I love the idea of this blog because I like reading and remembering all our family funnies and experiences. Scratch the blog names for the kids. I'm extremely into names and think about name possibilities all the time for new dogs, new babies, other people's babies, new baby dolls, etc. For now, my kids will just go by their first initials. This should be one less thing I have to remember.
School was tough today. It's tough every day. Kids nowadays need so much emotionally. Teachers are expected to produce so much academically. However, the kids' emotional needs are so great that it makes it difficult for them to actually want to learn. It makes me think of Maslow's hierarchy. It's like the current educational culture wants us to skip over a tier of this hierarchy, which doesn't work. Only 12 years to retirement.
We played a cool vocabulary game today. All the students who were finished with straightening up their desks came to the front of the room and lined up. I passed out a math vocabulary card to each student. One by one, I went down the line as the students read the words and shared what they knew about the word. When they explained their words, they got new cards. It was very fast-paced and a great way for me to check on individual students' knowledge. Only 17 more teaching days until the big test. I'm trying to help me kids do well without overly stressing them or myself out.
So now the twins are in 4th grade, J is in kindergarten, H is 4 years old with one year left in daycare, and L is 18 months old. Update on the children...
D - nice, neat, orderly kid - She wants everything to be in its place. She really, really wants to be on time everywhere she goes, especially dance. She is involved in Dance for Christ, a local production that is completely awesome. Last year, she was in "How Beautiful" (ballet) and "Potter's Hand" (child with Jesus). This year she was in the same dances and also she was the blue monster in "No Monsters". She really got up there and shook her tail feathers! She loves dance and is always showing the little girls all her latest moves. She's also in violin and enjoys it a lot - she played a song for her 4th grade class last week. In our family, she's the teacher. She's always organizing some kind of pretend school, daycare, dance school, etc. Of course, all the little girls are her students, although J has moved up to become a teacher recently. H is not always a willing student, which is not surprising.
B - in scouts, guitar. I think when he gets into guitar a bit deeper, he'll be a natural. Music is in his blood. He enjoys camping with the cub scouts from time to time. He is not neat and tidy and is often forgetful. We're working on helping him keep himself organized, and he's doing better. He enjoys cooking and always wants to invent new recipes, somehow always having chocolate and peanut butter as his two main ingredients. He is also very into Legos. Having a place to store Lego creations in process from day to day has been a recent challenge. He is a big help with the baby, and he does all kinds of things with her, such as teaching her to throw a ball in a laundry basket, teaching her to use a stool to climb on and off the couch, etc. She laughs so hard at all his crazy antics. For devotion at night, we're reading a book called "How to Get Along with Your Brothers and Sisters". Since we've been reading this book, all the kids, but especially B, have taken a lot of prayer time praying for specific things for each sibling. From the time B was 3 to 10, his standard prayer was, "Dear God, thank you for my Mama. Thank you for my Daddy. Thank you for everybody else. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen." Now his prayers are detailed and sincere, showing thoughtfulness for each sister.
J - in ballet. She is enjoying kindergarten. She is very snuggly. She gets really sweaty when she sleeps but really wants to get up close and snuggle. She doesn't pronounce her r-controlled vowels correctly. Words like purple, person, car, turtle, curly, pour, etc. People often comment on what they call an "accent", but it's actually just a lag in speech development. A speech teacher at our school told me that r-controlled vowels are the last speech sounds to get in place. It's beginning to bother her that she talks different, so we try to work on it, but she gets frustrated with that also. When one of her siblings asked her to tell about students who get in trouble in her class, she looked at them with her big blue eyes and said, "D, let's not talk about that!" J gets along best with H, as they are only 22 months apart. They share a bedroom and trash it nearly every week:).
H - into everything. She really likes playing with baby dolls and her favorite thing in the world to do is pack a diaper bag with 2-3 of everything in the house. She is very spunky, and always making crazy faces. She often gives the thumbs up sign in conversation, and just last week learned to snap her fingers. She snapped them all day long, no matter what she was doing. She is hilarious and always saying the funniest stuff...
B got down our Connect Four game. H said, "Lordy, I haven't played that game in 15 years."
B had a basketball game. All the girls and I went to Food Lion to pick up snacks and drinks for the game. As we were preparing to leave, J said, "Are we in Walmart?". I responded, "No, we're in Food Lion." H held up her drink and said, "Drink Lion too!"
One night all the girls and I were headed somewhere so we had to eat on the run, which usually means yuck fast food. Anyway, by the time we got our order and tried to get everyone what they ordered, I was fairly addled. I said, "Let's pray" and prayed a quick prayer for us. As soon as I finished, H lifted her hand and pointed it towards me as she said, "Forgot to pray for the food," in a very just-wanted-to-let-you-know way.
H sucks her thumb, either one. We're working on only doing this at bedtime now. J called out in the car, "H is sucking her thumb." H said, "I'm trying to go to sleep." J said, "You can't suck your thumb for the rest of your life." H yells out, "Yes, I CAN suck my thumb for the rest of my life!"
H has a herniated belly button that she has pulled and played with while sucking her thumb since she was a baby. L has really paid attention. L now sucks her pointer finger on her right hand while playing with her belly button. If she sits in my lap, she wants to find my belly button and she especially loves H's belly button.
L - walking around but not quite up to running. She loves yogurt, bagel thins with jelly or cream cheese, cereal bars, grapes, apples, and her favorite...bananas. From one of her favorite teachers at the daycare, Mrs. Peggy, she has learned to really shout out the praise. She'll clap her hands, smile great big, and then throw her hands out. She is very jolly, very patient, and able to stand up for herself with the big kids. She is especially close to D because she shares a room with her. She loves playing with all the kids. When she first began learning to talk, she would say, "Eh?" a lot. No matter what you said to her, she would respond with "Eh?". It was hilarious. Now she loves shaking her head back and forth to any question you might ask her.
So now I'm going to get started on my third grade schoolwork. I'm going to grade a few papers and then come up with a remediation schedule for these last instructional days before the test. My house is crazy because I have many responsibilities and limited time. I've been praying Philippians 4:13 and Isaiah 55 (God's higher ways) through these last few days.
