Learning By The Way

I realized that I haven’t put a baby update on my blog- and here I am, firmly planted in 2nd trimester. Everything is going beautifully so far, and the risk of miscarriage (statistically speaking) is past.

This past week has been enormous fun, as I have started feeling how much our little one is moving! He’s not big enough for anyone else to feel yet, but I have been enjoying his baby dance.

The midwife is coming to our house for a checkup on Thursday. If God is willing, our baby will be born at home, surrounded by family and friends, sometime around October 31st. And if past experience means anything, it will be several days into November, after I have gone mad and given up on him ever actually arriving.

We are about half way through the book Castle by David Macaulay. I have been reading it aloud during learning time. It tells the story of one actual castle built in Wales during the reign of Edward Longshanks. When we started the book, we found the town on the Wales map where the castle was built, and located King Edward I on our neat-o,massive timeline. The children have worked on various castle related drawings during the readings. So far, they have each made up their own country map, and figured out where to place their castle to defend it. (Of course, when you make up a country, you have to design its flag. That has been accomplished satisfactorily as well). Today they started work on designing their castle, using a Castles of the World coloring book we have for inspiration.

Moriah and Toby are poised to complete Exercise 26 tomorrow, the lesson at the halfway point in their Singapore Math workbooks. Samuel is a few lessons behind them, not due to any difficulty understanding the work, but due to him being Samuel.

Tomorrow, we will enjoy an outing to the zoo with another family from church. The children will be looking for answers to zoo questions so that they can get another stamp in their Science Passports.

And Wednesday, the 4 older children start sign language class. Their class books (You Can Learn Sign Language!) arrived on Saturday, and Toby has come up to me several times already, showing me various signs. “Hey, mom, you know what this means?”

On Saturday, James and I picked up summer reading sheets from Barnes and Noble. The children have earned free books the last two summers in that reading program. Elsie already has her sheet half full, and Moriah has started on hers as well. The library reading program starts this week, so I’ll have to stop by there (and pay my library debt- ) and get the children signed up. I got a lead from the Peoria Area Homeschoolers egroup that the local Christian bookstore has a reading program, too. That one sounds fun. I did not sign them up for the Pizza Hut Book-It program this year. I liked the aspect of being able to set individual goals for each child, but the chore of going out for Pizza Hut pizza every month proved to be way too strenuous.

Our friend and neighbor, Kathey, through complicated circumstances, found herself caring for a small, sweet dog that she refers to simply as the Little One. She soon realized that this dog was pregnant. We had little idea how far before Little One came into care that this unplanned pregnancy occured. But Little One got rounder and rounder. I lent Kathey my copy of the Complete Dog Book, marking the chapter on Breeding and Whelping.

During supper, I got the panicked phone call. Little One is having her puppies! Since Kathey has limited mobility due to various medical problems, I knew she would need help (not that I would have missed it anyway). I rushed over, lickety split, with Moriah, Samuel, and Elsie in tow.

I think Little One is a first time mama, because she was confused at what was happening when I arrived. Two puppies were born. One was unattended in a blanket, and the other was still in its sac, bumping along behind his mama, still attached to the undelivered placenta. I brought Little One back to her first pup, and tore the other one out of his sac. She started to calm down, and began licking them. Puppy 3 arrived. By the time Puppy 4 made her appearance, Little One was an old pro. Little Mama freed the pup from her sac, cut the cord, and licked her silly. It was now the children’s bedtime, but James brought Toby and Peter over to see the puppies. So they were there when Puppy #5 made his appearance. Good job, Little One!

They are all adorable, and growing fat on their mother’s milk. The children all have their favorites, and James has made it clear that none of the puppies will be finding a permanent home here! Two of the puppies are already spoken for by other families, leaving three yet to find their fortunate owners. Anyone want a puppy?