Bonny and Owl

Bobby Shafto's gone to sea,

Silver buckles at his knee;

He'll come back and marry me,

Bonny Bobby Shafto!

Our little one loves this traditional English nursery rhyme! She delights in playing the part of Bonny Shafto, so we couldn't pass up on these matching sailor outfits! She regularly pretends to be Bonny, and she happily carries "Owl Shafto" along with her at times. She has such a fondness for this nursery rhyme that Mommy couldn't help but provide her with a homemade wedding veil to complete her dream!

What a joy it is to share in the delights of our little ones!

This post is a part of Make-Believe Mondays at My Three Rivers Home

Apple Picking 2011

We have a lovely fall tradition of visiting an apple orchard with our very dear friends. This year we visited a new orchard, which turned out to be so wonderful! The weather was perfect, the orchard was quaint and charming,

the apples were delicious, and the company was even better!

What special memories we made this year!

Autumn Anew

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

~Albert Camus

Shared by The Quote Garden

With thankfulness for a delightful summer, we enter into this most glorious season of autumn! The leaves have begun to change here, with beautiful hues of yellow and orange appearing. The air is starting to cool, and our fall traditions of apple picking and pumpkin gathering have already begun.

One of the joys of having children is that everything seems so much more beautiful. The seasons themselves become more apparent, the activities become more vivid, and the anticipation of a new day awaits with eagerness. With thankfulness for the dawning of autumn, I cannot help but pass into a new season without remembering the delightful days of summer.

For both my enjoyment now, and, Lord Willing, for our little ones to recount with

fondness in the years ahead, here's a look at Summer 2011...

Toddling with Fractions

Our 3-year-old loves her bathtub crayons! Not only are they great for making bathtime masterpieces and for painting fingernails (and yes, she really has done that!), but they are also wonderful for helping her to learn fractions! Our little one sometimes has trouble remembering how much of her milk she is allowed to drink while she is waiting for Mommy to finish preparing a meal, so I use one of the bathtub crayons to incrementally mark the side of her cup. I then let her know which marking she is to drink to. She is not only learning fractions along the way, but she's leaving a little room in her tummy for dinner!

Imagination

There are those special moments during the course of motherhood that cause you to pause for an instant and, with thankfulness in your heart, delight in the joys that are beheld. The warmth that ensues upon being allowed to enter into the imaginary realm of bumblebees and ladybugs, princesses and horseback riders can hardly be explained, but what a joy it is to catch a glimpse of the thoughts that travel through the mind of a little one...

Perhaps to the passerby the sight of a bubblegum pink stethoscope draped over a doorknob may simply indicate a landing place, a place where a child's toy was left as its owner scurried to the next activity.

But as I look upon the memory of this stethoscope draped casually over a doorknob, I consider that this was completed with the fullest of intentions. Perhaps our little girl who delights in playing with her medical kit, who becomes giddy at the first sight of an "injury," who places countless Band-Aids upon her imaginary scrapes and bruises, hung this stethoscope carefully in her medical office for use later, when an emergency required its services. Perhaps it is just one of the greatest joys of motherhood, to enter into this realm of whimsy and sweetness, of imagination and delight...

This is part of Make Believe Monday Link Up at My Three Rivers Home.

Thank you for visiting!

The Sweetness of Little Minds

There is hardly anything so precious as a newborn baby. How sweet it is when these delightful souls grow and grow and grow a little more, even to be able to communicate their thoughts and intentions with us. We no longer have to wonder what they might need. A verbal exchange is shared, and a lovely conversation is sparked... farm animals, princesses, ladybugs, and bumblebees. How beautiful is the mind of a little one.

And how sweet they are, how especially precious, so undeniably innocent even before they reach that stage of verbal proficiency. Sometimes, though I must admit, not enough, I try to think about what our little ones might be thinking. This evening, as I was so thankful to be sharing a few moments with our 7-month-old as I tended to things in the kitchen, I was imagining what might be passing through her mind. We have delighted in the moments when she has begun to use a new word, but her smiles and outstretched arms and cries for Mommy are still her primary mode of communication. She is so wonderfully, so beautifully, so extraordinarily precious.

So tonight, I wondered, as I continued to talk with her, what was she thinking about? As she examined the toy turtle in her sweet little hands, I began to share the story of the tortoise and the hare. Initially, I was thinking of her budding language skills, but then I was reminded of her. Just her. Without the hopes and dreams surrounding language and grammar, math and literacy. Instead, I imagined what she was thinking as she listened to her mommy talk with her. I'm quite certain that her thoughts were not really on whether the tortoise or the hare won the race. Instead, she might have been thinking of how happy she was to just be near Mommy, to hear her voice, to know that she was explaining something to her.

What a blessing it is that God has entrusted us with these little ones. I hope that in this journey of home education, and perhaps even greater, in this journey of motherhood, that I will remember that the academics are secondary. The time spent together pursuing these educational goals is far more important than the education itself. And in the end, we want to train these little souls to serve their Father in heaven and their Lord Jesus Christ. May I always consider the hearts of these little ones and the thoughts that travel through their minds.

All Things Scissors

The number one crafting item at our house these days (and many days before that!) is scissors. Our three-year-old, who is wonderfully responsible with these, will cut just about anything! And fortunately, she is quite good at asking for permission prior to cutting something new, so I am thankful to report that, to date, we have avoided any serious mishaps. With a snip here and a snip there, she will add her special touch on anything from paper and plastic to cardboard and thread. And as she has been quite diligent about her habit these days, I have observed how her fine motor abilities have really increased in this area.

If you have any young children who are ready for some fun with scissors,

you might consider a few things that we have learned along the way:

Provide a pair of child's scissors that are appropriate for her hand size and are a comfortable fit when considering her hand preference.

Make the scissors readily available if you think your child is ready for this step. Right now, we have her scissors in a decorative pail that we keep either at her easel or in her play area in the kitchen. This would also be a good time to lay some ground rules for the use of scissors.

Provide a variety of scissors. I purchased a number of Fiskars scissors years ago, but I noticed that a number of sets are available on Amazon, such as these Kraft Edger scissors sold by Wayfair. Our little one has such fun trimming the edges of her crafts with a variety of decorative edges!

Provide plenty of material for cutting. Try to think outside the box on this one. A stack of white paper is not terribly exciting, but a small assortment of colored sheets is much more interesting! Also, try writing things on some of the papers for your little one, or draw interesting lines and shapes for them to cut out. And, of course, you can prepare a craft ahead of time that would allow for more structured cutting.

Offer some instruction on cutting, but try to allow for a little room to get comfortable with these new crafting tools in their hands. They may not do it perfectly at first, but they'll get better with lots of fun practice!

Enlist the help of your little one as soon as you think they can safely cut things for you. For instance, tonight I left a new puzzle for our little ones to discover in the morning. Instead of removing the packaging, as I would normally have done, I left it on there and will let her open it for us!

Encourage your little one to clean up after herself. This is a tricky one. I definitely think that little ones need to learn to clean up after themselves, but if you have had any experience with a budding scissor user, then you know that tiny little scraps will end up all over your kitchen floor! I encourage her to clean as it's appropriate, but I definitely help out with this one. I want to make sure to encourage her craftiness, not to discourage it by making her do more than she's able. We have also started keeping a scrap box nearby to aid in clean-up. 

And needless to say, make sure to supervise your little one . Safety (and the avoidance of a hair styling mishap) comes first!

Coffee with Your Cereal?

I loved reading Amelia Bedelia stories as a child, and I was so delighted to check one out from our local library during a recent visit. What a joy it was to read this with our oldest, as she found Amelia Bedelia's charming series of misunderstandings irresistable. In Come Back, Amelia Bedelia, by Peggy Parish and illustrations by Wallace Tripp, Amelia Bedelia begins her work as a housekeeper. When instructed to bring coffee with cereal for breakfast, Amelia Bedelia innocently serves the cereal in the cup of coffee! A string of silly mistakes sends poor Amelia Bedelia on a continual quest for employment, securing this as an undeniable hit with our little one!

She wanted to read this again and again, so you can imagine my excitement when I came across cream puffs, which were a notable confection made by Amelia Bedelia in this story, in the frozen foods section at our local grocery store! We then planned our evening of silly "mistakes" on Daddy, who was so kind to share in the fun! As you'll notice in the photo above, the coffee is laden with cereal and was served prior to a delicious array of cream puffs. We also enjoyed "pinning" up Mommy's hair with safety pins and pretending to heat a can of soup (literally, of course--can and all!). What fun we had, and what a learning experience this was. We even enjoyed thinking of how Amelia Bedelia might respond to comments of ours. We will be delighted to look for more of these fun titles during our next library visit!

Remembering the Fallen

 Let us remember the fallen. Let us ponder for a moment the emotions of those who sat in terror on the planes as they headed for the World Trade Center.
Let us ponder how those who huddled in stairwells, fearing for their lives,

felt in the last moments of their time here.

Let us consider the families that have been left behind. Let us remember the mothers who have mourned for the children that they have held so dear, the wives whose hearts have ached with pain unimaginable for their husbands who would never return home, the husbands who have pressed on for the sake of their children.

And let us remember those who have given their lives in service to this country. With gratitude, let us remember those who have honorably fought overseas since the September 11th attacks, and those who have fought to defend our country in years past.

How sweet it was to read All Those Secrets of the World to our little ones this evening. Jane Yolen shares this beautiful narrative of her experience as a young girl as she watched her father leave to fight in the war. She recounts how her family coped after his departure and how they lovingly welcomed him home two years later.

I am so thankful that I was able to sit with our little ones as we read this story and remembered the fallen. What a blessing it was to have our oldest sitting next to me, listening so intently to learn about young "Janie," and to cradle our youngest in my arms as we read, feeling her little face buried in my arm. How sweet to have a husband who loves us so much.  Let us remember those who have given their lives to make these moments possible.

And let us come before our Father's throne with thanksgiving for our freedom, for our lives, and for this very moment that we are privileged to enjoy.

The Blissful Pair

What a delight it was to share my day with our little ones! Fall is still a week or two away, but the joy that a new season brings now surrounds us. The air is a bit cooler, the patio is lightly covered in a smattering of green and gold leaves, and the appeal of jeans, which we haven't worn in some time, is undeniable. A day at home just seeemed to be calling to us.

I share this in part because I want to remember the sweetness of this day, and also because I want to share it with our girls some day, and perhaps, while every day is special in its own way, the simple delights of today were just that: quite simple. Our oldest enjoyed "writing" notes to Mommy on pages from her Dora coloring book, carefully cut out with scissors. And then again, as this is one of her favorite activities, she enjoyed cutting out remnants of an empty sticker sheet for a birthday card for Daddy (though is birthday was really in March, but it was still special to her). We played a make-believe game of "Dackledoo," which, if you might be interested, would have to ask our three-year-old for its exact definition. But I will say that this included spinning around in the kitchen with a canvas cooler trailing after her. And should it be a concern, she carefully and lovingly moved her little sister, who was sitting in her Bumbo, far enough away so as not to hurt her. Nevertheless, despite her attempts, she did "hurt" herself, which, I might add, is another of her favorite activities (just for fun, of course--no real injuries). Nevertheless, one of our stuffed dog's jackets was borrowed to use as a splint. This splint later accompanied us to the local grocery store, where we made a quick stop to pick up a few items to make chili. Today marked the first of our many pots of chili this season, Lord willing, and how delightful it was.

While our chili cooked, we stepped outside for a few minutes, only to see that a beautiful vine of Morning Glory had crept up a small tree. What a joy that was to see our oldest amongst the leaves, plucking off the flowers for our hair. And how sweet to share a "first" with our youngest. The sharing of a flower, the softness of the petals, and the fragrance that is often present, seem to be as sweet as unwrapping a lovely gift when shared with her. Perhaps God's beautiful flowers were among His finest creations here on earth.

May I always remember to thank Him for the sweetness of days such as today.

HenCam

We enjoyed checking out a copy of Tillie Lays an Egg recently at the library, and what a find it was! This charming book about a free-spirited hen named Tillie who continues to lay eggs in peculiar spots was written by Terry Golson and includes photographs by Ben Fink. And what a delight it was at the end of the story to see their HenCam mentioned. I decided to check it out online at HenCam.com, and it shows live feed of their farm animals, including their renowned family of hens. And just for fun (perhaps this, as with many things about homeschooling, is truly more fun for Mom!), I enjoyed hiding a wooden egg from our children's play foods... did Tilly really lay an egg in the silverware drawer?!?!