A Sunday Afternoon

Here's a look at my favorite time of the week...Sunday afternoon! Usually pretty quiet. Usually pretty sleepy. Usually very restful and a lot of fun!




Joshua pretending to call Gramma Valentino. His greeting sounded a bit like this, "Bye bye, Bamma!" Naturally, once "Bamma" was actually on the phone he didn't say anything.

Hannah, mid-roll. She was having fun moving all over the living room.

This is a bit unfair because Claude didn't take a photo of me sleeping on the couch later in the evening. But, as you can see, we're trying to rest on the Sabbath.

I'm usually behind the camera, but here Joshua and I switched places. He took this picture...kind of. I think I probably was the one to actually take it, but he set up the shot.

Teaching Lab

I've been working on some Bible curriculum led by the Lord, directed in part by one of our pastors at Westchester Chapel, and assisted by a wonderful husband, a faithful nursery co-director, and yes...Joshua Chew.

The idea is that over the course of a year, the children in the Westchester Chapel Nursery (ages 0-5) will have learned foundational Biblical Truths/Principles from Genesis through Revelation. Naturally, we started with Creation. That was one year ago. Last week we embarked on a three month run of the first three units of this curriculum...and I am SO EXCITED about it! Still nine more units to write, trial, edit, print, etc. but the first major step has been completed, praise the Lord!

Anyway...that is all to set up the following video. Joshua has been an integral part of this curriculum because he is the student in my at home teaching lab. The Lord enables me to have ideas of ways to explain things, activities to reinforce, and crafts that will help teach the children and then Joshua gets to be the first to try them out...generally speaking.

This particular craft is one that I used last Easter in the nursery. I wasn't particularly thrilled about what I was seeing in some other curriculum units on Easter, and the Lord gave this idea to me for an interactive mini storyboard. Joshua didn't make one last year because he was too young, but I took this out in preparation for two supplemental Easter lessons for this year and thought, "I wonder how effective this really is?" Obviously last year's response was far from memorable. As for the effectiveness, you be the judge...

What a joy and a privilege to be called to love, teach, and lead little ones like Joshua to Jesus! And now that this post is written I must excuse myself because the said little one is now awake from his nap. In his own words, "Bye bye!"

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Hannah is on her way to becoming a professional roller. Not only has she mastered the traditional rolling...back to front, front to back, toward the left, toward the right...she has actually found a way of transporting herself from one place to the next by simply rolling.

Amazingly she can roll completely around...front to front...in one go without her head touching the ground. And she's fast. I can put her down in the middle of the living room floor, step out of the room, return in less than one minute, and not be able to see her amid the mess of toys. Often times she makes her way toward one of the walls and I have to peak around the furniture to verify her new location.

I have been impressed to see her set her eyes on a toy and make her way over to it by rolling, checking her position, rolling again maybe in a slightly different direction, rechecking her position, and so on until she reaches the desired location. Just a few days ago she rolled over to the exersaucer and started grabbing at the base until I came over. I asked if she wanted to go in, she gave me a big smile, kicked her legs, raised her arms toward me, and proceeded to play very contentedly once I placed her in the seat.

As a visual demonstration of her abilities, I have included a couple of photos below. Enjoy!

Here is Hannah, after having been placed on the play mat (far right) she rolled herself to the bookshelf (far left) in order to try a tasty treat...

Mmmm...the letter "O". She seems to have pretty good aim in her rolling skills. And the puzzles were actually stacked on the bottom shelf, so not only did she have to get to the puzzle, she had to get the puzzle down to where she could take out the pieces. She seems to be a very determined lady.

Solids

A first and certainly not a last for Hannah.