I've noticed Jaeden (my 4 yr. old daughter) is really good at learning new words and using them in different contexts.  For example, we were at the park a couple of days ago and Jaeden had met another girl the same age as her so they were running around the park.  Jaeden stopped and looked at the other girl and said, "Are you swift?"  The little girl looked at her not really sure how to answer so Jaeden asked her again with the same response.  Jaeden then explained, "Swift means fast so are you swift?  I'm very swift." and off she went running again.  It was so cute!

Yesterday Ethan and Jaeden were making some pictures using glitter glue but the tubes were almost empty so it was very hard to squeeze the remaining glue out.  Jaeden was explaining the meaning of 'stain' to Ethan but it wasn't really what it meant.  (I can't remember what her explanation was, though.)  Anyways, I proceeded to tell her that the word 'stain' means: something that's very hard to get out.  She then proceeded to tell Ethan, "Yeah, so this glue is called a stain."  as she's struggling with every ounce of muscle in her to get the rest of the glue out.  :)

Yesterday we read through the story of 'David and Goliath' and then acted out a play of it for Dad when he got home.  It was fun!  Ethan acted David's part, Jaeden was a sheep and I was Goliath as well as the bear and lion.  We used a broom handle for the shepherd staff, a slingshot for the sling, and three small rolled up pieces of paper for the smooth stones.  Here's how our play went:

Act I, Scene I:  David is watching and tending his bleating sheep. (I had to convince Jaeden to bleat...)

    Enter bear.  David sees the bear and attacks and kills it with his bare hands.  David returns to sheep.

Act I, Scene II:  David is watching and tending his bleating sheep.

    Enter lion.  David sees the lion and attacks and kills it with his bare hands.  David return to sheep.

Act II, Scene I:  (I tried to convince Jaeden to be David's brothers but she didn't want any part of the play except for the sheep so we had to cut out details.)

Goliath is standing in front of Israel. (Jaeden)  "Who dares to fight me?"

David enters.  "God has helped me kill a bear and a lion.  Surely he will help me kill Goliath!"

David picks up 3 smooth stones from the floor, places one in the slingshot and fires.  Note:  Whether the 'stone' hits Goliath or not, Goliath falls to the floor as if he......er....she.......has been hit in the forehead.

END SCENE

Applause, applause.

Randy liked it anyways. :)

I just found out about letterboxing!  I will fill you in for those of you who don't know. (As I'm sure most of you don't!) 

It's kind of like a 'treasure hunt' but clues are found on the internet and they can be anywhere in the world. 

"Letterboxing is said to have started in England in 1854 when a Dartmoor National Park guide, James Perrott of Chagford, left a bottle by Cranmere Pool with his calling card in it an an invitation to those who found the bottle to add theirs. Eventually, visitors began leaving a self-addressed post card or note in the jar, hoping for them to be returned by mail by the next visitor (thus the origin of the term “letterboxing;” “letterbox” is a British term for a mailbox). This practice ended in time, however, and the current custom of using rubber stamps and visitor’s log books came into use." (Excerpt from www.letterboxing.org)

There's a number of them right in Alberta so I hope to get out to some of them with the kids this summer!  Maybe we'll even plant one of our own!  Check out these sites to find out more:

www.letterboxing.org

www.atlasquest.com

When Randy and I first thought about and decided to homeschool, the main motivation behind our decision was that we wanted our kids to have solid Godly values and morals to base their decisions on so that they wouldn’t be swayed by other kids who were making bad decisions.  In order to do that effectively, the word of God needs to be the main focus but I’ve found it very hard to incorporate scripture throughout the day while I’m trying to teach Ethan letters, sounds and math.  I tried starting our day out dancing and singing to worship music for 15 mins. or so and then we’d sit down and read a devotional out of the kid’s bible and talk about what it meant in their lives. 

It was good but not good enough.  It wasn’t following Deut. 6 where it says we’re to talk about them when we sit down, when we get up, etc.  We talked about it in the morning but then that was it.  The kids never thought about it again unless I’d think of some way to incorporate it into the day.  I was finding it very frustrating because it seemed like learning to read and solve math problems was more important than the word of God because that was our main focus throughout the day. 

Well....I found something that I am SO excited about!  I was browsing through this website: www.homeschoolreviews.com and came across the ‘SOW curriculum’ which stands for ‘Student of the Word’.  Every subject except math is taught using the word of God.  I can’t wait to get into it.  The testimonies from people who have used it are very encouraging.  It’s the tool that I’ve been looking for that will help me disciple my kids.  I can’t wait to see the fruit from it!

Whew!  I made it through my son's first 'official' birthday party where we had a bunch of kids (9, in fact) over to play games and celebrate for three hours.  Wow.  I'm not sure what I had in mind as to how it would turn out but it was WAY more work than I expected!  My son turned 6 so his friends that came ranged in ages from 4 to 6.  What made it difficult is that with those ages, attention spans vary greatly and so I found that the older ones wanted to continue doing the game that I had set out while the younger ones were bored and wanting to move on to the next thing on the agenda.  After the first hour I realized my error of telling the parents not to come back and get their kids for three hours!  :)

All in all it turned out good.  My son and all the kids had a great time and I kept them occupied up until the last 20 mins. before the parents got there.  They decided to have fun popping all the balloons and then have a competition of who could pick up the most balloon pieces!  Hey...as long as the mess gets cleaned up after, I'm all for it! :)

There's many times that I catch myself doing or saying things that I immediately wished I had said or done it differently.  For example, yesterday my kids wanted to go outside to play so I dressed them up in their snowpants, winter boots, mitts, toques, etc. and then proceeded to attend to my 6 month old (Summer) who had just woken up and wanted to be fed so was screaming in the background.  Just as I picked Summer up, Jaeden (my 4 yr. old daughter) started banging on the door.  I was a little irritated from all the screaming from Summer and the fact that Jaeden had JUST gone out so I opened the door up and said in an irritated voice, "What?"  I was so saddened because when I had first opened the door she had a big smile on her face and then when I answered her with a rude, "What?" her little smile turned into a sad crushed look.  I felt AWFUL!  It was one of those moments where you'd do anything to take it back.  I apologized and told her I didn't answer the door very nicely and that the next time she knocked, I would answer more politely.  Luckily, she was graceful enough to give me a second chance and the next time I answered in a very friendly fashion,  "Yes?  What would you like?".

So you're probably wondering, "What does this have to do with trying a Groundhog?"  Well, I subscribed to the 'FamilyFun' magazine and received my first copy today.  It is SO good!!  I would highly recommend it even from the first issue.  Anyways, besides having other great ideas, the magazine had an article written by one Mom's (Ani Tuzman) idea to turn bad habits into good without 'nagging' or 'hounding'.  I think it's a wonderful idea and intend to try it out for myself.  She was having trouble with getting her son to do something and it seemed that no amount of pleading, ignoring, or thanking would change his behavior.  One day (after watching the show 'Groundhog Day') she came up with the novel idea of saying, "Want to try a Groundhog?"  What she was referring to was what happened on the movie;  Murray's character had to go through the same day over and over until he goes through the day doing everything right with consideration towards others around him when he's finally free to continue on with life. (It's a very cute movie if you haven't seen it).  So what her family ended up doing (after the new trend caught on) was that anytime they did something that they wished they had done differently, they would simply  do it again but do it right.  She found that their actions and attitudes were starting to change without having to go back and do it a second time.

So back to the case with my daughter banging on the door.  Even though I didn't term it 'trying a Groundhog', I essentially did the same thing by apologizing and then doing it over.  Jaeden knocked on the door a couple of times after that first time and even though I was in the middle of washing the dishes the third time she knocked, (and my attitude was still a little annoyed....) I still went over and politely answered saying, "Yes?  What would you like?"   Now that I've got the action worked out, Lord help me with my attitude!!  :)

It's so amazing.  You spend hours and hours doing something and it seems like you're not really doing at all and then one day, voila!  All of a sudden everything clicks and you see why you've been doing what you've been doing for so long!  (Anyone experienced that or do you even know what I'm talking about?!?) 

Today my son, Ethan, read ten words all by himself.  I've been teaching him alphabet recognition as well as the sounds of the letters and he's actually starting to put it all together!  yay!  It's so rewarding to see fruit from all the sowing. 

I imagine God sometimes feels the same way about us.  "Yay!  He/she put it all together!"