Gratituesday - Imaginary Play

Yesterday A & L had a minor blow-up while playing upstairs. Once I got them both calmed down enough and talked to them both and sorted it all out, A had made a "tent" in their room by tying strings (from a lacing toy that I'm not sure they have ever used AS A LACING TOY but they have re-purposed the parts of it a thousand different ways LOL) from the dollhouse to the spring horse and draping a blanket over it and . . . I didn't quite figure it all out to be honest. Problem arose when L declared it too small for them to both sleep comfortably in (she was right) and A declared that if L didn't want to sleep in it she couldn't play in it . . . so, once I sorted it all out, I suggested that I help them make a bigger tent that WOULD have room for them to both sleep in it. They thought this was a great compromise (now to get them to come up with these compromises, or come to me for help with these compromises BEFORE WWIII breaks out every single time, sigh). So we did some room rearranging and got a queen size sheet instead of the small throw blanket A had been trying to use, and errected a big sheet tent under the loft in their room. They have spent HOURS, seriously, HOURS playing in that tent, both yesterday and today. It is amazing how much enjoyment 2 little girls can find in a SHEET!!! I am thankful for their imagination that allows them to play for so long with such simple things. I am thankful for our lifestyle that allows them to HAVE hours to play and just be kids!

For more Gratituesday, go here.

Pictures

I finally remembered to get pictures from my Dad.

Disney Trip

Thanksgiving

Pictures from this past weekend with Mama & Papa

And a Brief School Update

A's only got 2 or 3 stories left in the 3rd first grade reader (in the old SDA Dick & Jane series). Friday morning before we got to Mom & Dad's house, Mom went to the local SDA school & borrowed the last 2 first grade readers and some other random, even older, Dick & Jane first grade readers (wasn't the teacher there AWESOME to let us borrow them!!!). I'm SO thrilled to have found those last 2 so we can continue with our momentum.

For history this week I got the first of that Kaya books from the American Girl series. The curriculum had recommended reading Kaya (but I think just one about her lifestyle, etc. not the actual storybooks) way back near the beginning in the Native American series, but I opted to skip it then since we were just doing a quick overview of the Native American's at that point, and focusing on pre-European discovery time period. NOW we're to where Kaya falls chronologically, so we're slipping it in now. I read the first half of "Meet Kaya" today and the girls would have gladly listened to move. I told them any night that there's no need to do toy pick-up/room cleaning at bedtime, that'll give us time to read a chapter in Kaya, or whatever book we choose to read at that point, so hopefully that will encourage them to clean toys up as we go. Of course today's a kind of bad day to start that since they had me help them build a "tent" out of sheets in their room and are going to sleep in their tent tonight. they'd done a pretty good job of building their own blanket tent but were using a small blanket so it wasn't really a big enough tent for them to sleep in, so I helped them build a bigger one w/ a bigger sheet. So, it'll be hard to determine if their room is "clean" or not since we shifted everything around to make room for the tent.

Anyway, they're enjoying the Kaya books, and quickly agreed we need to get more from the library :)

Busy Weekend

This weekend was our 11th anniversary (yes, we're getting old!). The girls spend ALL YEAR looking forward to our anniversary because it means they get a sleepover at Mama & Papa's. To add to the busyness, Thurs night was dh's office Christmas party. So Thurs night we all (everyone (more or less) from his office, assorted family members, etc) went and sang Christmas carols and passed out stuffed animals in the children's ward at our local hospital, then went to a restaurant for dinner. Even though the girls have plenty of experience eating out, such things always make me nervous, but overall they did great. Their complaints about it taking too long to get our food were quiet enough that only the people at our table heard, and they ate their dinner w/o complaining (we had to pre-order between 3 choices, eggplant parmesan, vegetable lasagna, or vegetable stir-fry, none of which are exactly kid-friendly choices. The girls both chose vegetable stir-fry, I was rather nervous that they'd get it & decide it was gross, but they were thrilled to see that their plates were bigger than mommy & daddy's (we'd both gotten vegetable lasagna, which was a big serving, but served on a small plate, the stir-fry was on a HUGE plate). A decided the tofu wasn't edible (can't say as I blame her, the big chunks of rather tasteless tofu have never appealed to me. I LOVE tofu when it's "scrambled" and otherwise in small pieces w/ plenty of flavoring, the big jiggly chunks, not so much) but was willing to push them to the side. The woman who brought out food, and later took away our plates, was amazed that the girls had eaten so much of the vegetables LOL.

Friday morning we headed to Mama & Papa's to drop off the girls, then dh had gotten tickets for the 2 of us to see the Christmas program at Sight & Sound. There were some Biblical/historic inaccuracies that bugged me, but overall it was awesome! We both decided that we need to take the girls there sometime when they are showing either Noah or In the Beginning (since those 2 have lots of animals in them). Sabbath was a relaxing day heading back down toward DC, and eating at my favorite Chinese restaurant. Sunday we went to Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center.

In the meantime the girls had a busy weekend going to the Baltimore Aquarium, driving through a local Christmas lights display, helping Mama & Papa decorate their tree, and making cookies (and a much bigger mess than I'd ever allow OR than my mom ever allowed when *I* was a kid, guess it's that whole grandmother thing LOL). They were sad to leave last night when we picked them up, so I guess that means the weekend was a success for them too, though I think mom was pretty worn out LOL.

Changes to the Homeschool Routine

When we first looked at this house, prior to moving, it was obvious the living room wasn't big enough to house the girls' toys (like we'd done in our previous house), so dh & I agreed quite quickly that the logical use for the 3rd bedroom was as a playroom. As I continued figuring out how things would best fit, it also seemed logical that the girls' computer, our printer & our copy machine (yes, we have a copy machine, it's INVALUABLE for a homeschooler!!! I seriously use it daily!!!) would go in that 3rd bedroom. And it was somewhere in that time frame that we told the girls that room would be their playroom/schoolroom. THEN closer to the move we decided to have my dad build the girls a loft bed. Which meant there's plenty of room in THEIR room for their toys, and the "playroom" became primarily a "schoolroom". While we're eclectic leaning toward unschooling, I loved the idea of a room with WALLS to hang things on (one of my challenges as we "did school" in the family room at our old house & our open floorplan and big windows mean there were essentially NO walls in the family room, and those that existed had the sofa, entertainment center, etc on them). A place to contain all the mess out of the way . . . it seemed ideal. And that's where we've been doing school. In many ways it was working well. The copier's right there (did I mention I use it daily?), the printer's right there, I'd print things off the night before & they'd be sitting there on the printer waiting for me. The mess WAS contained, but the downside of that was the kids would make their own messes and then we'd get to school time and they'd whine about having to clean up the mess to have a place to write (or sit). I made good use of the walls, with a huge timeline from creation to present that we've been writing things onto, and numerous other things.

But, recently 2 things have frustrated me about this set-up. For one thing, it means we sit on the floor to read stories & such, now we did that in the family room at the old house. I LIVED on the floor for the first couple years of the girls' life (much easier to just sit on the floor to nurse two, that way when one's done you can set her down & she can crawl off & play, then crawl back when she wants to nurse more, all w/o disturbing her sleeping/nursing sister) . . . I generally LOVE the floor BUT this pregnancy I'm finding it increasingly difficult to get back UP after sitting on the floor. Guess I'm getting old LOL. So, at the moment, sitting on the floor is an issue. The girls also were finding the small kid table that we have in there too small to each be able to do copywork & such w/o bumping into each other or fighting about papers covering each other & such. But the big thing, as they become more independant in their work, I was finding myself with longer & longer chunks of time where I was essentially twiddling my thumbs up there. They're not to the place that I can just leave them to their schoolwork and come back downstairs, they still need questions answered and small prompts throughout the work but still. . . Additionally, our current routine that we've fallen into has school time right before lunchtime which has meant that I've generally scrapped all lunch items that require any prepwork and we've mostly been eating sandwiches or leftovers for lunch. Which isn't all bad, but there are times when it would be nice to actually cook something for lunch. . . SO . . . as I was doing more cleaning & Christmas decorating on Sunday, it occurred to me that now that we have the dining room more "finished" perhaps we could do our schoolwork at the dining room table (as so many homeschoolers do). There is some wall space for things that are used daily, and larger things like the timeline can stay upstairs & we can just go up there to talk about it as needed. There's already bookcases in the dining room, and some empty space on those shelves to hold the notebooks and other resources we're currently using. One thing that got me thinking this direction is that our morning worship (which we do as part of "school time") for the month of Dec is a "Jesse Tree" which has daily devotions following the lineage of Jesus from Creation to his birth, and a paper ornament for each day that can be hung on a tree or a banner. I have a small tabletop Christmas tree that will work perfectly for it BUT . . . it seemed sad to hide it away in the upstairs room where nobody would ever see it except the girls & me, but also didn't make sense to have to stop in the middle of worship each morning to come down here to hang the ornament on the tree. Now we have the tree in one of the dining room windowsills, and it's all right there. We sit at the table for part of it and on the sofa when I'm reading to the girls for history and when the girls are reading to me for reading class. The girls have adjusted well to the switch, and are enjoying having more room at the table. And it means that I can get lunch ready or do the dishes or whatever while the girls do their copywork and phonics worksheets and such. I'm sure we'll make many changes, big and small, to how we homeschool over the next howevermany years that we'll homeschool, but at the moment, I'm excited about how well this change is working.

I got around the copy machine issue by planning ahead a little more, the main things I use the copier for are the copywork (I write out each day's memory verse at the top of a piece of handwriting paper & then copy it so each of the girls can have one to copy on the bottom half) and the Make & Learn history projects we do. So rather than waiting & copying it the day we use it, I took a few minutes to write out all of this week's memory verses on Monday and copied them all at once. As it was, when I looked at the Make and Learn activities for this week I decided neither were ones we needed to do, but on weeks when we DO have Make & Learn activities I can copy those ahead of time too.

Gratituesday - Joy of Giving

Last week my friend, Kim, sent an e-mail to a homeschool list I'm on, talking about a wonderful woman in Hati who is doing all she can for orphans and young mothers there. My friend is pulling together a box of needed items and Christmas gifts to send down there. So I told the girls about it yesterday during our morning worship and suggested that each of the girls could put together a Christmas bag for a child about their age and I would do one for one of the young mothers and I'd drop them by Kim's house when we're near her house this weekend. One of the things mentioned in the e-mail that really made an impression on L is that some of the children in Hati are so hungry that they eat mud cakes to quiet their stomaches. Needless to say, my children couldn't fathom being that hungry and not being able to go get food. L got very into the project right away, getting money from her piggy bank and candy from her Halloween candy bag and reminding me numerous times during the day yesterday that I'd promised to take them to the store to get toys and such for the gift bags. A, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with it. Even when we got to the store she wanted nothing to do with it, "I don't know these kids, they don't know me, why should I help them?" I decided the best approach was to encourage L's excitement about the project and essentially ignore A's bad attitude. And apparently that was the right approach. As we went down the toiletries aisle L excitedly chose toothpaste, toothbrush (JUST LIKE MINE! I'm sure the kids will LOVE it too!) and a comb & mirror set. And I just added the same items for A's gift bag, and told her if she didn't want to do a gift, I'd do one for a child AND a mommy. When we got to the toy section she did a total & instant turn around! I told them they could each choose 5 small things for their child. A was just as excited as L about choosing things and if anything thought things through better. She chose a stuffed animal (so they have something to sleep with) AND a small fuzzy pillow (becuase some kids might not have pillows) as well as other items. And she's been great throughout the rest of the process (sorting out our purchases (and items we already had) into bags for each person today and such. She also asked me this morning, as we were putting the bags together if we could do this every year and declared that she wants to be a missionary when she grows up and travel to lots of places and help ALL the children. Awww. L, decided she also wants to be a missionary but "just in our state, and maybe as far as Mama and Papa's house" she doesn't want to travel too far from home LOL. I've been so thrilled watching my children learn the joy of giving and being excited about helping others and I'm thankful they are learning this.

Of course the flip side, when dh told the girls that his office is having a Christmas Party this Thursday and before we go to eat, we'll be stopping by a hospital to sing Christmas songs and pass out toys to the children there. L's reaction was "those kids don't need toys as much as the kids on the island!" (her description of Hati) LOL. I talked to them some more today about some of the kids in the hospital, their parents don't have the money for toys because they have to pay for medicine and doctors, and I think they decided it was an acceptible charity. So hopefully when we get there Thurs night they won't "lecture" dh's boss about how these toys should have been sent to Hati instead LOL.

I think we'll build on their newfound interest in 3rd world children and look into sponsoring a child. If anyone has any experience with the various organizations that do sponsor a child programs I'd love to hear your opinions (good and bad). You can leave a comment or e-mail me (my e-mail link is in my profile). I know I for sure want an organization that assigns a specific child and encourages letters/pictures sent both directions, since I think the girls will benefit from seeing WHO they are helping.

And finally, if you would like to send a donation or much needed supplies (the e-mail Kim sent out quotes Barbara (the missionary running this facility) as saying "we need everything BUT stones and babies, we have plenty of both". Specific things that are needed include liquid infant vitamins, prenatal vitamins (both can be purchased from walmart for less than $10/bottle), liquid formula (water supplies in many parts of Hati are tainted so liquid formula is a better option than powder), and this time of year, Christmas boxes for the children and mothers.

Checks can be made out to "Reach Out to Haiti"

Checks and other items can be sent to:

Barbara Walker
PO Box 2556
Port Au Prince, Haiti

(no postal code is needed).

If you live in the Hagerstown, MD area and want to include things in the box Kim's sending e-mail me & I can put you in contact with her.

See other Gratituesday posts here.

SUCH a Diva!!

This past weekend one of the straps on L's Crocs (shoes) broke. I can't really complain since they have been the shoes she's worn every day since the beginning of the summer. BUT that left her with only a pair of tie sneakers as her everyday/play shoes and since we have a no-shoe policy in the house, and since she CAN tie shoes but is slow at it, I figured getting her another pair of slip-on or velcro shoes would be a good thing. Plus in general, I prefer to have 2 pair of shoes for each kid in case one gets broken or whatever. SO . . . we checked Walmart & another store (Weaver's) today.
Now granted, the one pair she was willing to consider, they didn't have in her size, so we're going to check the other walmart tomorrow but still . . . they were "too loose" or "kinda tight" or "just not me!" (that was the problem with most of them). What a diva!! Fingers crossed that our other Walmart has the shoes she DOES like in her size LOL.