Hannah and the Slide

Hannah went down the slide for the first time last week. She loved it so much that she couldn't wait for me to take her again, she had to climb up herself! Needless to say she still required my assistance, but I couldn't get her up and down fast enough or enough times.

After observing her for several minutes I felt like I got to know her a bit more. She had her sights set and wouldn't give up for anything. Even after several slips and falls (none of which brought any injury), she still wouldn't give up. And this wasn't a small slide...it's for big kids! I'm pretty certain that she would have scaled the entire thing if her pants and shoes gave her better grip! :)

TMI

For some, this would be considered an over-share. If you are an under-sharer then probably you don't want to read this. If you are or ever have been the parent of an infant or toddler then you probably have a similar story you could share! I'm posting this mostly for my own sake so that I can get to the point of laughing sooner than I might otherwise. Enjoy!

I may have written on an earlier post that naps are not really happening in our house any longer. They should be happening, especially for Hannah. But Joshua is transitioning out of them and I'm holding onto them as tightly as I possibly can. This has presented a few problems in recent weeks. You can see the post "Unexpected Motivation" for another set of circumstances that arose from this difference in opinion over naps.

Well, since above mentioned post, we have "graduated" Joshua into a play yard. He was sleeping on his own bed up until the point of piling every article of clothing in the bedroom into Hannah's bed. Now he is confined to the play yard and generally really likes it. I think he finds comfort in the well defined boundaries. And we know that he is safe and so is Hannah (she won't be smothered by 10's and 20's of pounds of clothing if Joshua can't get to it). But other issues arise as I found out this afternoon.

Joshua and Hannah were put down for their naps just after lunch. We went through the usual nap/bed time routine: lunch/dinner, clean-up, potty, new diapers, milk, reading, and sleep...hopefully. It's not at all difficult to hear pretty much everything that goes on at "nap time" since we live in a one bedroom apartment. They obviously weren't asleep after a length of time, but I thought, "How much could they really get into? They're enclosed in their 'special beds'."

So, I gave them a little more time to fall asleep. This was partially successful. Hannah fell asleep but soon after a series of sirens caused her to wake up. And then I had to give in: the kids weren't going to take naps today. I went into the bedroom and found...

Joshua's dirty diaper (VERY dirty diaper) outside of the play yard, turned upside down onto the bedding from his regular bed, and the diaper contents smeared all over his play yard. Aaaggghhh!!! Praise the Lord, I remained calm although I did hold back a few tears (it felt like a stressful day before this lovely sight).

"Joshua, why did you take off your diaper?" I asked.

"I clean up poo poo," he answered.

"Of course," I thought to myself. "Joshua, thank you for thinking of cleaning up your poo poo," I responded. "But from now on, only Daddy and Mommy can have that job, okay?"

It was quite a mess to clean up, and I was blaming myself thinking that I had left Joshua in "nap time" for too long. But this judgment proved to be wrong as I scrubbed away at a very dried up mess...obviously it happened early on in the napping endeavor.

As I cleaned, I was very close to crying. I don't know why but that seemed to be a natural response to a bed full of poo. And i kind of wanted to scream or yell or let out some type of outburst. But there was a pair of little eyes watching every move I made: Hannah was still in her play yard. Her full attention was on me the entire time I was cleaning. I'm glad that it was, too. Hannah may only be one year old, she may not talk yet except to say "bubble" and "pop" and some people may think that she can't remember anything that happened more than 3 seconds ago. But, I know that she is learning a ton right now and most of it is from the example that she sees in me, Claude, and Joshua. So, a good example I had to be and praise the Lord He enabled me to clean up with as much joy as can be found in a mess like that, but with a calmness that I know can only be from the Holy Spirit.

So, praise the Lord for the mess! But I'm sure you're glad that I didn't take any photos to commemorate the eventful afternoon. :)

Week 3 and Still Schooling

The Chew Family Preschool managed to make it through week 3 of schooling. Week 2 was rough and week 3 was better although we were all sick at some point throughout. Following is what we did and learned for the week. We had a lot of fun and were excited to have Claude home for one day. True, he was home sick, but he was feeling well enough in the afternoon to join us on a "green" walk around the neighborhood and to lead the Bible lesson.

Learning Objectives for the Week:
-Green
-Baby Moses (Exodus 1-2)
-Exodus 2:24 (Memory Verse)

What we did:
-Hand Print Tree: We made some green paint (water, powdered milk, and food coloring). Then we put our hand prints on the top half of a length of banner paper. We had a lot of fun with the texture of this paint. It was creamy and foamy. A big success! Joshua thought that it tasted good too! Once the paint dried, I added a trunk. It looks great and Joshua loved working on it.
-Bible Lesson--Baby Moses: Following is the video of our Bible lesson. Basically, we acted out the lesson by putting a baby into a basket (in this case, a bucket), and dropping the basket into the bath tub. I was amazed that when I brought Joshua and Hannah into the bathroom to start the lesson they were both immediately captivated. They couldn't keep their eyes off the Bible illustrations and paid close attention to everything I did in initially acting out the story. Then they happily participated. We repeated this several days during the week. This video was the fifth or sixth attempt at recording it on the first day, so we had lost Hannah's undivided attention.

-Green Walk: We walked around our neighborhood in search for things that are green. We found several, Joshua was excited, and took a lot of pictures. The camera battery died part way through our first attempt, so we ventured out a second time in the afternoon. Following are some photos of what we found.

-Memory Verse Poster: This started out in week 1 as a way of filling time, but it has been so effective in learning our memory verses that I've done it each week and will probably implement it in our church nursery curriculum. I simply take a large piece of paper (legal size), write out the verse and reference, read it to Joshua and Hannah, sing it to them, and point out the words as I go along. Joshua colors it, helps me hang it on the wall, and then we just review it whenever their attention is on the poster.
-Green Lunch and Green Roll Cookies: We made spinach pasta with pesto and steamed zucchini for lunch (all green) then after lunch, Joshua and made a roll cookie recipe with some added green food coloring and green sprinkles on top. I also made a rebus pattern of the cookie recipe so that Joshua could help me "read" it. Both activities were very popular with Joshua (Hannah was asleep through both) and a lot of fun to work on together.

What We Learned:
-Correctly identify the color green in nearly all circumstances. There is still confusion when we see something that is very dark in color. Joshua sometimes thinks these are black even though they are actually green. But his color identification in general has made marked improvement since the beginning of September.
-Bible verse memorization. Joshua can say, "God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them." -Exodus 2:24. I'm very proud of him! Hannah loves to dance and clap to the little song I made up for this verse.
- Bible story of Baby Moses. Joshua can identify the major characters in this story (Moses, Pharoah, Jochebed, and the Princess). He can also recite much of the text as it appears in the Beginer's Bible.
-Daddy is a very good teacher! We always miss Daddy while he's a work, but after having him home one day this week I realized just how much we love having him here. This is not to say that I ever thought that I didn't love having him at home with us, but the realization was fresher and deeper than before. It was great to see him teach the Bible lesson and to go on a walk with him while we discovered green things along our street. It's too bad he was sick that day! Maybe it would have been more enjoyable for him that way.
-Sickness is bad, but it brings naps! We were all sick with colds this week. I am never happy when any of us are ill, but this week Joshua napped every day (excepting Saturday) and Hannah took longer naps than she has been recently. What a blessing! They got the rest their bodies needed to overcome the colds, and I enjoyed some time to work on nursery curriculum and to just rest a bit during the middle of the day. An unexpected but very welcome treat. I'm not sure this week will hold the same, but one can hope. Perhaps naps aren't completely out the window yet???

"Good grief!"

Here is Joshua saying a line from his favorite video--The Beginner's Bible: Creation.

It's fun to note that our good friend, Rich Swingle, did the voice of Adam in this video. And seeing as Adam is the one who delivers the line, we saw it fitting to let Rich in on his far-reaching influence.

So, here it is..."Good grief!" Enjoy! :)

Chew Family Preschool - Week 2

As I suspected, a weekly post about our homeschooling endeavor may prove to be too much for us to maintain. But I'll attempt to catch this blog up with the last two weeks of schooling.

In general, week two was rougher than week one. Naps have been elusive these days and I've been struggling to know when to attempt them and when to let them go. This poses a few problems for schooling: uncertainty in schedule, tired and cranky little ones, and an exhausted mom. This usually doesn't bode well for pleasant, semi-structured, learning-filled days but by God's grace we're making it through and on most days school activities happen.

Week two of homeschooling was all about octagons.
Here's what we did:
-Octagon Mosaic: We cut out octagons of different shapes and colors then glued them to a large sheet of paper. Was semi-successful in keeping Joshua's interest and attention for about 15 minutes. He enjoyed the glue and loves to look at the finished product that now hangs on the living room wall.
-Octagon Bean Bag Toss: taped a large octagon onto the living room floor. We tossed homemade bean bags (socks filled part-way with a mix dried beans and rice, then tied off at one end) into the octagon. Joshua's aim was very good, but the activity didn't last long before he was throwing bean bags in such a manner that we had to stop because he was posing a threat to himself, others in the room, and breakable objects. I will try this again, however, when he is a little bit older and able to follow directions for more than 2 minutes.
-Octagon Counting Baggy Book: I found several images of octagons from the internet and created a small counting coloring book. Joshua colored the octagons and then I cut out each set and put them into a booklet made from seal-able plastic sandwich bags (bound together with staples and then covered in tape to protect little fingers from staples). Joshua was not very interested beyond the coloring stage, but I think the book may interest him later on when counting is a bit more exciting.
-Bible lesson: Revelation 4--worshiping God. We made crowns from construction paper, decorated them with stickers, and colored them a bit. Then we read about the vision from Rev. 4 where John sees the elders and living creatures worshiping God around His throne in heaven. We laid down our crowns and then fell to the ground and said (in the words of Joshua) "ho-ey, ho-ey, ho-ey!" This wasn't as clear and memorable as Gideon from week 1, but it was effective and Joshua loved to fall down.

Here's what we learned:
-Correct identification of octagons (example-we saw a school bus a couple of days ago and Joshua, seeing the stop signs put out from the bus's side, called out, "Octagon!")
-Memory verse: "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth." -Isaiah 40:28
-Steadfastness and flexibility seem to be very important to keep this homeschooling up. We're keeping things very simple and uninvolved, and even then it is definitely requiring a commitment to keep doing it every day. Flexibility is vital to keep my sanity with or without formalized activities and projects for the day; it is proving to be just as valuable in this schooling endeavor.

Pizza and Piazzolla

This is what happens when two tired kids meet two yummy pieces of pizza and some Piazzolla is thrown in. Enjoy!

Unexpected Motivation

Yesterday, Claude and I put Joshua and Hannah down for a nap...only they didn't sleep. We found Joshua sitting on his bed with a small pile of hair clips. He had taken the bag of Hannah's hair ties, dumped each and every one of them out onto his bed and formed a pile that he was pushing his finger through.

Today, I also put them down for a nap. Hannah had already been sleeping for an hour and apparently Joshua woke her up when I put him down to bed. At some point I could hear that they were awake, but I didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. I'm getting used to them occasionally staying awake through their nap time.

When I entered the room to get them up for the afternoon, I found that Joshua had, like yesterday, gathered a group of like things and put them in a pile. Here is what I found upon opening the door:

Every piece of clothing in Joshua and Hannah's dressers, plus every pillow, soft toy, and blanket from their beds was crammed into Hannah's play yard. Not a single article of clothing was lying on the floor. And not a single square inch was available for any additional articles. Except for the corner where Hannah stood, the place was packed. Praise the Lord that Hannah hadn't fallen asleep. I'm sure she would have been smothered under the weight of this.

We had plans to take a walk to see the cement mixer that was working down the street today. Let me just say that plans changed immediately. Instead we spent the afternoon folding, sorting, and organizing clothing. At least I had some unexpected motivation to sort out clothing that the kids have outgrown.

I wasn't too thrilled at the time but I did think to myself, "One day I'll have a good laugh about this." I'm starting to laugh now, especially when I try to imagine Hannah standing up in her play yard watching as Joshua carries everything he can find in the room in small armloads and deposits it into her bed. I can see the expression on her face. It's the same as usual when she's watching her big brother do anything. There's always an element of "I wonder what he's doing? Maybe I can learn something from him."

This marks the end of an era. Joshua Chew will no longer be required to take a nap. I think it'll be a harder adjustment for his mother than for himself.

Our First Week of Homeschooling

Just a note before I begin...these posts about homeschooling may be quite lengthy. Their purpose is primarily for us to have a log of what we've done. I have one on paper for each day, but this helps to get an overview of the week. I may or may not post each week, I'll see how things go. But I will try to concisely caption the photos and videos so that you can get a quick idea of what we've been up to without reading all of my reflections and observations. I hope, also, that this might serve as a source for ideas for anyone looking for activities that actually work with little ones at home. Enjoy!

Well, we have finished our first official week of homeschooling! I have been surprised at how well it has gone over with Joshua and Hannah. My expectations weren't such that I thought things would go terribly, but I have found that the added structure of planned activities (no matter how simple they may be) has helped immensely in a week of schedule changes, napping changes, etc. Our daily lessons and activities have helped to regain order and peace when things start going a bit haywire. Praise the Lord! And it has been so much fun!

Here are some highlights from our very first week...

GIDEON

A previous post is about our Bible lesson this week -- Gideon. After the first afternoon of telling the story and acting out the battle, Joshua has asked each day to do it again. He walks around the house saying "blow trumpets, smash clay jars" and he helps me tell the story now by filling in the blanks as I give him time to. Hannah still cracks up over our trumpets! :) (See previous post: "Trumpets and Clay Jars" for more details, photos, and a video of the re-enactment of the battle.)

YELLOW

Our kitchen table covered in photos of "yeyow fings" (translated - yellow things) that we took around our neighborhood.



Joshua was very dexterous with the glue stick and also had surprisingly strong and specific ideas about where each photo should be placed.


Our yellow collage - the finished project.

Yellow was our "theme" this week. Joshua's favorite yellow activity was a photo collage. We spent an hour one morning walking along our street looking for "yeyow fings" (translated - yellow things). We found a surprising number, so much that we had to stop after an hour and stick with what we did find. I took photos of each object as we found it and asked Joshua to identify both the object and its color. It took him a while but by the end he was correctly identifying colors without prompting. The following day we had the photos printed and glued them onto a large piece of paper to make a yellow collage. Joshua loved using the glue stick, had very specific ideas of where to put nearly every picture, and was so excited about the project as a whole that he sat backwards in his chair at dinner so that he could look at his collage on the wall and name every object and their colors.

Along the yellow line...this is not to gross anyone out, but Joshua came out of the bathroom yesterday and said, "Big poop!" I went to check his potty where he pointed and said very proudly, "Yellow poop!" I feel like this signifies a success in the yellow lesson. Joshua can now correctly identify nearly any object that is yellow all on his own, including the contents of his potty.

ZEPHANIAH 3:17

Joshua recites our memory verse from the week - Zephaniah 3:17.
I was actually very surprised at this because we only started learning the verse the night before this video was taken. He has continued to say it throughout the week both with and without prompting from Claude and me.

We are working on a short memory verse each week that loosely corresponds to our Bible story of the week. This week we learned Zephaniah 3:17. I was pretty shocked when Joshua started reciting it just the day after we first said and sang it together.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS

I have discovered that Joshua loves projects. He had a simple coloring activity one day this week and was so excited about it that he started running and jumping around the house yelling, "Project! Project! So excited!"

For me, this was a learning week, as I'm sure every day and week will be in this endeavor. The two things that seem to be a theme for me are organization and flexibility. I need to both plan ahead and be ready to throw my plans out the window if they don't work. This holds especially true to scheduling. Naps are changing in our house (Joshua's in the process of dropping his nap and Hannah is transitioning down from two naps to one). These changes made the week a bit chaotic and left me feeling pretty frazzled, not knowing what to do when and what Joshua and Hannah would need next. But, praise the Lord, every day He enabled things to go more smoothly than the day before. Sometimes that meant that I accurately anticipated the schedule and other times it meant that my original plans had to be changed so much that what actually happened throughout the day was vastly different from anything I had sketched down on paper. In the end, this is helping me a lot to learn to let go even after I've put in the necessary time and effort to plan ahead.

And so ends our first week. Today is Saturday and has been a very nice day off from lessons and activities, but I'm looking forward to next week...octagons galore!

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

This is something that I read about some time ago as an idea for kids to help make. It's homemade powdered hot chocolate mix - easy to make and very tasty. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup powdered milk
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS
1. To make powdered mix - Combine ingredients in a small container with a lid or in a plastic zip bag. Shake well. (This was fun for Joshua to do).
2. To drink - Pour mix into mug. Add 1 1/2 cups hot water and a drop of vanilla extract (optional). Stir well and enjoy. :)

VARIATIONS
1. Try using almond, orange, or another flavored extract in place of vanilla for a flavored chocolate beverage.
2. Mix up several individual batches of this and give them away to friends and relatives as a holiday treat. Have your kids decorate the containers or wrap them in wrapping paper and ribbon.
3. Add the mix to 1 cup of yogurt and half of a ripe banana. Blend in a blender or food processor. Enjoy as a smoothie. Add 1-2 tablespoons of peanut butter for added flavor.

Trumpets and Clay Jars

We're in our first official week of the Chew Family Preschool. So far so good! Today we learned about Gideon and the victory the Lord won for the Israelites with only 300 men, some torches, some trumpets, and some clay jars

What did we learn from this little lesson?
-Joshua learned that the Israelite army "smashed clay jars"
as he has told us repeatedly all afternoon
-Hannah learned that blowing a paper trumpet can be very funny
-I, Becca, learned that two water bottles and two rolled up pieces of paper go a long way

Here's our enactment of the battle plus a few photos. Enjoy!

Look Who's Talking!

Hannah's first clearly identifiable word = "pop"

She learned this from playing with bubbles. Every time she tried to touch or kiss one I would say "Pop!" Soon she started saying "Pop!" And then I caught it on video. My only regret is that I couldn't get her saying it while she was popping bubbles, but with only two hands (one of which always needs to be near Hannah so she doesn't topple over) I was unable to blow and catch bubbles while recording.

So, here it is..."Pop!" by Hannah Chew.