Chickens and Eggs

I worried that the baby might disrupt school this year, but other than a bit of fussiness and screeching when she is ready for her morning nap, she does quite well overall. She often plays happily in the pack-n-play or eats her breakfast in the high chair while I teach. Even better, once she goes to sleep in the morning, she sleeps through almost our entire school day before waking up for the afternoon and evening. I have even been able to run between 1.25 and 1.75 miles each day after lunch while the kids have their recess time, and it helps me feel refreshed and ready to finish out the school day.

No, the baby has been quite compliant this year so far. Instead, our biggest distraction has been our chickens! They like to come to our front door and peck at it to get our attention. If we are working in our school room in the basement, they actually peer in our basement window at us!

Poor Kitty

In addition, we began getting our first eggs this week. Elsa, the biggest barred rock, laid us a perfect little egg around lunch time on Monday.

Just a tiny egg - they will get bigger, though

Amazingly, Rosie, one of our black australorps, also laid her first egg on Monday afternoon. She came to the front door squawking anxiously at me, but then ran back to the woods. When I went for my run a little later, she was hanging out alone by the coop. I talked to her softly and showed her the fake eggs in the nest boxes, and she climbed in to inspect them. By the end of my run, she came running out of the coop, leaving a tiny egg in the nest box behind her.

On Tuesday, we only got one egg, but Wednesday through Friday, we got two eggs each day. Now, the kids are obsessed with checking for eggs, which would cause enough of a distraction by itself. However, the hens cause an even bigger distraction with the ruckus they make every time they lay. I had heard of the egg song, but I had no idea just how loudly those hens could sing. We can often hear them squawking in the coop, while we are working down in the basement.

Adding to the noise, Rosie and Elsa had quite the battle over the favored nest box. Elsa has staked her claim on the nest box in the darkest corner, and she will often lay in there for an hour before she gets around to depositing her egg. However, Rosie prefers this box too. On Tuesday, Rosie ended up not laying because Elsa refused to vacate the box. On Wednesday, we spent the day at Cedar Point and left the chickens in the coop all day. Both hens somehow managed to lay in the same box, so I assumed they had worked out their dispute. I was wrong.

On Thursday, we heard such a disturbance that we rushed out to make sure nothing was attacking the flock. We found Elsa in the nest box with Rosie yelling at her frantically at the top of her lungs. We came back inside, only to hear the egg song a moment later. Thinking Elsa had finally finished, the kids went out to check, but Elsa was still in the nest box, working on her egg. Rosie, on the other hand, had finally given up and laid her egg in a neighboring box. Silly hens! We have six nest boxes and six hens, and yet, they fight over the same box!

With all the noise and distractions, I have to fight with the chickens to keep my kids’ attention on their school work. On a positive note, though, they are learning quite a bit about chickens and where food comes from. As I was making dinner yesterday, Ben asked me if I was going to use chicken eggs or store-bought eggs in my recipe. He realized his mistake immediately, and we both laughed. Before this year, however, eggs only came from the store. Now, through the crazy distraction of our little flock of happy hens, our kids know the joy of getting their breakfast straight from its source. And, I suppose, that is part of a good education as well.

Another Lost Tooth

Yesterday I received an email from Hannah's teacher entitled "Tooth." In it, she wrote, "Major wiggly tooth for Hannah! Pretty much had her attention most of the day! She is trying to be so brave to pull it out---but must be ready!!! Hope it comes out tonight so she doesn’t have to worry!"

Now, Hannah's top tooth has been just slightly loose for about six months, and, occasionally, she imagines that it is looser than before and fills the whole day with dramatic wiggling and excitement. Because of this, I hoped that her tooth would be coming out for real this time, so the drama could finally end, but I confess that I suspected the tooth would still wiggle the same tiny amount as always. However, when I picked Hannah up at school, her tooth definitely moved more than it had previously.

When we got home, I tried to encourage her to wiggle the tooth and loosen it more so it would fall out before bed. It looked pretty loose and I didn't want to worry about her swallowing it. She vehemently refused, though, because she desperately wanted it to come out at school. Apparently, when a child looses a tooth at school, he or she gets a special tooth necklace, and Hannah has been longing for that opportunity all year. I chuckled, remembering the email I had received earlier, and told Hannah that I thought her teacher would probably appreciate the tooth coming out before school the next day. "Yeah," she replied, "I disrupted the whole class! That's why I got a one."

"Oh, Hannah," I responded, "that's not a good thing. Even if this tooth is still in your mouth tomorrow, you need to listen to your teacher and pay attention in class."

"I know," she said cheerfully.

"I hope so," I replied, raising my eyebrows a bit.

Later that evening, I gently brushed Hannah's teeth, and cringed, squeamishly, as the tooth crossed oddly in front of the tooth next to it. "Hannah," I said, "This tooth has to come out. Why don't you pull on it a little."

"No!" she exclaimed. "I'll just bang it out like I did before."

"No," I told her. "That hurts a lot worse than pulling it. Here, let me just pull very gently and see what happens."

I pulled ever so slightly, and out came the tooth!

Excitedly, she ran to tell her daddy and put the tooth in an envelope for the Tooth Fairy. This time, she decided to write the Tooth Fairy a note. Of course, I had to take a picture!

Side one:

"dear tooth Fairy at Lunch today at school I tryed to Bite my apple my tooth riped half way out"

Side two:

"At Bedtime mom pulled it gently out. I Love you"

And of course, the Tooth Fairy wrote a nice note in reply, included a pack of gum wrapped in a dollar bill, and placed them all under her pillow. And, I am pretty sure the Tooth Fairy whispered a little, "I love you, too..."

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.

Learning Life Skills

I would like to take credit for this bit of learning, and I typically do this job, but Josh gets credit for passing the skill on to our kids. Too often, I avoid allowing the kids to help with chores, because I can do them better or more quickly. Unfortunately, as a result, I ultimately end up doing everything without help.

Last Monday, I went to a day-long training seminar to help me with my business. While I was gone, Josh tackled the too-large mound of laundry that I had been ignoring for weeks. In fact, he washed and folded every piece of dirty laundry he could find in the house! And he did this in between shuttling kids to and from school and soccer as well. I could not believe everything he accomplished! Anyway, when I asked the kids how Daddy managed to do all of the laundry on such a crazy day, Ben told me that he and Becca had helped him fold the laundry. I smiled knowingly, imagining that their "help" probably kept them from fighting and getting into trouble, but likely did not make the work go more quickly.

The next evening, Josh brought a load of towels up from the dryer and placed them on the couch in the living room. He and I were talking in the dining room, when I looked into the other room and saw this:

While we had been discussing dinner, Becca had folded nearly all of the towels, and she did a fairly good job, too! She noticed the shocked look on my face and began grinning and pointing at her work. "It's amazing," she said, over and over again.

I asked her to show me how she folded them, and she happily gave me a demonstration.

After laying the towel out flat on the floor, she folded the sides over and lined them up nicely.

I never imagined that my three year old would be capable of folding towels. Yet, my husband recognized an opportunity to pass on an important life skill. I have been pondering this for a week now, and I wonder what other jobs the kids could learn to accomplish if I gave them the chance. They already pick up their toys and clear their dishes from the table, but I bet they could do so much more! When we begin homeschooling full-time next year, I plan to integrate chores into our daily schedule - making beds, straightening their rooms, and organizing their school work and supplies. But, now I may include them in my household tasks, too, like laundry, mopping, dishes, and dusting. If we make a game out of it, they may even find it fun! And eventually, I will appreciate the help from kids who have already learned the importance of working together as a family.

Ladybugs and Litterbugs

Though I am a global warming skeptic, I believe very strongly in keeping the environment clean, reducing pollution, and leaving the earth beautiful for the next generation. Whether or not global warming exists, I do not like the idea of pumping the planet full of energy bi-products and waste. I like to do whatever I can to reduce the amount of waste our family produces. However, adding recycling to our garbage service costs significantly extra per month, so I felt thrilled this year when I discovered something called "SCRAP" in our community.

Each elementary school has a day assigned to it - for example, the second Tuesday of each month. On that day, a recycling trailer visits the school in the afternoon for a couple of hours to collect recycling, and the school gets any proceeds from the materials collected that day. So, once a month, I load plastic bins full of cans, newspapers, and plastics into the back of my van when I go to pick up Hannah. Before I get her, I go through the recycling lane, and the workers unload all of my recycling for me. It only takes a few minutes, and I do not even have to get out of my car. Could recycling be any more convenient?

In order to organize the recyclables, Josh purchased a set of large plastic drawers/removable bins to keep on our back porch. I can separate out the various items and save them for the monthly drop-off without having them take over my house or garage. Often, as I cook, I rinse out empty cans, remove the labels, and then ask one of the kids to put them in the bin on the porch. Though I viewed this as a "chore" initially, the kids actually fight over the job.

Ben especially enjoys recycling and often comes into the kitchen to ask if I have anything for him to put outside. Because of this interest, I decided to do a small unit on waste and recycling with him.

One day, as I was looking up the SCRAP schedule, I stumbled across this educational page on Richland County's Solid Waste Management Authority website. The elementary unit, "Windows on Waste," seems like an exceptional educational tool. The pdf file consists of 335 pages of lesson plans, worksheets, information, and resources to teach a very involved unit on waste, trash disposal, recycling, and the environment. I think the unit is slightly above Ben's level right now, but I plan to teach it sometime in the future.

This time, however, I chose the preschool/kindergarten level activity book called "Lucky the Ladybug." This book contains fun activities and games and tells the story of Lucky the Ladybug as she tried to save Bugville from becoming Litterville. With a small amount of extra teaching and guidance, Ben learned quite a bit of basic information about recycling and keeping the community clean. I printed the pdf, punched holes in it, and put it in a folder to make a little book.

I intend to add more activities as we explore recycling in more depth. Perhaps we will weigh our trash and our recycling and figure out what fraction of our trash we recycle. Or, maybe we will just count the bags we put out and see how many more bags we would use if we didn't recycle. We can also visit the worm bin again and see how we recycle our food waste as well.

Regardless of how we study this, I am glad that my kids are actively involved in helping me recycle. Hopefully, as they grow older, this will help them develop the habits and attitudes necessary for them to care for the earth as well. I do not want to raise "litterbugs," who think nothing of their waste and view it as someone else's problem. Instead, just like Lucky the Ladybug, I want them to care about their community and about the planet God gave them, and to focus on using its resources carefully and wisely, so they can leave a healthy, thriving planet to their own children. Maybe the small steps today will start them down the path to living carefully and sustainably for the rest of their lives.

An Overwhelming Gift

You know you are in trouble when:

• Your 4 year old tells you he loves math "more than anything" and eagerly watches instructional videos for a first grade math curriculum, yelling out the answers to all of the teacher's questions.
• Your 6 year old (at the age of 5) read the entire Winnie the Pooh chapter book during nap times and could tell you all about the story.
• Your 4 year old can explain what a chord is and the difference between a major and minor chord and can play many chords on the piano.
• Your 4 year old is also learning to play the classical song he composed by humming it into a microphone.
• Your 2 year old can sound out 3 and 4 letter short-vowel words and read easy reader books.
• Your 6 year old understands how multiplication facts work and can solve single digit problems in her head.
• Your 2 year old wants to know if you (and she) are "real."
• Your 4 year old spends 10 minutes discussing with the dentist how the "suction thing" works and then uses it to suck up a cupful of water.
• Your 2 year old understands how knock, knock jokes work and can successfully retell them, even making up some of her own.
• Your 4 year old asks you why spiral galaxies are made up of stars.
• Your 6 year old (at the age of 4) is asked if she knows what a certain sign means (sign language for "I love you") and she responds in Spanish - "Te amo."
• Your 6 year old can also count to 30 in Spanish.
• Your 2 year old yells out "10" when you ask your older child the answer to 5+5.
• Your 4 year old reads at a first grade level, and your 6 year old reads at a fourth grade level.
• Your 4 year old (at the age of 3) could sing all three verses of the hymn "It is Well" with proper pronunciation and pitch, varying his volume appropriately throughout the song.
• Your 2 year old talks the doctor's ear off while he watches her, wide-eyed, and says she talks like a 5 year old.

I realize that moms have a tendency to overestimate the intelligence of their children. What mother does not want to believe that her child is extraordinarily bright? But, I truly believe that I have three gifted children.

Why does this matter? Shouldn't I just quietly celebrate and keep my "bragging" to myself? Honestly, as a person who excelled in school as a child, I definitely feel the impulse to hide or downplay my kids' abilities in order to avoid the teasing that inevitably comes when a child is different from the norm. However, I am beginning to understand what a challenge giftedness can be. A child who struggles with boredom in school may appear unfocused and unmotivated. A kid who wants to investigate how the world works may do so in dangerous or destructive ways without proper guidance.

Additionally, I constantly wrestle with finding the best educational setting for each kid. Hannah just loves school and all of her friends. She is developing into a little social butterfly! But, she also is not learning much academically, other than Spanish and some science and social studies concepts. In kindergarten, this does not matter as much (and she honestly needed some of the social experiences), but what about in older grades? I want her to be able to learn at a faster pace, delve more deeply into the subjects that capture her interest, and not have her intellectual curiosity stifled by the disapproval of her peers. At the same time, I want to let her be a kid and have fun, without giving her third grade workbooks just because she is capable of completing them.

I think that we may switch back to homeschooling in another year or two for these reasons. When I teach them, I can take them to higher levels while keeping it interesting and exciting at the same time. I can also give them plenty of time for fun and extracurricular activities during the day. Right now, after a full day of kindergarten, Hannah comes home so exhausted that she does not even want to read anymore, and she has no time for other activities she enjoys, like ballet.

Anyway, please excuse this rather introspective blog entry today. My children are such an overwhelming gift sometimes - full of delights and challenges. I pray that I have the wisdom to help them grow, not just intellectually, but also in character and confidence and compassion. I know that they are helping me grow in those areas each and every day!