Bible Basics

Joshua and Hannah added verses to the following song today. I'm glad that they know enough about their Bibles that they can do this. They were starting some other verses - the debate was between Pharoah and Jesus - but they ran out of time. Enjoy!

Who did? Who did?
Who did? Who did?
Who did swallow Jo-Jo-Jo-Jo-Jo?
(Repeat)
Who did swallow Jonah?
Who did swallow Jonah?
Who did swallow Jonah down?

Elijah, Elijah
Elijah, Elijah
He told the ki-i-i-ing
(Repeat)
There will be no rain
There will be no rain
To help the crops grow up!

Abraham, Abraham
Abraham, Abraham
God gave Abraham a family
(Repeat)
God gave Abraham
God gave Abraham
God gave Abraham a big family!

*My favorite because they sing the first two lines in triplets :)
Josiah, Josiah
Josiah, Josiah
Josiah fixed the temple
(Repeat)
Josiah hired workers
Josiah hired workers
Josiah hired workers to fix the temple up!

Building the Christmas Tree

We've never had a Christmas tree. Well, that's only partly true. I, Becca, had a tree each year as a child but I've never been the one to put it up. This year we, the Chew family, were blessed to borrow an artificial tree from some friends - thank you Morales's! It was particularly exciting because Joshua has been talking about building a tree for a few weeks.

"First we'll get a column, like this. Then we'll attach leaves to it," Joshua explained. I actually didn't know how artificial trees were assembled but soon learned that Joshua was right - I think he's on the road to becoming an engineer.

The Lord obviously knew how important this was to Joshua. I also figured it out quickly after his preschool teacher asked me one morning, "So, Joshua keeps telling me that you're building some kind of Christmas tree at your house?" That's when I actually prayed for a Christmas tree. It was one, maybe two prayers and a thought of "how nice would it be to get a tree this year", but the Lord heard and He answered.

Our dear friends, Jes and Steven, heard about Joshua's tree building idea and offered for us to borrow their tree this year. They even delivered it to our door, complete with a tree stand, lights, ornaments, and a star to top it off.

Today we built and decorated the tree. Joshua was hard at work from the beginning. He enthusiastically unpacked all of the branches, sorted them by color, and started distributing ornaments before we had even begun. He put each branch into the center column and was instrumental in making sure the ornaments were evenly distributed - otherwise we'd have two very low branches bearing the load of an entire tree's worth of decorations.

And at Family Bible Time tonight, Joshua and Hannah initiated creating a manger scene under the tree. They gathered the soft toys and dolls, even some blocks to pose for gifts, and set up the cast of characters: baby doll Jesus in a plastic manger, Mary (the lamb) and Joseph (a very large Pooh Bear), the wise men (two monkeys and a wombat) accompanied by their small but trusty camel, shepherds of various soft toy races and creeds, and - my personal favorite - a hippo dressed as a ballerina playing the part of the angel. As a writer of Bible curriculum for toddlers and preschoolers I was particularly proud of the efforts involved in this hands-on lesson.

So, without further ado, here is a video of our Christmas Tree building extravaganza as recorded by our budding photo/video-journalist, Hannah Chew. Enjoy! :)

What Are You?

Our family was seated around the lunch table this afternoon when Joshua announced, "I'm Chinese!" He proceeded to point to each person, stating that they too are Chinese. Once he got to me, instead of shouting "You're Chinese!" he pointed and asked, "Mommy, what are you?" I found it so funny that I laughed, to which Joshua insisted, "But Mommy, who are you anyway?" Followed by more laughter, Joshua became a bit irritated. "Why are you laughing? Stop laughing, please. And what are you???"

When I Get to Heaven

I had a fun conversation with Joshua this afternoon. He asked me why everyone gets sick all of the time - all five of us are currently fighting a pretty nasty cold. I told him that sickness came into the world after Adam and Eve sinned. It's part of living in a fallen world but when we get to heaven we won't get sick any more.

"Isn't that good?" I asked.

"Yeah," Joshua replied, a big blue grin creeping up on his face. "And when I get to heaven I'm going to be with Jesus. I'm going to walk with Him!"

I was definitely on the verge of tears. Maybe I'm just overly emotional, but something about hearing my 4-year-old speak so excitedly, so assuredly, and so joyfully about being with His Lord and Savior was simply amazing. It is one of the best things I could ever ask to hear from my children. Praise the Lord!

Joshua with his blue marker face. :)

Conversations

When you spend your days with a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a nearly-verbal 13-month-old you never know where the conversations will take you. Many times they flop and other times they take flight in ways you never imagined would be possible.

Yesterday and today we had a few conversations that made me smile. I'm sure these aren't as engaging to you as they are to me, but in a few years I'll be glad to have a record of them.

Enjoy!

The Identity of Jesus
Hannah: "Jesus is the kinged of kings."
Joshua: "No, He's the Son of God."
H: "But He is the kinged of kings. (Pause) Jesus is the Majesty."
J: "No, He's not the Majesty."
H: "Yes, He is."
J: "No, He's not."
H: "Mommy, Joshua says that Jesus is not the Majesty. (Pause) Is Jesus the Majesty, Mommy?"
Me: "Well...yes, He is the Majesty."
H (singing to "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore"): "Jesus is the Majesty. Alle-yoo-yah. Jesus is the Majesty. Alle-yoo-oo-yah."

Prophet or King? And Other Curiosities
Joshua: "Obadiah was a king."
Me: "No, Obadiah was a prophet."
J: "Well, he was just a king."
M: "No, he was a prophet."
J: "Obadiah was a king."
Hannah: "No, Joshua. Obadiah was a prophet!"
J: "Well, when I was little, before I came home from the hospital, Daddy used to call me Obadiah."
M: "We never actually called you Obadiah, but Daddy thought we should name you that."
J: "But before I came home from the hospital you did call me Obadiah. And then Daddy put me in a car seat and I cried and then I fell asleep in the car and then I was home. And that was while Hannah and Abby were in your tummy, Mommy, after I came out."
M: "Ummm....Hannah and Abby were not in my tummy then."
H: "Yes, we were. We were in your tummy together."
M: "No, you and Abby were never in my tummy at the same time."
J: "Why weren't Hannah and Abby in your tummy at the same time, Mommy?"
M: "Ummm..."
Abby: (cries from the other room)
Me (thinking to myself): "Saved by the bell!"

From the Mouths of Babes

An excerpt from a loooong bed time song. Sung to a variation of the verse from "Jesus Paid It All".
By Joshua Chew, 4 years old

"I let Jesus in, into my heart
He forgives me for my sins
Then I can go to heaven with Him

You are mighty and compassion God
You are much more than us
I like meeting you
You are mighty but I am strong

You do not like when I'm unkind
You like when I'm kind
I get sad when I'm angry or upset
You get sad too
We need to forgive others

We do not, we do not discipline
We do not, we do not
Dad or Mom can discipline us
If we are disobedient

Jesus says if the Bible tells us
In the Bible says
Obey Daddy. Obey!

If you obey, you will obey
The commandments of God
If you don't you will get a little bit sad
If you do you will go with God
The God of the earth
God will be with you

You died for my sins
You died for my sins
Died for my sins
You died for my sins
Hmmm-hmmmm hmmmm-hmmmmm
Hmmm-hmmmm hmmmm-hmmmmm!"

Up to No Good

I should have listened to the little voice in my head that said, "It's a bit quiet in the bedroom. Maybe I should go check on Joshua and Hannah." But instead of heeding that almost-always-right voice, I continued to prepare the afternoon snack.

When I entered the bedroom to call the kids to the table, I noticed that it was still silent and there was no sign of either munchkin. Where could they be? The best hiding spot in the bedroom is pretty easy to spot: Joshua's bed tent. I peeked inside expecting to find something from a mommy horror film.

Here is what I saw: Joshua and Hannah feeding each other a snack-sized treat from Hannah's birthday party. Nutella and cookie crumbs covering their faces, they looked pretty guilty. They knew that they weren't supposed to be eating on the bed. Neither were they supposed to be eating that particular snack. Why else would they be so quiet? And why else would they both be huddled into the corner of an already sheltered tent?

Normally I may have overreacted, but I was relieved to see that the scene held no more horror than a couple of Nutella mustaches. The kids, too, were relieved when they witnessed my reaction. As I laughed, the fear of being caught washed away from their faces. They smiled, smeared a bit of Nutella on the bed sheets on their way down from the bunk, and proceeded to tell me how wonderfully they were sharing with one another.

While I should have paid closer attention to the little voice in my head, I'm glad we have this little story to share - and praise God it is G-Rated. The Lord (and a few people who will remain nameless) knows that I've seen much, much worse - stories that would not be suitable for the general public. Unless of course any readers out there are also moms (or childcare providers) with at least a couple of curious and energetic kids under their watchful eyes. You may have some stories to compete with my humble experiences in the realm of childrearing.

Humpty Dumpty as Told by Joshua and Hannah Chew

The kids are well-versed in Bible stories but seem to be nursery rhyme illiterate. Here is their version of Humpty Dumpty, or Hunty Dunty as they say. Please note that text in italics is from Hannah. The rest was told by Joshua.

Enjoy!

Sat on a farm. Hunty Dunty.
Sat on a wall. Hunty Dunty.
Had a king. Hunty Dunty.
All the king's animals. Hunty Dunty.
All the king's horses. Hunty Dunty.

The Train

The kids are traveling today. Grand Central Station, White Plains, Costco, and Montana. And they are visiting a host of friends and family. "I'm going to call Pastor Linda, Rebekah, Rich, Pastor Joyce, Daddy..."

Here you can join Joshua and Hannah on the train to see "Gampa and Gampa in Montana.

Enjoy the ride! :)

Bed Time

Joshua and Hannah often spend a bit of time talking and singing to themselves as they drift off to sleep. Tonight they're more awake than normal, so Claude and I are getting an earful. But what a wonderful earful it is!

From Joshua...
A song.
"Jesus. Jesus. I love you. I love you. I love you, Jesus. You died on the cross for sins. For sins. For sins. For sins. Jesus, I love you."

Immediately followed by...
Another song.
"The wheels on the bus go round and round all day long."
"The Jesus on the bus goes bye bye bye all day long."
"The disciples on the bus go bump bump bump all day long."

And from the other room we hear Hannah singing...
"The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, all through the town."

Tonight we also heard the following...
After naming a large number of our dear friends from Westchester Chapel Joshua concludes, "These are all our family." I couldn't agree more! :)

And to top off the night (both literally and figuratively)...
I looked over at Joshua--he goes to sleep in the living room while Hannah falls asleep in the bedroom, otherwise no one would ever be sleeping around here!--so, I noticed that Joshua was zipping up his footed pajamas.

"Joshua, what are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm just feeding my baby," he replied matter-of-factly. "And now I'm going to work."

Apparently he was not only feeding his baby--which is really a stuffed lamb--he was breastfeeding his baby. Claude had a short conversation with him about the impossibility of the situation. It went something like, "Um, Joshua... Only mommies can feed their babies like that." This was followed by a suggestion that Joshua use a bottle to feed the baby.

After using the bottle he came out with this song...
"It was hard feeding my baby. It was hard breastfeeding my baby. And it was hard going to work."

I guess Claude and I spend a lot of time saying how hard our working and breastfeeding lives are??? I hope not!

The talking and singing haven't ceased yet and we're about an hour in to bed time. Perhaps there will be more to add to this post. :)

Pretend Play

Now that they're both entering the age of pretend play, I love listening in to the conversations between Joshua and Hannah. And since they read their Bible and Bible stories more than anything else (with the exception of books about vehicles of all sorts), much of their pretend play involves characters and places from the Bible.

Over the weekend, Joshua came rolling into the kitchen on a small ride-on car. "I'm entering Jerusalem," he said. "Here I am. I'm coming to Jerusalem on a donkey."

Hannah has been telling me recently how Jesus does his morning responsibilities. She says, "He puts on his pants. He puts on his shirt."

This afternoon I overheard the following exchange from the kitchen:
Hannah: "Look, it's Jesus on the train."
Joshua: "It wasn't Jesus, Hannah. He's on in the air."
Hannah: "Bye bye, Jesus! See you later!"

Bible play even shows up in cooking. Yesterday Joshua picked up "The Joy of Cooking" cookbook and stated, "I've got to read this fat book!" He went on to "read" aloud this recipe, "One half quarter teaspoon flour. One mushy banana. The glory of God."

The very first pretend play that I overheard was from Joshua when he was about 18 months old. At the time his favorite story was Esther, so I'm sure it was fresh in his mind when he started calling out, "Mordecai, where are you? Come here, Haman!"

I'm sure that many more amusing episodes will occur over the next several years, especially once Abigail is old enough to participate. I look forward to recording as many as I can remember as the days go by.

Origins

"Bees get pollen from flowers
And chips come from butterflies.
Fruit comes from caterpillars
And other fruit comes from ladybugs."

-Joshua, 2 years old

Joshua's Path to Literacy

Joshua and I have been working on letters for a while. Slowly and not very consistently, but he has learned all of the letter sounds and can identify them in many different contexts. This week I'm trying to step up the school-related activities so that once the Little Three is born (and we're out of a routine and not planning many activities for a while) Joshua and Hannah will have been working toward some small and realistic goals beforehand.

The post is mainly about Joshua, but Hannah is doing really well. She can identify about half of the shapes on our learning objectives list and a few of the colors. As always, I'm never convinced that she's paying attention or understanding what we're talking about, but she jumps in and surprises me at nearly every turn. As an example, we learned about circles last week. Each time I asked her what shape was in front of her she would say the name of a color or answer "triangle". But then this week she is looking around her and identifying circles left and right. She is enjoying copying everything Joshua's learns as well. That means when he's learning to read, she sounds like she is too! :)

Joshua is working on counting (that's counting objects, not saying the memorized number sequence), number recognition, and phonics along with some readiness skills like using scissors. Counting has been a sore spot for us. He doesn't seem to want to count anything, even though he has on a number of occasions. I suspect there's a huge element of him staying in control that leads him to refuse to do what I've asked. But we're getting through it and he's starting to request to work on counting.

As for reading, he has sounded out a couple of words before but never really "gotten" it. Today he asked to do counting on our white board, so once we worked through that I thought we'd throw in some phonics. We reviewed letter sounds and then we put a few letters together. I thought it couldn't hurt just to see where he's at with it. And wouldn't you know it - Joshua sounded out three words! He read them for Claude just before bed tonight. I think Joshua was pretty proud of the accomplishment - and so were his parents!

Joshua's words for today were: "up", "cup" and "dump". Perhaps they're not the first sounds that one might find in a book about teaching phonics, but they were sounds he was getting today, so I went with it. As I've probably posted before, this may still be a long road to full literacy, but I think the concept of reading by sounding out strings (or trains as we call them) of letters is starting to make sense to Joshua. I feel like his learning to read is an even bigger milestone than when he started walking!

And yes, he's very interested in writing and can trace shapes, lines, letters and numbers. So before we know it, Joshua will be reading and writing. And hopefully the counting will come along for the ride.

Happy Birthday, Joshua!

I really like that when you turn three it doesn't matter that the birthday gifts haven't arrived yet, that Mom put up homemade, mismatching decorations or that the day was pretty much like every other day (with a couple of fun surprises throughout) - having a birthday is just really exciting when you're a little guy.

Yes, it's true, despite imperfect circumstances (a later than normal dinner, running home in a huge rainstorm, needing a time-out because he didn't obey) Joshua seemed to thoroughly enjoy his birthday. It just goes to show that it doesn't take much to help a kid feel special on his special day. We sang, made a birthday banner with drawings of all his favorite vehicles, decorated with an orange and green paper chain complimented by pink balloons, ate some pizza, and his favorite - lit candles on his chocolate cupcake. All of it seemed to be just enough to celebrate appropriately.

Now we'll see if he thinks that tomorrow is his birthday again!

He can count!

After a month or more of playing counting games, Joshua finally demonstrated that he can accurately count objects. His first demonstration was while feeding Hannah blueberries. He counted each one that went into her mouth. His second demonstration was while fastening the velcro straps on his sandals. "1-2-3-4-5-6!" And he was right!

After the many times of sitting down with an egg carton and a container of dried kidney beans, I've learned something myself: Joshua is paying attention even when he refuses to participate fully or continually says, "No. No, I can't do that. I don't want to." But now I know for sure, not only is he paying attention, he's really taking in the concepts. Praise the Lord!

So, the theory that I seem to hold is slowly being proven true: toddlers are learning every step of the way, even when they seem resistant to receiving instruction. I say this to some of my violin students' parents, but the fruit of teaching efforts is often very slow with little ones. I'm not always sure if I say this to myself and to other parents just to make us adults feel better or if it will end up being true. In the end, it does seem to be true.

Based on this idea, I tried taking a more laid back approach to our counting times and it really seemed to work. It gave Joshua the time and space that he needed to process the information I was giving him and to feel confident enough in his understanding to give counting a try. It also required that I step back a bit and not get impatient or frustrated if a particular activity didn't go as I planned. I feel like this is a big breakthrough for Joshua in terms of early math concepts, but for me as a teacher it is also a breakthrough. Learning when to push and when to let things go is good for anyone--and learning Joshua's individual threshold for being pushed is vital as we continue our homeschooling together.

Now to remember all of this as we're working on reading...

The Fall and Restoration of Man (or Truck)

In the words of Joshua, nearly three years old, here is the basic scenario of humanity's (or transportation's) need for a savior. Theologically it holds up...kind of. He's got the basic idea, so we were pleased (not to mention entertained).

J: "Trucks disobeyed God."

C: "But if they're friends with Jesus they can obey God."

J: "Trucks die on the cross. If they want to."

C: "Well, they can figuratively...or literally."

And this little story was but a chapter in the life of the trucks. An epic adventure was told to us over dinner by Joshua, who was greatly inspired by a picture that Claude drew on our white board of an ice cream truck. Other ice cream truck inspirations included a ballad to horses, cows, and birds, by our very own Hannah Chew, along with an ode to ice cream from Joshua. Needless to say, we enjoyed a very interesting dinner this evening.

For Posterity

Kids always seem to come up with funny and interesting things to say. Today was a normal day for us in terms of humorous anecdotes from Joshua and Hannah, but I thought that I would put some of them down on (cyber) paper - for posterity's sake. Enjoy!

While visiting the store today, Joshua announced, "We want some TVD." I gathered that he meant that he wanted to watch some TV (there was a display television with a mother and baby walrus showing), but not fully knowing what a TV is, he decided to combine a few different media types (CD, DVD, TV...it's all the same, right?).

We also visited a grocery store today that has singing animals and other puppets displayed throughout. Sounds a bit creepy, right? Think of singing mechanical puppets on a ride at Disneyland and you have a pretty good picture. Cows are favored at this store, as they are with Hannah. And cows that are playing banjos and singing are particularly memorable. On the way home today, Hannah informed me that the cow was "singing to the Lord". It's song, which she very willingly demonstrated, went like this, "Moo moo moo!"



Also on the car ride home today, both little guys were saying, "T-t-t-t-t-t-t," repeatedly. When asked what they were doing they told me, "We're singing to the Lord."

During bath time, Joshua and I had the following conversation which accurately demonstrates his geographical grasp:
"I live at Montana."
"Where does Mommy live?"
"Mommy lives on Saturday."
"Oh, and where does Hannah live?"
"Hannah lives on Sunday."
"Okay. Where does Daddy live?"
"Daddy lives in school."

The following is one that I can't quite type but to set up the video, Joshua was looking for a specific truck of his. Today he couldn't find this truck, a paramedic truck, but it took me a long time to figure out what he was asking for. You'll understand if you watch the video!

Photo Update

Just some photos from the last month or so. Enjoy!

I Love to Dig

Joshua is always making up songs as he goes about the day. This was from our trip to the beach this weekend. Enjoy!

He's 2 1/2, what more can we say?

I was working in the kitchen a few days ago and this caught my attention. Enjoy!

He's hard to hear from under that box. Here's what Joshua is proclaiming,
"El camion de bomberos!"
For those who don't understand Spanish, this means, "The fire truck!"