Writing Center

So, we finished our first center, the writing center, and it has been a huge success! Even better than I could have imagined! It was kind of improptu and I haven't really even finished it. But here is a picture of it. The first day, I introduced it to Punkin after her nap. She decided to get to work immediately and stayed there for about an hour before coming up to eat her snack quickly, then run back to it! The next morning, the very first thing she did in the morning was run to her writing center. Today is the third day and, so far, she's been at the writing center for two and a half hours! The second day, she ran to the kitchen and said, "Mom, look!" It was her full name, which she'd written by herself without me telling her the letters or what they look like. The e's were upside down (think 6's), but today, she did it again by herself with the e's right side up. Also found- this paper with the ABC's up to F, a page with her name in stickers, paper "computers" (folded paper, basically), "telescopes" (rolled paper with tape), and "binoculars" (paper rolled up on each side and taped). Can I just say that I am utterly amazed at Punkin? Who'da thunk that she'd find inspiration and begin learning everything ON HER OWN? Ha!

In your writing center are:

markers

pencils

pens

paint

paintbrushes

crayons

alphabet stickers

glue

tape

a ruler

construction paper

blank page notebook

lined page notebook

preschool-lined on bottom half, blank on top half notebook (I think they call it a story notebook)

paper roll.

I can't wait to get started on the next center! I'm thinking a reading center.

Playful Learning

I was recently introduced to a book called Playful Learning: Develop Your Child's Sense of Joy and Wonder. It is a great book and really fits with our homeschooling style, despite the fact that it isn't written specifically for homeschoolers. The author is a teacher, curriculum developer, trainer of teachers, and helped open a school. Her book gives immediate implementation ideas for Montessori, Reggio Emelia and Harvard Project Zero styles of education for use in the home. It is written to help parents encourage learning in a fun, no pressure way in the home. The subjects covered are reading, writing, math, science, art, social studies, geography, and social skills. A chapter of the book is dedicated to playful learning spaces. The subsequant chapters are how to set up these spaces for each subject and projects to have available for learning at a moment's notice. The end of the book is full of useful printables to aid in the learning.

I wanted to tell you girls about this book because I think it will help form your schooling. I've always struggled with the idea of having a "school room" because this seems to convey the message that learning occurs only in one room, mostly while sitting at a desk. The reality, I believe, is that learning occurs in every place and at any time.

We've been putting some of the ideas in the book to work already! The picture above is of you, Punkin, sorting beans. You started using one of the printables in the back, but ran of room for your "pink" beans (AKA pinto beans). So we made our own graft! You sorted anasazi, pinto, and white beans, as well as lentils.

We are also working on putting together writing, bird watching, reading, music, and art spaces. Eventually, you will also have a science experiment space, but I have to figure out where and how. I love the idea of having several places that you can "do school" in. I also love the idea of you being able to do it whenever you like. But, most of all, I like the idea that learning will be fun for you, not a drudgry. Learning the parts of a flower won't be based on memorization, but on pulling flowers apart and analyzing them. This isn't lazy homeschooling, though, to be sure! It is thoughtful and planned out. I have to watch for your personal tastes, make inviting areas that are simultaneously not distracting, and be on the lookout for what you are doing so that I can present you with projects when you seem interested in something specific. If they are to be good projects, I will have to plan them! And that, my daughters, is where this book comes in! I hope it is the springboard for our schooling that it seems to be!

whoa!

So, it's been two months since I last posted, and here is why: two babies who are mobile is a LOT of work! In early January, Blueberry, you started pulling up on things, then started army crawling. Apple, you started pulling up on things a couple days later, but didn't walk around them for a few weeks. You also didn't start crawling until late January. But when you did crawl, it was on your knees, and Blueberry saw that what you did was more efficient and crawling on her knees, too. I never thought I'd have kids that crawled, since Punkin didn't and none of your older cousins on my side did. You must get that from you dad's side of the family.

Also, you grew, and are still growing, a whole mess of teeth. You both got your bottom front teeth at 5 months. But you now have three bottom teeth and four top teeth. It seems like one is popping in each week! So two teething babies doesn't always make things easy, either. Your teething patterns are the same, but opposite, for every tooth and the timing. Apple will pop a tooth and a few days later, Blueberry will pop the same tooth on the opposite side.

Your favorite things to do include shredding paper, unrolling toilet paper, rifling through the cabinets, eating Bob's food and playing in his water, and generally exploring your world. You both love to talk, but are different in your talking. Blueberry, you try your best to pronounce words and sound like you are saying something. You say "Da da da da," when your daddy walks in, or "Ma ma," when you're ready to eat or sleep. Apple, you can say "dada," and "mama," but you are more concerned with voice inflection and usually sound you are singing. Right now, you're saying, "Uh oh," over and over. I think you like the sing-songiness of it.

You both need the other close to fall asleep, as evidenced by the attached picture- Apple sleeping ON TOP of Blueberry. You also take things away from and bite each other and pull each others hair. I think those things are appropriate for your age, but you get in trouble for doing them. Truth be known, I usually let you fight it out when it comes to taking things away. I think you learn to work things out on your own that way, even at this age.

Just to be fair, here is a picture of Blueberry sleeping on top of Apple! I think I'll be writing more soon, since I seem to have gotten the hang a bit more of having two mobile babies and we've been doing a lot more homeschooling that I want to write about!

Christmas 2011

Today was the twins first Christmas. Yay! We really had a whole Christmas weekend, though. Daddy couldn't work because it snowed on Thursday. So we've been celebrating for four days in a row. Tomorrow (Monday) will make it five days.

Punkin, you were in a Christmas play at church. You were the CUTEST sheep up there! You said, "We are warm and cozy. We are the sheep. Our wool makes warm blankets to help baby Jesus sleep." It was, honestly, hard to see you, mostly due to your standing directly behind one of the shepards and the sheep not being on the stage. However, once everyone started singing "Away in a manger," you climbed up on the stage to look in to the manger. You told me later that you wanted to see baby Jesus. In fact, just now, without my mentioning what I'm writing about, you spontaneously sang a song with the lyrics, "I saw baby Jesus. Hmmm hmmm hmmm hmmm. I saw baby Jesus." I think you were so excited because I told you that it was Jesus' birthday and you kept asking me if he was coming to our house for His birthday party. So now you put a name with a face, albeit not the actual face of our Lord and Saviour. It was very heartwarming to see you so involved in the real spirit of Christmas.

This morning, we opened presents. Blueberry and Apple were very excited to play with the wrapping paper. You both loved playing with the silver cups that great grandma Bonnie gave you. You are both learning to drink out of cups, so you probably thought there was a drink in them for you. But you didn't seem put off by the fact that they were empty.

Punkin was very entertained with the new vacuum cleaner's box. In fact, you took a nap in it!

I'm going to have to put away the decorations soon. I'm tempted to leave the spiral Christmas tree up in the living room. Blueberry and Apple, you both love to roll over to it and shake all of the ornaments off. The tree is anchored to the fireplace grate, so it won't fall on you, and the ornaments are plastic. So it's not dangerous in any way. However, I love watching you of you roll over to it, shake it until an ornament falls off, then play with the ornament. We'll have this tree around for a while, I think!

That's about all I can think to put here. We really had a great Christmas, with just you girls and daddy and I. It was mostly quiet, but it really was happy!

Faithfulness

Pastor Jay was talking about the faithfulness of God a couple of Sundays ago. It got me thinking about how faithful God has been to me in my life. It also made me think that I'd really like you girls to know some of those times, especially the miraculous ones. So I think I will start adding them here when I think of them. So here is the first, and probably the one that stands out the most.

When I was 8, we moved to El Paso because Grandpa found a job at the refinery there. It was a hard transition for all of us, especially because we were so far from family. When we were in Farmington and grandpa lost his job, great grandpa Clarence would bring us groceries. But when we were short on funds in El Paso, there wasn't anyone we could ask for help.

One day, we were really short on food. When I say really short, I mean it! I remember looking into the refrigerator and seeing mustard and ketchup. And that's all. Nothing else. So grandma really had absolutely nothing to make for dinner, not even beans. At dinner time, we all sat down around the table and grandpa prayed like this, "Dear heavenly Father, thank you for the food that you are about to provide for us."

About the time he finished praying, the doorbell rang. Marie, our neighbor and friend, had had friends coming for dinner who had canceled at the last minute. God had put it on her heart to bring us a lasagna, salad and bread sticks! She was a fantastic Italian cook and we all ate like kings!

This is a story that you might hear a lot or not at all. But it's one I remember distinctly. It left an indelible impression on my young mind that I never forgot. I knew, from then on, that God could be counted on, quite literally, to "supply all [my] needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19)."

Transformation and dedication

One of the things I pray for you girls every day is that you will come to know Jesus Christ.  I know this might sound uber religious, but what I really mean is that you will really know Jesus. Not attend church regularly, not learn all the bible verses in the bible, but really know Jesus in a personal way.

On your first birthday, Punkin, we dedicated you to Jesus and dedicated ourselves to helping you come to know Him. And I can proudly say that you have now met Him! Sometime in August, you and I were reading the your nighttime bible story and you asked me if Jesus died. You knew what this meant, kind of, because of my grandpa passing away a few months earlier. I said yes, that Jesus died because we were bad guys. Then, He beat death by coming back to life all by Himself. And now we can go live with Him in Heaven after we die. I told you that He'd come live in your heart and help you be a good guy, if you wanted Him to. You said yes, so we said a simple prayer asking Jesus to forgive you for when you've been bad and to let you come live with Him and great grandpa when you die. To be honest, it was kind of lackluster and I wasn't sure that you knew what was going on. But I watched for signs of you growing as a Christian. A few months later, you asked me about Jesus dying and if we were good guys now. I said yes, if you ask Jesus into your heart, you are a good guy, and I asked you if you wanted to pray. You said, "Okay! Jesus, please come in my heart and help me be a good guy. Amen. Mom, I already did that before!" OH! Excuse me! Ha! Just so you know, you'd never prayed, even repeating after me, until that first time. Then, all of a sudden, you wanted to pray and talk to Jesus all the time! Now when you pray, we all close our eyes and hold hands and you sing "Jesus loves me." It's so cute!

I became a Christian when I was 4. Well, my mom says I was 3. I don't know. I still remember it, tho. In my prayers for you girls at night, I ask God that you will come to know Him at an earlier age then I did. Well, Punkin, you were 3 years and 2 months!

So this Sunday, we're dedicating you two little ones, Apple and Blueberry. My prayer is still the same for you girls. I pray that you will begin seeking Jesus while you're still little, when the big words like sanctification and propitiation and predestination don't mean anything at all to you. All you know is "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so," and that is enough for you!

Halloween '11

For Halloween this year, Punkin was excited to dress up. I made the wigs for the babies out of blue boas sewed to blue beanies. I also put big flowers in the wigs to be sure everyone knew you were girls. We went to the store, to church for the jumping house, games and candy, then trick or treating to the neighbors. Everyone thought you were so cute- which I, of course, agreed with! Punkin, you didn't want to take a picture all by yourself, you always wanted your sisters with you.