Following Foundations 3/27/09 March 28, 2009

Reader, beware! The most exciting three words you will read in this report are “nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae”. It that doesn’t interest you, then it’s probably best if you just look at the pictures.

EG (4 yrs old):

This week we completed week 29 of Sonlight’s p4/5.  One of the nursery rhymes we read this week was “Sulky Sue”. A couple of times she would sulk and I would ask “Now you aren’t going to be a Sulky Sue, are you?” She would just crack up. We also added Jerry Pinkney’s Aesop’s Fables, which I bought a couple years ago because I thought the illustrations were wonderful. She finished the first half of Singapore’s Earlybird Math Program this week. I already have the next book, but we’re waiting until August to start it in Kindergarten. We plan to fiddle around with color-by-number, dot-to-dot, and pattern blocks until then. She read The Best Trick in its entirety this week, even though it was scheduled to be read over 3 weeks. We memorized Proverbs 24.24-25, which says “Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.” We also learned question 54 of the Baptist Catechism, which asks “What are we especially taught by these words “before Me” in the first commandment?” This completes the questions on the first commandment. Overall, it was a fairly light week of school and that was a good thing considering the sickness we battled with this week. EG was the healthiest of the three children, although she had two evenings of high fever (103°) that completely wiped her out. Some ibuprofen and she was as good as new. The only other symptom was a headache. Not sure what this was.  I’ve included a couple of her drawings to liven up this post a little. She drew these using Usborne’s I Can Draw People, which I bought for 50 cents at the book sale last week. Oh, and in case you’re wondering about how soccer is going….four out of five of her games have been rained out.

AZ (2 yrs old):

This week we were on letter Z, our animal was…..wait for it…..a zebra, our shape was still a trapezoid, and 9 was our number. His school this week didn’t get anymore exciting than that. The poor baby continued to be sick (and is still sick). He would start coughing and we would tell him “cover your mouth when you cough”. He then covered his mouth, continued to cough and said “it not working!” Then to add to his misery, both eyes started draining on Wednesday and started turning red. And of course, when I was the most paranoid about a potential pink eye epidemic, all three of them decided they were going to play together……in a tent….in a small tent……with AZ coughing all over them and the baby accidentally drinking out of AZ’s sippy cup. I thought “why don’t you three just lick each other’s eyeballs and get this over with!” Well, I took him to the doctor on friday and the doc said that he doesn’t have pink eye (yippee!), but most likely the pathogen “nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae” (aka ’super crud’ ) is causing all his trouble….and to top it all off, his ear is infected, too. We got an antibiotic. In the meantime, I’m trying to get over the psychosomatic itching in my eyes. One good thing about going to the doctor was we got to have lunch with Daddy at Cracker Barrel. Although, I’m sure by the time we left, nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae was probably all over that little peg game they have on the table.

SA (11 months):

SA was still sick this week. He set a record in the snot department, but I’m humble enough not to boast about it. Although, I only had to wipe his nose a couple times tonight. So, he is on the road to recovery (that is until nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae rears its ugly little head. I should really try to be more optimistic.) Now onto something more positive. We had to lower his crib this week. The boy can pull up on his feet now! He’s only done it a handful of times, but you never know when he’ll decide to climb out of the crib. Another change is that he used to cry every time I left the room. Well, now he just follows me around. I do prefer this to the crying, but when I’m doing the potty training thing with AZ, he just has to be right in the middle of things. And since our bathroom is the size of a matchbox, this is not working so well. Once this week he was also right under my feet in the kitchen. His sister was standing there and says “He’s going to try to eat that! It’s a good thing it’s stuck to the floor!” Right. I guess that could be the silver lining of the dark cloud that is my kitchen floor. Now where’s my mop?

Me:

I dispensed ibuprofen and wiped noses every day this week. Two of the more uplifting things that happened were my husband bought me four Cadbury Cream Eggs (I have already eaten two of them….EG saw them lying on the counter and she said “Momma, what’s that?” I said, “Something Daddy bought for Mommy. Now go play, honey.”  I don’t share cupcakes and I don’t share Cadbury Cream Eggs. Yes, I know I should repent. Maybe after Easter.) and I received my new Sonlight catalog in the mail! Yay!!

Following Foundations 3/20/2009 March 21, 2009

Well, last week was a lot more fun than this week, but we still got some stuff done. In summary, this week consisted of flip-flop paramacia, snotty noses, a “wet” step stool trade-off gone bad, and something about zombies. Read on!

EG (4 yrs old):

This week we completed week 28 of Sonlight p4/5.We had a new book this week called What’s Smaller Than  a Pygmy Shrew by Robert E. Wells. Yes, I actually read a book to my 4 year old with the word quarks (as in subatomic particles) in it. I really don’t think she got her mind around this book, but we sure did love it. Of course, I’m a physical chemist by training, so I’m a nerd about things like subatomic particles. Anyways, we’re going to reread it a few more times over the next few weeks, and it’s definitely one that we’re going to look at again when she’s older. This book reminded me of when I was in school and we looked at pond water through a microscope. Some people had amoebas and some had paramecia. What fun! One day we’re gonna have a microscope. When we were talking about this book with daddy at supper, I asked her what “those things in the drop of water” looked like. She said “flip flops”. (The book describes them as “slippers”.) Too funny! We also found a website that has videos of amoebas, etc and other small critters under microscopes. In her reading, she finished Sonlight’s I Can Read It Book 3. She knows she is now only two books away from Little Bear and she is very excited about it. This week we also started a new section of Wise Words for Moms on bad friendships. We memorized Proverbs 13:20 which says “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” and we memorized question 53 of the Baptist Catechism which asks “What is forbidden in the first commandment?”

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve started having her listen to books on tape during her “quiet” time in the afternoons. Quiet time was about to go the way of the dinosaurs and I needed some way to rescue it. So far she has listened to Charlotte’s Web and The Magician’s Nephew. I have no idea what she is retaining from this, but she must be getting something. The other day in the car she was singing one of her made-up songs (I keep calling her Frances), and one line was something like “1, 2, 3, languishing!” I told my husband that I couldn’t remember the last time I used the word “languishing” in a sentence and I wasn’t sure where she learned that word. Then I realized that Charlotte must have been “languishing”!  And on a final note, in case you are wondering, the masterpiece below is a lamp.

AZ (2 yrs old):

This week we were on letter Y, yak was (predictably) our animal, our shape was a trapezoid, and 8 was still our number. I also let him “feed the tiger” this week. It was an idea I got a couple of years ago from the Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. Fortunately, our “tiger” is still holding up. I have some Dr. Seuss cards with letters on them. If he could identify the letter then he got to feed it to the tiger. He did the sound effects and everything. Grumm, grumm, grumm!!

However, his biggest accomplishment this week was potty training. We’re still in the stage where it’s all about timing….my timing, that is…..but thankfully I have had zero resistance from him on going to the potty this week. He pretty much goes when I take him. I think this is a huge accomplishment. He’s so proud of himself. However, we did have a huge drama played out between him and my daughter over an “accident”. He came down the hallway saying that he was wet (obviously…..he was wearing underwear). I wasn’t exactly sure where the scene of the crime was. I cleaned up some in their bedroom on the floor and I thought that was it. Well, sometime later my daughter starts screaming. They share a room and they have matching step stools to use to get on their beds. Come to find out, the scene of the crime earlier had been his step stool and I didn’t know it. Well, apparently he got the idea to switch his “wet” step stool with hers and in the process he was flinging it around and flung the “wet part” on her. She was screaming like she was going to melt like the wicked witch of the west. Eventually life went back to normal and the step stool was placed in the shower.

One final thing to add about AZ. He’s been sick this week. The snot has returned to my home.

SA (10 months old):

Well, what can I say about Little Bit? He has also been sick like his brother. He has been so pitiful. Not only is his nose running like a faucet, but his eyes have goop in the them. The eye goop is new for me. Is this part of a normal cold or could he have allergies?? Don’t know. He’s also still working on some teeth, so he’s been drooling excessively. Put all of this together–runny nose, goopy eyes, drool and lots of tears–and at times he has been so messy and sticky that only his mother would probably want to love on him (okay, I do know a few other select people who would still choose to love on him!). I included a picture with Daddy to show you how early we start deep theological training with our children. It’s Systematic Theology at 10 months, baby! No, not really. The poor baby was having one of his pitiful moments, and Daddy was multitasking.

Me:

My guitar lesson got canceled this week, but I did make a good bit of progress on my Eminor chapter. I have 3 pages left in my first Melbay book!! Woohoo! Of course, I anticipate it taking me 4-6 weeks to finish those 3 pages. It gets kinda tough towards the back of the book. Regardless, I have only been taking lessons for about 5 months and I’m so excited that I’ve gotten this far. I remember when I first got the book and I looked at the lessons in the back. I immediately recognized that it was not in my best interest to look in the back of the book! It all seemed so impossible. Not anymore! My biggest concern right now is learning how to play a real song. The problem is that I can’t seem to choose songs that are easy to play (you know the ones that only have D, G, C and Em chords in them). So my progress has been slow in this area. We’re going to visit my family next month and my dad plays guitar. I want to be able to play at least one song semi-well. So, I’ve decided to work on Chris Tomlin’s “Jesus Messiah”. I think this is doable.

I went to our library Spring book sale today. It was terribly crowded, but I managed to buy some videos for the kids and a few books for them. It was a fairly uneventful trip except that there was this shady-looking guy standing in line ahead of me mumbling something about how vampires and zombies are actually very common. Hmm.

How to help your children successfully memorize Scripture March 20, 2009

I attended my first homeschool conference when my oldest child was only two years old. (Let’s just say I’m a little eager in the homeschooling department.) Anyways, I bought some CD’s of workshops given by Rick and Marilyn Boyer, who were featured speakers at the conference that year.  The Boyers, who have a double-digit number of children, spoke of how they use the Scriptures to train their children. I was truly inspired by what I heard and by how deliberately they applied the Scriptures on a daily basis in the raising of their children, especially with Scripture memorization. It was at that point I started regular Scripture memorization with my daughter (who is now 4 1/2) and I haven’t looked back since.  Over the last couple of months, I’ve started the same thing with my two-year old son.  A year ago, I also started working with my daughter on memorizing the Baptist Catechism and we have successfully memorized  almost half of it. (I say “we” because it’s inevitable that I will memorize it, too. We memorize what we hear over and over.)

For those who want to teach their little ones (and even some of their bigger ones!) Scripture memorization, I thought I would give some tips based on my own experience on how to be successful at it. I hope you find this helpful.

1. It has to be important to you! If you don’t think memorizing Scripture has any real value, then your children won’t think so either. (And in case you don’t think it’s useful, here’s a good post on the benefits of young children memorizing the Scriptures.)You must have a passion for the Scriptures and let your children see your passion. Also, notice that I didn’t say it has to be important to them. Remember, our children are at best baby Christians and very likely they may not be regenerate at all. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the day when your child approaches you and says “I’ve been thinking that memorizing Scripture is a good discipline for me to develop. I want to hide God’s Word in my heart so I might not sin against Him. Could you help me get started?” In all likelihood, this is not going to happen. To be honest, I know very few mature adult Christians who undertake the discipline of systematic Scripture memorization. But as Lou Priolo says in his book Teach Them Diligently, you want your children to “catch your enthusiasm for the Scriptures”. So, what are we to do until that happens? See number 4 below.
2. Give it a scheduled time in your routine. In other words, make it a habit. Our scheduled time is at breakfast. It’s understood by my children that this is what we do at breakfast. We eat. I read a devotion or a Bible story. We practice verses. We practice the catechism. We clean up.  I think it’s wonderful to do Scripture memorization together during a family worship time or Bible study time. It shows that Scripture memorization is important and necessary for every one in the family and not just them. Also, I’m sure our children would love to quiz us on their memory verses. Other times that may work for your family could be after supper or during the ride to school.
3. Have a plan of action. Of course, you don’t have to purchase a scripture memorization program for your child, but because the Bible is so vast, it helps to have a little bit of direction. We chose to start with Foundation Verses by Children Desiring God Ministries. My daughter has finished these, so now we’re working on the verses that go with Wise Words for Moms by Ginger Plowman. The Sunday School program at your church may also have memory verses. Or maybe your child struggles in a particular area. Memorizing verses in this area would be a good place to start. Ephesians 6:1 has always been number one on our list!
4. Be prepared for your child to say “I don’t want to do this”. Even though I don’t get much resistance anymore, I guarantee you that my daughter would rather be dancing around the living room in her tutu and big cowboy boots than be sitting at the table and memorizing verses. And I’m sure just about every other kid on the planet can think of at least one thing that they would rather be doing than memorizing verses. But there are many things that parents will make their children do even if they “don’t want to”.  For example, how many parents would let their children go for days without brushing their teeth just because they didn’t want to?  Is Scripture memorization any less important? When I hear the “I don’t want to do this” complaint, I have one short answer that I sometimes give: “I understand that you don’t want to do it. Sometimes Mommy has to do things she doesn’t want to do, too. But we’re still going to do it”. However, I often expound this a little when I’m dealing with Scripture memorization (or even listening to a devotion or the Bible  being read). I say “God created us. God loves us. He sent his own Son to die for us even though we didn’t deserve it. He gave us His Word so we could know who He is and how we can please Him. It is the sin in our hearts that makes us not want to take time to learn and read God’s Word. Memorizing God’s Word is important because it hides it in our hearts so that we might not sin against Him. Now, would you like to work on your verses or catechism first?”"
5. Understand that it doesn’t take THAT much time. I think our entire breakfast time takes maybe thirty minutes. That includes the eating, the refilling of cereal bowls (a few times for my son), refilling milk glasses, making additional pieces of toast, preparing the baby’s breakfast, feeding the baby, asking my son “how are we supposed to be when mommy is reading?” and listening to my son answer “quiet” (repeatedly), the reading of our devotion, reviewing verses with my son and practicing a new one, ditto for my daughter, reviewing the Catechism, and practicing a new question with my daughter. Now understand that I do some of these things simultaneously. But I noticed this morning that in the time it took to make my daughter a third piece of toast, she had said all 15 of the review verses I wanted her to do today. She was finishing the last one when the toast popped up. It really doesn’t take that much time…..and that includes review. I would suggest just scheduling a time to do it (number 2 above). You’d be surprised at what you can accomplish in ten minutes!
6. Application, Application, Application! We want God’s Word to be relevant to our little ones. We want them to see how they need it. It’s so important to apply it.  In fact, we want it to teach, reprove, correct, and train in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Also, seeing how it applies to them will help motivate them to learn it. You may think that you don’t know God’s Word well enough to minister it to your children. Well, I feel that way sometimes, too. But you know what? We have to start somewhere and trust God to bring it to fruition. Remember His promise in Isaiah 55:11 :“so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” We’ll all get better in the application department by the grace of God as we spend time in God’s Word. We can pray and ask the Lord to help us apply His Word daily in our life and our children’s lives. Actually, I’ve found that as we’ve memorized verses, the Lord has brought them to my mind at appropriate times to apply them in our day to day life. Wise Words for Moms is an excellent resource for application because it is organized by the problems that inevitably arise with children. Lou Priolo’s book Teach Them Diligently: How to Use the Scriptures in Child Training is also a good resource.
7. Technical Considerations So, how do you actually do Scripture memorization? The Foundation Verses that I mentioned earlier have a picture associated with each verse that can be very helpful. Setting verses to music can also be useful. Here’s a post that lists a couple music resources. For a long time now, I have let my children listen to music Scripture CD’s at naptime and bedtime, and I can testify that music does work!  They can memorize effortlessly this way. However, I don’t let them listening to music be a substitute for me interacting with them with their memory verses. (See number 1 above about showing your passion for the Scriptures). I want them to know that learning their verses is more important than memorizing “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt” (or anything else that finds its way into their CD player). Scripture memory time and Catechism memory time with my daughter go something like this. I read the new verse (or question) a couple of times. I then take one section and have her repeat after me. We do this a few times and then we say that section together three times. She then tries it on her own with my help. We repeat this daily until she has it memorized. We always review verses she has already learned. Now, as we learn more verses, it becomes impossible to review all of them everyday. We usually review 10-15 verses per day. Right now, a verse gets reviewed every week and a half or so. Newer verses get reviewed daily. Sometimes, I’ll start a new verse and I find that she already knows it from one of her CD’s. We talk about it, it goes in our review pile and we start a new one. Now, for my 2 year old, things work a bit differently. He doesn’t quite have the concept of “repeat after me”. So I say the verse and he tries to say it with me. Eventually, we’re saying the same thing at the same time! I also stop sometimes and he will fill in the missing word. Once he can say the verse by himself, we move onto a new one. Let me add at this point, that you have to be patient. Kids learn at different paces, and they’re more attentive on some days than others. My daughter has greatly improved in her memorization skills the more we do it. I think this is probably the rule rather than the exception.  They eventually get the hang of it. I also think that as they learn that they can memorize, it motivates them to press forward and not be intimidated by longer passages or catechism questions.

I hope these suggestions will be helpful to someone. The task of teaching Scripture to our children must be bathed in prayer. Only God can change our children’s hearts. We have to pray that as we plant these seeds in their hearts that the Lord will make them grow!

Picture Book Finds March 18, 2009

I thought I would share a couple good picture books that we found at the library. I would like to do a post like this on a somewhat regular basis, but I’m not making any promises that I will be able to. But regardless, I loved the following books and I just want to share them with whoever may be interested.

The first  book is Peanut Butter and Jellyfishes:  A Very Silly Alphabet Book by Brian B. Cleary and illustrated by Betsy E. Snyder. The rhymes in this book are so cute and original: “K starts karate and kangaroos kissing, and kilt-wearing kittens whose kickstands are missing.” The illustrations are collage-type and are very bright, colorful and creative. Each page has a hidden letter and several objects on the page that start with the given letter. The end pages of the book list the different objects for each letter. I think even elementary aged kids would be amused with this book.

The second book I would like to mention is one that I found while looking for Dahlia ,written and illustrated by Barbara McClintock. Dahlia was recommended by Hope is the Word and is a wonderfully illustrated book about a tomboy-type girl who receives a frilly doll as a gift. I found another book by McClintock called Adèle & Simon that is absolutely beautiful. The story is very simple. Set in early twentieth-century Paris, Adèle walks her little brother Simon home from school, stopping and visiting various places along the way. Simon loses things at each stop, and Adèle is rather impatient and irritated with him. The illustrations are very detailed and are of real places in Paris, including the natural history museum and the Louvre.  The back of the book has notes describing each location. As an extra, Simon’s lost items can be found (sometimes with difficulty) in the illustrations, which helps children really study the pictures. This book is truly a delight!

Following Foundations 3/13/09 March 14, 2009

Here’s our update for the week. My daughter had her first soccer game of the season last saturday. In U5 they don’t keep score, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t win. She didn’t score any goals, but she was all about some goal kicks and corner kicks! This was a big improvement over her first game last season in which she burst into tears and had a major meltdown. We spent the rest of the day at a friend’s house at the lake and had a nice relaxing time.

The highlight of our week was on Wednesday. Daddy took the day off, and we all went to the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science. My son loved the weather exhibit, particularly the “cloud”. He kept asking to go back. Daddy’s chest was hurting that night from breathing in too much “cloud”. At the Magic Wings Butterfly House, we were able to see many butterflies up close. My daughter was excited about going to this exhibit until she saw a huge butterfly up close sitting on a lady’s finger. Then she got butterfly-phobia. At one point, I had quite a few butterflies on my legs and shirt. Thankfully they were attracted to me and not to her or else some serious drama would have been played out in the butterfly house. She enjoyed it at a distance. One of my favorite exhibits was the “Munch Cam”. They had a tobacco hornworm in this container with a camera positioned at it. It was munching away on a tobacco leaf. You could control the camera to zoom in and out. And you could rotate the leaf. They had speakers where you could hear it munching on the leaf. Here’s a video:

EG (4 yrs):

We finished week 27 of Sonlight p4/5. Lots of fun stories this week! She worked on sequencing in Singapore Math and did okay. She needs more practice. She worked on capital letters B and P in handwriting, and she’s still plugging away in Explode the Code 3.  She’s doing great in her reading. She’s almost done with Sonlight’s I Can Read It Book 3, and we finished the section on “other vowel sounds” in the Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. This week we memorized 1 Peter 3:11, which says “let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.” This completes our section from Wise Words for Moms about causing strife and aggravating. Next week we’ll be on a different topic. We also memorized question 52 of the Baptist Catechism. We’ve been working on the catechism for just over a year now. Slow and steady!

AZ (2 yrs):

This week we were on letter X, fox was our animal, our shape was still a hexagon, and 8 was our number. He cracked me up when he burst into the kitchen with a book saying excitedly “Me found 8 just like on my poster!!” The kid is learning and loving it! We tried to work on potty training this week. Sigh. He was successful twice this week and that was because I timed it well. Every time I would take him to the potty, after the first 5 seconds he would say “Me try ‘morrow.” I told him that he wasn’t Scarlet O’Hara and that he was going to try today AND tomorrow! Another sigh. He’s doing very well memorizing Proverbs 3:5-6. I love hearing him say “acknowledge” in verse 6. He’s not quite ready to move on to a new verse yet. I think he needs another week.

SA (10 months):

Let me introduce you to Mr. Fussy Bucket. The pictures below don’t tell the true story. He has teeth coming in, but I also think he’s entering that stage where he has to see Mommy or he’s going to fall apart. This week I couldn’t even open the fridge door and block his view of me without him screaming about it. Thankfully, he was perfect at the museum. Maybe he just needed a change of scenery. One day this week I found him eating something orange in the kitchen.  It was a tossup as to whether it was playdoh or a carrot. I would have preferred it be a carrot except for the fact that we hadn’t eaten carrots that day…or the day before. In fact, the best I can say is that we ate carrots in the distant past. I felt bad. I mopped.

Me:

I feel like the only thing I accomplished this week was mopping the kitchen floor (see above). I am working on the Eminor lesson in my Mel Bay guitar book, but it’s going pretty slow. I got sunburn at the lake last saturday. I was attacked by butterflies on wednesday. And because I can’t really think of anything else to say about myself this week, I will add that I’m thankful that Breyer’s ice cream was buy-one-get-one-free at the grocery store.

Following Foundations 3/6/2009 March 6, 2009

This was a great week! Monday was a snow day. Daddy was able to stay home from work and built a snowman with the kids. I was very impressed. Below are two pictures. The first is a snowman that I built back in January. The second is the one that my husband built on Monday. One of us was born and raised in the South and the other was born and raised in the North. Can you guess who’s who? It’s obvious I have no experience with snow.

I’d like to share a photo that was actually from last Friday. I couldn’t talk very well (I had a crud relapse), so Daddy did the reading. Don’t you think this would make a great Sonlight catalog picture?

We had a very successful trip to the library this week. I’m thinking about cataloging the books we check out and making some notes about the ones we really liked. I’ve been inspired by the postings over at Hope is the Word, and in fact, I took some recommendations from that site before we trekked off to the library. We still have several that we haven’t even looked at yet, but we have really enjoyed Parents in the Pigpen, Pigs in the Tub. Very funny!

Finally, today we ended up at the park with 70 degree weather. Nice change from the snow on Monday! We tried a new park  and really enjoyed it. Very quiet and peaceful. My two-year old fell down two slides, fell off a rope ladder, and finally skinned his leg on the way to the car, but he bounced back every time. We had a great time until we got rear-ended at a stop light on the way home. We got hit by a monster of a work pickup truck. The back of the van door is dented in and I can’t open it. Sigh….

EG (4 yrs):

We were on week 26 of Sonlight p4/5.  We reread The Gods Must  Be Angry (a book based in Thailand) this week. Our dear friend Mrs. Chrys has lived in Thailand and offered to share some of her Thai stuff with us. So we went for a visit and learned interesting things about floating markets, tuk-tuks, takraw and elephants playing soccer. She gave us a Gospel tract written in Thai that I thought was really neat. Mrs. Chrys also played a little for us on her bowed psaltery-not a Thai thing, but a nice treat all the same!

Now for the rest of the story….We worked on even and odd numbers in Singapore Math. I think she finally had this by Thursday. She was also quite giddy about her “perfect” capital “S” she wrote this week. We, of course, took a picture. Can’t let a “perfect S” go undocumented , you know. We really had to practice those last week. We made it through question 51 in the Baptist Catechism. We memorized Proverbs 10:12 that says “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses” and Proverbs 12:20: “Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy.” We’re trying to “put off” strife and “put on” peace!

AZ (2 yrs):

This week we were on the letter W, octagon was our shape and walrus was our animal. He was ecstatic about playing Starfall on the library computer all by himself. Of course, with his headphones on, you could hear him throughout the entire first floor of the library shouting “Me do G! Me do H!” We’ll have to work on that.  He was still working on Proverbs 3.5-6 in the Foundation Verses this week. We checked out Elmo’s Potty Time from the library. Something tells me we’re going to have to renew.

SA (10 months):

The crawling newbie! Every day is his day. He is off to Great Places! He is off and away! He has brains in his head. He has feet in his shoes. He can steer himself any direction he choose. He’s on his own. And he knows what he knows. And HE is the guy who’ll decide where to go. Well, that’s what he thought anyway! He had his ears rechecked on Wednesday and he got two thumbs up. A trip to the doctor (30 minutes away) usually warrants a lunch date with Daddy. He ate pancakes and grilled cheese and listened to his sister exclaim “We don’t like this place. We like McDonalds.”

Me:

I’m feeling much better. I’m not completely clear of the crud, but I’m doing much, much better. I am zipping right along in my Mel Bay guitar book 1. I made it “Back to Old Virginny” this week with flying colors and “Home on the Range” never sounded sweeter. OK, I’m exaggerating a bit. I did manage to play the songs well enough to be able to move forward in the book, though. My goal at my guitar lessons is to not completely wreck the train in front of my guitar teacher. I’m on to Eminor next week and almost done with the book!

Our praise team from church sings once a month at a local nursing home. We were there on Wednesday. I usually bring the baby because the residents just love to see and touch babies. Well, to make a long story short, my chicken didn’t cook fast enough for supper that night….and yada yada yada…..I wound up at the nursing home without the baby. We all know that once you have kids, you become chopped liver and the kids are the best thing since sliced bread. Well, let’s just say some of those residents had a few words for me!