I meant to write this entry around Valentine's Day, but as you can see, I have not updated in almost two months now! But that does not mean that we have not been working...
Hannah recently read Vacation Under the Volcano, a Magic Tree House book that focused on the story of Pompeii. Something about the story captivated her, and she still plays "run away from the volcano" with Ben almost every week. The day she read it, she completed it all at once during her afternoon quiet time. When she came downstairs, she proceeded to describe in great detail the city of Pompeii, the Romans of that time period, and even Mount Vesuvius. She knew all of the correct names and even the appropriate pronunciations. I was shocked! She seemed so curious about the story that Josh and I looked up pictures from Pompeii and showed her the stone people who had been buried in ash. We talked about the sadness of the disaster, but also the blessing that many people were able to escape to other towns.
Around the same time, Ben became enthralled with the song "That's Amore." Josh printed out the words for the kids and they both memorized the entire song as they listened to it on their mp3 player again and again. One night, while I was out for the evening, the kids asked Josh what Napoli was. He explained to them that Napoli is a town in Italy, and then he looked up a map online and found that Napoli is only about 15 miles from Pompeii. He showed the kids where Italy is and pointed out the two cities on the map.
The next day, Hannah was looking at our inflatable globe and sounded out Europe on the map. Suddenly, she yelled, "Mama, look! Here's Napoli and Pompeii on the globe! I know they are in Italy, and Italy looks like a boot, so this is Italy!" I looked at the globe and she was correct. I am continually amazed at what the kids learn from impromptu lessons like the one Josh had given them the night before.
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