Living books...

I'm reading, "With Nothing but our Courage" to Evie this year as part of our history program. It's a "Dear Canada" book, written by Karleen Bradford. In the story, the mother is depressed because of her many hardships. Evie and I were discussing this depression and Evie said, "That mom should read Joshua 1:9- 'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous for the Lord your God will be with you'." I was absolutely amazed to hear that come out of Evie's mouth! She couldn't have chosen a more appropriate verse! She just memorized Joshua 1:9 for Awana- this is exactly why I send her there. Thank you Awana! Uncle Wes would be so proud... he's always encouraging us to memorize the Bible:)

Evie's come a long way with her reading this year. She reads over my shoulder while I type. On road trips, she's always calling out what the signs say. For readers this year, I wanted to use something "living"- as Charlotte Mason would call it. I've probably written the Simply Charlotte Mason's quote on Living Books before, but here it is again:

"Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject 'come alive.' "

The Little House on the Prairie books were the perfect answer. They are exciting to read and challenging enough to keep introducing new words for her to learn. She only reads about 3-4 pages in a sitting but sometimes the story gets so exciting that she just can't stop at four pages.



I sometimes catch Evie reading the Dr. Seuss books to Elijah. I absolutely love that. I'm just dying for the day I catch her reading a novel for her own enjoyment. When I was around Evie's age or a bit older, I got hooked on the Ramona books. My mom bought me one after another. I can't wait to see what series she likes and I'll be sure to buy her one after the next too! I've got all the Ramona books just in case she likes them the same way I did. Um, not sure if they're considering, "Living" though:)

Dis and Dat...

Dis and Dat is Elijah's way of saying this and that! We're trying to get him to realize the "th" sound:)
When we started Math U See at the beginning of the school year, I started Evie in grade one all over again. She hadn't memorized her addition facts with the other math program we were using last year. She just finished grade one a little over a month ago and we're into second grade now. She's almost finished with memorizing all the addition facts now but she still has to pick up speed. I love it that she add it all in her head without using her fingers!
Yesterday she used the math u see blocks to show all the combinations that you can use to make 9. It's just so cool to me that she's able to figure addition facts out on her own. It gives her ownership and makes the facts actually mean something to her. Have I mentioned that I LOVE math u see?? I didn't even tell her to write down the combinations, she did that on her own. I was hoping that this year she'd outgrow her letter and number reversals. Another goal for next year, I guess:)

Letter to Savanannanh Savannah

Our little night owl, Evie, was up late again the other night. I heard the shuffling of papers and just knew I'd find a stack of artwork in the morning. As I sifted through her pictures, I found this letter that she wrote to her cousin, Savanannanh Savannah.


I like how Evie darkened the tooth that she just got a silver cap on and left a space for one of Savannah's missing teeth:)



Evie sure lov la luve lvie loves her cousin!

Easter

In preparation for Easter, I bought the Resurrection Eggs and a sweet book called, "Benjamin's Box" to go along with them.



The kids had so much fun opening the eggs! I'd borrowed my friend Teri's set a few years ago. It was so funny, Evie was about four years old and when we got to the last egg (which is empty to represent the empty tomb), Evie started looking around to see if something had fallen out. I explained to her that it was SUPPOSED to be empty, just like the empty tomb. She just couldn't wrap her mind around that and then exclaimed, "Don't worry mom! I'll find something to put in this egg!"

The kids are going to hear the Easter Story thousands of times by the time they are grown. In the constant repetition of it I hope that they never lose sight of how amazing it really is.

We had a great Easter weekend. The weather hit record highs... around 24 degrees! We were able to celebrate with Ronny's side on Saturday and my side on Sunday.



The bigger cousins collected a pail full of frogs at our family gathering on Sunday. They convinced Eden to kiss about four or five of them- right on the lips!


Ronny's Opa died on Easter Monday (yesterday). How beautiful that he died on a weekend full of promise. Because Jesus rose again, we will be reunited with Opa in heaven! Opa loved Jesus and now he is face to face with Him:)

A Little Princess

We finished reading "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett- what a great book! To celebrate, we had a party with Cassidy and Maggie who also just finished the book. We met together to watch "A Little Princess" movie and have a Victorian Tea party.

Angie had a great idea to start off the party. In the book, Sarah Crewe had hard living conditions and imagined her surroundings to be lovely. Angie thought we should begin by having the girls go into my parent's old, dark basement. We gave them a kettle of water, tin cups, and plain bread. They had so much fun acting out Sarah Crewe and imagining that it was a fancy tea party!





Then they came upstairs to an actual fancy tea party!








Elijah was determined to join in on the fun! He figured he could sneak in as a knight in shining armour:)



Drinking tea like a real lady!



Cassidy, the comedian, demonstrated how a lady should NOT behave at a tea party. Funny girl!

Green Eggs and Ham Pancakes!

My kids love pancakes but I've always struggled with how little nutrition they offer. Then I spoke to my little sister, Beth the other day. She said that she was making spinach pancakes. Cool! We have spinach in our fruit shake I make every morning, I just never considered putting it into our pancakes. Beth told me to just blend the spinach and milk together in the blender- so that's what I did. I couldn't even tasted the spinach at all in the pancakes.



And it passed the test with the kids. Evie gave spinach pancakes a thumbs-up!

Nature Walk

We discovered an awesome nature area within walking distance of our house! There are bridges over the wetlands and tons of trails. It is so perfect for our weekly nature walk- where we do our nature study. Now we just need to buy the Handbook of Nature Study.


We found several trees that were chewed by beavers. Some were ready to topple over!

Fun with modeling clay!

When my parents were here yesterday, they took the kids to the dollar store. I was proud of the kids for choosing modeling clay instead of a silly toy. Modeling clay keeps them busy for hours! After they make their little creations, they play with them for days! I love the googly eyes:)







Eden was sick in the night again last night. Strange that she hadn't thrown up for two full days and a night prior to this episode. I can tell she's not herself though. She's been so clingy... and nursing around the clock like a newborn. Yep, I said nursing. My goal was to make it to age two. Now I have to start a plan for weaning her... not looking forward to that!

Homeschooling went well today. One of my recent purchases was English for a Thoughtful Child. We're really enjoying the lessons from it. It's a Charlotte Mason approach, using poetry, art, etc. originally published in 1900. Today's lesson was to memorize, "The Moon" by Robert Louis Stevenson. We learned the first stanza. We've been doing so much memorizing lately! The kids are now in Awana, memorizing lots of scriptures. They did so well with their verses the first week. When it was time to learn the next week's verses, Elijah said, "I can't learn a new one, then I'll forget the one I know!". He was relieved when I explained to him that our brains have the capacity to memorize lots!



Well, now that homeschooling is over for the day, I should get out of my pj's and tidy up this messy house of mine!

Responsibility...

I was cooking/cleaning in the kitchen and Evie just scolded me... "MOM!! You should be RESPONSIBLE for your baby!!" while pointing at Eden who had climbed up high on a chair yet again! Take it from a six a year old!

Animal Lover

Evie loves animals. I mean, really loves them. Lately she's been so attached to all the farm kitties. She wishes she could keep one (or all of them!) for a house cat. Our convenient answer to her is that Daddy is allergic. So her prayer at night lately has been...

"Dear God, please heal daddy's allergy to cats, Amen."