Project Fridays

This school year has been so busy that I have not taken the time to write blog posts as often as I have wanted. We have been busily working through spelling lists, learning multiple digit addition and multiplication, memorizing parts of speech, practicing the piano, learning to swim, dancing, tumbling, and so on. Most Fridays, however, we take a break from our day-to-day assignments and work on a project together.

In January, after we finished reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, I gave Hannah and Ben each a box, set out the craft supplies, and told them to make a shadowbox based on the book. Both kids ended up making a model of Sam Gribley's woods and his home in the tree trunk, so I took advantage of that to teach them a little about habitats. On each side of the box, they glued a piece of card stock and labeled them with the title of the book, "Sam Gribley's Habitat," and the different aspects of his habitat: food, water, and shelter. Then, under those headings, they listed ways that Sam was able to obtain those things in the woods. For example, he drank water from a fresh spring, he hunted for animals with his falcon and ate edible plants, and he created a home in a hollow tree. The finished projects are lovely!

On the Friday before the Super Bowl, we dedicated the entire day to football-related activities. I found an amazing free resource on the website for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and combined with with another packet I got as a freebie from Currclick. I printed out a ton of pages, punched holes in them, and put them in folders for each kid. We began the day by bundling up and heading out to a nearby sports field, where we had a punt, pass, and kick contest, raced through various football drills, and performed an experiment to figure out why a football has its shape, instead of being perfectly round. Back at home, they learned about Roman Numerals (since that is how they label Super Bowls), did some football-themed math, read and wrote poems about football, learned about the first African American inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, discovered how to read nutrition labels to eat a healthy diet (like a good athlete should!), and even designed their own football team mascots, pennants, and jerseys!

Also, in February, we had the opportunity for an amazing project on the planets. Now, as a family, we enjoy listening to classical music, and one of our favorites is The Planets by Holst. Josh discovered that the Springfield Symphony would be putting on a show called "Out of This World," featuring a live performance of The Planets, lovely NASA images from space, and dramatic presentations by an astronomy professor and an acting troupe. In preparation, we listened to the music several times and talked about the names of each planet and how the origins of those names inspired the songs. I also found a free space lapbook at www.homeschoolshare.com, and I used portions of that and our Children's Atlas of the Universe to put together a wonderful project on the planets. Additionally, I used the student guide provided by the symphony and resources from our Galloping the Globe study of Italy (which includes a section on space because Galileo was from Italy). I was out of town with the youth group on the evening of the show, but despite the two-hour drive each way, Josh and his mom took the kids to the performance, and they loved it! In fact, Becca announced on the way home that it was "better than Chuck E. Cheese's!"

We have had so much fun with our "Project Fridays" so far this school year. I believe that the kids have learned more from them than anything they have learned out of a text book. Even though I have to work a little harder to fit all of their other school work into only four days each week, I am certain that we will continue with Project Fridays for a long time!

And the First Month Flies By...

As I write this blog post, I cannot believe that we have already completed more than a month and a half of school! The year has been both fun and frustrating at times, filled with lessons from life and not just lessons from books.

We have traveled quite a bit - to the zoo, the children's museum, Cedar Point, and COSI. Josh took Hannah and Ben to see a football game at Virginia Tech, and I took Becca on an autumn excursion to my parents' cabin. We even drove to Grove City College for a friend's wedding and spent some time with a wonderful family near Pittsburgh. Somehow, I still managed to squeeze in a few photo shoots as well!

During this crazy month, we lost our sweet kitty, Barky, to an illness called FIP. He was young, and his sickness and death were sudden and unexpected. We took some time off of school to love him for a couple of days and then grieve our loss. The kids made memory boxes and have learned a lot about death and loss and sadness - life lessons I never expected to teach them this year.

Through all of this, we are actually making progress with school work, too. Hannah is flying through her math again, and Ben has finally mastered his addition and subtraction facts and is moving on to more difficult problems. He spent the first few weeks making and practicing flashcards from + and - 0 through + and - 9. Now, he is doing much better with his math because he has the facts memorized and no longer needs to calculate each problem in his head. Both kids like Spelling Power, although I have to keep reassuring Ben that he is supposed to get words on the pretests wrong - otherwise, he would never learn anything new!

Social Studies and Science remain the kids' favorite subjects (I will share more of those lessons in later posts), and they love doing Spanish a couple days a week, too.

For reading and language arts, we are working our way through First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. Ben just began Level One, and Hannah just completed that book. They love the simplicity and repetition and are learning quite a bit. They especially love memorizing the poems in the book. We have been reading longer chapter books together, too. We just finished reading The Secret Garden and then listened to the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre version and watched the movie. I ordered James and the Giant Peach yesterday and hope to begin it in a week or so. I think it will appeal a little more to my adventurous Ben, though he also appreciated the lovely story in The Secret Garden.

I love our Bible curriculum this year. We are using a book called Our 24 Family Ways. Each "family way" is a kind of rule for the family follow, though really, they are more like ways of living. Each "way" has five daily lessons, a coloring page, a brief story intro, a character quality, and a Bible verse to memorize. The lessons are short enough to hold the kids' interest, but deep enough to make them think. Even my littlest has memorized the verses, and the verses are often fairly long - 2 or 3 verses at a time. Still, with repetition, they have learned the verses and the family ways very well. I also posted the family ways on our wall where everyone can read them, and when a child needs a "break" (like a time out), he or she sits and reads through the ways and then tells me which ones were not followed. I love that they are specific and thorough and well-grounded in Scripture. We begin each day with the Bible lesson and prayer, focusing on God right from the start.

Finally, with a few exceptions, I have designated Fridays as "Project Fridays." Each Friday, we put aside our regular school work and tackle a project, either together or separately. All three kids created beautiful lapbooks on the animals of their choosing, and we have begun working on making our own movie together. Our next project will likely be a "Space" lapbook, inspired by the content of the story they wrote for our movie script. These Fridays have been the most fun and educational school days, and I hope we can continue them all year!

So, as the first months of the school year fly by, hopefully I will more faithfully update this blog and share what we are studying and experiencing. As the blog's title proclaims, "learning is life" - and we are certainly spending most of our time living and learning together!

Strolling Through China

For the past couple of weeks, our geography curriculum has focused on China. We colored and labeled maps, explored China on the globe, and read through a few non-fiction books and a student atlas from the library. The kids learned what the flag means and colored the flag for their geography notebooks, and I pulled out an old BBC movie about pandas for them to watch. They have learned quite a bit about the country.

On our visit to the library, I also decided to get out a handful of fiction books about China to add some literature to our geography study. The Story of Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wise takes place on the Yangtze River, which the kids labeled on their maps. The Empty Pot by Demi tells about an emperor seeking his replacement and teaches about honesty and the courage to do what is right. Huy Von Lee has written a wonderful series of books teaching Chinese characters and where they come from, for example, how the symbol for fire looks like a little campfire. We chose In the Leaves because it focuses on autumn and harvest time, and it fit in well with the time of year. However, I found another favorite book in the new edition of The Seeing Stick by Jane Yolen. The story begins by telling about an emperor's blind daughter and the search for something that might help her see. An elderly man treks to the inner city with his special "seeing stick" that helps the young girl see - not with her eyes but with her hands. The illustrations are stunning, black and white in the beginning and becoming colorful and vibrant by the end. And, the end of the story is simple and lovely. I think I will be adding this book to my Christmas list!

Additionally, when I purchased my geography curriculum this summer, I stumbled across a kids' cookbook with simple recipes and activities from all over the world. The book's section on China includes instructions on making your own chopsticks and writing numbers 1-10 in Chinese. I decided that the chopsticks activity would better suit older children, but we did practice writing the numbers.

As a new family tradition, every Friday night, we have family game night, so we turned this past Friday into our "China party." The cookbook had two delicious and very easy Chinese recipes - honey-glazed chicken wings and birthday noodles with peanut sauce. On Friday morning, the kids and I made the noodles, so we could serve them cold as the recipe indicated, and we prepared the marinade for the chicken. Friday evening, I broiled the chicken and made a salad with an Asian dressing, and we all ate a delicious Chinese dinner. We even ate with chopsticks (the kids at least tried!) and had fortune cookies for dessert. For our game night, we taught the kids how to play Chinese checkers. It was such a fun way to learn about China!

Finally, we are beginning to wrap up our study so we can move on to the next country. I may still spend a little time discussing the Chinese new year and learning about parades, but we are just about finished. At this pace, I think we are strolling, rather than "galloping" around the globe, but I feel sure that the kids will remember these experiences, instead of packing them away at the end of the year with their old notebooks and completed worksheets. Their learning has not been all fun and games, but the fun and games have definitely helped with their learning!

Why I Love Mo Willems

Although Hannah loves to read longer chapter books, she still takes delight in shorter picture books, too. Last year, in kindergarten, she fell in love with the Knuffle Bunny and Pigeon books by Mo Willems. I had never heard of the books, so when we first went to the library, we checked out Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny, Too. The books are definitely simple enough for young readers, but the illustrations and humor can win over adults and older kids as well. Hannah certainly loves them!

Anyway, I no longer remember what I was trying to find online, but I stumbled across Mo Willems' web site and blog, which included his fan mail address and some of his favorite letters and drawings from young fans. When I told Hannah she could write him a letter, she was thrilled and began working on it at once. I wish I had saved a copy of the letter and drawing she did for him, but she placed it in the sealed envelope, and we mailed it before I thought about it. I do remember that her letter explained that her kindergarten teacher had read her some of his books, and that she writes her own books as well. She told him, "I want to be an author and illustrator just like you," and then she signed her name, adding at the end, "PS... I am 6 years old."

Not very long later (maybe a month?), we received a brown envelope in the mail, addressed to Hannah, with a tiny drawing of Knuffle Bunny next to the address. Inside, she had the following letter:

Well, I don't know who was more excited by the letter - me or Hannah! I do know that Hannah could not stop grinning as she read it over and over again. I love that the letter was completely personalized in response to what she wrote, and not just a form letter. He obviously took a little time with it, drawing a picture for her alongside his name. My favorite part, however, is that he encouraged her to keep writing and drawing, not to be just like him, but to be herself! It immediately inspired her to begin creating another book, and of course, she wants to send a copy to her favorite author - Mo Willems!

Loving the Library

As part of our homeschool routine this year, we visit the library every other Monday morning. That gives us time to read the books we choose, while also allowing us to rotate the books regularly to match our lessons and interests. Usually we pick out a few books to fit with a school theme, while the kids choose other books simply because they look fun or interesting.

Last week, while browsing the non-fiction section, I noticed a nice picture book about John James Audubon. Written as a poem/letter from Audubon to his father, explaining his passion for studying birds and nature, the story interspersed various writings from his journals and his actual paintings of birds alongside the lovely illustrations in the book. As an aspiring author and illustrator, Hannah grew more and more delighted as she learned Audubon's story. As soon as I finished reading her the book, she leaped up from the couch and announced, "I'm doing that! I'm going to draw pictures of birds and bugs and sea creatures when I grow up!"

She asked if she could draw some pictures instead of doing her Sing, Spell, Read and Write that afternoon, and I agreed. First, she brought her pumpkin to the school table and studied it carefully, drawing exactly what she saw, just as Audubon did. Then, she took a second piece of paper and wrote a brief paragraph:

"This is a pumpkin that I drew all by my self! I copied a real pumpkin. We also might make pumpkin pie or bars. I really like my pumpkin."

When she had completed that page, she asked permission to get two apples out of the refrigerator, and she drew those as well. She had one large, green apple with a stem, and one small red apple with no stem, and she again focused on drawing each one as she saw it. She finished by writing another paragraph:

"These are two different kids of apples. They are two different colors. One is red and one is green. They look so yummy that I think I am going to have to eat them for a snack."

I love seeing books inspire my children to learn, and I love having the flexibility to change my schedule as needed to accommodate their excitement for what they are learning. Sometimes their creativity extends my lesson plans beyond what I even expected to teach, and, thanks to a wonderful public library, we have a fresh supply of books to broaden our knowledge and kick off new ideas for studying and exploring the world.

The Wheel on the School

Last week, Hannah and I finished the first chapter book we worked on together - The Wheel on the School by Miendert DeJong. What a lovely book! We both fell in love with it from the very first page. Lina, the main character, is so sweet and thoughtful and full of dreams. She reminds me very much of my Hannah!

At first, the book focuses only on the school children and their teacher, as they are the only "important" characters in the story. But gradually, more and more characters become "important" until the list includes the whole town and even some people in adjacent towns: the oldest man and woman, the young tots, the fathers, the women, the poor tin man, and even the once-outcast legless man with a cherry tree in his back yard. By the end of the book, everyone has come together to make Lina's "impossibly impossible" dream a reality.

Last Friday, Josh surprised Ben by taking him away for the weekend to a Virginia Tech football game with all of the guys on that side of the family. Since I didn't have to plan any school work for Ben that day, I decided to spend the whole day with Hannah working on a project to wrap up our reading of the book. I planned to do three lapbooks - one on the book, one on the Netherlands, and one on storks. In advance, I found a few printables from homeschoolshare.com, and I designed a few booklets myself. Using some non-fiction books from the library about the Netherlands and storks, Hannah and I planned out the rest of the ideas. She did most of the writing, though I wrote the titles on each item and the tiny labels on the timeline. I also filled in the main character list, when her hand became tired. Of course, she helped me by listing characters and describing the main events. Once we finished assembling the lapbooks, Hannah decorated the cover of each one. I am absolutely amazed at how they turned out!

The cover for the book lapbook:

The inside of the book lapbook:

The cover of the Netherlands lapbook:

The inside of the Netherlands lapbook:

The cover of the stork lapbook:

The inside of the stork lapbook:

In addition, during play time yesterday, I noticed that Hannah had used her Legos to build a replica of the village of Shora. The little girl even has on a pair of wooden shoes!

Amazingly, Hannah has nearly finished reading the entire book for a second time on her own! The reading level is fairly challenging, but she loves the story so much that she does not mind. This is one reason why we opted to homeschool this year. Last year, school exhausted her so much that she never wanted to read on her own anymore. She seemed to have lost her love of reading. Obviously, that love returned once we provided a more restful and academically stimulating school environment. I am very excited by how this project turned out, and I am already considering our next one when we finish our new chapter book. I love how much fun learning can be - for my kids and for me!

A Matter of Science...

... or perhaps I should title this "The Science of Matter."

One disadvantage of buying my curriculum online is that I do not always know if it will meet my expectations. For that reason, I debated about this science curriculum for a long time before I finally purchased it. In fact, I think it sat in my Amazon cart for almost 6 months before I finally committed to buying it. However, after a little over a week of school, I can say that I am more than delighted with this book! It has exceeded all of my expectations so far.

The author of this book, Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, is an environmental scientist who dislikes the random fashion most elementary science curricula use to present topics. He decided to create a book to teach even young children to think about science as a whole and to see how various topics build on each other. Rather than jumping from animals to weather to rocks to plants, this curriculum weaves together different branches of science while guiding students to think as scientists.

Using the book, we began with the idea of organizing things into categories. We practiced grouping items around the room into categories, and I showed them how to complete larger jigsaw puzzles using the same idea. First, we categorized pieces into edges and non-edges. Then, we grouped them by color. A seemingly impossible task quickly became much simpler.

This week, building upon that idea, I introduced the concept of matter and its three states - solid, liquid, and gas. We found various items around the house and organized them into these three categories. I showed them that all of the liquids needed containers to keep them from flowing into the carpet. Josh even explained "viscosity" to them, and they could identify which liquids had higher or lower viscosity. We experimented with ice and butter on the stove and saw how matter could change from one state to another, and we also discussed how living things are a combination of the three states - not just one.

As a final project, I put together a small book, with a label or sentence on each page, and I allowed the kids to write and draw what they learned about matter. I gave them a lot of freedom, though I required that they write at least one thing on each page and I assisted them with spelling if needed. I was so impressed! Their books showed just how much they really learned about the subject:

Ben, age 5 (kindergarten):


Hannah, age 6 (first grade):

Finding a Routine

We started school officially on August 25th. The kids excitedly got dressed in new clothes, made their beds, and hurried outside for pictures. In fact, they finished their breakfasts and sat at the table for school about 20 minutes earlier than required, because they were so anxious to begin!

Through some experimentation, we have come up with a good routine. Each day, after the kids finish their breakfasts, they come to the school table and open their folders. Hannah and Ben put stickers on their charts for accomplishing three things - making their beds, cleaning their rooms, and getting to the table on time (by 9:00 am). Then, all three kids work on the few worksheets I put in their folders the night before. This allows them to get started whenever they are ready and provides a few minutes for me to get out my materials for the day. Once they finish, they return the work to their folders and put their folders back on the shelf. Becca loves being included in this and actually cries if I do not give her school work to do!

After this, we start our real school day. We begin by reading and discussing a Bible lesson from a wonderful book, entitled Mighty Acts of God by Starr Meade. We pray together, and then we review the calendar and the rules for our school:

1. "Children obey your parents." (Colossians 3:20)
2. "Be kind and compassionate to one another." (Ephesians 4:32)
3. "Do everything without complaining or arguing." (Philippians 2:14)
4. "Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." (James 1:19)

From this point on, each day varies. We usually do math, and we alternate science and social studies. We have time outside, art lessons, stories, projects, and we always have a morning snack.

After lunch, Hannah writes in her journal while I put Becca and Ben down for a nap and eat my own lunch. Then, Hannah and I spend the afternoon working one-on-one. Nearly every day, she completes a "Raceway Step" in Sing, Spell, Read, and Write and takes a test on any spelling words she did not already know from the previous day's lesson. Amazingly, she has only needed six spelling words so far this year: cheap, chocolate, which and witch, and whale and wail. She sometimes has free-choice time to work on crafts, do puzzles, or read, and then we end each day with me reading aloud to her from a chapter book. She has completely fallen in love with the book I chose to begin the year - The Wheel on the School by Meindert Dejong. Every day, she begs me to keep reading, and we often do not end our school day until 3:30 or 4:00!

Our routine has worked very well, and the kids like knowing what to expect each day. Our clock chimes each hour, which helps them keep track of the time and measure the day. They all enjoy school days quite a bit, and I try to alternate desk work with more active learning so they do not get bored or worn out.

Additionally, I love school days as well. I enjoy directing their education and seeing them discover new things. I love that my kids can solve for an unknown, explore in-depth science, and read books at their reading level instead of their grade level. And, I especially appreciate that I can study God's Word with them each and every day and watch them mature into independent thinkers and kids with character! Though I am exhausted at the end of the week, I am thankful for the chance I have to educate my own children. The blessings far outweigh any difficulties...

Speaking of Graduations...

As I wrote about Hannah's graduation, I realized that I never mentioned Ben's preschool graduation, which happened last month. I cannot believe that all three of my kids are now old enough for some sort of school - preschool, kindergarten, and first grade! Of course, they have all been learning and "doing school" with me for a long time. Their ages just make it more official.

The preschool graduation was held at a local church. I have always loved that this preschool teaches faith as much as it teaches academics. The kids memorize sight words and learn letter sounds, but they also memorize Bible verses each month as well.

Before the ceremony, all of the kids prayed together on stage with their teacher.

Each child had a turn to display something he or she had learned that year. Some kids said Bible verses, and other kids said the sight words. Because Ben reads so well, he read a Thomas book aloud for everyone, accurately pronouncing words like "miserable."

I am very proud of how he has matured as a reader this year, reading Magic Tree House books as voraciously as Hannah once did.

In spite of his academic skills, however, he remains all boy - full of mischief and wiggles. About halfway through the program, he discovered that he could pull his graduation cap down over his face, and he amused himself with that new skill for quite a while.

As part of the program, each of the kids received a different award, along with their graduation certificates.

Ben, of course, became obsessed with removing the CD from the book he won, and spent the remaining half of the program concentrating on that task.

This year, the graduation had an extra touch of sadness, since the teacher will not continue teaching next year. Hannah and Ben each attended the school for two years, so we have grown to love her and the school very much. As I mentioned before, Ben was all boy and definitely kept his teacher on her toes, but she had a soft place in her heart for him. At the end of the program, Ben read a poem for his teacher, as a way of saying goodbye and thanking her for her love for the students.

Ben loved his teacher very much and will miss her a lot next year. She always loved him and worked well with him, in spite of his occasional ornery attitude and his more-than-occasional wiggles.


My two big kids, preschool graduate and kindergarten graduate...

I am so proud of them, and I look forward to seeing them grow into bright, confident, and godly adults someday. But, they can stay small for a while longer, if that is ok...

Developing Faith

I love watching my kids learn and grow academically. I celebrate when they discover something new or begin to comprehend a new concept. However, nothing pleases me more than seeing them develop a deeper personal faith in God.

Hannah has always been a challenging child, perhaps because she and I are so similar. Both of us struggle with bending our wills to submit to authority and both of us have a too-low tolerance for frustration. I pray for her that God will soften her heart and capture her will for Himself, while using her feisty spirit for His glory.

Despite her difficulties, however, she definitely shows evidence of Christ working in her life. For example, throughout this school year she has had to deal with teasing and bullying from a particular child at school. Though she has occasionally responded unkindly in return, for the most part, she has attempted to befriend him and include him. When I asked her why she kept trying to be friends with someone who treated her meanly, she replied that Jesus told her to love her enemies. She also prays for him and tells him that Jesus loves him. The "mama bear" in me wants to tell her to fight back and defend herself, but instead, I express how proud I am that she is choosing to follow Jesus.

Additionally, though the poor child ends up spending quite a bit of time in her room (especially after school when her tiredness leads her to attack her siblings and speak disrespectfully to me), she very often uses that time to read her Bible and pray. Then, she comes downstairs and apologizes for her wrong behavior, with a renewed humble spirit. Those glimpses into her faith encourage me that she will eventually triumph over her temper and develop into a sweet, God-fearing young lady.

Likewise, Ben has acquired a passion for learning about God and reading His Word. For his 5th birthday, we purchased a Scholastic Read and Learn Bible, so he could read and study Bible stories on his own. He loves it! He has been reading it nearly every day and then excitedly telling me about what he has read. We read the regular NIV Bible together every night as a family, but I knew, as a developing reader, that he would not yet be able to study that by himself. I thought this Bible would serve as the perfect step between the "baby" Bibles he used to read and a regular "grown-up" Bible, and I love seeing him studying it and earnestly applying it to his life.

Unlike the other two, Becca is just beginning to learn the concept of faith. She knows God loves her and she has heard the Bible stories again and again, but her little heart is still very focused on herself and her own desires. Still, she occasionally amazes me by expressing faith in her own, sweet, three-year-old way.

As the end of this school year approaches, I had been wrestling with what to use as a Bible curriculum when we begin homeschooling full-time. After previewing a friend's books, I strongly considered purchasing the Grapevine Studies "Stick Figuring Through the Bible" series. But then, last weekend, my father gave me a book he had discovered when ordering some other books from Westminster Seminary's bookstore - Might Acts of God: A Family Bible Story Book by Starr Meade. Wow! I have never seen a Bible story book like it. The author recounts the familiar (and some not-so-familiar) Bible stories in a way that focuses not on the main characters or events, but on what those stories tell us about God's character and plan for the world. Each story has a couple of discussion ideas as well. I have decided to use this book as our curriculum for next year, and I cannot wait to see how the kids continue to grow in their understanding and love of God.

When I look at my own failings and imperfections, I often struggle with whether I am succeeding in passing my faith on to my children. Do they see Christ in me or do they just see someone who frequently fails to live what she believes? Seeing my kids' faith encourages me that God uses me, in all of my weakness, to show my family who He is and how His grace and strength can overcome our failures. Just as Hannah can overcome her strong will to show love to her "enemy," I, too, can teach my children faith, even as my own imperfect faith continues to develop.

Loving Literature

One morning, after I had been out the night before, I was surprised to discover Hannah reading Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I loved the book when I read it in fifth grade, but the story deals with death and sadness and growing up, and I did not know if my six year old could understand the themes of the book. Additionally, the book has 249 pages with no pictures, and I doubted that she would have the patience the finish it. About a month later, Hannah has proven me wrong!

As she read the story, she often discussed the story and the themes with us, celebrating the victories and mourning the losses. She became so attached to Old Dan and Little Ann that I began to worry about how she would handle their deaths at the end of the book. But, though she definitely expressed sadness when she finished, she also says that the book is her new favorite book.

Today, I suggested that she write a book report about the story, perhaps to read to her class at school. She happily agreed. This is what she wrote, with some corrected punctuation and spelling (though she only spelled two or three words wrong and used periods fairly well this time).

"I read Where the Red Fern Grows! At the beginning, a boy wanted two coon hounds. Then he prayed to God so he could get two coon hound pups. He got two coon hound pups. On the first day of hunting, his dogs treed a coon. He chopped a tree down and got a coon.

Then, he caught another coon! And another coon. Then, one night there was a blizzard. Little Anne got stuck on the ice! How could he help her? He got a cane and helped little Ann! They went home. The next day he went hunting with with some kids for two dollars. He did not want to kill the ghost coon. One kid died. Then he went home.

One day, he entered a contest. Little Ann won a silver cup. Then he caught the most coons and won the gold cup. They camped. They went home and he gave a gold cup to his sister, a silver cup to his other sister, and a dollar to his third sister. The next day, he went hunting again.

Then, a mountain lion attacked them. Then, Old Dan died, and Little Ann was so sad she died. They were in graves. There was a red fern in the middle. The red fern was very special. It helped him not be sad."

Hannah added a cover page and a couple of pictures at the end, and she plans to bring the whole thing in to school to share with her class on Monday. Her love of books continues to amaze and delight me. I wonder what she will decide to read next...

Crazy Creativity

Hannah is a writer and an illustrator. She cannot seem to help herself. Each day she comes home from school with her arms full of pictures and books she has created, and many afternoons and weekends, she continues creating even while she is at home.

She makes her own coloring books to doodle in after school. In her room, she has a lovely journal, containing the details of many days' activities and experiences, complete with drawings to illustrate the writing, and stickers as souvenirs from doctor appointments or other adventures. Earlier this week, she wrote and illustrated a how-to book about making a butterfly kite that really "flys."

"Fun Craft
By: Hannah"

"What you need
Roll of String
Sicciors (scissors)
Markers
Hole Punch
Stickers
Sheet of Paper
Decorate"

"Fun Butterfly
Roll of Tape
Pencill
Crayons
it Flys"

"What you do
take
the paper
cut this shape ->
cut this shape too ->
use tape to tape
them together
Draw smile with Pecill use
stickers and
crayons to Decorate"

"then Hole punch
the botom
tie string to
Hole.
now you
Got one"

"on windy
Days it flys"

"yay"

She even incorporates her writing and designing into her play. Recently, she celebrated the birthday of one of her stuffed animals. She wrote songs for the party, decorated presents, and even made a countdown until the big day. Another time, she decided to put on a show, based on the movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. She created tickets for each family member with our names and the name of the show on them. She also designed a sign/advertisement for the show:

"Hannahs
open
theater
Free evry night
cloudy
with a
chanch of meatballs"

She never performed the show, but she seems to enjoy preparing for such events at least as much as actually performing. At times, I marvel to myself over the projects she undertakes. Some of them, such as her show, remind me of my school assignments from late elementary school. Yet, she plans and completes them because she delights in the process.

I love Hannah's crazy creativity, the passion that drives her to fill each day with writing and drawing and designing. I hope, as we homeschool next year, that I can provide an environment in which her creativity will flourish, growing deeper with each new idea she learns. I also hope that her love of writing continues to grow even as she begins to grasp grammar and spelling and rules of good writing. Honestly, I suspect that the written word entices her heart as it does my own, and I smile as I remember another little girl who used to scribble imaginative stories in a spiral notebook many years ago. In fact, I think I still have that notebook somewhere...

My New Favorite Author

Hannah came down from her room the other day, excited to show me her newest creation. She had written and illustrated a book about "Puppy," her favorite stuffed animal. Here is her book. I included the text of each page after it, with some corrected spelling and punctuation, to make it a little easier to read.

"The book about Puppy my stuffed animal."

"Once upon a time there was a puppy that lived in Ohio. Hannah her owner said she was cute. She had toys."

"One day puppy wandered off and got lost. Hannah was sad."

"One day Hannah went out to find Puppy."

"Then she heard a barking - arf arf. Then she ran into something. It was Puppy. We got popcorn and hot chocolate."

"I love Puppy. She is cute."

"The end. Hannah"

On Thursday, she brought the book into her kindergarten class, and her teacher allowed her to sit in the "author chair" and read her book to the class. Hannah was so excited! Now, she tells everyone that she wants to be an author and illustrator when she grows up. Should I tell her that is what I want to be someday, too?