That's the Way it Happens...

... on the Polar Express!!

We were able to successfully pull off one of the best Christmas surprises ever! Since June, we have been planning to take the kids on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad's version of the Polar Express. All three kids are obsessed with the movie, and watching it together is the first sign that the Christmas season has arrived. We have to force them to wait until after Thanksgiving to watch it the first time. This year, they learned to sing the song, "When Christmas Comes to Town." Even Becca knows all of the words!

The day of our train ride, we dressed them in their pajamas around 4:00 in the afternoon and began the long drive to Cleveland, stopping only to get dinner and take a quick bathroom break. The kids eyes lit up when we got there and they saw the sign for the train. The weather was frigid, and they had a hard time waiting to board the train, but once they were on board, they loved it!

The ride started with an elf welcoming everyone and reading aloud the book by Chris Van Allsburg. After that, they served everyone hot chocolate and cookies made by "Mrs. Claus," and the conductor came around and punched each child's ticket with the first letter of his or her name. After about 45 minutes, we reached the North Pole, which was a makeshift village covered with Christmas lights and staffed by a handfull of volunteer elves and other Christmas characters. All of the kids were glued to the windows while we were there. Hannah announced that Rudolph was not a real reindeer - he was merely an elf dressed up as a reindeer!

As a family, we have struggled with the idea of Santa at Christmastime. We have not encouraged the kids to believe in Santa, but we have not banned him from our house either. We have talked about him mainly as a story, a fantasy like Charlie Brown or any other book or movie - something that is fun to think about but that is not real. Now, however, both Hannah and Ben are convinced that Santa is real. Even Hannah, who is a bit more skeptical, thinks we really were at the North Pole and wonders why they had no snow when we went. She also expressed to me that she thinks that millions of Santas exist all over the world - after all, she told me, she has met at least three of them just in our town! So, we are entertaining their belief, but not really encouraging it. If they want to believe he is real, they can, as long as they still understand that the real meaning of Christmas is celebrating Jesus' birthday.

Once we left the North Pole on the train, we sang Christmas carols together for the rest of the ride. Santa himself even visited our car and gave each kid a sleigh bell to take home as a souveneir.

Overall, the kids had a wonderful trip. Ben still shakes his bell next to his ear, listening and saying, "I believe... I believe..."

I appreciated that they had a chance to see the book and movie that they love come to life. It was a magical experience for children who already adore all things train related, and though the focus was definitely on Santa, the kids can still tell me why we really give gifts on Christmas, and that is what matters most.

Christmas Ornament Craft

I was responsible for planning the kids Christmas party at preschool last week. I wanted to express to the children that the best gift they could give Jesus for his birthday is their hearts. I came up with a wonderful Christmas craft idea!

First, cut a strip of card stock - about 1/4 the width of a sheet of paper, lengthwise. Fold it four times to get the sides of a box, plus a tab for gluing. You can allow the child to color the paper if you wish.


Then, fold the strip into a box and glue the tab to the opposite side. A glue stick works fine for this.

Using another piece of card stock, cut a small heart, poke a hole in it, and thread a 20 inch piece of yarn through it. Put the heart in the middle of the yarn, and tie a small knot in the yarn about a centimeter above the heart. You can write the child's name on the heart if you wish.

Poke a hole in the top of the box, and pull both ends of the yarn through, allowing the knot to remain inside the box.

Tape a strip of Christmas-colored ribbon around the box to look like a Christmas present. Then, tie the yarn loosely over the top of the ribbon and make a nice bow. Tie another knot just above the bow to keep it from coming untied when the ends are pulled.

Tie the remaining ends together to form the loop to hang the ornament on the tree.

This is Hannah's ornament hanging on our Christmas tree.

This craft turned out very nicely and got lots of compliments from the parents, and it is so simple!

The Difference Between Boys and Girls...

Hannah and Ben both enjoy reading. Hannah will sit and read for hours at a time sometimes. Even when she was first learning, she would usually read through a whole book, though she would sometimes get tired. Ben reads this way:

(Sitting on the couch)

Ben: Ssss - aaaa - mmmm. Sam! (Bounces emphatically off the back of the couch.)

Me: What comes next? (Pointing to the word.)

Ben: Sam! Bam! Mam! (Bouncing head off couch with each word.)

Me: No, Ben, look at the word.

Ben: H - haaaaa-ssss - Has! Sam has! (Bouncing his head off my cheek!)

Me: Ouch, Ben! Are you sure you want to do this right now?

Ben: Yes! (Bouncing his head off the couch.)

(Repeat for each word.)

Did I mention that Ben cannot sit still? At all? Even to do something he wants to do?

So that is how we read together... cuddling and bouncing off the couch!

Ben is Reading??!!

Yesterday, Ben shocked me by attempting to sound out a word. I decided to see just how much he knew...

We began by reviewing letter sounds, focusing on the short vowels in particular. He struggles with the difference between a short "i" and a short "e," and he also mixes up the sounds of "w," "y," and a short "u." As most kids his age do, he also sometimes confuses the letters "b," "d," and "p." Other than that, he knows his letter sounds very well.

So, I used Hannah's old Sing, Spell, Read and Write (SSRW) curriculum to demonstrate how letter sounds go together. It has a song called the "Ferris Wheel Song" that uses short vowel sounds and adds the consonants one and a time. First, it reviews "a, e, i, o, u" and then does "ba, be, bi, bo, bu" and continues for the rest of the letters. Once they master that, they tackle letter blends like "bla, ble, bli, blo, blu" and so on.

Ben and I sang the song for a while, and then I helped him sound out some basic three and four letter words. He did a great job!

Today, I pulled out the very first reader in the SSRW series - "Dad, Sam, and Pat." He actually read the entire story with very little help! I think I am going to see if his preschool teacher will let him do the sight words that the older class learns, since he is definitely ready for them. I cannot believe that my three year old is beginning to read!

A Rustic Thanksgiving

This year, we did something a little different for Thanksgiving. Josh's parents live near a beautiful state park in New York, and the whole family rented a few cabins in the park for the week around Thanksgiving. The cabins were actually fairly nice, although they were very rustic. We had heat (a necessity in New York in the fall/winter), a stove, and a refrigerator. We did not have indoor plumbing!

It was quite an adventure! As you can see in the above picture, we brought a potty for the kids so we did not have to trek outside with them every twenty minutes to use the bathroom. If you look out the window, you can also see that the ground was covered with snow. In fact, we had about 18 inches by Thanksgiving day. This was our walk to the bath house:

The kids loved the snow and enjoyed sledding and playing with their cousins. I told them that we were experiencing Thanksgiving a bit like the Pilgrims experienced it - although easier! I am not sure I would do it again, at least not until the kids are a bit older, but we did have a lot of fun. Next year I'm hoping for a more comfortable Thanksgiving!

Reading, Reading, Reading!

Hannah just loves to read. She reads through a book passionately and then searches for more. Many of her books are like good friends. She comes back to them again and again, reading them until she could recite the story from memory.

I should have suspected that she would be like this. After all, she had memorized the entire "Hungry Caterpillar," word for word, before she reached her second birthday. Moreover, I was an avid reader, too. In early elementary school, I discovered the Nancy Drew series and read them one by one until I had finished my mom's entire collection.

I remember reading "The Wind in the Willows" over the course of about an hour when I was a kid, and my mom did not believe me when I told her I had finished the book. She began flipping through the pages and asking me questions about the story. I answered every one!

Recently, the same situation occurred with me and Hannah. I purchased her the first book in the Magic Treehouse series, and she read it, cover to cover, in an hour and a half. I started quizzing her about the plot and the different chapters, and she could answer all of my questions! She has since read and enjoyed two more books in the series. Actually, she reads whatever she can get her hands on for several hours every day.

I am thrilled at her love for books! I know the feeling of infatuation when reading a good story, a quickening of the pulse when I open the book to read and a sadness when I must put the book away for a time. I know the heartache of finishing a well-loved story and wishing that it didn't have to end, that I could enter the story and continue to interact with the "friends" I had grown to love. In fact, part of me secretly enjoys the opportunity to reread my favorite childhood stories with her. I almost feel as if I am returning home after a long absence and finding that, indeed, nothing has changed! Can I confess that I am looking forward to having an excuse to read Nancy Drew again?

I am glad to pass that passion on to my daughter, who is like me in so many ways. I hope that I can continue to cultivate her appreciation for the written word, and that she will carry it with her into adulthood. Maybe someday, if she has a family, she will one day reopen these books and remember the familiar delight of being a carefree, imaginative, five-year-old child.

Creative Writing

Hannah has begun to appreciate the fun of creative writing. I am amazed at the improvement in her journal entries since the beginning of this year. Her first journal about roller coasters had no punctuation, poor spelling, and few spaces between words. I can really see how her grasp of the written language has blossomed over the past few months.

In this first entry, she wrote about our trip to Apple Hill Orchard:


She wrote, "One day we went to apple hill. there where no apples. we ran in the grass. and we aete cider pops." Translation: "One day, we went to Apple Hill. There were no apples. We ran in the grass, and we ate cider pops." Not bad at all! In case the picture is difficult to decipher, she drew a sunny day, a tan cider pop, a tree with a large trunk and an apple crossed off, and apples all over the ground under the tree!

Her next creative writing assignment came from School Zone's Big Second Grade Workbook. We talked about superheroes like Spider Man and Super Man and then brainstormed together about what kind of superhero she would like to create. I helped her with spelling for this activity, but this is what we invented (click on the picture to see it larger):


For her next project, I think I will work with her to write down one of the many fantastic stories she makes up while playing, and I will print it on cardstock so she can write and illustrate her own book.

Apples and Owls

This weekend, we went apple picking. The problem? There were no apples left on the trees to pick! When we found out, the kids seemed on the verge of a meltdown, so we let them "pick" apples from the bins in the store instead. Then, I discovered the freezer full of "cider pops" - homemade popsicles made from fresh apple cider. Yum! They really enjoyed their cider pops!

Hannah is in the middle of writing a journal entry about the weekend. She suddenly seems excited about writing, and I want to encourage that. When I told her she had to write one story in her journal today, instead of complaining, she told me that she wanted to write three stories instead! I'll post it once she finishes it so she can describe our weekend in her own words...

Today, the theme at preschool was owls. I made Ben this lovely "mask" for show and tell. The eyes are the size that his eyes would be if he were an owl (about the size of softballs). His teacher says he explained it pretty well to the class and that they enjoyed the lesson. Doesn't he make a cute owl?

Duck for President!

Because of the upcoming election, I was looking for something fun to use to explain elections to Hannah. We love the books Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type and Giggle, Giggle, Quack, so I felt delighted when I discovered Doreen Cronin's newest book - Duck for President.

Duck becomes frustrated with all of the work he has to do on the farm and decides to hold an election to determine if he should be the new farmer instead. He wins, of course, and quickly discovers that "running a farm is very hard work." He then becomes governor and president, each time thinking that a higher office must be easier but learning that they all require a lot of hard work. In the end, Duck realizes that he would rather just be a duck. The story is delightful and provides a perfect starting point for a discussion about elections, campaigns, and the characteristics of a good leader.

Because we enjoyed our last lapbook so much, I decided that we would make another one for this unit. Duck for President has a wonderful website (www.duckforpresident.com) that includes downloadable buttons and campaign posters, a campaign commercial for Duck, and classroom activities and discussion questions for students. I also found a great deal of information in the printable teachers' guide on the website for Time for Kids. In fact, this coming week, we plan on using the information on their special election section as we discuss the election in even more detail.

Hannah and I ended having a lot of fun putting this lapbook together. I'll use the pictures to tell the story...


First, we discussed the character qualities of a good leader. Then, we used our knowledge of Duck from the other books to describe Duck's character. We made a flap book with those characteristics written under the appropriate flap:


Next, Hannah and I identified the chores and responsibilities that Duck had on the farm. We compared those jobs with the work required of him as farmer, governor, and president. I made a little tab book, and Hannah helped me write the different responsibilities for each job on the coordinating page:


Hannah looked at a variety of campaign buttons for Obama, McCain, and Duck, and then she created her own campaign button as if she were running for president. She came up with the slogan all by herself:


We talked about who the current leaders are in each job:



I identified nine vocabulary words that Hannah would need to understand as we discussed the unit. Using a dictionary and online resources, we came up with fairly simple definitions for each word. I wrote the words on small cards, and Hannah wrote the definitions. A small pocket in the lapbook stores the cards until we need to review them:


Finally, we moved on to our discussion of the current election. We put everything pertaining to Obama on the left side of this section and everything pertaining to McCain on the right side. We glued the sample campaign buttons down the sides, and I cut out the pieces to make the Democratic and Republican symbols, and Hannah glued them together and placed them on the bottom of the page:

Using the information provided and a word bank, Hannah completed the following venn diagram from the Time for Kids teachers' guide:


And, when we had finished, Hannah enjoyed doing some of the other activities from the two websites:



Hannah greatly enjoyed this activity, and I felt thrilled at my first attempt at designing my own lapbook for her. What a fun way to study the election!

Life Lessons from Corn

Yesterday, during a fall harvest party, another homeschooling mom taught a wonderful lesson using freshly picked ears of corn.

First, she gave each child an ear of corn and had them begin to pull the kernels off and place them in a basket. As they worked, she talked about the corn kernels and the chaff and how we would rather be like the corn instead of the chaff. She demonstrated how the chaff just blows away, and illustrated Psalm 1:4 - "Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away."


Then, she talked about each individual kernel of corn. Holding up a large kernel and a small kernel, she asked the kids which one would produce a greater harvest of corn. Of course, the kids all chose the larger kernel. The mother then explained that each piece of corn, whether large or small, had the potential to produce an equal amount of corn when planted. She told them, "Just because you are small does not mean that you cannot do great things for God. Just like the small piece of corn, if you follow Jesus, you can produce a great harvest for Him."


Continuing, she asked them what kinds of things they could do for God. After fielding some answers, she shared Matthew 9:37-38 - "Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'" She explained to the children how the kernels of corn are like people who do not know Jesus and how telling people about Jesus is just like helping God harvest his "crop."


It was such an amazing object lesson - one I am sure the children will remember for a long time.

When they finished removing all of the kernels, the mom provided pre-sewn cloth bags with just a small opening, and the kids put all of the corn inside and glued the opening shut to create their own beanbags. It was such a fun and educational party! I enjoyed it so much that I took home an extra ear of corn to repeat the lesson with Ben and Becca...

A Budding Artist

I am impressed by the way that Hannah's drawing ability is gradually developing and maturing over time. Not long ago, her sketches so vaguely represented their real-life models that she had to explain nearly every picture to me. Recently, though, she has been focusing a bit more on detail and proper positioning as she creates her drawings.

Today, she called me over to show me a sketch she had completed on the magnadoodle. While looking at a magazine picture, she had attempted to draw a hummingbird. I was amazed at how closely her drawing matched the picture that she copied.


Now, obviously, this is still the work of a five year old, but notice how the position of the wings and tail mimic the wings and tail in the picture. And, for the first time, she drew a side view of a face with only one eye showing and a beak instead of a smile. I thought she did an excellent job!

Pumpkin Fun

In light of the fall holidays, we decided to have a little fun with pumpkins while Daddy was at youth group on Wednesday night.

Better Homes and Gardens has a wonderful tool for creating pumpkin faces online. It is a great way for preschoolers to plan out what kind of jack-o-lantern they want. I let Hannah and Ben each have a large pumpkin, and I helped them use the website to choose their own eyes, noses, and mouths for their pumpkins. Then, I printed a stencil so I could carve their own designs into the pumpkins for them.

First, I removed the top and let them pull all of the seeds and "goop" out of the center of the pumpkin. We separated and cleaned the seeds and threw the rest away. Then, I used the stencils as a guide to carve the faces they created.

I think they turned out pretty cute:


Last year, I found a wonderful recipe for toasted pumpkin seeds, which results in the best pumpkin seeds I have ever tasted. I never liked the tough hulls, but this recipe involves boiling them in salt water to soften and season them, and then roasting them to produce crunchy, flavorful seeds. Even the kids like them! So, after cleaning up the kids, I used the seeds to make a delicious and healthy treat. Yum!

Country Market Field Trip

On Tuesday, our MOPS group took a field trip to a local country market. My kids just love this activity every year, and in spite of the cold temperatures, this year was no different. The kids break up into groups and rotate through a variety of stations: sorting apples, making apple cider, milking a pretend cow, riding on a hayride, exploring a hay maze, playing on the big slide and rope swing, drinking fresh cider, and picking out a pumpkin to bring home. I'll share a few pictures from our fun day.

Making cider with an old-fashioned cider press:


Becca running through the hay maze:


Hannah, Ben, and Becca picking out their pumpkins:

Bible Reading

For Hannah's 5th birthday, we got a great deal on a kids' study Bible from our local Christian bookstore. I told Hannah that now she can have quiet times each day like Mama and Daddy. She seemed excited, and I saw her reading occasionally, but I did not realize how much she was doing until I picked the Bible up yesterday. Her bookmark is at page 175!

When she awoke from her nap, I asked her if she had been flipping through pages or reading straight through, and she said she had read every word up to that point. Wow! She seems to love reading the Bible herself every day.

I bought her the first book in the Magic Treehouse series last night when Josh and I were at Barnes and Noble. We listened to a couple of the books on CD when we got them in Wendy's kids' meals, and we enjoyed them very much. However, I think I will hold onto the book for a while before I give it to Hannah. I'd hate to distract her from her current infatuation with reading God's Word!

Hannah's Art

Here is Hannah's lovely drawing of fish:

Progress Report

I realize that I share a lot of the fun activities that we do, but I do not often describe our day-to-day schedule. Some may think that we do little that resembles actual school work, so today I want to give a little update on the progress we have made so far.

Hannah is about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through the Sing, Spell, Read and Write first grade curriculum. She has regular spelling and reading tests and does very well on them. I did a basic online reading assessment with her the other day and discovered that her reading level is 4.7. This means that she is reading as if she were in her seventh month of fourth grade! I am not sure about the accuracy of the online test, but I do know that she reads very well. Last night, for example, she read about half of our Bible story, easily handling many multi-syllable words and recognizing letter patterns that I have not even taught her yet.

In math, we have not done as much, but Hannah has learned to add numbers where the sum equals 1-9, and she can theoretically count up to 999, recognizing the units, tens, and hundreds places. Though she still struggles a bit with handwriting, especially with writing letters backwards, she has improved quite a bit, and all of her writing is legible and good for her age. Additionally, we have done units and activities based on books and interests that she has expressed.

Ben has also been blossoming in his work. He loves to do Sing, Spell, Read and Write, and he has finished through letter K. He actually knows almost all of his letter sounds and is beginning to understand the concept of rhyming. Ben's teacher gushes over his ability to cut with scissors and trace very neatly, and although he has trouble with the lower case e, he can just about write his name independently.

I enjoy homeschooling more each day and love pouring my energy into my kids' education. I do not often detail our daily schedule, because workbook exercises do not make for very good blog posts. But all of us learn and grow a little more every day, through all of the tasks we accomplish, and I like to think that we are closer as a family as well.

Caught Reading!

I looked out into the living room yesterday and saw this:

Hannah was enthusiastically and with great expression reading Sam and the Firefly to Ben. I wish I had gotten a better picture, because the excitement on their faces was priceless. I am so glad to have children who love to read!

Entymology and Camouflage

Wednesday, while the kids were napping, I found this on our back porch:

Knowing Hannah's love for bugs, and finding this one pretty fascinating myself, I recruited my husband to capture the insect in a jar and put it in our butterfly habitat until the kids woke up. The first thing I did was look it up in our Audubon guide and identify it as an Angular-Winged Katydid. In looking it up online, I believe it is more specifically a Greater Anglewing Katydid, which are often found in Ohio, and which have a distinctive clicking call that I have heard at times outside our house.

Once Hannah and Ben woke up, we took the jar (with the katydid still in it) out of the butterfly cage and let them look at it. Hannah confidently announced that it was a katydid. I handed her the field guide, open to katydids, and let her try to identify it. After looking for a few moments, she also decided it was the Angular-Winged Katydid.

Once both kids got a good look at the insect, we took it outside to release it. The book said that it liked the leaves of trees and bushes, so we carried it across the yard to one of our lilac bushes and placed it on a leaf. Immediately, Ben cried, "I can't see it! Where did it go?"

It blended in so well with the leaves, that unless we knew where to look, we could not see it at all.

In fact, a few moments later, Hannah tried to pick it up and it jumped to another leaf, vanishing so completely that we could not find it again. What a cool lesson about insect camouflage!

Discovering Lapbooking

I discovered a wonderful educational tool the other day that I think will become a regular part of our homeschooling curriculum. I cannot believe that I never learned about this in my four years as an education major at a college known for its high quality teaching program! It is called "lapbooking."

A lapbook is a manila file folder, flattened and refolded in a specific way in order to make a book. Various colorful pockets, pictures, and small books are glued to the inside of the folder, each item containing pieces of information about the lapbook's theme. At the kindergarten level, the information is usually fairly simple, but high school students put together lapbooks containing essays, charts, and much more complex information. Seem confusing? I, too, needed pictures and examples before I figured out exactly how it worked, so I will share our first lapbook with you.

Because of Hannah's current fascination with scorpions, rattlesnakes, and animals that live in the Grand Canyon, I was thrilled to find a free "Desert Animals" lapbook at Home School Share. The pdf's on the site included printables and instructions to make a detailed lapbook about animals that live in American deserts. I did find that some of the information included was incorrect or incomplete, but for the most part, all of the facts needed were included on the webpage. If Hannah were older, I would have taught her how to look up facts about the animals by herself, but instead, I printed off the infomation, read it to her out loud, and had her pick out the facts we needed to make each booklet or activity. I wrote the details for her most of the time, but she wrote a few of the pages herself.

Hannah really seemed to enjoy lapbooking, especially since this lapbook focused on something that already interested her. Her love of bugs runs so deep right now, that when I showed her the photo labeled "scorpion," she announced that it was actually a giant desert hairy scorpion. I looked it up in our Audubon guide, and she was correct!

Here are a few pictures of the lapbook we finished yesterday. Ours actually ended up being two folders glued together on one side to make room for all of the little books and pockets.

The cover:

The inside:

A close up of one side: