Cultivating Childhood

Yesterday, Buddy had a great creativity streak that was so much fun to watch play out.  First, he informed me that he wanted to make puppets.  He told me all the supplies that he needed, and proceeded to cut out faces from construction paper and paste them to wooden sticks.  He made a puppet for each person in our family and even a couple of his friends (for when they come over and want to play too!). After that, he proceeded to perform his own puppet shows with quite elaborate stories to go with them.  The videos are pretty long, but I thought grandparents would appreciate them!  =) More YouTube videos can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/cultivatingchildhood

It's a new year and a new "term" of homeschooling.  Since we are only doing Pre-K, this basically just means that I get to reevaluate what we've been doing and what changes I want to make if any.  As I look back at our first real term of homeschooling, I feel more confident that this is what is right for our family. Homeschooling is great.  I get to spend time cuddling on the couch reading books with my kiddos, go on nature walks, and see them get excited when they learn something new.  It is full of rewards. Nature Walk in December Other days are not so nice.  These are the days where we "have" to get somewhere first thing in the morning.  Of course, these are probably the days that we were blessed to "sleep in" and thus, we are in more of a hurry.  Breakfast seemingly takes forever, and the boys seem to have completely forgotten how to put on their clothes or that I've even asked them to get dressed.  ( Squirrel! )  Add to this a ...

After we got home from California, we spent a week at home.  Basically, this week was just unpacking from the 10 days we had been gone, and then preparing for another 10 days of staying down in Graham, WA.  It was definitely a lot colder than we had in California, but this didn't deter us from getting out a bit. We just love our local park, Twin Ponds.  We had been told that there was a family of otters there, but we didn't spy them.  We did see some lovely Mallards and a Wood Duck though.  We even saw a heron diving for food repeatedly which was fun for the kids to try to find where he would pop up next. The boys are really becoming fond of climbing trees even in their big winter boots!  After church on Sunday, we headed down to Graham, just south of Puyallup.  Phil's aunt and uncle were out of town, so we were there just to be near his 93-year old grandmother during Christmas.  We stayed at Phil's aunt and uncle's home with h...

During the holidays I've really enjoyed spending more time with you two, both down out of town and at home. Slowing down the pace of life offers a welcome chance to catch up and rediscover who you are turning out to be. We've had lots of chances for adventures and your enthusiastic outdoor explorations. But you're also starting to pick up some more fun inside toys—already throwing aside the Lego instruction booklet and putting together whatever kind of spaceships or trucks you can come up with. You love making up songs and tunes, but some of the funniest things you've made up are the stories. One day at lunch you both started telling me about Peanut Town. Apparently it's a place you can visit where everything is made out of peanuts (except the water; it's made of peanut butter.) You told me all about the people who live there, what kinds of things they have in their town, and how it's down the road to the south of Californi...

Since college, my avid reader of a husband, has kept a list of all the books that he has read/is reading/wants to read.  Although I wish I started a list like that with him almost ten years ago, I figured it is never late than never.  I read 36 books in 2012, and I hope to read many more in 2013! 2012 A Thinking Love * by Sonya Shafer Smooth and Easy Days * by Sonya Shafer Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall - a great memoir that exposes that issues and baggage that poverty bring to both those inside and outside of it A Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison - A helpful primer for understanding the basics of the Charlotte Mason method.  However, many of her links and sources for curriculum are outdated as it was written over ten years ago. Manalive by G.K. Chesterton - This is my husband's favorite book.  It's taken me a long time to read this as I had a hard time getting through the first part.  It really is good though Fast Li...