Learning By The Way

While Peter and Elsie worked on their counting pages, the three older children worked on fractions. They have a great concept of what fractions are- today we worked on some nitty gritty of reducing fractions to their lowest denominator.

Yesterday was the feast of St. Stephens, the second day of Christmas. I read to the children the account in Acts of the sermon Stephen preached to the council which found him guilty of blasphemy for his faith in Jesus. We read of his death, and his mercy on his killers.

Then we sang together the one carol which celebrates St. Stephens day- Good King Wencelsas. The children took turns singing the part of the good king and the page.

I read the story of the real King Wenceslas (yes, there was a real good king Wenceslas). He was duke of Bohemia, and carried on the work of his grandfather in bringing Christianity to his people. I alway imagined him as an older man, big and burly. I found that my image of him was incorrect, as he died when he reached his mid twenties. He was murdered by his younger brother, who was angry over the political alliances he had made and his faith in Christ. Wenceslas was legendary for his kindness to the poor and to orphans.

In preparation for winter solstice tomorrow, we made a model of the earth. Moriah drew a 23.5 degree angle for us (angle of the earth’s tilt). I cut a potato roughly earth shaped, Samuel painted it blue and green, and I stuck a chopstick throught the axis. Toby acted out the sun by holding a flashlight, and we saw how the earth’s tilt make the amount of sunlight reaching us different during different times of the year.

We have had some lovely watercolors in tubes since before we moved, and Moriah has been eager to use them. I found a nicely laid out watercolor instruction book at the library (simple but thorough). Moriah and Samuel took the first lesson, on mixing colors. They used only red, blue and yellow; these are their creations.

Moriah’s is a lovely flower (she loves to draw and paint flowers). This one looks like a purple coneflower to me.

Samuel made this vibrant geometric drawing. It reminds me of an African (or maybe South American) tribal painting.

Seeing Elsie knit, Moriah has been eager to learn. But Aunt Raquel takes only one student at a time, and I knit left handed so I couldn’t teach her very well. Raquel got a Kids Knitting book at the library, and Moriah curled up with it Sunday afternoon. Moriah learned to ‘finger crochet’ from the book, and then taught Samuel how. She made a headband for herself and one to match Elsie’s dress.

And then yesterday- Raquel gave Moriah a knitting lesson! By the end of the row, she had it figured out and was doing it by herself. She is making a bookmark. Elsie is continuing to knit a blanket for her doll. They are thrilled with their new skill!

It has been a busy week for all, and thus we have not been posting.  Peter fell out of bed on Monday bruising his face {{shudder}} but he is just fine.  

This is the week of the Samaritan Christmas party and our annual board meeting.  And both are done.  It is a moment of relief and a moment of sadness.  Sad that life is so busy during this week that I was unable to truly enjoy spending time with my co-workers last night (I am several hours under in sleep) and relieved that the board meeting is over and that I still have a job.

I didn’t expect to be fired, of course.  I love what I do, though, and am glad each year when the Board is pleased to let me do what I do for another year.

Merry Christmas, O Come Emmanuel.

Last Sunday I preached on having a quiet heart.  Jesus came to bring peace on earth, and that includes my heart and the hearts of my family.  It is my prayer that this Christmas season we do not allow ourselves to be so busy as to not have true peace in Him alone—and that we quiet our souls to rest in His arms.

Mery Christmas, O Come Emmanuel.

We went to the library on Thursday this week. The 3 older children did an excellent job of keeping track of their books with our new system. Elsie had a little trouble finding all hers. I checked out books on light and color in preparation for a unit study on these. After fielding lots of questions on these matters, I decided we need to study it in depth!

This is the first year all the children have bought presents for each other. I had never thought about how hard this would be to arrange, as they are not old enough to go off by themselves in a store. Raquel took Moriah and Toby on Monday, and Elsie later in the week. I took Samuel on Wednesday, and Peter yesterday. It was a continual exercise in practical math. “How much is this?” “How much money would I have left?” “How much can I spend on the average for each person?” It was marvelous fun, and there is already no room left under the tree even though I haven’t wrapped my presents for them yet!

It’s Saturday morning and Moriah has already devoured all five books she got at the library. She needs to get longer books. :0)

Moriah was able to go with Aunt Raquel on Tuesday to help at a friend’s house. She was able to entertain a baby and a toddler a bit, and play with her friends. Also, they let her borrow some of their books! She came home with:

The Thing in Kat’s Attic by Charlotte Graeber
a Heathcliff cartoon book
Soup by Robert Newton Peck
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
The Elephants Child by Rudyard Kipling

She had all these read by Wednesday afternoon, and was ready to start reading Aunt Raquel’s thrift store purchase, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s ‘By the Shores of Silver Lake’. She finished this with relish, before evening. It’s a good thing we had friends over Thursday to distract her from books until our trip to the library today!