A Creepy, Cool Bug

A few nights ago, I walked onto our porch to put cans in the recycling bin and noticed a strange looking bug on the screen. I called Josh to come look, and he captured the bug in a little bug cage to show the kids.

The kids squealed in fear, and I must admit that the bug looked quite dangerous. About an inch and a half long, it had a long, pointy tube on its back end with another thorn-like point above it. It looked like a very large wasp with two stingers, though I suspected it might use the long tube for laying eggs and not for stinging.

After some creative googling, we identified the species. It was indeed a wasp, though it was a wood-boring wasp and not a stinging one. In fact, this species could do more damage to local trees than to us, though we figured that out after we released it... The bug we found was a "pigeon horntail." It uses its long, slender ovipositor (that scary looking tube) to deposit its eggs into the wood of trees and then infects the trees with fungi in order to soften the wood for its larvae to eat. I hope that this particular pigeon horntail decided to lay its eggs in someone else's trees...

Anyway, after watching it for a few minutes, we let it go in our bushes. I did get one good picture of it, before it flew at me and I screamed and jumped away despite knowing that it could not do me any harm. It certainly looked intimidating!

Later that night, Hannah was excited to find the pigeon horntail listed in her little bug guide in her room. I actually enjoyed examining and learning more about it, even though I panicked just a bit at the thought of it landing on me... What a creepy and cool bug!

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...

Goodbye to School

I very much look forward to homeschooling Hannah next year. Because of that, I am surprised at how sad I feel as her school year comes to an end. Today, when I picked her up from her last day of school, I had to fight back tears as I said goodbye to her wonderful kindergarten teacher and Spanish teacher, and I could see that they felt the same way. I never questioned their love for my sweet Hannah, and I knew they cared for her well when she was at school. Our decision to homeschool is the best thing for our family next year, but I also know we have given up something very good in exchange, and I will miss the school quite a bit.

Wrapping up the school year actually began last Friday with the kindergarten "Knowledge Fair." Each kid could choose a topic and create a display to teach others about that topic. Hannah chose Sea Creatures. Though I sometimes had to convince her to spend time after school working on it, for the most part, she enjoyed this project. We borrowed some lapbook printouts from www.homeschoolshare.com to organize the material, and she created a nice display to set up in the kindergarten room to explain what she learned.

She also brought her stuffed manatee.

After the Knowledge Fair, the kindergarten kids had their promotion ceremony. They all lined up while their teacher spoke. The kids had decorated their hats at home the week before the ceremony.

One by one the teacher called their names, and they walked across the stage. Their first grade heart partners took their hands and walked them over the bridge to officially become first graders.

They lined up and sang "It's a Small World" together before dismissing to their parents.

Hannah has loved her teacher so much this year! In fact, she often calls me by her teacher's name, and she ends nearly every journal entry with the words, "I love Mrs. F!"

I could not have asked for a better kindergarten year for Hannah, even as I am glad that we will be homeschooling together as a family next year. I will miss the school very much and I am sure we will keep in touch with many of the wonderful people we met there. Her experience has made her into a better student and me into a better teacher, and I will always be thankful for our time at the school. We are sadly, but confidently, moving on to our next adventure!

Gardening Season Begins

This year, I got an early start on my garden, and I have been very pleased so far. In early spring, I planted peas, onions, carrots, radishes, spinach, broccoli transplants, cauliflower transplants, and brussels sprouts transplants. Oh, and lettuce... lots of lettuce. Actually, I attempted to remove the seeds from the packet and slipped, spilling the tiny seeds into the dirt. I sighed, decided not even to try extracting the nearly invisible seeds from the soil, and waited to see what would come up. As the picture shows, I will be doing quite a bit of thinning, but at least I can tell which kind is which, so we will have a variety of lettuces this year. I also planted strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries in various locations around my house and yard.

This weekend, Josh built me a second box garden next to the one we built last year. We even used some of our worm compost when filling the garden! I have so much more space now, and I also have more opportunity to rotate crops a bit to reduce pests and diseases. I could not believe how easily I filled the extra 32 square feet of space, though! I added butternut squash and two kinds of bush beans to the side garden, and I planted cucumbers, swiss chard, and celery in the old box garden with my spring veggies. I also put one asparagus plant along the side of my house, to see if it does well there. I would love fresh asparagus in the spring, but I do not want such a large perennial plant in my box gardens! In the new garden, I transplanted three kinds of tomatoes, two kinds of bell peppers, swiss chard, and a bunch of herbs, leaving myself plenty of space for a few more staggered plantings of bush beans.

Before we put in the side garden last year, weeds abounded in that spot next to our garage. Once I pulled out all the weeds and put in the veggies, however, I noticed something that was not visible before. The water run-off from our garage roof poured right into the middle of that garden, leaving a trench that eroded the soil from around any plants in that location. On Saturday, as I shopped for herbs at my favorite local greenhouse, I noticed watercress for sale. The sign said that the plants propagate themselves well in wet locations. I explained my garden situation to a person on staff, and he told me that his watercress has grown into a small waterfall in his yard and that it loves water! So, now I have watercress growing all along the edge of the trench in that garden. I hope that it will utilize previously unusable garden space, as well as hold the soil in place to prevent erosion during heavy rains. I really hope it works!

The kids, of course, love the garden and willingly eat anything we harvest - including onions, radishes, and leafy vegetables! They already love raw veggies, but they will even eat food that they typically dislike, as long as it comes from our own garden. I cannot wait to see how everything grows this year. I chose plants more wisely this year, after seeing what pests and diseases struck last year, and I think we will have a better harvest because of that. In a society in which many kids cannot even identify common vegetables, I love that my kids beg for things like eggplant and radishes! I cannot imagine a better way to teach kids about healthy eating than allowing them to harvest their own food directly from the family garden. Now, if only we lived in a neighborhood that allowed me to raise chickens...

A Super Soccer Season

We did not realize when we signed Hannah up for soccer in the fall that it included the spring season as well. After some of the tired tantrums in the fall, we were not sure how this season would go, but we were pleasantly surprised. Hannah's skill and confidence has grown dramatically since the fall, and she dealt a little better with playing soccer after a long day at school.

Hannah's soccer coach motivates each kid to do his or her best on the field. He rotates the kids into different positions, giving everyone a chance to take the ball down the field. Finally, during a Saturday game, Hannah scored her first goal! She could not stop talking about it, and the story got better with each telling. She described to Ben how the other team had really huge kids but she got around them and kicked the ball in the goal!

Because of prior commitments, Hannah's coach needed Josh to help out with some of the games, so Josh got his first taste of coaching little league soccer. I am not sure how much he enjoyed it. I think he prefers soccer on a more competitive level, and he gets frustrated that the teams do not even keep score at this age. I think he felt tired after a long day at work, too! Still, he worked well with the kids and got to watch Hannah score two more goals in another game.

In spite of the craziness of soccer season, I am glad that Hannah participated. I can tell that she learned some valuable lessons.

She learned to have confidence instead of fear. In the fall, she often hesitated instead of going after the ball when another kid had it. She wanted someone to give her the ball instead of having to take it. This season, we actually had to teach her a bit of restraint. We praised her aggressiveness in attacking the ball, but asked her to stop stiff-arming and pushing anyone who came too close to taking it away. The same child who sobs hysterically at even the tiniest scratches and bumps will get up after being flattened on the soccer field, brush herself off, and keep chasing the ball!

In addition, she learned to work with other kids as a team. I often witnessed her conferring with her team mates, deciding how they should line up to block a kick. She passed the ball instead of keeping it to herself, and she dropped back to the goal to support her team mates on defense. She celebrated the other kids' goals almost as much as she celebrated her own. When she was on the soccer field, she placed her ambitions lower than the success of her team. If she learns only this, soccer has been worthwhile!

At the end of every game, the parents from both teams run out on the field and make a tunnel with their arms. Then, all of the parents cheer as both teams run through the tunnel.

I know that someday sports must become competitive, and she will learn important lessons from that as well. Still, I appreciate the joy on the kids' faces as we cheer them on, knowing that they all played their best and that we celebrate each of them as special. And that is a lesson that I hope she will never stop learning!

The Ponderings of a 6 Year Old

I love how Hannah writes and keeps a journal of her life. She also illustrates each entry with a detailed drawing. The journal is not private (yet) so she allows me to read what she writes and share it with others.

Here are a few recent entries:

My Soccer Game on Girls Weekend

We went to my game. I played soccer. I got the snack. We got extra snack. We got gaterade and sugar cookies and goldfish. It is girl weekend. Girl secret - girls are better than boys. Shhhhh.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho

Bug Fun

I played soccer with a beetle on my hand! Here is a close up of the beetle.

(There is a drawing of a beetle on the page with a circle around it and the words "close up" inside.)

The Trip to the Zoo

Once mom took us to the zoo. We went on a bridge. I slid my hand down the rail. Then a yellow jaket stung me. We had so much fun. I love the zoo.

Just thought I would share a brief glimpse into the mind of my sweet six-year-old daughter.

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..."