Cultivating Childhood

Welcome to my first installment of what I hope to be a weekly (or at least regular) series of posts!  As part of our nature time, I thought it would be fun to try to visit a different park each week near our home in North Seattle.  We are blessed with so many wonderful parks that it should take us quite some time before we could exhaust them all. Today, we visited Boeing Creek Park in Shoreline.  This park is adjacent to Shoreview Park, but it's separate entrance and walking distance makes it feel completely alone. Almost as soon as we got out of the car the boys were off running.  We had a near collision with a cross-country team from a local high school which only made Buddy think that running was so cool.  He wanted to run just like them and was fascinated by the new word he learned: "runner."  He wanted to be a "runner" too, and used this new word as many times as possible while we were there. The park has a storm water detention facility in the middle

We are having a rainy day here in Seattle. It must be time to do a handicraft.  Today we made bookmarks.  First we colored some cardstock paper. After mommy cut the paper into bookmark-sized strips, we pulled out some pressed leaves that we had collected last week. Mommy put glue on the paper, and the boys designed their bookmarks. I placed the finished product in laminating pouches. And we watched in wonder as it came through the laminator. The final product!  The boys were very proud of their creations! 

I know we won't have days like this every day, but today came very close to my ideal "homeschooling" day that I thought I'd share. We started out the morning by going to the YMCA. We then went to Carkeek Park and ran around in the meadow near the entrance. We did a little hiking. Buddy reading the trail map Found some slugs to admire!  =) And had a picnic lunch while reading books. After coming home and having a nap, we went out to the backyard for more picnic blanket fun.  Popsicles with Bible reading and hymn sing were on the menu.  (I was surprised to see how much Button knew of some of the hymns.) The boys then helped me prep the green beans for dinner. And then played with blocks while mommy cooked. And finally, after dinner we had some fun with letters. What a nice, relaxing, and fun day!

Our first handicraft of the year went well!  I found this super-easy tutorial on how to make no sew pumpkins, and I thought it would work well for something that I could do together with the boys.  Plus, I need some new fall decor, so it was a win-win.  All I needed was the fabric, so I bought some fall-ish fabric remnants at Jo-Anns.  Everything else we had on hand. Here is Buddy getting ready.  He was so excited!  He was even wearing his pumpkin sweatshirt. We took on roll of toilet paper and placed it in the middle of a square piece of fabric (approx. 27"x27").  Then placed a bunch of plastic bags around it. Then we took the corners of the fabric and stuffed them into the middle of the toilet paper roll.  We kept stuffing until it was one big ball. I sent Buddy outside to find a stick to use as our pumpkin stem, and we placed it in the middle.  Here is the final product! Doesn't the end result look good?  I especially like the handsome young man at the bottom.

Come, Little Leaves by George Cooper "Come, little leaves," said the wind one day. "Come over the meadows with me and play; Put on your dresses of red and gold, For summer is gone and the days grow cold. Soon as the leaves heard the wind's loud call, Down they came fluttering, one and all; Over the brown fields they danced and flew, Singing the sweet little song they knew. "Cricket, good-bye, we've been friends so long, Little brook, sing us your farewell song; Say you're sorry to see us go; Ah! you will miss us, right well we know. Dancing and whirling the little leaves went, Winter had called them, and they were content, Soon fast asleep in their earthy beds, The snow laid a soft mantle over their heads. (My Book House Vol. 2, Page 70) I'm so excited about this first day of fall.  I just love the crispness of the air, the changing of the leaves, wearing my fleece, pumpkins, and chilly walks in the woods.  Our routine is starting up again, an

New year, new goals.  I've come a long way in my philosophy of education since last year.  I've read a ton, and life experiences have shown me just what is realistic for our young family.  I laugh as I read my goals from  last year .  Thinking about what I hoped to accomplish and what we did, I'd have to say we had an incredibly successful year.  Buddy did indeed learn his alphabet last year.  In fact, he's reading full-on books. Button is still learning to talk, but he knows most of the sounds that letters make thanks to his big brother. However , I now believe that my priorities were wrong last September.  Instead of thinking of my children as whole people created in the image of God, I treated them as a brain that needed to be filled up with knowledge.  I now know this is wrong, and I know it will be a continual struggle for me to treat my children as persons who need my love and care and dedication to bring them up as disciples of Christ.  Learning comes at its ow