Hannah's Story

Hannah wrote her first journal entry! I did help quite a bit, by spelling words for her and helping her put her thoughts into sentences. I also helped her out a little with the letters "e" and "s" by putting a few dots on the paper to guide her writing, but other than that, she did this all by herself. Isn't her handwriting improving tremendously? I think she is just about ready to begin the handwriting curriculum I bought. I still may save it until school officially begins in the fall, though.

Hannah just loves dandelions! We had hundreds of them, mostly white seeds, in our yard the other day. She ran around blowing on them for quite a while. Then, she tried to pollinate the remaining yellow flowers to make more seeds for another day. It's a shame Daddy had to mow that night, as our lawn was beginning to look like an untended meadow... However, I think we have more dandelions than grass, so I'm sure they will be back in no time!

Begging to Learn?

"Please, Mama! Please can we do Kindergarten today!" Hannah begged as I finished typing an email this morning. She even voluntarily cleaned up the living room to make space for our school table! I am so glad that my children love to learn. Hannah, especially, gets so excited when she discovers something new.

Today, we spent about an hour on reading and 30 minutes on math. Hannah read an entire book with no help today, and she easily answered comprehension questions as well. She also practiced reading and writing three-digit numbers and recognizing number words up to ten. I cannot believe that she has nearly finished our Kindergarten reading curriculum already. By fall, she should be ready to begin first grade!

Though we focused mostly on the basics today, Hannah still didn't want to stop. I had to convince her to help me clean up so she could eat lunch before naptime. I hope that she always has such a burning desire to learn! Today, she reminded me why homeschooling is such a rewarding "job."

Field Trips

Today began with a field trip to our local fire station. The firemen were wonderful! The kids got to see a fireman in full gear, meet Smokey the Bear, hear the sirens, and watch a video on fire safety. Hannah impressed me with how much she remembered from our fire safety lesson a couple months ago. I think she impressed the firemen too. She announced to them at the end that she wants to be a fireman when she grows up! Even Becca had a blast. She screamed excitedly when one of the fire engines drove up to the station while we were there. "Ruck! Ruck! Ruck!" she squealed over and over, pointing to the truck.

When we returned home, we ate a quick lunch, put Becca to bed, and dashed back outside to enjoy the beautiful spring day. After playing "Sharks and Minnows" with the soccer balls for a while, the kids began exploring the yard. We have an abundant crop of dandelions this year, which delights the kids. They cannot resist the cheery yellow blooms for long and usually come inside with yellow noses after picking and sniffing handfuls of the "weeds."

We had some visitors to our yard today, allowing us to have another impromptu "field trip," right in our own back yard. The bees and butterflies busily moved from flower to flower enjoying the dandelions as much as the kids! First, we talked about the bright colors of the flowers and how they attract bees and butterflies. Then, we discussed how bees' and butterflies' mouths are shaped like straws and how they slurp nectar from the flowers just like the kids slurp their milk from their cups. But Hannah became most excited when we learned about pollen.

I showed her the pollen, which had rubbed off the flowers onto her hands and nose, and I told her that the pollen sticks to bees and butterflies too and ends up falling off into other flowers. I explained that when pollen from one flower goes into another flower, then that flower can make seeds or fruit. We cannot have apples or peaches or any other food that contains seeds if some person or animal does not pollinate the flowers.

Well, Hannah loved this idea! She spent the rest of the time we were outside pretending that her hand was a bee. She rubbed her fingers in flower after flower, spreading the pollen around the yard. A few short moments in a field of dandelions taught her more about bees and flowers than she could have learned from an extensive lesson indoors using worksheets and pictures. She even created her own manipulative! Of course, I probably should have taught her to pollinate something other than weeds... but in a few days, at least we'll have a fresh crop of dandelion seeds to explore!

Signs of Spring

What lovely weather we have had for the past few days! Hannah attends an in-home preschool one afternoon a week. This week, I felt inspired by the warm, sunny day, so after we dropped off Hannah, I came home and put Becca down for a nap, and then Ben and I had a picnic in the back yard.

As we ate, I began to point out the many signs of spring. I showed him the green buds on the bushes and the violets peeking their bold purple heads up over the blades of grass. He seemed especially enthralled by the multitude of sparrows fluttering and chirping loudly in the hedges. After he finished, he raced over to them, and turned to me, crestfallen, when they all flew away. "Mama," he cried, "Why did the birds all fly away?" I tried to explain that they were probably scared of him. "No, mama," he insisted, "I just want to hug them!" My sweet little boy!

I got up from our picnic blanket and we meandered slowly around the house looking at all of the new flowers poking through the dirt. I showed him daffodils and hyacinths, nearly ready to bloom. He examined tulips, lamb's ear, rhododendron, yarrow, bleeding heart, and some flowers I cannot identify. He carefully felt the thorns on our rose bush and pulled some of the baby thistle plants, already poised to invade our otherwise lovely garden.

Then, we pulled the tricycle out of the garage, and Ben grinned triumphantly when he finally succeeded in pedaling down our gently sloping driveway without my help.

After about an hour outside, we packed up our blanket and put away the tricycle, heading inside to get ready to pick Hannah up from preschool. I loved my one-on-one time with my little guy, and he had such an adventure, exploring and enjoying the newly showing signs of spring.

Egg-citement and Egg-speriments

In case you hadn't guessed, in celebration of the fun side of Easter, today is "Egg Day" in our house.

We began by learning the word "egg." Hannah practiced writing the word and drew a picture of Easter eggs, and Ben just colored a picture. We also talked about ovals, because eggs are shaped like ovals. Then, we did a series of "egg-speriments," using chicken eggs from the fridge.

First, the kids looked at the different sizes, held the eggs, rolled them to see how they wobbled. and tapped gently on their hard shells. Then, we talked about the things baby birds need as they grow and where those things are inside the egg. We cracked an egg open and examined the yolk and the air sac inside the shell. We also looked closely at the little pores in the egg shell. (Since the kids seemed rather distraught at the thought of wasting an egg, we all ate eggs for lunch, using the eggs we studied...)

When we finished, the kids made an adorable chicken craft using different shapes, including ovals. Ben made the yellow chick (found here), and Hannah made the hen (found here). All of this will lead into Easter egg dyeing tonight when Daddy comes home.

Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, I also plan on tying this lesson into the idea of new life (because of Jesus) at Easter. Once we finish coloring eggs this evening, we will make Easter Story Cookies. In these cookies, eggs symbolize new life. We have been reading and re-reading the Easter story for the past two weeks, and these cookies help show the story in a very visual way. I cannot wait to see their faces when the cookies are empty, just like Jesus tomb, tomorrow morning...

How refreshing for me, as well, to see Easter anew - through the innocent eyes of my children!

Kindergarten, here we come!

We finally got our curriculum in the mail last week, and I am so excited. We got Sing, Spell, Read, and Write, Math-U-See, and A Reason for Handwriting. I also picked up a secondhand K-3 Science book at a great price, so we can use some of those activities too.

Hannah loves the lessons already. I pulled out one of the kindergarten level story books the day we received the reading curriculum, and she read through the whole first book without any help! I knew she could sound out words a bit, but I had no idea how much she already understood. She's also starting about 9 lessons into the math book as well.

Sweet, stubborn Hannah... She wants to tackle the whole curriculum at once! I have to watch her closely and limit the amount of time we spend on lessons, because she never wants to quit! Persistently forging ahead, she completes page after page, activity after activity, all while rubbing her eyes and yawning. But, if I suggest stopping for the day, she responds with screams and wails as if I am punishing her! Fortunately, the lessons involve songs and games too, so I can break up the workbook time, and I only attempt 1-2 hours of formal learning per day. She reminds me so much of myself at her age... I only hope I can teach her to relax and have fun instead of making school as all-consuming as I did. I almost feel like I have to de-motivate her so she won't push herself until she burns out. But, I'm also thrilled that she has such a love for learning!

So, at Hannah's request, Kindergarten, here we come!

Emergency!

What should you do in an emergency? How do you call for help? And, what is an emergency anyway? Those are the questions we answered on Friday, partly in preparation for a field trip to the fire station later this month.


We started out by figuring out how to identify an emergency and learning when NOT to call 911. Then, we learned the numbers 911, and Hannah practiced writing the numbers on paper.

While she wrote, I gathered together two toy phones, our cordless phone, and our cell phone, and we used them to practice dialing the correct way on different phones. (Don't worry - we didn't call for real!) I showed them how to wait for the dial tone on a land line and how to dial first and then push the send button on a cell phone.

Then, we rehearsed what to say when the dispatcher answered the phone. They practiced speaking loudly and clearly, answering questions, giving their address, and staying on the phone until the operator tells them to hang up.

Hannah spent half of yesterday running around the living room pressing the numbers "9-1-1" again and again on the toy phone! Thankfully, she also understands that she can't do that on the real phone unless there is an actual emergency.

As a side note, if you are looking for an easy way to teach your kids their address, this worked very well for us. Obviously, I won't share our real address online, but this is what we did (sung to the tune of Jingle Bells):

"House number, and our street, city, and our state. That is what my address is. It's what I need to know!"

After discussing 911, we talked about what to do in a fire. I found a ton of great fire safety tips online, and the kids colored various pages about firemen, smoke detectors, and how to get out and stay out of the house during a fire. Now, they know to check their doorknob for heat and how to crawl low to the ground if the house is smoky.

But, their favorite safety lesson, by far, was learning to stop, drop, and roll. They practiced again and again, especially when I played "Stop, Drop, and Roll" - a song on a Veggie Tales CD that uses a bit of humor to teach kids what to do if their clothes catch fire. They rolled around the house for about 10 minutes straight!


I know this can be a bit of a heavy topic, but I think the kids had a lot of fun. And, I feel better knowing that they at least have a basic idea of what to do in a real emergency, though I hope they never have to put their skills into practice.