Training to be a Mom

Anna’s current dream for when she grows up is to be a mom.  I’ve told her, of course, that being a mom is very important, and I’ve encouraged her that she will be a great mom.  Still, she is determined that she needs some training.

Yesterday, for example, I made the kids help me fold laundry.  They were both very good-natured about it, although Luke kept asking why he needed to fold laundry (don’t worry, I had a “laundry list” of answers for him!:)).  Anna, on the other hand, embraced the task, saying, “I need to know how to fold laundry because I’m going to be a mom someday, and I’m going to have to fold lots of laundry!”

Yes.  Yes, you will:).

Then today, I had her sweep up the crumbs she got on the floor immediately after I had swept, and again, instead of complaining, she jumped at the chance.  After all, “I’m going to be a mom someday, so I need to learn how to sweep!”  She cracks me up.

One last, unrelated note about Anna.  She currently has a friend over (so does Luke, which is why I’ve been able to catch up on blogging), and as I was passing her room, I heard Anna say, “You can take this home if you want.”  I quickly ducked my head in to see what the item in question was, as Anna has a tendency to give away treasured possessions.  This time, it was just one of her princess Pez dispensers, which was filled with her friend’s favorite flavor of Pez candy.  Her friend responded, “That’s so kind of you!”  Indeed.  I love my sweet girl’s generous spirit!

Journaling and Reading

This is just a quick homeschooling update to share a few things we have been doing.  Starting after Christmas break, I’ve had the kids keep a regular journal.  They can write whatever they want in it, and there is space for them to illustrate their entries.  The only rules are that they have to write the date, and Anna has to write at least one sentence, whereas Luke has to write between two and three sentences.  Here are their first entries:

I was super excited about Luke’s second sentence, especially.  When I complimented him on it, he proudly responded, “Yeah, I read it this morning in my instruction manual for my Darth Maul light saber.”  Oops!  Oh, well:).  We will talk about plagiarism later; for now, I’m just reminded that reading really does help kids’ writing skills through modeling!

Their initial excitement about journaling has since waned considerably, and I am probably going to have to make a jar of prompts to give them fresh ideas.  Still, I think it is a good practice, both for writing (and keeping up with) the date, and to practice handwriting.  It also yields sweet results sometimes, like this entry from Anna yesterday:

She did this one completely independently—hence, the several mistakes—but I loved the sentiment expressed.  So sweet.

On the reading front, Anna decided this week that she wanted to tackle The Pokey Little Puppy.  This was by far her longest and most challenging book:

I’m proud to report that she finished it today!  She was so proud of herself—and I was proud of her!

In the meantime, Luke has been reading James and the Giant Peach, to prepare for seeing the play, put on by Lipscomb University, in a few weeks.  I remember having this book read to me by Mrs. Hlavaty in 4th grade, but it seems to be right at his level!  It is very interesting and original, with nice short chapters dividing up the action (he reads them two at a time).  Yesterday, we were both guffawing over the antics of Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge as they watched the peach grow and grow.  Luke cracked up the whole way through it, and read their parts with such zest; it made me so happy.  He really seems to love this book, and it is so fun to enjoy it with him.

On a less successful front, we have been reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe together as our family read-aloud.  I thought the kids would love it, and sure enough, Anna does.  This is surprising because she is normally our least enthusiastic fan of chapter books.  However, she always begs for another chapter when we are done with our daily reading; that is a first!  In the meantime, Luke thinks the book is way too scary!!  Wha???  This is the boy who has watched all six Star Wars movies, along with Pirates of the Caribbean, but he thinks the Chronicles of Narnia are too much to handle??  He dreads reading it because it’s “so scary,” but he can’t really explain what scares him about it.  (Last night, he told Greg, “Those talking beavers just freak me out!”  Greg then methodically listed everything in Star Wars that was scarier than talking beavers, to no avail.)  I think that part of it is because he over-identifies with the characters, who are just kids like him, and he is absolutely terrified of what might befall them at the hands of the white witch.  (As Greg put it to me last night, “If Luke ever wandered into a magical world, he would immediately wander his way right back out of it!  A lamppost would hold no allure to him!”  So true!)  And I think that Edmund kind of scares him, partially because Luke seems to be able to relate to the boy, and seems horrified at his continuing propensity to make the wrong decision.  He also hates drama between characters, and Edmund has been providing plenty of that!

That’s just my own psychoanalysis, however.  I could be wrong:).  Nevertheless, Greg did tell me that when he read last night, Luke seemed to be cheered and intrigued about this “Aslan” character, and spent some time musing about how a lion could possible save the day against a witch.  That made me think that up to this point, the idea of a cursed world ruled by an evil witch was just “too dark” for him.  Aslan definitely has made him more hopeful.  We’ll see if his opinion continues to evolve.

So that’s what we have been doing on the writing/reading front.  In math, Luke is working on adding and subtracting two digit numbers up to 100 and continuing to review multiplication tables.  Anna just finished numbers to 100, including counting by 2’s and 5’s and is now reviewing addition and subtraction up to ten.  I’m keeping her doing worksheets while Luke finishes up his section in his workbook because both of their next sections involve counting money.  I think that would be fun to work on together.  After that, they will be done with their math books for the year!  I’m still thinking about what to do with them in math the rest of the year.  I know Luke still needs lots of work on his multiplication tables, but I’m also thinking of starting Anna on first grade math.  We’ll see.

In science, we are studying the human body.  In Bible, we are reading Proverbs.  Our Sunday school class at church is now working their way through The Story, a “version” of the Bible organized like a novel, with a chapter a week.  I’m thinking of reading it to the kids as I go along.  In history, we have been studying several ancient civilizations, including the Assyrians (NOT nice people), the Medes, the Persians, and the Indians.  Our study of Ancient history has seemed kind of scattered to me, but I think that has to do with the limited amount of information we have about people back then.  We’ve also started doing Rosetta Stone Spanish a couple times a week.  It is slow-going, and our microphone is mysteriously not working, so we can’t do much pronunciation practice, but the kids are liking it more and more.

Well, this post was meant to be a reading/writing update, but I just kept going!  I’m glad to have it all written down, though.  I have missed blogging (mainly because of illness and an increased work load with teaching at Lipscomb), and I’m glad to be getting “caught up”!

Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary

On Sunday after church, I sent Luke home with his friend, Brown, and took Brown’s sister, Ellie, our friend, Hadessa, and Anna to Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary for the grand opening of their “Storybook Walk.”  The featured story was Fairy Houses, so even though I had no idea what to expect, I was pretty sure that this was more of a “girl” event.  Turns out, most other parents agreed with me:  the event had about 90% girls in attendance.

It started with us checking in—and checking out books about building “fairy houses” out of natural materials:

The girls also received a little satchel of “fairy gold” (sunflower seeds), with which they could “buy” building materials at the forest store:

Before we built our houses, we went through the “story book walk” and read all about a little girl who built a fairy house in the forest.  They girls loved looking out for the next story stop:

After we read the book, the girls found a place in the woods to build their own fairy house.

They could use their own purchased materials (btw, Anna immediately spent most her money at the forest store, where the other girls spent about three seeds each.  She was actually right to stock up on supplies, but I had to laugh at her naturally spendthrift ways), and they could gather other materials from the forest.

It was interesting to watch everyone else who was there.  It was mostly families:  two parents with one or two children.  I would say the average age of the kids was five.  I assume that they were mostly there for “family time,” which seemed to translate into the parents building the houses while the kids gathered supplies.  There were many cute examples of adult architecture around!  For us, however, this was “friend time,” and I’m trying to work on allowing my kids to be more independent.  Thus, I decided to step back and let the girls do whatever they wanted.  I was not disappointed with the results!

The quality of their fairy houses definitely paled in comparison with the adult-led projects, but it was amazing to watch them work, diligently and excitedly, for an hour and a half, even as the temperatures dropped.  They went on many expeditions to find special things (like berries) that the fairies would like.  They used all of their supplies to the best of their abilities.  They worked completely together, eventually joining all their houses with the twine that had been provided them.  It was precious.  I wasn’t sure they would be in to the whole thing, and I was willing to leave whenever they wanted, but it turned out that they far outlasted me!

(Finding, and playing with, a worm)

Poor Ellie looks miserable in this picture, but I promise they had a fun time!:)  By this time, it really started getting cold, though, and so we decided to leave.  On the way out, we stopped to see this little “house”:

We ended up having such a fun day, and it was only rivaled by glowing reports from Luke and Brown about their own exploits at Brown’s house.  I am so thankful for good friends and fun times for my kiddos!

Homeschooling and the Flu

A few weeks ago, I got to have a new experience.  Unfortunately, that experience was getting the flu!  I can’t remember ever having the flu before (although I do very much remember a bout of pneumonia in 3rd grade), so I was blindsided by this illness.  I was especially put off by the fact that I basically had to stay in bed for FIVE DAYS!!  That was crazy.  Every morning I woke up still feeling miserable, I was so surprised! 

The most frustrating thing was all that the kids missed while I was sick.  Here is the list, according to my planner:  tae kwon do, gymnastics, Wednesday night church, their first chance to go to a Lego and American Girl doll club (what a cool idea), a puppet show at the library, dinner with their cousins, Kids’ Club at the Frist, Bilingual story hour at the library, and church on Sunday.  Good grief!  Thankfully, these events are all recurring, so they didn’t miss any “one-time” things.  (Last Friday, for example, we saw the puppet show and had dinner with our cousins, so those have been “made up” already!)  I was, however very disappointed for Luke and Anna at the time. 

They great thing was that they did not seem the least bit disappointed with their lot in life.  Greg did step in and do some school, child-feeding, and basic housekeeping, thank the Lord, but for most of the time, Luke and Anna lived like feral children in the wild.  The delightful thing was that their existence over those few days ended up being less Lord of the Flies and more Boxcar Children.  They thought it was so novel to pour their own cereal for breakfast and make their own peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, proclaiming them the most delicious sandwiches they’d ever had.  Luke told me to “go back to bed and get some rest,” and to “do whatever I needed to do to feel better.”  Granted, it was partly because of his glee at getting to play way too many video games instead of having school, but I definitely took his advice:). 

The other cool thing was that he and Anna seriously bonded during my convalescence.  I never heard a single argument between them, and though I’m ambivalent at Anna’s newfound love for video games now, I do have to admit that she is hilarious to listen to as she plays.  The kids had a blast together.  They have since invented many of their own games on Toy Story’s free play level, including “Making a Town” (where they slowly and painstakingly gather up all the little people on the level into one big congregation) and “Hide the Birthday Present” (where they take turns hiding various objects in the day care room and then having the other person find them and receive them as a birthday gift).  There were times during other games (like Lego Star Wars) that I heard Anna start moaning that she couldn’t do something, only to hear Luke jump in with some empathetic comfort and encouragement (“I know, Anna, I know.  It is so hard.  It was hard for me, too, when I first started.  But you can do it!  Look, I’ll help!”)

They didn’t just play video games, though.  Greg kept them doing their regular chores, and I gave them some school assignments.  They also used their free time to play board games (like Kids’ Sequence) with each other,  which I thought was adorable.

And even though they did have way “too much” screen time, I know that I personally watched every episode to date of Downton Abbey, and I don’t feel any dumber:).  So hopefully they didn’t lose too many brain cells!

While I was sick, I did rue the fact that neither home educators nor college professors have substitutes at the ready.  I ended up missing my second class at Lipscomb, which was frustrating—but thankfully, the students were just writing an in-class diagnostic essay.  I left the assignment in the classroom, along with instructions to turn their essay in to the English office, and it all worked out.

Finally, last Tuesday, I was well enough to start teaching again, both at school and at home, and since then, everything has largely returned back to normal.  We all have colds now, but that definitely beats the flu! 

Meanwhile, in Legoland…

While we girls were enjoying Anna’s birthday adventure, Luke was not totally left out himself.  He and Greg spent the night in Atlanta with our friends, the Duncans.  Shawn and Holly have two children, Lucas and Julian, and Lucas is less than a year older than Luke.  They first met a few years back at one of our Spring Retreats, and they have always gotten along really well.  This time was no exception.  They spent the evening having light saber fights and building with Legos…

…and then the next morning, Greg took Lucas and Luke to what I believe is a temporary version of Legoland, located in Phipps Plaza:

They posed in front of Lego Stone Mountain, since they had been to Stone Mountain together two summers before while we were on a mission trip:

They also got to see several scenes of Atlanta built out of Legos:

As well as some larger-than-life minifigures:

Luke’s favorite part was this place where you could build Lego vehicles and then test them on a track:

There were also a couple of rides:

And a 4D movie theater that showed movies about Lego minifigures (I think):

The 4th “D” was the fact that you would get wind-blown and  “snowed on” (although Lucas tasted it and confirmed that the snow was in fact some kind of soap:)) and things like that.  The boys really seemed to enjoy it.

Afterward, they joined us for lunch at Benihana’s, and you have already read all about that.  It was definitely a fun couple of days. 

Now we are at home, and I am trying my best to get over the flu.  The past few days have certainly not been as fun as Anna’s birthday adventure, but there have also been some silver linings.  I’ll blog about those next.

The (New) Best Birthday Ever

In June, I blogged that Luke’s birthday celebration was the best we ever had…and it was.  But now, I think we topped it with Anna’s 5th birthday!  With these last two birthdays, I have found that we have a better time doing fun things with a few close friends than throwing a big party.  Also, despite the fact that we have lived in Nashville over a year and that Anna has met many sweet girls here, she still steadfastly considers her friend, Charlotte, from South Carolina, to be her best friend.  It was that fact that started my birthday scheming, trying to figure out some way to get Charlotte and Anna together.  After some thought, I hit upon the idea of meeting them in Atlanta and going to the American Girl store.  Atlanta is a good “middle place” between us, and our family could even make it easier by spending a little more time in Macon during the holidays and driving from there.  Neither of the girls had American Girl dolls, but Molly, having grown up with them herself, was planning on getting Charlotte her first one for Christmas, and I was planning on following suit.  We figured the girls could take their new dolls to the store and get accessories. 

Excited, I ran the idea by Molly, and she was 100% on board (it helps that we are really good friends, too, and jump at the opportunity to see each other).  Then, when I started researching nearby hotels, I stumbled on the concept of “American Girl” hotel packages.  Several hotels near the store offer cutesy, pink rooms with doll accessories and activities.  I was over the moon about this, and selected the one I thought would be the best.

The only other hiccup was that I had to keep this quiet from Anna, whose only request for her birthday was that she eat at a Japanese steakhouse.  (Greg had taken some of the teens to one for lunch one day, and told Luke and Anna all about it.  Anna was sold, and had been asking repeatedly to go to one.)  Thus, I ended up folding a Japanese steakhouse into our day; the plan was to meet for lunch at one after we went shopping at the American Girl store.  We figured that Gaga and Granddad could come, too, and maybe even Gigi and Papa.  Plus, Luke and Greg could meet up with us.  (At the time, we weren’t sure if they would stay in Macon or what.  It ended up that Greg couldn’t stay in Macon that long (because of work), but he met us in Atlanta the first day, and he and Luke stayed with some friends from college.  They have a son Luke’s age, and while we were shopping at the AG store, the boys ended up going to Legoland.  Everybody won.)

The last major obstacle to my over-the-top birthday planning was that, as I mentioned in a previous blog, Anna did not end up wanting an American Girl doll for Christmas.  At first, this vexed me, but, seriously, am I going to force a four-year-old to love an overpriced doll?  No.  However, I did decide to move forward with the plans, since they still sounded super fun, and Anna loves to shop anyway, and I thought she would still love a doll store. 

And that is how I found myself, in the early afternoon of January 1, in my mom’s car with my two kids, driving from Macon to Atlanta to meet our friends, Molly and Charlotte.  The kids were so excited to see each other at the hotel, and the American Girl festivities started at check-in.

I was really impressed with the American Doll package at the Residence Inn.  It wasn’t too outrageously priced, and they had so many sweet touches that made the girls feel extra special.  Our visit started out with the girls (and Luke, who had tagged along while we waited for Greg to come pick him up) picking out some cute heart-shaped lollipops.

You can kind of see the pink carpet and stepping stool behind them.  That’s where they got their lollipops, pink room keys, and movie tickets (more on that later).  Then we headed to our room.

The package came with cute doll beds (which the girls got to keep), activity books, and welcome letters.  There were also cookies waiting for them on the counter.

After they ate their cookies (washed down with the milk in the refrigerator, Anna played a little with a special activity set she got as the birthday girl.

Then the girls showed each other some of the Christmas gifts they had received and just basically enjoyed being in a new hotel room:

I swear, this kid did not stop smiling the whole trip!

A few minutes later, Daddy arrived to collect Luke and take them on their own boys’ adventure.  He only stayed a few minutes, but that was plenty of time for Anna to treat him like a jungle gym…

…and honk his nose!

After the boys left, we still had a little while before dinner, so we did one of the activities in Anna’s book.  We separated and had the girls choose their preferences from a list, and then came back together to compare them:

The dots on the left are the ones that Anna and Charlotte had in common.  They ended up having more in common than not (17 to 13, I believe:)).  After our little game, it was time to head to dinner.  Our big birthday meal was supposed to be the next day at Benihana’s, so we just wanted to find somewhere to grab a bite to eat that night.  However, a quick investigation revealed that The Cheesecake Factory was less than a mile away.  And seriously, when confronted with that reality, what are you supposed to do??

(Answer:  Go to The Cheesecake Factory!)

Speaking of cheese…

This next little photo series shows why I love these girls:

Seriously, they had a blast together the whole trip.

Dinner was amazingly delicious, but it took a little while, and the girls were getting progressively more riled up (the above pictures were taken before dinner arrived), so we decided to get our cheesecake to go.

When we arrived back in the hotel, Anna opened her birthday gifts from Charlotte:

She got some Pez dispensers and one of those Skip-It balls, which they were both eager to try.  But first…cheesecake!

The Skip-It was harder than it looked, but the girls had fun trying…and then making up alternate uses for it!

By that time, it was time to go down for our “movie night”:

Movie night was held in a conference room in the main building.  When I think about it, it was a really simple affair, but the little details made the girls feel like they were royalty.  For instance, they had pink lemonade on hand and little bags to be filled up in their popcorn machine.

And also, they had…

bean bags!

The concierge basically emptied out the bean bag closet, and so there ended up being around ten bean bags for the four of us (another girl and her mom showed up right before the movie started).  And they not only had regular size bean bags, they had BIG bean bags:

To say the girls loved them would be an understatement.  (Also, Molly and I found them to be surprisingly comfortable!)

Once the third girl showed up, the girls hunkered in for a movie (they all agreed on McKenna Shoots for the Stars).  Anna wasn’t incredibly interested in it (although she loved the gymnastics scenes), but she still had a great time snuggling with me on the big bean bag and gobbling lots of popcorn and pink lemonade.  As for Charlotte, she turned to her mom at the end of the movie and declared, “Awesomest. Night. Ever.”  And it was a pretty awesome night.

The next morning, we ate the continental breakfast and then it was time to check out.

Thanks, Residence Inn, for a great time!

After we left the hotel, we headed straight for the American Girl store.

We got there shortly after it opened, and surprisingly it was not yet a “zoo,” which is what I always hear about AG stores.  Anna had still not expressed any interest in a doll, but I knew that she would just enjoy the store, and I was right.

We wandered through and looked at all they had to offer.  In my mind, I knew that if she wanted a doll, I would get one.  I know they are (incredibly) overpriced, but I really do like this brand.  I’m usually so picky about the toys I like for Anna.  I don’t even like Barbie (at all), and I only tolerate Disney princesses.  In theory, I like Strawberry Shortcake, but their “updated” dolls are annoyingly sexualized, in my opinion.  But American Girl dolls actually look like girls.  And they have historical back stories and come with books (which is really all I need to hear).  And they promote healthy values and attitudes, like hard work and self-reliance and the value of friendships.  What can I say?  I’ve drunk the Kool-aid.  I’ll admit it.  And that’s why, when Charlotte’s doll got her ears pierced, and Anna looked at me and said wistfully, “I hope that one day, I can have an American Girl doll, too,” I bent down to her and said,

“Anna, today is that day.”

In choosing a doll, my challenge was to lure Anna away from the bitty Babies and the modern “Just Like Me” dolls and get her to pick a historical doll.  If she had insisted, I really would have gotten her what she wanted, but I managed to whisk her to the historical doll section and then slowly let her examine all the cases with the different girls.  We had all oooh’ed and ahhh’ed over Caroline, a girl who lived in 1812, earlier in that day, so I wasn’t surprised when Anna enthusiastically picked her.  We also got some ice skates to go with her (because Anna loved the idea of ice skates) and some “Caroline” paper dolls.  Still, Anna really wanted to get Caroline’s ears pierced, and Mrs. Molly volunteered to pay for that as part of her birthday present.  Anna was so excited about it all.  While we were waiting in line for her doll to get her ears pierced, she spontaneously wrapped me in a big bear hug.  Her sweet hug lasted so long that Molly was able to get a picture.

I love this girl.

Charlotte also got some accessories for her doll, and then we were ready to go.  We had a little time to kill before lunch, so we shopped some. 

We just “looked” in all the stores, and before long, it was time to go meet Greg, Luke, and all the grandparents at Benihana’s.  We exited through the AG store just to take one last look, and then we headed out.

At Benihana’s, Gaga met the girls’ dolls, much to Charlotte’s delight.

And Anna chatted with Gigi, while we waited for Greg, Luke, and his friend, Lucas, to arrive.

The gang’s all here!  Don’t we have such great grandparents to travel to have lunch with us??  Atlanta is a great meeting place for them, but they still had to drive over an hour to get there!

As you will soon see from the pictures, Anna loved her first trip to a Japanese steakhouse.

I think the things that every kid loved the most were the chopsticks!

The cooking was cool, too, though!  I took a million pictures of the kids’ reactions, and in every one of them, Anna is beaming.

Here they are watching the “egg rolls”:

More fun with chopsticks!

(I love this picture of them goofing off!)

Once they got food on their plate, though, the girls were serious about trying to use theirs:

In the meantime, Luke preferred the method of stabbing his meat with the end of his…

…and then poking it into his mouth!

At one point, we thought our chef, Daniel, was going to make a volcano.

It ended up being a train, which was the one part of the meal that Luke was actually more enthusiastic about than Anna (though she did think it was cool).

After our meal, Anna was surprised that they brought her out a little birthday dessert—and then everyone sang to her.  The pictures are blurry because she spent the whole time dancing happily.

Her motions reminded me of the lyrics from an old VBS song that talks about “wiggling and giggling with glee.”  That very much describes what Anna did while we sang to her.  Then it was time to blow out her candle:

Happy birthday, sweet girl!  Thanks for always bringing such joy to our world!

A waitress took one more picture of us all…

…and then Anna had a couple more presents to open!  First she opened Gigi and Papa’s.

They got her a sticker book, an activity book, and a little Snow White figurine, which was so cute.  Then she opened the one from Gaga and Granddad, which was a cradle for her baby dolls. 

I didn’t get a good picture of it, but mom painted it and made the bedding for it.  It was adorable!

Finally, it was time to say our goodbye’s and hit the road.  This was definitely our new “best birthday ever.”  Anna had a blast from beginning to end; she truly seemed to enjoy every second.  I hope it made her feel loved and cherished and treasured because she is all those things to us.  Tonight, after she gave an impromptu dance performance for us, I turned to Greg and asked, “What would we do without this little girl?”  I have no idea.  Truly, she is our sunshine!