Copywork Humor

Yesterday, Grace finished reading William Blake's 40 poems for her poem a day assigned reading. We use the poems also for her copywork, and she'll usually pull 2 lines from her poem that day and write them out in her notebook. Looking for a "tweener" before we start our next poet, I noticed that she'll be having to recite all of Psalm 23 for AWANA in a couple of weeks. So we settled on using the Psalm for her next copywork assignments to help with the memorization.

Today's editorial cartoon for Psalm 23:1 just tickled me:


Grace is a talented illustrator, who has a knack for putting thoughts down through her drawings. I have really taken a delight in using the notebooks that have room to color above the lined paper for her copywork. More often than not, she'll create a fitting drawing for her poem excerpt, and her drawing becomes a narration back to me of the poem with her interpretation. It is a unique way of sneaking in a required narration, without her knowing she ever did any hard work.

Not Your Ordinary Chatter

A conversation overheard this morning...(Jack is in the middle of a pile of blocks and cars with his sister.)

Jack: Where do you want him to be from?
Jack: Georgia?
Jack: Israel?
Grace: How about Great Britain!?
Jack: Ok. Great Britain!

This conversation is brought to you by the state of Georgia, the book of Exodus, and Our Island Story.

This Is Just Plain Bass-Akwards

Yes. As you may have noticed we are still having our school time everyday. Christmas break? What is that??? I am starting to feel like the odd man out. While Mom is all for a week of vacation, the kids are completely opposed to the idea, requesting school as usual. In complete honesty, I can say that except for a few days during our vacation in Colorado this summer, a mandatory two weeks off before the new school year in August, and four days around Thanksgiving we have had no other breaks.

I have to admit that by abandoning the two week school break I had originally scheduled for Christmas, it has allowed us to catch up for Year 1 readings that have slipped by here and there. So it does appeal to the task list checker in me. However, there just seems to be something inherently wrong with the conversation:

Grace: Mom, when are we going to do school this morning?

Me: (trying to wrap up some advertising and design work before the holidays) As soon as I finish these last few things. Almost there.

Jack: (20 minutes later) MOM...I just want to do school.

Me: Guys, go play for a little while longer. I'll be done soon.

Grace: (5 minutes later) Are you done yet?

Me: WE DO SCHOOL WHEN I'M READY TO DO SCHOOL. WILL YOU TWO GO FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO RIGHT NOW!!!! (Sudden wash of guilt over me because I blow up over my kids wanting to do school.)

Little Pea...Speaking Up for Spinach

This has nothing to do with homeschooling, but I need to stop and make a few comments about a great book that I checked out for the children at the library called "Little Pea". It a small simple story about a young pea that has to eat all of his CANDY for dinner, before he can have his dessert - SPINACH. The children have found this concept entirely humorous, and it has become an instant favorite. I highly recommend searching this one out at your library. As a parent, the story is short and clever enough that it is hard to tire of it.

It certainly had an influence on Jack. Who decided that tonight he wanted Spinach for his dessert. And he was serious. As luck would have it, I had a box of frozen spinach (which honestly has been in my freezer for over a year). I brought out the box and let Jack look at the picture of spinach on the front. He was a little more tentative, but still open to trying it...until I mentioned that it was a vegetable. As soon as he heard the word "vegetable" he instantly changed his mind.

What did he have for dessert? CANDY.

I See That!

Baby Faith (in utero) has become such an active part of our reading time these days. As soon as I begin read-a-louds with the children, she'll begin doing a very pronounced belly dance. This is becoming increasingly more difficult for the children to ignore. The books and children's elbows on either side of me are visibly getting kicked during our reading time together.

Today Grace was reading her book of choice out loud, and about every other page, one of the kids would announce "I saw that!". I hope this is a positive sign that she loves listening to books like her siblings...either that or she can't stand to listen to her mommy read.

(Wouldn't that be a Charlotte Mason kicker?)

Look Out Mensa...Jack is On The Horizon

Today Jack asked me... "Mom? How many inches do you cost?" This might be a question Mensa would be interested in using on their next IQ test, as I am sure that there is a logical answer.

What Color Is Your Blood?

Driving home from gymnastics today, the children and I had an interesting discussion. Grace started the topic by asking me an off the wall question about blood. (I believe the wheels were turning around the topic of blood since Grace had picked out an excellent library book on bats yesterday, and happened to find a page on vampire bats).

Grace: "Mom? Do flies have blood?"

Me thinking to myself: Oh geez. I can't seem to remember a thing from my zoology class in college. I wonder how much that class alone cost my poor parents? (Quick rationale: There are blood sucking flies right? Wait...that's digestive...not circulatory...OH, GO WITH IT.)

Me to Grace: "Sure hun...probably a little."

Grace: "Caterpillars have blood, it is just a different color like yellow."

***Pregnant pause of deep thought interrupted by the mind of a four year old.***

Jack: "Do angels have pink blood?"

For some reason...I follow the logic. This entire discussion was then followed by a lesson in why we need blood, and what blood does. (I felt a bit more redeemed on the cost of college classes after that). Which spurred another discussion on how important not only oxygen is to our bodies, but also water.

BTW, in case you are wondering...after a little research, I now can say with confidence that insects DO have blood, but the blood is not used to carry oxygen. Instead, insect cells receive their oxygen through other means.

The "O" in Telling Time

As mentioned before, Jack has been very interested in telling time, and he's doing a terrific job at it. Today we reviewed whole hours and half hours on a face clock, of which he has almost licked.

He may have just earned himself the "Stumped Mom" award over spaghetti dinner tonight when he asked:

"Mom? Why do they have an "O" in one o'clock?"

I have no stinkin' idea. Anyone know what the point of the "O" is when telling time? Was the person who invented telling time in the English language, Irish?? Or before we got technical and exact about everything, did people used to say, "Oh, it is about one.", and things have just been rearranged over the centuries. :)

Fly! Be Free!

Today marked the official release date of our two praying mantis and the grasshopper. The mantis were happy to be released on a large patch of Black-eyed Susans. Later, we went back to check on them and counted three...so it must have been a popular location. The grasshopper was released into a patch of Lamb's Ear. Below is a picture of Grace freeing the grasshopper.


The release date did include a bit of drama. I originally had placed the first mantis on the daylily leaves seen in the picture. He just had this look...like he wanted to jump. (Note to self: listen to your intuition). I told Grace to watch the first mantis, while I went back into the house for the second. As I was catching the second in the house, I was interrupted by blood curdling screams, sobs, and feet pounding up on the deck. The mantis had decided to jump on her leg while I was away, and the feeling was a bit too unfamiliar for her. Ken had been brought out to the deck as well by the screams, and the looks exchanged between the two of us were almost too much to hide the laughter. (BTW, the mantis was located and found unharmed).

Am I Going To Lay An Egg?

Taking advantage of a huge painting bonanza that seems to be going on in our playroom this week, Grace and Mom traced around some of our wooden half eggs of different sizes and then made 2D replicas of a number of bird eggs including: the chickadee, mockingbird, loon and robin. Tomorrow we'll be cutting them out and adding them to paper nests for display. Grace used a number of field guides for reference and did an excellent job of working on matching the colors of the eggs to the field guides. After using a lot of brown and beige, she let out a big sigh and asked when she would get to use her orange, purple and yellow paint on an egg. After wrapping things up, she had free reign over painting and entire page of bright neon eggs.The highlight of our conversation during egg painting (and one that will stay near and dear to my heart):

Mom? Am I going to lay an egg?
No, hun you are not going to lay an egg.
Is my gerbil going to lay an egg?
No. Gerbils are like people. Their eggs stay inside.
Mom?
Yes?
You had two eggs!
Me...and Jack.