you can't just shove her on the ice and expect her to have fun, she needs adult supervision and someone to play with her. I got home today and before I even got my coat off, Sophia told me (guiltily) is that Nonno bought her mittens. Today they went to the rink in Brugherio's center, they didn't take any gloves, so she couldn't go.  So the Nonno went and bought her an expensive pair of ski mittens - and for what???? so she could go ONE day?   It's not like she doesn't have 100 woolen mittens from them already! And then the Nonno just remembered  that he forgot to gas up our car (I guess Max had asked).  I think he was thinking out loud to himself, but I said I would do it, (because I needed to get out of the house and get some air).  But of course, despite me having my jacket and shoes already on, the Nonno insisted that he go and argued with me, just adding fuel to the fire. By the time I got back, Max was home and said he had the day off so he would take her tomorrow.  The Nonni have such hard heads!

Project 2: sports. have no clue what I am going to do.  I will probably bring in the items from sports and have the kids run to them and try them on.  But we need to make something, so I'm thinking flash cards.  Maybe they can run up and touch them? match the correct items to the correct flash card?

HDEE TTC

What the hell am I talking about?  Remember I got that job?  Well, I need to do a Teacher Training Course first (hence the acronym TTC) .  The company is called Helen Doron Early Education (HDEE).  Now you get the title right? Okay, well I kind of went in with a bad attitude today.  The course is not cheap, it bothers me a bit that I have to pay for a class to work for them, but I get it.  HDEE franchises out and the franchisees don't want to spend the money training the teachers and then have them run off and teach on their own or for someone else.  So I get it.  What pissed me off is myself.  I paid the money and asked questions later.  It happened that I did the interview.  Aside from getting to know each other and our experiences, my MF (Master Franchiser) had me sit in and see some classes in action.  I was a bit limited on time, so I asked if i could come in at the end of the little kids class (what I now know is called EFI) and then the first half of a big kids class (EFAC).  I sat in with Marcella and I have to say that I was quite impressed with how the class worked, I could see there was some sort of book or plan that they followed and I know that the school has only been opened since Sept and I could see the level of English that the kids are at already.  It was quite impressive, I could tell it was totally opposite that from when I worked at DoReMi, where they basically just threw me in the class with 30 kids and closed the door and said teach.  Marcella knows what she is doing and is follows some sort of plan.  One of the hardest things to do is to plan out what you're going to do and the order the order that you will do it in.  It has to be methodical because you really can't teach certain things before you teach others, but there is so much material in life to cover, it's hard to figure out where to start.  Based on these 50 minutes of observation and chatting with the MF, I accepted the job and shelled out the money and signed up for the TTC.

Wait, wait, back it up.  I forgot I also had to go to the main franchise in the city (Milan) and interview with the MF there and observe a class there.  Let me just say I was not impressed this time, the school was crazy and hectic and stuff was all over the place and the MF was answering phones and cutting out some papers and coloring some project for somebody's lesson while she interviewed me and then she just shoved me into one of the classes to observe and I didn't get introduced or know if I had to help or whatever.  And these mothers and kids and teacher just stared at me and when on about their business as if I were even there.  It was weird. The teacher was active and great with the kids - there were only 2 kids that day. They were about the age of 2, in this sparse room.  One of the kids was totally out of control and had no social skills, I could tell he doesn't go to the asilo (preschool). And the moms spoke and repeated the objects in Italian, which I totally hated when other teachers did that at DoReMi.  The kids can see the object, they need to arrive at the conclusion that the car in my hand is a car because they see it, not because someone is telling them macchina.  I'm going to give the teacher props, because she was good despite the chaos, she kept them active and had things as under control as she could in this type of situation. So anyways: there were parents and kids and props lying all over the place and everything was so chaotic when I got out of the class. I went back into the office, was polite and left, thinking 'No way in hell would I work for this place,' but I really like the MF at where I would work and the place is smaller. It's definitely totally less chaotic and I was still impressed with the method and the things they do with it (there are also weekend and holiday workshops and they put on play and stuff in English).

 
Anyhoo, so this is why I decided to take the job and paid for the course.  The problem is, that after I waited for my MF to call and let me know what was going on.  She was very prompt with sending me the paper work and everything, so I couldn't understand why once I paid, I hadn't heard back from her much.  Last Thursday I started to panic, I still didn't know the address or what time I had to be there or what I needed to bring.  I ended up emailing the MF and found out I needed not slip socks and found out the course was at the place where I went for the second interview (which in itself is another story.  The MF told me in zona Fiera, so I was thinking the one in Rho, which is outside of Milan and probably takes 1.5 hours on the Metro during rush hour.  She actually meant the old Fiera, which is much nearer.  This part I was fine with, since it was just a misunderstanding).  Sunday I received a a forwarded email from my MF with the hour (which said 9am to 5pm) and address of the course.

This is why I arrived late and with a bad attitude.  To top things off, I rang the bell and somebody buzzed the outer door open.  You have to then walk down a short flight of stairs to get to another door to the learning center.  Somebody popped her head out, she didn't say hello, didn't ask if I was there for the course, didn't say anything, she just looked at me like who or which one are you?  She had popped her head back in by time I got to the door and I was thinking WTF have I gotten myself into.   There were a bunch of girls that already had their coats off and some were sitting on cushions in one of the class rooms.  Some girls seemed as if they already knew each other.  One girl (who actually arrived after me) asked if we needed to bring in paper and pencil.  Now I was really in a panic, because I realized nobody knew what was going on.  Well, at least we were in the same boat.  I told her I didn't know, but that I was going to and went in the room and I sat down. There girls inside the room had already formed a circle and there was no room for me to sit, one of the girl's scooted over to make room (I now know her name is Ilaria), but I declined since I wanted to lean against the wall, my back hurt from standing on the metro, I had to hold onto one of those above head bars and you know I am short and can barely reach.   The trainer came in, from first impressions, she seemed nice enough.  Introductions were made, we talked a little about ourselves (and our age, which luckily for me -is always an ice breaker. It's embarrassing, but people laugh and open up a bit when they find out I'm at least 10 years old than they would have guessed).  There were 12 of us, mostly from the Milan area, a couple from farther away  in Italy and 3 from outside Italy-only two other girls are MT English).  I'm impressed the trainer learned our names after one introduction.

Then Isabella (the trainer) started showing us a video about the HDEE classes- I was now thinking OMG WTH is she trying to sell us on the course or something??  I was wondering if it was worth it to call my loses and try to escape at the lunch break.  And then it got worse...she started talking about various methods that HD developed her method from.  (at this point I am thinking to myself, good thing I brought paper and pencil-but do I really want to write any of this stuff down??).  The methods were mostly developed around the turn of last and seemed old and outdated. She mentioned scientists and researchers  like Maria Montessouri, Suzuki, Glen Doman (basically the grandfather of the Your Baby Can Read thing) and Steiner.  One of the older kids who attended Sophia's school last year, now attends a Steiner school . The kid's mom has told us a lot about the method - it sounded so cultish and antiquated (and she believes in it-so of course she spoke positively).  Anyways, the lectures were sort of interesting in a weird, 'thank god, now I know I will never send my kid to one of those places way'.  I mean, it's a bit like religion, there are some fundamental things that these people discovered that are valid even today, but there are other things that clearly outdated.  For example, with Steiner, he believed that kids should make their own toys and play things out of natural products like cotton and wood and stuff.  Which is totally great. It's like the Slacker Mom book, don't give your kids ready made things all the time.  If given the chance, they can make something out of nothing. Kids are imaginative and it's amazing what they can do with a stick-they can make conduct an orchestra, mix the batter for mud pies, make a musical instrument, decorate a cake, etc etc.  And that part I get. They also don't want to teach kids everything, but would like to give the the instruments to arrive at thier own conclusions.  Again, I get it. But, in the method, they aren't allowed to use electronic things, shouldn't touch things like metal or plastic until after a certain age, certain steps should be made when preparing the food (like only using a wooden spoon to mix) .  We live in Milan, people are rich and send their kids to Steiner cuz it's cool, are you trying to tell me these kids don't have a flat screen TV n their room, don't surf the net or play DS, don't have toys and furniture made with plastic, don't have polyester blended into their Calvin Klein Tshirts and their moms (or cooks) make their food without using a KitchenAide, microwave or glass top electric stove, I know no one walks to school-so cars would be out too. There needs to be a happy medium.   The kids also stay with the same teacher from the time they enter the school, until the time they get out. You can figure out the advantages and disadvantages of that yourself. All the time I am wondering, how much longer until the break?  I did end up changing my mind by the time the break did roll around.  I figured out, she just introduced those names and methods just so that we could see, HD took the pros and left the cons of each method and then rolled up all the pros, updated it all, added music, poems and stories and made her own method.  Okay, I got it, this was all starting grow on me.

We all went to lunch at a nearby inexpensive restaurant and started to get to know each other a little better and of course that was fun. We went back and did other things to get to know each other a little better, like what languages we speak, experience, etc.  And then we found out we have to give standardized demo lessons. Uh oh, starting to freak out again....I didn't sign up for a sales job!

The trainer explained more about the method and how games and activities are changed often to avoid boredom and keep thing exciting, some of which we have to create and some of which are standard (like songs, stories and flashcards).  She showed us some of the things she does.  One of the activities was on the body to the song head, shoulders, knees and toes.  She has a silhouette of a body and prompts the kids to say what is missing and uses bottle caps for the eyes and ears and mouth and nose.  Simple, but effective.   See how the methods are applied now-give the kids a little and let their imagination do the rest. And then we found out that we would have to do projects too, due tomorrow.  Uhm SAY WHAT?  Not only was the part about bringing pencil and paper left out, but so was this part!!!  I mean, I'm glad that it's not all theory, it's also put into practice.  I'm also glad, because this is what I like to do best (and now somebody is actually going to pay me to do it), but....despite the Nonni being here, it also means 2 other people to take care of.  It's a double edged sword.  Plus the girls and Max isn't home tonight.  Guess what project I got, the one Isabella just demoed -this makes it much harder, cuz now I will be compared.  Now how am I going to teach the same lesson, but differently???

One of the girls (Francesca) lives in Brugherio and we took the metro home together.  It great to have someone to go over the days events and see what her ideas were.  Plus she gave a strappo a casa (literally: a rip to house, but it means a ride home :o)

I got home and Sophia was not so happy.  Last night her friend Valentina asked her for a sleep over, originally I had to say no, because the Nonni were here and I was going to be out all day, so neither Max nor I could pick her up before late.  Karol and Paola (Giorgia's mom) were so sweet, they had already planned a day out at the pool and to play after the sleep over and they offered to take Sophia too. But, when it was time to go, Sophia decided she didn't want Paola to take her, only one of us.  In the end they convinced her to go with Paola, but I still came home to two whiny little girls that wanted their mommy.  I can see this is going to be a tough week!

Last night I was organized and prepared the dinner for tonight.  The Nonni hadn't time to do the shopping, but I'm sure after this it will be a battle for who will cook dinner. I know that I need to let the Nonna do it, but her cooking drives me nuts and then she has to tell me detail by detail the recipe of food I will never make. But the Nonni already have started buying mountains of bread as if tomorrow they are going to stop making it forever:

This is the project: a picture of some kid with the parts of the body from head to toe (and including parts of the face, it even has teeth) and then the HSKT songs.  I was thinking of doing some sort of memory game or match up/puzzle or twister, but I've searched the internet and I can't find anything.  I keep trying to draw parts of the body, but Vivienne has decided she doesn't want to sleep and I am having a hard time looking at the internet and drawing with her squiggling body between me and the screen and the piece of paper.

Much later:  damn I couldn't get anything done.  This is all I could come up with, it's a twist on Isabella's project:  point out body parts (I'm leaving out teeth) instead of using the silhouette, I've made some play dough (cuz it takes less time than drawing all those parts) and ups to my sister, who gave me food coloring that included black.  The human body is too hard, but monster bodies are fun since they are simple and easy to do.  Crossing my fingers that this works out, I really didn't have enough time to prepare.