I Feel You

This week the babies hit some quiet little milestones. They are now reaching for things. The funnest part is they are reaching for each other. I love watching them. With concentrated effort, arms bouncing all over they work so hard to reach for each other. An ear, a tuft of hair, toes. Tonight I looked over at my sleeping babes to see Mason's arm over Morgan.

Peacefully BuZzInG!
Misty

Exam Week for Year 1 Term 2

Twice now I've been mistaken in thinking that exam week would be a simple week of schooling around here. Currently our exams are almost completely oral: I ask an open ended question, he responds. Simple right? Instead, my dear son has gotten into his head that exam week is actually "drama week". He puts on these "plays", sometimes rather involved productions, for almost every naration.

Fitting, I suppose, that today he has enrolled the help of his younger siblings to put on the play of the "Wise Men from the East".

Peacefully BuZzInG!
Misty

Advent has Begun

I do love this season. The lights. The projects. The baking. The candles. The awe in my little ones faces. The anticipation of things to come. We've been celebrating the whole month of December since Sabin was just tiny. Each year it's a little different. Last year we had a Jesse Tree and used Ann Voskamps ornaments to hang and her devotional readings. This year we are focusing on the various names of Jesus, using the ornaments here in black and white. Each child is coloring his or her own set while I read the corresponding scripture and we chat about it.

We're also continuing our annual tradition of adding to our child-friendly nativity. We use a story written by Noel Piper for this.

For the Month:
Songs - The Holly and the Ivy, Sussex Carol
Hymn - Angels From the Realms of Glory, O Come Emmanuel
Books - The Christmas Mystery along with various other Christmas picture books (one each day)
Memory Work
Poem - The Lamb
Bible Passage - Luke 2:1-20

As for our regular lessons, we're finishing up our current term this week and then, with the exception of reading lessons, our school is the above along with various activities, crafts, services, baking, all the fun stuff. :)

Peacefully BuZzInG!
Misty

1st Thanksgiving in "Our" Home

We had such a lovely day together.

 

And so much to be thankful for.

 

Peacefully BuZzInG!
Misty

Brrrrrr.... Cold Snap!

Yesterday we were out in the yard playing catch and swinging in shorts.

 

This afternoon it is 21'F and we have our first bit of snow.

I'm thankful we're snug and cozy inside.

Enjoying some quite time and listening to our folk song selection this month.

 

Peacefully BuZzInG!
Misty

A Boy and His Dog

 Maya is now 16 months old and due to have her first litter of puppies next week. She is such a well-behaved dog. The kids adore her and she thinks they're pretty special too.

Peacefully BuZzInG!
Misty

A Glimpse of Natural History

As part of our school curriculum we are reading a book called The Burgess Bird Book for Children. We just finished a lovely experience with this book today and so I thought I'd write it up here to see again later.

There is kind story through the book in which Peter Rabbit finds out much about the birds from his observations and from talking with Jenny Wren. But really most of the chapters can be read in any old order and the story makes sense just fine. With this in mind, at the beginning of the year I circled all the birds that are common where we live. We observe these birds on our nature walks or out of our windows in the yard or at the feeder. We've been doing that since the Year 0 season. When we read I often give him a choice, "do you want to hear about Sammy Jay or the Mourning Dove?" Then just check off (in pencil of course )what we've read.

Before we read, I quickly google a couple pictures of the bird(s), maybe their nests, sometimes a coloring page if they want, we're about to read about. Sometimes I look up a video too. These are expecially important if the bird is one that we haven't seen much of.

Today we read the chapter about the Osprey and Bald Eagle. The children asked for coloring pages today. I found lovely images via google. We've never seen an osprey before but last winter a bald eagle sat high in a tree and watched us sled riding at the neighborhood park. The children were thrilled with this chapter. They loved hearing how the osprey dove into the water for the fish. Just before I read about the eagle I stopped and showed them a youtube video of osprey diving for fish.

Then narration. When I ask my student to narrate the chapter I ask him to think about what he's learned about the bird.

Then the eagle part of the story. In which we held our breath waiting to see who would end up with the fish. Then narration again.

We finished with a video of an eagle stealing a fish from an osprey.

We don't always, or even usually, take this much time with BBB. Usually just a part. But the various pieces have left the book fascinating for us and curious to make more of our own observations or see for ourselves what we have heard.

Love of nature according to CM is caught more than taught. I've had to first train myself to love God's creation. Birds are so interesting and they're everywhere. You just have to stop for a minute to look a little closer than you otherwise might have.

Peacefully BuZzInG!
Misty