Laugh of the Day

I was reading about Edward III and the Battle of Crecy to SA(7) this afternoon from Our Island Story. ("Our Island" refers to Britain in this case.) He did not narrate very well after the first segment, which was about how King Edward divided his 20,000 men into three groups in order to fight against King Philip of France, who was coming with 120,000 men.

I was about to go on when SA said, "I was wondering about the 20,000 men in three groups."

"That's a good question," said I. "How many men would be in each group?"

Pause.

"Okay," I thought, "I'll help him get started."

"Well, I think it would be more than 6,000," I began, "Because three groups of 6,000 would make 18,000."

"Six thousand, six hundred sixty-six dot six seven," SA answered.

!!!

Startled laughter. I mean, I know he's good at math, but I wasn't quite expecting that.

"Well," I said, "I don't think you would want to divide a man into parts for this purpose, so you'd probably want to have one extra person in two of the groups instead of the 'dot six seven'."

We went on with the reading and narration, finishing the lesson fifteen minutes later.

Then I noticed that he had my cell phone. Which has a calculator.

That explains the "dot six seven." I didn't think he was that familiar with decimals yet.

For the Record...

The time I didn't have any Miquon math pages printed out for JJ(4) and he made his own...

For the record, I am not teaching him math yet. I just give him the Cuisenaire rods and some Miquon worksheets to play with during school time. I think the number reversals, lack of signs, etc. will probably remedy themselves by the time he starts Year 1.

Hello, Spring!

The first day of spring 2015 arrived on PEI in the midst of a week of snowstorms. There was one on Sunday-Monday which brought lots of snow. Then there was another on Wednesday that brought less snow, but blew it around so nobody could see and confused the efforts that were still underway to clear the roads from the earlier storm. And now another today. Again, not as much snow, but ANY snow on top of this feels like too much.

I don't think I've ever felt so overwhelmed by snow. Seven-foot drifts are right outside my front door. 

My husband built a lovely snow bunker on top of one of them last Monday night.

Last Wednesday evening, Stephen was on his way home from work and got stuck on the road. There was one lane cleared after Monday's storm. I believe the method is to drive through as fast as you can to get through the drifts and hope you don't meet anyone. Visibility was poor, and it turned out that the one lane had gotten a bit too narrow to fit a car through. So he was stuck. He walked to a neighbour and borrowed a shovel. He got the car free, then shoveled the length of four telephone poles down the road to get the car into the nearest driveway. This takes a sentence or two to tell, but it involved about two and a half hours of shoveling. It also involved a friendly neighbour heading out in his truck from just around the corner and getting stuck as well. And in the end, the drifts on the road were too much to even walk through to a friend's house a kilometer away. Stephen had to stay the night at the home where he parked his car, where he slept (not much!) on a couch that was too short for him. 

Right now, the Confederation Bridge is closed again, and plows have been taken off secondary roads because of poor visibility. Cold wind chill of -25 degrees Celcius tonight. (That's -13 Farenheit.)

Winter, We Surrender!

I Don't Remember...

As we are nearing the end of our first term using Ambleside Online Year One, I have been thinking through writing a post about how much we are liking it, and how wonderfully the new skill of narration has been developing in SA(6).

And then we ran *smack* into today.

Today we were home all day after going out four days in a row. (My general rule tends to be that I never go out more than one day in a row. For reasons that will become obvious.)

I woke up in a bit of pain. Nothing serious, just the usual pregnancy aches and pains that happen after I overdo things a little bit. Just enough to dull my usual optimism into more of a "let's just get through this day" sort of feeling.

Unfortunately, SA seems to have woken up with much the same feeling. He dawdled with his math, and only completed a quarter of a page before it was time for his first narration of the day.

If I had just been thinking, I would have known that I should choose an easy passage for narration, or at least one from a favourite book. But I glanced through "Prince Darling" in the Blue Fairy Book and thought it would be fine.

It was not. When I paused for the first narration after reading the first paragraph, he said, "I don't remember."

"That's too bad," I said. "I thought it was quite interesting. Try to listen very carefully to this next part so you can tell it back to me."

So I read the next paragraph, and he told me again, "I don't remember."

Uh-oh. That line usually works on him. What do I say now? "Do you remember any of it, JJ?"

JJ(4) never narrates, so he was very pleased to tell me what he remembered. "There was a lady with a crown of roses."

"Yes!" I said. "Does that help you remember anything more, SA?"

"No."

On to the next paragraph. Still nothing. And so on for five more paragraphs before I gave up.

What can a mom do in such a situation? I felt like giving up on the day and just going to bed, honestly. I even felt a bit like screaming. Thankfully I held it in.

The day did not get a lot better until after supper, when SA asked me if he could finish his copywork (also not done...) and his second narration. We read two of Aesop's Fables. He did well, because he was willing.

He is a routine-oriented boy, and he would not have been quite happy if the day had ended and he had not at least completed the basics of our homeschooling day.

Tomorrow is a new day.


Filed under "funny stories" because it will be funny some day. Right?

The Great Caterpillar Escape

In our house, we have a jar with two caterpillars in it. Every so often, I remind the boys to add fresh leaves so their captives stay alive.

A couple of days ago, though, I noticed that the caterpillars seemed to be missing, and I wasn't sure what happened to them or who the culprit was.

Thankfully, however, I discovered that the culprit who orchestrated their escape had documented it very carefully on my cellphone camera.

Notice the jar, carefully turned on its side.

And now, an artistic closeup of the caterpillar's getaway.

What adventures!

Oops...accidental partial selfie of the culprit. We only have one boy this blonde.We know you did it, JJ.

And finally, on the floor. I'm not sure if he had a little help or not...

In case you're wondering, we did come across him again a day or two later and put him back in the jar. The other caterpillar is still missing.

Saturday Quotes (from the Boys)

The boys went to visit some friends this week while I sang for royalty. Uncle Sid and Aunt Linda gave them a wonderful time outside chasing squirrels and collecting butternuts to plant at home. Later this week, SA told me all about the butternuts, so I grabbed a pen and started writing. I missed the first part, but this is most of his narration.

...they grow, and as soon as they're ready to drop, then the branch drops it. Then you look at the ground, then you could see butternut seeds. Then you take off the case and the black, then you put it in your pocket if you're not at your house. Then you just shovel the grass off or plant it in your garden. Then you put the seed in the hole, then you get only the dirt on it. Then soon it grows into a butternut tree.

SA also had an adventure with a huge bumblebee yesterday. It landed on him in the house, and we had to collect it with his hat and let it go outside. JJ was extremely interested in the process, and helped me every step of the way. (Those are his hands in the picture.)




MM has been saying "thank you" all the time lately. If I don't respond with "You're welcome" immediately, he repeats it. The funniest thing is when he's about to nurse. He always makes sure he says thank you before he begins.

The morning we had our watermelon teatime, we were unfortunately swarmed by black flies. I slathered on the natural insect repellant, but apparently SA still got bitten...
SA: "Mama, the bees hold their breath." (He meant bugs.)
Me: "Oh, did you get bitten?"
SA: "Only a couple of times. Some of them like the smell, and some of them don't."

Saturday Odds and Ends

Here's a piece of round-about (but perfectly reasonable) math from SA this week:
"Mama, 60+60=120!"
"Yes, you're right," I said.
"It's because 50+50=100, and then the 20 divided in two makes an extra 10 for each 50."
Oh, absolutely. I would never have thought of explaining it that way...

Poetry Teatime (I'm the one with the celery...)

SA has also been having a lot of fun with reading this week. This wasn't my intention, but somehow I managed to pick library books for him that really tickled his funny bone. Consider Henry and Mudge, for instance. (Just keep in mind that Mudge is a big dog, and Henry is a little boy.)
"Mudge loved Henry's room.
He loved the dirty socks. (snicker)
He loved the stuffed bear.
He loved the fish tank. (giggle)
But mostly he loved Henry's bed.
Because in Henry's bed was Henry. (gales of laughter...can hardly go on!)
Mudge loved to climb in with Henry.
Then he loved to smell him. (that was just too funny! Ha Ha Ha! Let me check, is Mama laughing too? Yep...laughing right along with you, buddy.)

I finally remembered a "JJ saying" from weeks ago. We were playing outdoors, and he had a stick in his hand. He was babbling on about the stick, and I was only half listening, when I heard:
"and then I threw the stick on the ground, but it didn't turn into a snake!"
"Oh really?" said I.
"Yes. Only Moses' stick turned into a snake."

Saturday Funnies

My children have a habit of waking up early every morning. We don't let them get up until Stephen's alarm rings at 6:45, though. The problem with that is, until the alarm rings, I hear "What time is it now, Mama?"
"6:35, SA. Still 10 more minutes."
"What time is it now, Mama?"
"6:40."
"Mama, when it's 6:45 on your watch, it will be 6:42 on Papa's phone."
(Hmmm...somebody has noticed that my watch is a little ahead! It's my strategy for getting anywhere on time.)
"...and it will be 6:45 on the clock on the stove."
(Yep, it enhances the effect when all the clocks in the house are a few minutes ahead. But he noticed that the time on the cell phone is different, and by how many minutes.)

The charger for our laptop computer was not working very well for us this week, and we noticed it was getting hot as well. "Does that mean it's toasted?" asked SA.

We have been trying to get our time outdoors up again with 1000hoursoutside.com, and so we made a couple trips to the playground at the local elementary school this week. As we were walking back on Friday, SA was talking about how it was too bad he'd missed his "screen time" that day.
"That's OK," I said. "I will let you have 15 minutes of screen time while I get supper ready."
JJ was very excited. "I have an idea! We could go on the X-Box and play a two-player game!"
SA clearly had other intentions for his screen time, but he wasn't giving them away.
"That's a thought," he replied noncommittally (and diplomatically!). And said nothing more.

Saturday Commonplaces 9

Homeschooling

I wish you could have seen my little ones one morning this week. JJ (3) and MM (1) sat down on the couch together with some of SA's books. JJ carefully arranged a pillow behind their backs and a blanket over their toes, and they "read" aloud for about ten minutes. JJ had Bears on Wheels, and MM had Put Me in the Zoo. JJ especially is very keen to read now that SA has taken off with reading. I had to make him his own reading ladder (a paper where we record the books SA reads on his own). He mostly "reads" from memory, but if he doesn't remember, he runs his finger along under the lines and has me read, and he repeats after me. I don't really think he's ready yet for phonics lessons, though. I don't think he'd even realize the connection between phonics and reading. It's not about the words for him. It's about the stories.

SA (5) is still reading very easy-to-read books, but he is making progress all the time. Last week I had a few moments of self-doubt. I noticed SA was starting to be a bit resistant to my having him read a book a day. Maybe I just needed to go back to the reading lessons. I decided that I would not suggest any book for him to read this week, and see what happened. What happened was that most days he came to me on his own with about three new books that he wanted to read (I'm so thankful for the library!). We filled up the new reading ladder we started just last Friday. I'm going to have to get a poster board to make a gigantic ladder, because these dinky construction paper ones are filling up too fast. For phonics this week we talked casually about words with a silent E. I have been second-guessing myself when it comes to phonics...should I buy a phonics program? Am I doing enough? I think I will wait to see where he is at the beginning of Grade 1 next September, and pick up there.

I have also been second-guessing myself when it comes to math, which is his real love. There are so many options out there, and I guess it's natural to wonder sometimes if there's something you're missing. We are doing Miquon Math and Peggy Kaye's Games for Math. The games are wonderful. I pick one out every Monday and we do the same game again any time my children ask for it that week. Miquon is great, too, but it seems a bit slow for him. I think for next term I will try something new. As soon as he gets a concept and has reinforced it for a week or two with rods and games, I will move on to a new concept. He can continue to do worksheets on the old concepts as he pleases. I have started to do this already. I allow him to choose his worksheet from anything we've learned already. (We do worksheets two or three times a week.) This week he chose to do worksheets on addition and subtraction, though our "concept work" was in multiplication. He does the worksheets on his own, and uses or does not use the rods as he pleases. There was a "trick question" on one of the sheets this week, and I fully expected him to come to me for help. But when he showed me the paper, it was complete, and correct. (The question was 2-3= -1) I didn't know he knew how to do that, so I asked him about it. He said the answer was one less than zero. This is why I sometimes don't think I'm giving him enough challenging work.

I have been looking at MEP as well (a free program), which is totally different than Miquon. It seems more puzzle-oriented, but slower when it comes to concepts like addition, subtraction, and multiplication. It also has more variety every day. So I think SA might be bored with some parts of it, and greatly enjoy other parts. It is also more worksheet oriented, which I do not necessarily like, and which he may not be quite ready for. I'm thinking I may experiment with supplementing a few pages from MEP next term and see if he likes it. I'd probably have to start in the middle of year one in order to challenge him.

Books

I read another good book this week. It was a bit too good, actually, since I could not help reading it in one day (if you have three or more children, you'll realize why having this kind of book in the house is not a very good idea). However, I did better than my husband, who came home from work in the wee hours of the morning one night, picked up the book, and didn't put it down until it was done. (Don't worry, neither of us make this a habit...) The book was The Spark by Kristine Barnett. She's the mother of an autistic genius, and she tells the story of how she followed her mothering instincts in order to help her child.

I noticed that parents of autistic children do not tend to rate this book very highly, as this woman's son is quite unusual (He is a genius, first of all, and he began to function more normally when she gave him the resources to follow his interests.). I was inspired as a mom of ordinary children, though. Every child, no matter what their gifts or their shortcomings, is a born person and should be treated as such. She saw how all the therapy her son was taking was about what he couldn't do, and determined to allow him to do something he could do (and well!). She also saw how the hours and hours of work they were doing were taking away his childhood. So she made a focused effort to take the time to play, make friends, and do the things childhood memories are made of, even though these things are quite challenging to find ways to do with an autistic child.

I did find myself wondering about the details of this book...is it all true? Everything is so highly coloured. My take on it is that the author is a very intense woman, and so you see everything through her dramatic viewpoint. Since my own natural tendency leans more towards downplaying things that happen, this sometimes felt strange to me. But even with that, I highly recommend this book.

Cuteness
MM has taken to clutching cars or other hard toys while I nurse him. As soon as I realized this, I got out some stuffed animals (they had been put away because they were not played with). But it was too late. He seems to like holding the angular, hard shapes better than the soft, squishy ones. Yesterday I called him to nurse, and as usual he bustled around first, finding things to hold. There were no toys around at that moment, so I found myself cuddling with a duster (stoffer), a pen, and a scrap of craft foam. I love this toddler so much!

And that's all for this week! Have a good week, everyone.

Saturday Commonplaces 8

/ˈkämənˌplās/ noun 1. a usual or ordinary thing.

It has been a few weeks since I've done this little newsletter. I was just browsing through my "old" posts (all from this winter) and realizing how valuable they are for capturing and remembering a bit of everyday life. Many of the things I wrote were already on their way out of my memory! This is one of the reasons I started to blog in the first place...

Some Quirky Language from JJ: 

"Afta" (After)
definition: before.
"What time is it, JJ?" I ask as I'm rudely awoken at some dark hour of the morning.
He switches on the cell phone to check. "It's six afta two afta zero." (meaning 6:20)
Or he weighs himself. "Mama, I'm three afta eight afta six." (38.6 lb)

"Eida" (Either)
definition: too
"I want to come with you eida, Mama."
or "Can I have a cookie eida, please?

JJ painted a watercolour picture yesterday.  He started in the corner of the page, and painted part of a circle. It was mostly blue, with some patches of green and brown. I asked him what it was, he said "the sound from the speakers." I had no idea what that meant, but Stephen filled me in today. When he's playing music on the stereo upstairs, there are pictures of earth from space showing on the screen. JJ had painted the earth. That paper is going in our keepsake box, along with its title.

A Good Book I Read Recently:

I first heard about Surprised by Oxford from some quotes I read on a blog. I lost no time in finding it at my library. For me, its beauty was that it was yet another illustration of how God reaches down and meets us where we are. What believer does not have a similar story of the providential leading of God as they came to faith?
I couldn't quite figure out whether this book was well-written or not. On the positive side, I finished it in two days because I just couldn't put it down. On the negative side, the language of many of the conversations is stilted and unreal. One possibility is that these "conversations" are in fact distillations of the wisdom found in several conversations over time. And the truth is, this concentrated form of conversation often results in some of the most quotable passages of the book. Overall, I highly recommend it.

And that's all for today. Have a good week!

Quiet Sunday Morning...

I am home alone with my little MM. He had a miserable night last night, poor fellow. His eye teeth are coming in. I have found with all my children that those are the most difficult and painful ones. So we are home, watching the birdfeeder, catching up on Bible reading, Charlotte Mason reading, and rest.

My parents came over yesterday, which was wonderful. They don't live very far away (about two and a half hours), but they are off-island, so it's an expensive trip. Between that and work schedules (Stephen's, mostly), we probably only see them once every couple of months on average. They made me feel like it was my birthday. First of all, they brought supper the evening they came. They also brought enough bread for me to skip making bread for about a week, and sweet treats for snacks and teatimes. Then they took SA and JJ for a special outing on Saturday so I could have a little break. They came back with special pastries and tulips and fancy cheeses for me. We ended the day by inviting Stephen's parents to come and visit as well, and had supper together. It was a great day!

I didn't get around to doing my usual "commonplaces" post. I just had one "JJ saying" to put in it, anyway (I was sick for a few days last week, and didn't really want to expand on that!). JJ was out of sorts and quite disobedient on Friday. I had to give him (consequences) several times. At one point, when he defied me yet again, I said sorrowfully to him, "JJ, do I have to give you more (consequences)?"
"No, I just need a hug," he said.
So I gave him a big hug. "Are you ready to obey me now?" I asked him.
"Mama, Mama, you changed my nose..."
(...puzzled look from me...)
"You changed my no's into yeses!" he said with a big smile. And promptly obeyed me.
It was a magic hug, I guess!

Saturday Commonplaces 6

A newsletter with random thoughts and happenings from my week.

Cuteness
I was putting MM down for his nap yesterday morning. Before I went upstairs, I told the boys to clean up because it was almost teatime. Well, I took so long up there that my boys decided to take matters into their own hands. I came down to this:

The teakettle on the table was the work of my five-year-old, and the bananas and pickles were carefully prepared by my three-year-old. He carefully got out our pretty china plate (we use it every day for teatime). He peeled a banana and cut it into fourths. He left the other piece off the plate because there were only going to be the three of us at tea. Then he got the pickle jar from the fridge and speared three fat pickles and put them beside the bananas. Yum! I was properly grateful, and only added some cheese and crackers to eat with the pickles.

Outdoor Life
I debated not admitting this here, but I have to be honest. We only spent three and a half hours outside this week. My excuse was the sheet of ice everywhere after Monday's rain. Tuesday I sent the boys out (kept the baby in with me) and spent the time in fear as they boldly scaled the hard-as-rock mountain of snow with their sled and went hurtling down towards the sheet of ice at the bottom. I greeted their return indoors fifteen minutes later with barely concealed relief. Wednesday I bundled up the baby and went out with them, but even so we only stayed out for half an hour. MM actually loved holding my hands and sliding. Thursday I finally decided to embrace the ice, since it was what we had, and put the boys' new skates on them. We hauled a kitchen chair out to the ice, and they had their first ever experience on skates. SA was very keen on it, and we did it again on Friday.

I've been thinking, though, a year ago I would have used the ice as an excuse to spend the week indoors. Though I didn't reach anywhere near my goal this week (ten hours), I did better than if I had no goal at all.

Habits
I was planning to work on the habit of attention this month, but some more urgent things have come up. Persistence is something I've had to teach a lot about this week. I prepared SA well for learning to skate. I told him he'd fall a lot at first, everyone does. He'd just have to get up again. He accepted this wholeheartedly, and is counting up his falls. ("How many falls until I'll be able to skate, Mama?" "I don't know...maybe twenty?") So far he has counted six falls. (He's still using a chair.) Another habit we need to start working on is self-control. JJ has a quick temper, and is in the habit of throwing things the instant he feels upset. He calms down fairly quickly afterwards, but somehow we have to work on that moment when he first loses his temper. I'm not sure how to help him get ahold of himself (any ideas?), but I'm sure we'll learn together.

Blogging
I've done some more reading lessons with SA that I hope to put up soon. I'm also working on reading Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series following a discussion schedule at Ambleside Online. I'm going to try to post my notes for that. So much to post, so little time... but of course real life comes first.

Saturday Commonplaces 4

A collection of random thoughts and happenings from my week.

Outdoor Time Log
We did better than the last two weeks, but still did not meet our target of 10 hours. We still have today, though the forecast is calling for 6-8 hours worth of ice rain. I'm hoping to clear a bit more snow before then, as the family vehicle is still snowed in since Wednesday's snowstorm.
Sun. Snowstorm, 0 Hours
Mon. .5 Hour
Tue. 1.5 Hours
Wed. Snowstorm, 1 Hour
Thu. 1.5 Hours
Fri. 2 Hours
So that's a total of 6.5 Hours this week. Hopefully I can bump it up to 7.5 today.

Adventures of a Baby in the Snow
MM is 17 months old now. It has been a real challenge for me to take him to play outside with the boys, and not just because the snow has been deep enough to bury him up to his neck the last few days. The child will not keep his mittens on. I put them on, he takes them off. I put them on. He takes them off. I leave them off, hoping he will notice his hands getting cold and want them back on. His hands get cold. He cries. I put the mittens back on. He takes them off. He cries more. This is not an issue a cord between the mittens will fix. True, the cord keeps him from losing them, but not from taking them off in the first place. So, being a mom of the 21st Century, I googled "keeping mittens on a toddler." And the solution is...(drum roll please): DUCT TAPE!!! I couldn't find any around, but I found a roll of Tuck Tape (the red kind). For our second time outside today, I put his mittens on, then taped around his wrists. It didn't quite keep him from taking his mittens off, but it sure kept him busy. It also took him a lot longer to get them off, so I could do more shoveling.

Anyway, with the "crying-because-my-hands-are-cold" off the table as an excuse to go back inside, he had to come up with something else once he was tired of being outside. And he did. About an hour after we went outside, he came and looked up at me.
"Pee-pee," he said loudly.
I looked at him. "Do you need a clean diaper?"
He deliberately nodded his head. Then, for good measure, he pointed to his diaper area and squatted.
I had a feeling I was being manipulated, but since it was getting dark as well, we went inside.


On Music
I watched a music documentary on Netflix last week called "Herbie Hancock: Possibilities." Now I'm not normally a jazz fan (Classical, folk, and blues are more my style), but I really enjoyed it. It's a documentary of Herbie Hancock's collaboration with a number of different artists, including Carlos Santana and Angelique Kidjo, Sting, and Paul Simon, and Christina Aguilera. My favourite was Annie Lennox singing Paula Cole's "Hush, Hush, Hush." If you are into music, you might enjoy this documentary. I love how really good musicians continue to grow and try new things as they age. People like Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, James Taylor, to name a few, just seem to get better and better.

Also on music, we have been continuing to watch Handel's Messiah on YouTube. Now that it's part of the routine, SA always makes sure we listen to our "Christmas music." Yesterday after we watched, I asked them if maybe they'd like to play the violin someday. SA had to think about it (Which one is the violin, anyway? No, Stephen and I have not been playing our violins enough in recent years.), but JJ was off like a shot to get one of Stephen's violins. I tuned it up and helped each of them hold it in turn. Of course it was much too big for them. SA produced the squawks and squeaks you'd expect from someone holding a violin for the first time. Surprisingly, though, JJ had amazing control of his bow hand, and not only had beautiful tone, but played each open string as he pleased. I still don't know for sure that he's not tone deaf (He doesn't sing on key), but if he's not, playing the violin may turn out to be something that comes easily for him. We'll see.

On Fancy
SA came out with something quite imaginative yesterday. I know many kids (especially girls?) have great imaginations, but SA isn't really given to flights of fancy.
"Mama, Mango (our cat) wanted to go outside, and I let him outside. I said to him, 'Mango, if you see a wolf outside, climb up into a high tree, higher than the wolf, so that the wolf can't get you.'"

On a Charlotte Mason Education
I have never intended to give my children a classical education. Classical homeschoolers have always intimidated me. The academic rigour, the trivium, the Latin and Greek...it all sounded like too much, and quite frankly, not my style. Give me Charlotte Mason, I thought...a gentle approach, yet one that is broad and rich and takes the child's personality and interests deliberately into account. However, I'm starting to realize that a Charlotte Mason education is a classical education. Last week I read this article by Andrew Kern on classical education and realized that all of the key attributes he claims for a classical Christian education are also true of a Charlotte Mason education. There are differences in the practicalities, but I think that the roots are the same.

Mark! Set! Go!

My little MM is about 13 months old now, and he has begun to say a few words. I think "water" was the first one, followed by "Mama," "Papa," "diaper," and his big brothers' names. Last Sunday I was amusing him in a small room without toys. I put him on my lap and played "This is the way the ladies ride" a few times. When we were done with that, he started climbing onto my lap, saying three words, toppling off (fully trusting I'd catch him, of course!), and giggling uncontrollably. He did it a few times before I realized that what he was saying was "Mark! Set! Go!"

The things he learns from his big brothers!

Did she thoughted we didn't have any?

Yesterday the mail lady came to the door with a delivery.

JJ: Who was that?
Me: The mail lady.
SA: What did she bring?
Me: This box of speakers for Papa.
SA: (With a note of puzzlement) Did she thoughted we don't have speakers at our house?
Me: No, Papa ordered them, and she just delivers them.

Why was this funny? Because Stephen has at least five, maybe more, sets of speakers in this house. (Yes, he's a pack rat, *sigh*. It's OK, I still love him. ;) The new speakers were for his new car, I think (hope!). It was just SA's quiet sense of bewilderment that had me close to laughter...like why in the world would the mail lady think of delivering speakers to our house?

Because I Love You...

SA has been playing on his bicycle so much this summer that one of his training wheels got completely worn out. Yesterday Stephen came home with a gift for SA in a Canadian Tire bag. SA peeked inside, and exclaimed,

"Wow! Training wheels! Were they on sale? We love it when things are on sale."

I looked over at Stephen and laughed. In that moment I realized that every time I buy something beyond our basic needs, I'm justifying my purchase out loud in front of my children. Now I think it's great to instill a habit of frugality in my children, but maybe, just maybe, it's time to stop the "It was on sale" comments when something is a gift. It's okay to buy a gift once in a while just because you love someone. I don't have to stop being frugal...just stop emphasizing it as the primary reason I bought something. Because there are bigger reasons. Love, maybe?

Because we surely do love our boys!

Words of the Week

I love it when kids make up their own words! They pause midsentence, and finding nothing in their vocabulary to say what they want to say, they make something up on the spot.

Stand-fly "Mama, the goose is doing a stand-fly!" meaning, of course, that the goose is flapping its wings. So said SA (5) at Avonlea yesterday. We went yesterday with Oma and my little sisters. There were a couple of geese in a tiny pond, and they really played to the crowd. As one did somersaults in the water (unfortunately toppling sideways each time), the other flapped its magnificent wings beside the pond. (Well, they were ordinary wings, but clearly he thought otherwise.)

Upside-over This is a noun meaning bottom, as in, "Mama, it is burned on the upside-over!" JJ was helping me cook some hot dogs, and one side got a bit dark. Yes, I know I'm a bad mom, since good moms don't feed their kids hot dogs, and they definitely don't burn them. We did have quinoa and beans with them to balance it out.

Curriculum Show and Tell: Leading Little Ones to God

Marian Schoolland's devotional Leading Little Ones to God is one of my favourite resources to teach children about God. It's also one my parents used when I was young.

How does this resource fit into your daily routine?

We read the Bible to our children every day. We've chosen to use the ESV (though any essentially literal translation would have done for us). It's important to us that the language of Scripture becomes familiar to our children, and using the same translation every time helps with that. Part of my Dutch Reformed heritage is that we anchor our Bible reading, singing and prayer to every meal. We nourish our bodies, we nourish our souls...it's part of the rhythm of life.
Leading Little Ones to God fits into our routine after breakfast each day. The boys and I go and sit on the couch. I begin by reading the Scripture passage suggested in the lesson. It's usually less than a chapter, appropriately short for a child-sized attention span. Then I read a chapter from the book. Chapters are generally about a page in length. The style is conversational and engaging. The book also includes two or three discussion questions, a hymn to sing, a memory verse, and a prayer. I use the discussion questions only if my 3-year-old is not standing on his head yet and my 5-year-old is still engaged with the lesson. (I figure I'll probably go through the book several times over the years...no need to cover everything the first time around.) I don't usually use the hymn. Instead, we sing one of the (five or so) hymns the children already know and love. Doing a different hymn every day will probably work better after they can read. I usually incorporate the ideas in the written prayer into my own prayer. This all doesn't usually take longer than 15 minutes (depending on how active the preschoolers are at the time...). I typically miss a day or two in the week (life happens...) so we generally end up using it four or five times a week.

What topics does Leading Little Ones to God cover?

This book is a book of Bible doctrine. It talks about the attributes of God, about sin, the law, grace, who Jesus is and what He did, the Holy Spirit, how we become children of God, growth, prayer, the church, and the Second Coming. There are 86 chapters in total. I would never suggest that this book is all you need. The most important thing is that you read the living Word of God to your children...after all, it is His own Word that God promises "will not return to Him void." (Can you tell the translation of Scripture I grew up with?) You will also want to tell or read Bible stories in a way little children can understand.

What distinguishes Leading Little Ones to God from other devotionals for children?

I think the most important difference is that there are no cutesy stories to artificially draw in the child's interest. It is assumed that the child is interested in learning about God, and that the child can appreciate the wonder of what is being taught. Each chapter usually does have an illustration from Scripture itself. Equally importantly, there is no artificial "moral" to each story...the object is more to draw out a response of worship, or wonder at God's greatness.
Another thing I appreciate about this devotional is that using it actually teaches me as a parent helpful and appropriate ways to talk about God with my children throughout our everyday life. I can be a fairly private person when it comes to my relationship with God, and I need to learn to be more open with my children.

How is Leading Little Ones to God illustrated?

The illustrations by Paul Stoub are beautiful, but there is less than one on every page. Where they are included with the lesson, I find they help keep the younger child's attention.

What ages would this resource be appropriate for?

I've had this book for several years now. I've started through it a few times before, but I'm just finding now that my 5-year-old is really getting it. He doesn't always display a lot of interest at the time, but later, during the run of a day, he'll make comments that show me he was listening. This is also the first time that I find he really has the attention span for us to read the Scripture passage and the chapter at the same time. I think the book is deep enough that it will continue to hold their attention up to the age of maybe eight or nine.

But speaking of my 5-year-old "getting it", I have to tell you what happened this morning.

We were reading about God's omnipresence.
"God is everywhere!" I read. "When you go to bed at night, God is there. The room may be dark, but you do not have to be afraid..."
I read on, but I noticed SA's face scrunching up the way it does when he's thinking hard.
"Mama," he interrupted. "God is there when I'm in bed."
"Yes," I said, glad he was thinking about it, waiting eagerly for his next thought.
"Mama, God throws my pillow on the floor and moves my blanket like *this* (motions with hands)."
I had to explain that sometimes our hands and feet move when we're asleep so our pillows and blankets aren't in the same place when we wake up... He took a bit of convincing.

May the Holy Spirit use our humble efforts in the lives of our children.

Adventures in Nature

Last Friday, I decided to take the boys for a nature walk. I found out that there are quite a few hiking trails around here (within 10 minutes by car). I looked online for a trail to explore, then went to Google Maps for directions. This should have been my first clue. It said the trail I wanted to take was 13 km away, and 31 minutes by car. Impossible, I thought, and double-checked to make sure it was calculating for a car and not for a bike. It was. I assumed Google had made a mistake.
I got the boys into their hiking shoes, grabbed my camera, my stroller, my baby backpack, a picnic lunch, and the necessary diapers and wipes and set out to find the trail. It was nearby, and very easy to find. The first hint of possible trouble came when I arrived at the turnoff to the "road" that led to the trail --it was a one-lane track through the woods. But it was clearly marked, and looked dry. It also said the trail was only 1.5 km away. So I turned in. About a kilometer in, there were a few puddles, but nothing worrying. Then I rounded a curve to find quite a big one right in front of me. No problem, I was almost there. I drove through it with a splash, only to find an even bigger one in front of me. I decided I'd better stop and check if I could get through it. I hopped out, grabbed a stick, and probed the puddle. "I think I can do this," I muttered. I got back in, estimated the shallowest route through the puddle, and made it. But that wasn't the last puddle. When I came to the next one, I thought, I'd better check how much further I have to go. So I got out of the car again, ran ahead a bit and found out that I was almost there. So I probed the puddle, figured out the best way through it, and went for it. We made it!
As soon as I got out of the car, I realized something big. I'd forgotten our natural bug repellent! The mosquitos descended on us like a cloud. But since I'd been through so much just to get us there, I decided we just HAD to go on the nature walk, anyway. I put MM on my front in the baby carrier (no way was a stroller going on that trail!) so I could chase the mosquitos off him, carried the camera bag, gave SA the picnic bag, and we were off. It was beautiful. The Pisquid River was right next to us. There were so many interesting flowers to see. And we didn't enjoy it at all because we were being EATEN ALIVE! We had to keep going, we could never stop or the mosquitos would catch up to us. I don't have a single picture of this adventure because I couldn't stop long enough to take the camera out of its bag. Seriously! (It was heavy, too!) After a long walk, we came to a sign, and I realized that instead of the "loop" I thought we were on, we were on a straight trail, and to get back, we'd just have to turn around and go back the way we came. So we did.
As we left, I had to decide if I was going to drive back the way we'd come in, or keep going on the "road". To keep going looked shorter on the map. "It can't be worse than the way we came in," I thought. Well, it was. We stopped and probed so many puddles that I lost count. I prayed before I crossed each puddle, and thanked God on the other side.(I wasn't taking any risks. I'd forgotten my cell phone, too.) At one of them JJ hopped out of the car, too, and got his shoe stuck in the mud. SA was very finished with this adventure by now, and just wanted to go home. We finally made it to a dirt road. I decided to turn right (either way should have gotten us to a main road soon enough), but had to turn around when we came to the biggest puddle yet, one that looked like a pond. I decided it wasn't worth it to get out and probe it. I made a 100-point turn (It was a narrow road, people!), and went back the other way. After that, it was a breeze. We made it back to civilization without further incident.
SA never wanted to go on a nature walk again. I told him we would, but we would find a different trail. He's changed his mind by now, anyway. He found the map of the trails lying around this week and spent at least half an hour analyzing it and talking to me about the trails, and the river, and the road, and which way we should go to get where. Clearly the trauma did not leave a lasting impact.
Good, because we are SO doing this again! With proper bug repellent, next time. And maybe after it's been dry for a week or so.