birdinyourhand

Six years ago today, Bill and I got married at Temecula Under the Oaks up in De Luz, surrounded by family and friends. He is my kindred, my best friend, the father of my children, and the one person I would marry again and again.

We’ve celebrated our anniversary by returning to our honeymoon bed and breakfast in Idyllwild, and we’ve also celebrated with special dinners and dates—but this year we decided to make it a true family celebration and to take ourselves and our kiddos on a “wedding tour” or sorts. We drove all the way out to our old house where we were first married, and we all played at the park that Katie and I went to almost daily when she was younger than Eric is now. Then we drove out to De Luz, though we did not enter the Temecula Under the Oaks property. We finished it off with some In-N-Out for lunch (in memory of hiring the In-N-Out truck for our wedding), and then played in the backyard.

Running to the swings at the park

I help Eric on the slide

This used to look like such a big slide relative to Katie! Now she is big!

Pure joy

Pushing both kiddos on the swings… Katie and I reminisced about the special song we made up together on those swings.

Katie managed to take this picture of Bill and me on the iPhone—-not bad!

When we got home, we ate our lunch and then all played horse shoes. We love the classics!

Katie and Daddy playing horse shoes

Eric plays some horse shoes

We played with sidewalk chalk…and refilled our bird feeders…and hung up our wind chime…

 

We turned on the patio misters and attached our hose to the caterpillar water sprayer thingy we have. Totally feels like summer.

So it was a beautiful anniversary day!

I have to say overall, though, this weekend has been a mixture of emotions. Yesterday felt much more somber, as I thought about Marguerite and her family and how it has been five years to the day that her younger brother Braden died of cancer. Her sorrow was in my heart and mind all day, particularly so as I watched the brother and sister relationship of my children. As we go through life with our friends-like-family, we realize that their significant days become our significant days, as well. The longer we journey beside one another, the more mixed our lives become. I do not think of my anniversary weekend without thinking now about what this weekend means to Marguerite. He would have just turned 30 years old.

So we hold all emotions at once, turn them over in our mind, and think about what it means to celebrate life, and to celebrate the life of someone who is gone.

 

“There’s nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as messing about in boats.”

~Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

To bide my time while I compile lessons and give order to the United States/Tall Tale/Road Trip unit I am planning for June, the kiddos and I are going through a series of mini lessons. There really is no particular rhyme or reason to what topics I am picking (I know, tsk tsk), but I am trying to focus on summery or nature topics, anything that will allow me versatility among disciplines and that is easy to differentiate.

Today’s topic: B is for Boat. Most of my printables (and even the idea for the craft) were from Enchanted Learning, and I have to say how thankful I am that our ES gave me RSCS’s subscription login now, instead of having me wait until school starts. I also want to encourage anyone thinking about purchasing a membership to Enchanted Learning to do so. I had thought and thought about it for the past couple of years, as link after link kept sending me to the site, but I was trying to wait it out until at least Katie’s official K year. I actually had no idea that River Springs Charter purchased a group subscription, and that was a GREAT surprise. Knowing what I know now about the site, it would have been totally worth it to us to have purchased a membership for this past preschool year. Most of the material is K and up, but there is much we could have used.

Both kiddos started out with a rebus poem about boats, glued into their journals. Then Eric colored a “Bb” while Katie did a fill-in-the-missing-letters phonic boat-themed worksheet. Both of them (well, mainly Katie, colored a picture of a mother and child in a boat based on a work of Mary Cassatt’s, which Katie knows well).

The best work from Katie and Eric today:

Katie did a color-by-adding boat themed addition worksheet. Truthfully, this took a loooong time. There were many sums, and we talked about shortcuts…but being right after lunch (we saved this for Eric’s nap time), she was more tired by then and I did need to redirect her attention a few times. She did complete it all, though. Math and Katie get along well. In order to help her take a few shortcuts, I talked to her for the first time today about the commutative property of addition. Strange as it may be, since it is fundamental to addition, I have never brought this up before now, partly out of waiting to see if she discovered it.  Still, I gave her the hint to use the work she had already done on problems like 4+3 to solve problems like 3+4 without having to use her counters. She started catching on, and the latter half of the sheet went a bit faster.

And I was proud of Eric for his work on this worksheet, especially in his ability to follow directions. He caught on that every vessel or boat-part was a different color, and he really focused on doing this. It is so sweet to see how proud he is to be sitting with Sister in their little school room at their table. He wants to please—I can see it in the way he smiles when he is praised. A few more months of training him to have school with us, and hopefully we’ll be in a smooth place come September.

After our morning school session and dance party, we got dressed, tidied up the play room upstairs (finally!), and then came down for our science/craft: making boats! We used two Greek yogurt container lids from breakfast this morning, Play Doh, construction paper, and straws. Easy, easy…and they both could do it. They spent time decorating their triangle sails. It was an opportunity, too, to talk about buoyancy.

Sister and Brother are ready with their homemade boats.

We filled up the water table and tested them out. Eric’s capsized. I envisioned a whole set of tests to conduct with our boats, but by the time we got to this point, everyone was starting to get hungry for lunch.

Sister pushed Eric on his bike while I got lunch ready

My babies

And, a true surprise and treat this afternoon: a postcard all the way from Thailand! Our cousins have been abroad for a few months and are coming home soon. It was great fun to read the postcard (and learn a new Thai word!) and look at the postage and the pictures. Thanks, J, F, V, and O!

 

When the printer starts eating paper and the bathtub overflows into the entire bathroom, it is time to keep smiling, have a sense of humor, and count our blessings for the little moments in life.

(Bill fixed the printer, by the way).

After a few busy days, we decided to slow it all down today and just enjoy some spontaneity.

We made morning glory muffins for breakfast:

Katie found these neat-o cupcake/muffin cups shaped like flowers when we were at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago. With all of the birthdays/Father’s Day/Midsummer’s Eve and an event-packed June, I figured we would use them at some point. A little whimsy and beauty are important in life, I believe. We decided to use them today for our morning glory muffins (muffins with shredded carrots, coconut, golden raisins, and apple). The kiddos both gobbled their muffins and had fun peeling the petals of the wrapper.

We put on paint clothes and painted sections of bamboo to make a wind chime (great little kit from the craft store). We talked about feeling the breeze as we painted and meditated on everything for which we are thankful. We talked about feeling our negative thoughts leave us on the wind and how peaceful it is to paint and create.

While Eric napped, Katie and I took between 10-15 minutes to convert one of my mom’s old tops into a new summer shift for Katie. It was really only a matter of measuring and redoing a couple of seams.

New, free, upcycled dress? Nice and cool for summer and for our road trip. Also, for those who stopped by our blog yesterday, note the shoes. These little beauties are pretty special to her right now!

 

We really enjoyed our differentiated Emily Dickinson lesson today, but first things first. I mean, a girl has to celebrate her new shoes, right?

After our morning school session, the kiddos and I headed to Payless to buy Katie some  new sneakers. She chose purple Airwalks—very sturdy, very cute, great price. They will come in handy for the blueberry patch, sandy parks, and various excursions we’re planning for our road trip (Meteor Crater–YES!).

But before the Airwalks, it was shoe love at first sight for this girl:

Katie saw these golden, bejeweled wedge sandals and fell head over, uh, heels with them instantly. She has never picked out her own shoes entirely on her before, not without suggestions or having to choose among those pre-approved by Mommy. Before I knew what she was even doing, she had them out of the box, one of her white sandals off, and was putting one of these on. She looked both cute and beautiful in them, and I saw how independent and big she felt. Although I had only planned to buy the sneakers, I agreed that we would get them for her since she has been working so hard in school this year and has done every assignment I’ve asked of her. (See how I shamelessly play that angle?)

Oh boy, was she excited. She had those shoes on all afternoon, and even wanted to put them back on with her jammies. Major love going on right here.

I swore, back in the day of reading about 4-year-old Suri in people magazine, that I would never let my daughter wear a shoe with any kind of true heel until she was much, much older. Shows what I know!

Anyway, we started the morning with a journal session and circle time. I liked coaching this assignment, because it truly was differentiated. The big puzzle for me lately is how to involve Eric (21.5 months old) in our homeschooling. I fully intend to school him alongside Katie next year. When she does her K work, I will either change it to be level-appropriate for him or find him something else to do.

Today we read a poem by Emily Dickinson, one I love dearly:

If I can stop one heart from breaking, 

I shall not live in vain; 

If I can ease one life the aching, 

Or cool one pain, 

Or help one fainting robin unto his nest again, 

I shall not live in vain. 

We read the poem, discussed it, and both kiddos colored robins (printed off from an image I found after searching Google images).

Then while Katie and I talked about the poem more in depth and she gave me her reader-response, Eric colored the letter “Rr.” She then did a reading-matching activity; I used the same sheet (from Enchanted Learning) for Eric, but he did not do the matching of the pictures to the words—instead, we cut out all the “r” pictures and he glued them around his “Rr.”

Katie’s literary response and analysis delighted me:

“It makes me think of a tree swaying in the wind. She wants us to understand: don’t be bad to somebody. When somebody’s heart breaks, you have to help them. She wants us to help others, play with others, be with others, everything. I loved the poem.”

We also worked on right and left worksheets today, and those were fun! She mostly knows right and left, but these really solidified it. Our ES Stephanie e-mailed me with access/subscriptions purchased by River Springs to several online resources for printables and multi-media. I spent several joyful, nerdytastic hours pouring over as much as I could. So many great printables and lessons to use in prep for our road trip! It is sooooooo addicting to lesson plan and to arrange pieces together. I love it. Teaching is my passion.

What else have we been up to? We went blueberry picking again yesterday. I love this time of year… Katie wore her new dress we made.

After nap time, we went outside and had orange popsicles, just made from freshly squeezed oranges someone gave to us. A good afternoon, pre-dinner treat.

My babies

And Eric helped Boppa with the sprinklers

We had a beautiful weekend, too, catching up with dear friends Gail, Megan, and Desi over lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Nana and Mrs. Shelly. Gail and Desi were my mom’s friends and neighbors growing up; Megan is Gail’s eldest daughter. I loved meeting Megan: what a down-to-earth, intelligent, and kind person. The time went much too quickly, as always… Definitely need the Star Trek transporter. But there is a good chance that we will pass through their home state and home on our way home from our road trip.

Otherwise, my only other “news” of today is that we attempted quinoa for the first time this evening. Yes, I am late to the party with respect to quinoa. I had been hesitating because I wasn’t sure I’d know what to do with it, but I decided to take the plunge. Even plain, I find it delicious! I decided to work from instinct and just added some ingredients we had on hand: toasted pine nuts, olive oil, golden raisins, Romano cheese, and salt. Eric gobbled it up. At one point he said, “More, more!” Katie picked at parts of it. I could barely stop eating it. I had a big bowl of it with some homemade kale chips (another night, another batch of kale chips—seriously obsessed with them). For the kiddos, I added a turkey hotdog because, I mean, quinoa and kale chips? Kiddos have to have something to anchor that…well, at least for now.

Tomorrow we’re having an at-home day, and maybe we’ll do some painting… We haven’t had a good painting project in awhile. I also want to make some more imm jaddara—and with some of the Valley Center lemons, a lemon and rosemary and Romano focaccia.

 

My great-grandparents, Orange County folk, bought their first piece of Valley Center land in the 1960s. Several purchases later, they owned three separate pieces: one they sold off early, a commercial parcel that finally sold this year after decades of issue with a sewer, and  a third stretch of sixteen acres that became not only an avocado and fruit grove but also the heart of our Matics-Lambert-Horne family.

It is the place of my youth and even early adulthood where I could run wild and free with my cousins and my aunts and uncles, my parents, and my Grandpa Don. We had huge family slumber parties, ghost stories on Grandpa’s rock, New Year’s Eve celebrations, craft projects that are everywhere around the main pad, and family history spanning generations all packed into a mobile home. My dad built an awesome treehouse one summer. A garden burst with vegetables and warm strawberries—which Grandpa Don always loved over vanilla Haagen Dazs. One summer during college I went out nearly every week with Dad to visit my grandpa, who split his time between Balboa Island and Valley Center in those days. That was the summer before he had his stroke. We talked for hours on the trailer porch, wondered about the white flies on the hibiscus, made lemonade, cooled off in the misters my dad had put up, and sometimes just sat in silence. I still remember right where we both were sitting that summer when he said, “Yessir, it’s a big whole world out there and you never stop learning.” Though we had vastly different life experiences and though we were generations apart, we shared a core philosophy. This was a man who loved to see what would happen next, someone who struck up a conversation with a stranger on the Caltrain when he visited me at Stanford, someone who walked all over San Francisco with me in his best shoes, jumped onto a trolley, and heartily enjoyed the honey prawns in Chinatown.

We never stop learning.

Today I learned one thing for sure:

When time lays waste to what we have cherished most for its beauty, we have to be willing to see that beauty never really dies—it just changes forms. If we can watch that beauty evolve and stand by it, then it is never really lost, nor can it ever be lost.

In recent years, my dad and his three siblings have had to make difficult decisions about all the MLH properties. A combination of inheritance taxes, increase in water prices, and the avocado grove not producing enough anymore (water issues) to offset costs resulted in the decision to turn off water to most of the land…and to let Mother Nature take it back for awhile. For a grove that used to be highly profitable, this was hard.

I had not seen, until today, what the grove looked like. I haven’t been there for over a year.

But it was the land itself that called to me. The reddish coppery earth, the old honeysuckle, the mountain air. Katie has been a few times, but Eric only once when he was four months old. He needed to run on it like his big sister, and like their mother and grandfather, and great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather. I want my children to have memories of this land that is so much a part of all of us. A five generation legacy of deep air and dust and blue jays and hawks and rocks that sparkle in the light.

So what is beautiful now? My children playing on the land, for one. Beyond that, I saw beauty in all of the weeds—must be hundreds of species of living things out there, plant and animal—that have sprung up. I saw beauty in the life cycle. I saw beauty in knowing what California must have looked like before being settled. Some of the weeds had the most beautiful flowers, all so different. It was glory, in a different form. Somehow, some of our trees were still alive. One of the apple trees was blossoming. I picked several lemons. The pomegranate flowered. And I’ll be darned that the strawberry plants are still producing this year, when in all reality they should not be.

We turned on the old misters and sat on the porch, and I saw beauty in remembering all the times I had been there at each season of my life, in feeling this great thread through time that connected me tangibly to everything—and everyone—that had gone before. It’s all one time; it is all right now. Grandpa Don passed four years ago this month, but part of him is still here—we just have to see through the illusion of linear time.

Even though beauty changes forms, it is never gone. I don’t think beauty/love (aren’t they the same?) ever dies. We were made with eyes to see this, even when we are afraid to test those eyes. Looking at something we have loved and being asked to accept its changes is never easy.

Me, blowing bubbles on the porch…maybe 1982?

Katie on the porch today

My mom and me, when I was four-years-old, Katie’s current age. We are sitting on “Sarah’s rock,” my favorite rock in the whole place. I used to play doctor with it and give it hugs. It was eventually “moved” when we made the fuyu grove…

Katie collecting rocks to take home

Around the hearth with my brother and cousins, 2004ish (I know I was teaching by the time this was taken, I’m fairly sure)

Sister and brother, 5th gen

Eric worked at raking today. He wore his Hawaiian shirt, which was pretty much what my dad and grandpa used to do: wear their Hawaiian shirts and work the grove.

Working with Boppa… there may be weeds, but it is still magic

When I snapped this pic…

…I thought of this one. It was taken in about the same location.

Katie, at 15 months old, helping Boppa hunt for avos.

Katie (15 months) and Boppa sitting on Grandpa’s Rock. Grandpa Don used to take his mug of coffee out to Grandpa’s Rock and watch the sunrise on the mornings he was there. It made a good ghost story telling rock, too.

Boppa and Eric on Grandpa’s Rock.

Three generations on Grandpa’s Rock

Katie and Kd on Grandpa’s Rock.

Mommy and 15-month-old Baby Kate on Grandpa’s Rock, 2008.

Cousin Kd came out to play with us and to have lunch with us. Kd hadn’t been to the land for some time, either. I loved that she was here today and that we could see it together. I often refer to us as “The First and The Last” especially when we are together in a pair—we are the first born of Grandpa’s grandchildren (me) and his last born (her). We have such a special bond between the two of us for so many reasons, and one is that we bookend all the good people (our cousins) who came between us.

Oh, and we did encounter a baby rattlesnake today. Yeah. Was it newly dead or just playing dead? Boppa raked it out… It looked dead and didn’t writhe one bit, but to be sure, he did decapitate it. Then Eric and I touched it. Katie (probably wisely) wouldn’t go anywhere near it…except to pose here with it. I swear it is there on the ground, but it really was tiny.

Boppa was explaining the grove to Eric under the misters, and I caught a rainbow while taking this pic. See it? A symbol of hope for new life… Beauty changes forms, but it continues.

Eric explored Grandpa Don’s favorite chair. So many memories of him sitting there in that chair…Even after his stroke, he always joined us for New Year’s Eve and Day. I wish my children could know him.

I am thankful for this day of building our family history for my children and being able to give them a place in something greater than just themselves, but to which their very existence contributes. Beauty changes…but it lives on.

What a busy and fulfilling day! Our main event of the day was to meet with Mrs. G, our homeschool liaison from River Springs Charter School. She came over after lunchtime, and seriously, we already love, love, LOVE her. She is so full of sparkle and energy, and so incredibly efficient yet so attentive. Katie clicked with her right away, and they made little notes to each other. When I went upstairs to help Eric with something, I could hear the two of them chatting. I love Mrs. G’s voice and the way she speaks to my daughter. She is going to be such an important person in our lives in this coming year. She is such a great fit for us!

Each time I interact with anyone from River Springs, the more excited I become. Their resources are phenomenal, and their incorporation of technology must be a plus for their WASC report—-it is a amazing! I feel incredibly thankful that this structure will be supporting my efforts next year, and I can’t wait to get to know as many people—staff and parents—as possible.

Katie signed her first contract today, too! We had to sign the enrollment forms, and there was a spot for the student signature. Katie confidently wrote her name “Katie”  after Mrs. G explained what she was signing (that mommy would be her teacher and that Katie and Mommy would try their best) and I was so proud of her. I wished I’d had my camera: my little girl seemed so grown up at that moment!

As a teacher, too, I have to say that I am beyond thrilled to be working with my colleagues again. I am even looking forward to the four inservice days required of new parents. The energy that comes from two or more teachers who are planning and learning together is pretty invigorating.

Right now, Bill and I are finalizing our curriculum choices. There are options for math and language arts in the boxed set. You know I cannot wait to get my hands on it! We’ll have it in August, though. Still, I was so pleased to see that we have already read so much of the literature, with a couple of new pieces. This Kindergarten year is going to be FUN!

I will say that I am glad we’ve been homeschooling this year and that we’re solidly into K work already. I think our experience is going to help us transition smoothly. We are planning to keep learning through the summer, so we’ll have three more months of practice and skill-building before we start officially. Doesn’t get better for us than that!

We did fit in some schoolwork this morning:

Katie and Eric worked at their little table on a Cookie Monster themed book for emergent readers, which also practiced counting 1-4. Review in some respects for Katie, but it was an opportunity to practice some new words (“cookie”) and some sight words for Katie. Both the kiddos colored the book, found here on Making Learning Fun. Then they cut the book where appropriate, and I stapled the pages together for them.

Our Cookie Monster puppet (yes, old-school from my childhood) came out to play. I often think of Katie being so much older than Eric, but both of them were very much into this, laughing and interacting with Cookie Monster. He coached them on their work, listened to Katie read, practiced counting, and resorted to low humor with Eric while making a huge deal of a wooden letter “C” (CM would pretend to eat it and then regurgitate it on the floor—my son was in hysterics. No, I am not above this, or indeed, anything that will help my children learn and remember).

Eric wanted kisses from Cookie Monster. Amazing how this lesson changed for them as soon as Cookie Monster became their teacher for a little while. Silly play makes for good learning, right? We’ve been loving the muppets/Sesame Street monsters lately.

We listened several times to “C is for Cookie” and we also sang it. Then we had circle time and free play (latching board, lacing beads, felt board, spelling puzzles). It was low-key this morning, actually, as far as a planned lesson goes.

Then I went to the restroom. Now, usually, when I go to the bathroom it’s a full on party in there. Everyone comes, or bangs on the door. Not today. Today I went about my business and suddenly heard it: the loud silence of kiddos who are being totally quiet. Parents, you know what I mean. It is the “noise” kiddos make when there is no noise. Louder than a bell or their shrillest scream. It is the absolute silence that means we’re up to something and we don’t want you to know.

Coming out of the bathroom, I found them right away, hiding under the dining room table. I thought maybe they were just going to play hide n seek. But when they were still quiet after I teased, “I’m going to find you!” I checked again. Sure enough, between the two of them were spread ALL the remaining orange rolls from breakfast, and they were nibbling the icing tops off each one.

It looks like it was just Katie in the above picture, but Eric was right beside her—I just couldn’t get him in the frame from that angle.

Katie admitted that they were hiding because they thought they’d be in trouble. She said that at first, they were planning to do this when it was nighttime with Daddy and I was getting my shower and wouldn’t catch them. I actually just laughed and laughed. Oh, those two will be thick as thieves some day. Part of me is glad they do this: I want them to be more bonded to one another than they are to me. It will serve them well. Besides, they weren’t hurting anything, you know?

Have a good night everyone!

Motherhood is such a source of happiness, as well as a privilege. Hard work, yes, but beautiful work. I love Mother’s Day for the chance to celebrate my maternal lineage and to pay homage to family bonds that are unbreakable even through space and time. Mother’s Day is a time for me also to celebrate my own children and my love for them. Tomorrow I am looking eagerly forward to a quiet breakfast at home and then time with all four of us playing at the park, followed by spending time with my mom.

Really, though, the celebration started Thursday:

The kiddos and I had tea with my mom, Nana, and Aunt Debbie in Yorba Linda. We have so many good memories at this little tea place.

Nana opens her presents

Katie and Eric with their maternal lineage, four generations

A better view of Eric, but I think Katie may have been perturbed that her lollipop was done!

Eric loved his bit of Earl Grey tea. Seriously. He has started taking sips of mine, once it is lukewarm, at home. He will say, “Tea! Tea!” I don’t ever give him much, and his cuppa was full of milk in this picture. He’s my little English boy!

Sharing his tea with “E” (Eeyore). E is Eric’s best buddy.

Katie visits with Amie and Aunt Debbie. We so missed Jed and Fon and Violet and Oliver (finishing up travels abroad at the moment).

After our tea, all of us drove just down the street to visit Great-Great-Uncle Ross at his place of care. Uncle Ross is Nana’s older brother, and his wife Aunt Bella passed three years ago. Uncle Ross and Aunt Bella originally lived in Temecula, and were one of the reasons my mom and dad knew of this developing area many years ago when looking to move. Uncle Ross and his great-great-nephew Eric had quite a moment on Thursday, as they compared wheels—Uncle Ross’ wheelchair wheels and Eric’s stroller wheels. Eric also liked looking at the break on Uncle Ross’ wheelchair. Katie was a bit more reticent, but she seemed to pay close attention to Nana and Uncle Ross’ sister and brother relationship. I am so grateful we have a chance to spend time with our family elders, and that my children are being filled with these memories and seeing how the family bond stretches across generations, as far as the eye can see and as far as a limitless heart can know. They need to see, too, the glory that comes of being every age a human can be. I want to fill them up with these mysteries—so that they can spend their lives figuring out the human condition, and where they fit in it.

On Friday, after a full day which included music class and a backyard playdate, we got the kiddos settled early and dinner prepped….and then it was off to date night with my husband! Thank you to my parents for watching our kiddos! Bill and I went to see The Avengers—totally awesome and worth seeing in 3-D in the theater. I loved spending time with my sweet and handsome guy, and also having a reason to get a little more dressed up and cute for him than usual! We had a great time together, and we were still home in time for lullabies and bedtime cuddles with the kiddos—not something I want to miss!

Then today, it was rise and shine to go pick blueberries! The blueberry season at the local farm opened yesterday.

Katie has turned into a professional blueberry huntress! Her bucket was full of big juicy blue ones. This is the fourth year we’ve come together—we first came when she was seven months old. My mind could start to boggle when I think about that—and how Eric wasn’t here yet, but how he feels eternal like he was here all along—but I just have to marvel instead. The blueberry farm is a special place for us.

And then? When I came home, Bill surprised me with these amazing red roses for Mother’s Day. Want to know something funny, though? I was so busy preparing lunch for the kiddos that I didn’t notice them for a full 15 minutes; in fact, Katie was the first to find them in the dining room, which can be seen from the kitchen! They are just lovely, and such a beautiful thought from my husband. We don’t have any kind of tacit understanding that flowers appear on certain days/holidays, so this really was a true, true surprise—and one for which I am deeply grateful. He made my day and my weekend so much better because he thought of it.

And in the afternoon after naps, we played:

Magic girl

Eric splashes with his feet

The kiddos and I are crazy about these homemade fudgesicles. This is our second batch. I found the recipe on Pinterest. Ready? It’s 1/3 cup Nutella and 1 cup milk (we use 2%). Then freeze. It makes four using my molds, though some claim it makes six. That’s it. And they are delicious.

My handsome boy with red windswept curly hair.

Toward evening, Eric and Boppa (mainly Boppa) put a new tarp on the play structure. Thanks, guys!

Such a fun Mother’s Day weekend!

Eric has been showing an interest in the alphabet lately, pointing at letters and mostly calling them “B.” In my mind our homeschooling day is comprised of two sessions: a morning session when the kiddos learn together, and an afternoon session for Katie during Eric’s nap. For today’s morning session, I decided to design a mini-lesson around the classic book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for Eric, with Katie participating also.

We had breakfast first this morning, since we all three were lie-abeds. (Usually they do a bit of work first). I made this for the kiddos, after seeing the design on Pinterest:

It’s the coconut tree! When I saw it about a week ago, I thought it would be a great tie-in to Chicka Chicka.

Eating their coconut trees…

After breakfast, we had calendar time and then circle time. I read Chicka Chicka, which we’ve read many times before. Then we brought out our felt set:

This was a breeze to make. Just cut out a palm tree base, fronds, coconuts, a set of capital letters, and a set of lowercase letters. Maybe 45 minutes of cutting?

I had the kiddos assemble the palm tree, and then we tried to reenact the story with the felt letters. Eric was super into it at first. He loved putting on the coconuts! Then he had a realization and he said, pointing at the coconuts, “Boppa. Nani (he calls “Amie” by the name “Nani”—so now she is kind of “Amie Nani” in our house). Then he made his sign and sound for plane. I hardly thought it was possible, since we went back in January…but I asked him, “Are you thinking about seeing the coconuts and palm trees with Boppa and Nani in Hawaii?” He actually nodded yes… Which would be incredible, since he was approaching only 17 months old when we were there. I knew that kind of beauty would impress itself on his mind forever…

Then a little while later, Eric wandered off for awhile. But dutiful sister kept on playing and learning.

Next we worked on an alphabet puzzle all together. Eric placed several letters himself, and I quizzed Katie about vowel sounds and so on while we worked. Then Eric started taking out the pieces and throwing them around the floor. Hm.

After we picked those up and quickly put them all into the puzzle, I suggested we play with their big bouncy balls from Easter (yes, in the house—I personally love playing ball in the house, crazy, huh?). The person bouncing the ball to the other person would call out a letter, and the person catching the ball had to give the sound of the letter as he or she caught it.

Then I needed some time to clean up and get us ready to transition, so I put on The Muppet Alphabet Album, and we played it through the letter “G.” Oh I love this album. My dad actually took my old album that I used to listen to as a girl and converted it to a CD, which I then imported into my iTunes. I remember spending quite a bit of time in my room listening to my Muppet album, and my Disney albums. The memories are vivid—so relaxing and peaceful to be with the music, sprawled on my floor, looking at the covers. I wasn’t much older than Katie. I love that my dad did this for us. Bonus: we’ve been using the muppets/monsters as part of our “monsters and imagination” unit, so playing this album today  helped to give Chicka Chicka Day a place in what we’ve been doing.

In the afternoon, Katie and I buzzed through some work. She is doing great with time telling, and we love love love her Kumon book for that. We also worked on: adding pennies, nickels, and dimes; review of “long A” and the start of “long I”; review of word family “-ick” and start of word family “-ack”; penmanship; and number sets (identifying “which is less” at a glance without counting).  The proudest moment today? She was writing out an answer to one of her money problems (“12 cents”), and she reflected and assessed herself, completely unprompted. “Mommy, I need to work on writing my 2s.” I told her okay, and I set up some “2″ traces on one of our slates (we have three, and one has actual lines for writing on it). She traced and then practiced, but still she wasn’t satisfied. So I asked her if I could hold her hand and do it with her so she could feel it. We did that, and then I explained how the first swipe of the pen is like making part of a heart. Something inside her clicked, and then she made a bunch of 2s—the best I’ve seen yet from her.

I told her earnestly how PROUD I was of her, and above all, how much I RESPECTED her for identifying her own area for growth and for setting her own goal. First time she has done that so specifically, outside of asking to practice her reading.

That’s what this is truly all about: getting her to be a reflective learner and instilling in her a desire to seek out actively what she does not know and then to know it. I believe reflective learning and a passionate love for learning go hand-in-hand. Mrs. Altaras and Mrs. Dutton both really showed that to me in my 10th grade year of high school. So important…

That single moment of seeing Katie reflect and then set her own goal—and meet it because she wanted to from within herself—was better today that watching her add three nickels or even work her way through her word families. It was as exciting to me as watching her take her first steps, because I know if she can feel that in herself, her journey will be beautiful and passionate in this life.

 

Our big news at the McGaugh Academy this week is twofold! First, we were officially assigned our Education Specialist (ES) through River Springs Charter for the upcoming school year. We are meeting with her soon, and then all the fun begins of prepping for Katie’s Kindergarten year. I am so excited!

Also, we moved around our living room furniture (again) and have made a second “school area” for both kiddos. I brought the little table and two chairs down from the play room and set it up by our calendar. Katie and I will still use our space in the kitchen (last month I ordered a storage cabinet which fits under the kitchen bar next to the bookshelf and the play kitchen, so many of our materials are in that space); however, this new space makes access to learning much easier for Eric. Eric, at 21 months, is ready for more deliberate and focused learning activities. He has been working at the big kitchen table…but this new set up is better for all of us. I might move our Montessori trays into our new space, because Eric always joins us in the morning school session.

When they got downstairs, they went immediately to their new learning space to see what I had prepared for them last night. In this picture, you can see our calendar (which we had not done for the day yet when I took this), and you can see the play cottage has now been moved over to the window. That means the couch is now parallel to the wall with the hutch and the calendar, out of range of the camera. The whole space feels more contained, and yet with the coffee table moved, there is plenty of “circle time” and play space. The coffee table is now in a “trial position” elsewhere by the stairs with some of our instruments (keyboard, xylophone top) on it.

Today, they had their journals waiting for them. I love their journals, and Eric especially does, too. Some of their pages contain the same activities; some of their pages have differentiated work. Even on pages that have the same activities, I differentiate the instruction a bit or I extend the discussion with Katie later. In my mind, even though Katie starts Kindergarten next year, Eric still needs the same enrichment I was giving her at his age. This is going to get interesting in a few months!!

So I found this telephone printable online (the templates are at the bottom of the instruction page). Nevermind that telephones/cell phones really look nothing like this now, LOL! I cut out the numbers that came with it last night (one set for each kiddo) and had the numbers in bowls. They had to find and glue down the number in the spaces below the telephone as I called out our phone number. Then we put our phone number into a song (I used “Wheels on the Bus” as our tune).

After breakfast, we read the lyrics to Kermit’s “Rainbow Connection”—a song about the power and optimism of imagination and believing in beauty. One of our guiding thematic questions for the “Monsters and Imagination” unit was about the positive and negative qualities of imagination, and Katie and I discussed that question more as we talked about this song. We found two clips of Kermit singing this song (the movie, and then a TV special) on YouTube and played them through our Apple TV. Technology is an awesome homeschool tool. The kiddos loved that. Eric pointed to Kermit and said, “More that. More that.”

Then we went back into the new school space and they made tissue paper rainbows in their journals. Last night I cut out and pasted the lyrics into their journals and then drew a rainbow on the opposite page so that they could remember the order of the colors as they pasted.

Katie, of course, did all of her rainbow by herself. I did help Eric, uh, shall we say—substantially? He did glue a few… We also looked at his “Counting Colors” book as Katie finished each arch.

Eric tears some orange tissue paper.

There have also been projects galore going on at our house! I finished sewing Katie’s dress today after lunch, and Bethany’s baby shower gift is also all sewn and ready to go. Katie and I also worked on a Mother’s Day project for my mom this afternoon, and I finished making a “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” themed felt set for our felt board. (Palm tree, coconuts, and all the uppercase and lowercase letters—I am planning a mini lesson for the kiddos, mainly for Eric, tomorrow).

We’ve also been experimenting with new recipes: baked kale chips (kiddos scarfed them, and I did, too—thanks, Mom, for the recipe), Nutella fudgesicles (thank you Pinterest), water flavored with lemon, cucumber, and mint, and for dinner: coconut tofu curry over basmati rice and served with zucchini bread.

I want to blog/post about resources for some of these discoveries…I am so enamored of Pinterest right now, I must say. Constant inspiration!

“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

-Hans Christian Anderson

Happy 1st of May! It was fun to see our new May-themed dates on our calendar during circle time this morning!

To begin the day, I surprised Katie and Eric with hot chocolate, muffins, and a fruit and yogurt flower in honor of May Day. There is a dollop of strawberry Greek yogurt in the middle, and the rest is made from bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and kiwi. It’s so much fun to play with their food! Whimsy and novelty are great for their little growing brains!

We also made tissue paper flowers after during calendar/circle time:

I regret that this is not the most flattering of pictures for the two of them, but both of my kiddos have the sniffles this week (Bill had a cold last week).

We used the directions on Kaboose for our flowers.

Then there were other happy moments today:

Playing trains. Dance party. Cuddles. Reading. The scent of fresh mopping and the feel of vacuumed floors. Building a “tree house” with a bunch of branches recently cut from a plant that needed to come out. Playing in the misty day. Lemon ginger tea. Finishing the sewing of a gift for my cousin Beth’s baby shower. Homemade chicken soup burbling on the stove (made stock from last night’s roast chicken, added a roux and veggies and milk and chicken picked from the bones—so comforting and nourishing for sniffling children on a cold day). Seeing a hummingbird up close. Boppa coming over the play with the kiddos while I served up dinner. Laughing with Eric over something Sister Bear says in one of the Berenstain Bear books.

And by way of catching up:

The kiddos are still working through our Monsters and Imagination unit. I love the site Making Learning Fun for free thematic printables. Prepping for our unit, I found a bunch of Cookie Monster activities on that site.

 

I found these plastic letter tiles (for use with any applicable printable) on Amazon.com, but I also saw them recently at Joann’s. Here, Eric used the tiles to spell out “ten” over a laminated card.

Today, Katie and I worked through a series of literary analysis questions for Where the Wild Things Are, questions that progressed along Bloom’s Taxonomy. That was a fun discussion! I intended to put up a bunch of flowers all labeled with the stages of Bloom’s Taxonomy (bloom as a play on words for “flower bloom” and May Day seemed to coincide so well!) but, no, I didn’t quite get around to that…yet. I am a huge believer in reflective learning. I want her to understand what cognitive tasks she performs as she performs them. I wish I had about a million hours in a day!

On Sunday, we were supposed to head out to a fun birthday party for a colleague’s little girl, but the kiddos started showing symptoms. Eric had a very runny nose and a low grade fever. Katie’s nose started plugging up, too. I had tried so hard to keep them away from Bill’s cold, but to no avail. We haven’t had an illness since last year… Oh well. So, no party for us. We stayed home instead and Eric (literally) wanted to be cuddling or on my hip all day. He is such a mama-boop when he feels bad. And sooooooo fussy, but in the absolute cutest way—and I mean that. His cold-induced whining actually makes me chuckle, because he is so much not that way normally. He didn’t want to nap in his crib, which has never happened before, not once. So I decided not to enforce it (because really, why put him through that when he feels bad?), and I cuddled him downstairs watching Cars 2. He eventually fell asleep, and Sister watched over him. It wasn’t a terribly long nap, but thank goodness, it was long enough for Katie and I to get our Sunday bread rising and to prep the broccoli and tomato roast as one of the sides for dinner.

And yesterday, this came! My friend Shil of over 20 years is getting married this summer. We’ve had a “save-the-date” awhile, but the official invitation is so beautiful! Three day long Indian wedding/party? So fun! I remember Shil showing us videos in high school of family weddings, and he taught me the bhangra. Can’t wait. Bill and I have been talking for awhile now about how to travel to the wedding (it is in Pennsylvania, on the Philadelphia side). At first we thought, fly. But very quickly we started thinking about having a fun road trip instead. We really love the freedom of having our own car with us (and carseats), and we cannot wait to explore parts of old Route 66 and maybe see some friends along the way back. We’ve started discussing our routes there and back…and are talking even of going up into New York before heading back after the wedding. Epic United States road trip? We’ve both talked about a cross country trip at some point, and Shil’s wedding is a good time for it. Thankfully, my husband and I are highly compatible road trippers. We know this from experience, though our longest trip was only to Oregon. It will be an adventure attempting this feat with two kiddos—but I’m game! And what a great chance for them to see new places and historical sites!