Trevor Is a Child of God

Brr-Buh-Buh-Burr . . . Trumpet fanfare!!! Unveiling the colorful new manual: Behold Your Little Ones, useful not only for Nursery (this is to the old nursery manual what Preach My Gospel is to the old missionary discussions), but also for use in Primary and in the home. Currently available in seventeen languages, plus Braille. (Not Japanese yet, sorry Elder West) Our marvelous nursery leader has already given the parents a letter with the lesson schedule for the rest of the year. I've ordered my copy. Have you?

Also available online, we used lesson #1 last week: "I Am a Child of God." It had the song, a scripture story and an activity rhyme we used, several days in a row. Forget our old family scripture attempts that Miriam and Trevor wouldn't attend. They loved the presentation of the scripture story in the manual:

Show the illustration of Moses on page 99. Explain that Moses was a great prophet who lived a long time ago. Tell the children that Moses went to a mountain to pray. Invite the children to pretend to climb a mountain; then have them fold their arms as if praying. Open the Pearl of Great Price to Moses 1:4 and say, “God said to Moses, ‘Behold, thou art my son.’ ” Explain that Moses learned that he was a child of God.

Trevor climbed the post of Miriam's bed, of course (what he usually does during scripture study, but this way it was related). Wrapping up our lesson, we announced that Miriam was a child of God, Trevor was a child of God . . .

"No!" said Trevor vehemently. "I'm not a child of God! I'm a pirate!"

I calmly responded, "Even pirates are children of God."

"Oh. Trevor looked thoughtfully at his feet, then said quietly, "I am a child of God."

Fun Storage

We've been working on our "fun storage:" accumulating a wealth of healthy memories to enjoy in case the weather or our schedules prohibit such indulgences this fall. Kaith's school starts in less than 2 1/2 weeks - that feels so soon!

This week we met friends at a playground.

When I woke up that morning, it was pouring rain. I coaxed the children into personal prayers that morning, and they prayed that it would stop raining so we could go to the park. It did and we did. Trevor rode a two wheeler (with training wheels, of course) for the first time, borrowing one his friend had brought. I suppose that's another improbable possibility for Christmas. We already have helmets.

Three Birds, One Stone

I have had several elusive desires, my Three Birds:
*spend one-on-one time with each child
*have a good kitchen education
*kids involved in staging family night

A couple weeks ago I had a humble stroke of genius, my Stone:
*Let one child a week choose and assist in making treat for family home evening, rotate so everyone regularly gets an opportunity.

This stone first flew three weeks ago. Trevor chose Chocolate No-Bake Cookies. Last week Miriam chose Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies (from C is for Cooking). Kaith had been anxiously waiting for his week. When his Monday finally arrived, he spent the morning perusing cookbooks. I did not have to entertain him, and he wasn't whining! After musing aloud, "We could make ___" numerous times, he finally settled on Rainbow Sprinklers, which are a soft sugar cookie rolled in colored sugar. He was so proud to be making (or helping to make) such fancy cookies! I think we need to have the children rotate responsibilities on the lesson, now.






As you can see, Sterling enjoyed the forbidden contraband that his sister gave him.

Tag-I'm It

Thanks, Suzanne.

My Joys
1 Stargazing, looking at pretty pictures, etc.
2 Alone time
3 One-on-one time with Cory or kids

My Fears
1 Baseboard heater fire
2 Not getting a timely epidural during labor (dormant fear)
3 Giving birth all alone in a dirty bathroom (dormant fear)

Current Obsessions/Collections
1 Giving children enough intensive nurturing in the right things at the right time.
2 Succeding, or at least surviving, Kindergarten with Washington Virtual Academies
3 Succeding, or at least surviving, another semester toward my BFA in Traditional Illustration

Surprising Fact
1 I'm trying to read the Book of Mormon in French
2 I daydream about ironing my sheets and scenting them with lavender sachets
3 I actually do like my children

Tag
I'm afraid of guilting others into work, so I think I'll end here (okay, and I'm trying to save time).

Family and a Temple Visit

Well could you follow the formula given by the Lord: 'Establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God' (D&C 88:119).

Thomas S. Monson,

"The Spirit of Relief Society," Ensign, May 1992, 101-102

Saturday morning we drove to the tenple, and my heart skipped a beat to see the unexpected scaffolding on that sacred building. The spire was barely visible, but, as we drove closer, I could see the grounds covered with properly dressed people, returning to the temple on the first open Saturday since the summer closure. Cory was watching the kids, so he dropped me off. Just past the front desk I saw that part of the ground flooring had been replaced with beautiful, glossy tile, that magnified the sound of every high-heeled step. I was relieved to reach the next stretch of carpeting. I arrived barely in time for the 9:30 session, with four men and four other women, the smallest session I have ever been in. In the Celestial room I took my time reading and rereading the last page of Proverbs where it describes a virtuous woman, and the spiritual differences between sacrifice and self-indulgence.
Afterwards, I waited for Cory in the shade outside, wondering how they had used the snacks I had made, and if Cory had taken pictures at the park. When he pulled up, I could hear a lively, unfamiliar rendition of "Give Said the Little Stream." He handed me a box with a new quad (Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price bound together) to replace my baptism set that is not really bound and often missing. After playing at the park, he had decided to purchase what may be our last set of treasures before Christmas, and milkshakes for the kids.

Freaky Friday

I've been determined to master "early to bed, early to rise." I'm getting good at the early to rise, but struggle with early to bed. Well, we were out of milk, didn't have enough cheese for a Friday pizza, etc. I considered initiating my Albertsons online account, but you have to order by 10 pm the night before, and today is payday. Quite proud of myself, I got out of bed while all were asleep, changed into exercise clothes ( a lady does not go shopping in her pajamas), and pulled out of the drive way at 5:59. Traffic was nearly non existent. In 20 minutes I acquired 3 gallons of milk and 8 bags of groceries (most of what we need to enjoy the next two weeks). I was elated. With the children it's been taking about two miserable, humiliating hours. At the check-out stand, I noticed my keys were missing. Yes, I locked them in the van. At 6:33 am, instead of putting the groceries in the van to drive a few blocks home, I called my husband to explain why he might be late to work. He told me to avoid the appearance of homelessness and not push the shopping cart home (I would have returned it, really I would have), and offered to walk over with the children.

Right.

Puppy guarding my van and my groceries, I thought I'd look less silly if I stood there chatting on my self-one, I mean cell phone, so I called my mom. She thought she could get there sooner than my husband.

Fine.

Cory was already getting the children dressed, and had gotten them excited to "save Mom!" The super heroes, especially Kaith, were not happy to find out that Grandma got to be the "cavalry" and they had to stay home and wait. Finally, a little after seven, I got home. Those twenty minute groceries took nearly two hours to put away, since I was then caring for children again.

The milk? They each ate about five bowls of cereal with milk, and weren't done until around ten.

Apple for Baby?

The Lord is good to me,

and so I thank the Lord,

for giving me the things I need:

the sun and the rain

and the apple seeds.

The Lord is good to me.

Johnny Appleseed's Prayer

Origin unknown to Me

I have begun Sterling on a word book. It claims to be an alphabet book for babies, so the first picture is an apple. We start at the beginning each time. Familiarity is increasing his stamina, so now we can get about halfway through.

The neighbors have apple trees. They are not pruned. They are not picked. The branches extend several feet into our property, fruit falls thickly in our grass, and one has espaliered itself down our side of the fence. The children joyously pick and eat these apples. I picked and washed a small apple for Sterling, who thought it the funniest, most exciting thing when I called it "apple." He Who Must Now Hold the Feeding Spoon would not accept applesauce this morning, but was vigorously attempting to ingest this fist sized morsel. Okay, so it only lasted for a few minutes.

Now I present my moral dilemma: is it okay to pick the neighbor's apples that grow on our side of the fence? Do I:

A: forbid children from touching and severely prune off the disputable branches?

B: do I look the other way while the children eat all they can reach?

C: do I walk halfway around the block to spend twenty minutes discussing this with said neighbor, while my children run in the street?

D: rejoice in the manna from heaven and make apple betty for Mom's Movie Night?

One Summer Day

This morning we met another family at Lundeen Park. It has a play structure at one end and a small beach at the other. We started with the playstructure. Trevor and new friend Kaden raced up, raced down, slipped into each other, and laughed. Sterling sat on a blanket in the shade and tried to get his hands on nature. Miriam liked the wiggly slide.

At the beach, everyone waded in. In spite of hiking up shorts, children got wet up to their waists. Miriam was enraptured with the ducks under the dock. No one wanted to go. We had more run aways than I could carry. I informed a certain four year old that if he ran away again, he would get a five minute time out as soon sas we got home. He ran anyway. Thanks to Nicole's help, we all made it back to our van. Trevor was sobbing. Miriam again amazed me with her nurturing instincts (a.k.a. divine nature) by finding a package of pocket tissues, pulling one out announcing, "This is for Twevuh. He's cwying."

I cheerfully administered the time-out. Why am I happy? A month ago we tackled the hitting problem in our family . . . and after a week it was nearly gone, and has stayed that way. Now that I feel we have successfully finished replacing that habit, I think we can move on to our next worst behavior problem of running away. Cory, I propose that if children run away while we are at the park, library, or church, upon getting home we promptly give time outs: 1 minute for Miriam 5 minutes for Trevor, 10 minutes for Kaith (as if he would). I am optimistic that good change can soon occur.

This afternoon I hope to help with cutting workbooks, put away laundry, make dinner, and offer wading pool time.

Renaissance Baby

If he'd been born in the sixteenth century, he'd make a perfect Renaissance baby: can you imagine all the naked baby angels that would be painted in his image? I'm afraid the baby rolls won't last much longer. This guy can crawl all over the house, and, as you can see, is now pulling himself up to stand. I've been cleaning floors with religious zeal!

School, Past and Future

My final has been graded and: I got an A! in Art History through the Fifteenth Century! I hope, one day, to teach children's art classes. I've been researching and saving my ideas, including unit study arts. For example, say fourth graders are studying the solar system. After an art lesson on composition, they are introduced to pastels and sketch their own planet, while listening to The Planets.
I registered for two classes for fall: Figure Drawing (stop laughing, Mom) and Art History, Renaissance through the Nineteenth Century.
And, yes, Kaith is still registered with Washington Virtual Academies (where are the supplies?). For Kindergarten, that will be ten hours a week. Let's see if Trevor and Miriam hate me for it.

Nurturing Music in Our Family

I've had music on the mind this week. Having gotten a child all the way to the mature age of five, I have plenty of experiments to look back on, and a better idea of what a good children's curriculum is. It's funny how my views have changed and matured so much over the past few years. I have to plan when I'm out of class, because once I'm back in I don't have much time to reassess life, just to move on with the plans I've laid out. I haven't yet used all the books I've listed. Hopefully they live up to my hopes. And I still want to find a good Nursery/Folk song book, and game instructions.

Babies
*They are absorbing the sounds of voices, the rhythm of life, and the family culture.
Toddlers/Preschoolers
*Play Nursery/Folk Song Games regularly (including "Ring Around the Rosie" and "London Bridge")
*At the piano (get it in tune, they're developing an ear for pitch): Children's Folk Songs and Children's Songbook; they can hear the melodies, learn the words, and "play" the piano, but more important, they learn that music comes from people, not electronics, and develop a habit of expressing themselves while making it.
*Talk about the feeling of the sounds. "I think these slow low notes sound spooky. Is this your monster song?" or "The music is so fast. It makes me feel excited."
*Musical Scriptures: whatever pictures you use to represent scripture stories, there is always an appropriate song to go with it. Balance letting your children have their favorites, and introducing new stories. Songs may come from the Children's Songbook again, or Hymns or Folk Songs (like "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho")
*Read Meet the Orchestra or Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin, to introduce instruments and their names.
*Have some toy instruments. Encourage marching bands and orchestras.
*Have informal family dances.
*Occasionally attend local Concerts in the Park.
*Use themed Music Playlists in daily routines to expose children to a variety of delightful music (more on these Playlists in a separate blog).
Around Kindergarten, give or take a year
*Use Music for Little Mozarts and listen to related ear-training CDs (If beginning piano lessons now, the series also has kindergarten-age-appropriate piano books).
Read and listen to Carnival of the Animals (it may be best to start with no more than one track per sitting)
*Begin learning sol-fa hand signs, and music vocabulary
Elementary (this outline is more skeletal, as I do not yet have an elementary age child)
*Listen to Classic Kids CDs, like Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery
*Begin piano lessons (or another instrument or choir) and instill the habit of regular practice, about 10-15 minutes a day, depending on the developmental age of the child.
*Go to an instrument petting zoo (I think the Everett Symphony has one)
*Read stories about operas and ballets
*As a special treat go to a children's concert, the Nutcracker Ballet, or more Concerts in the Park.
*Keep using music in everyday life, and stretch their familiarity repertoire by introducing new music.
*As long as it isn't violent, profane, etc., let them choose their favorite style of music. Their own CD player or MP3 player could be a special treat.

Public Riches

You may have riches and wealth untold,

Caskets of jewels and baskets of gold,

But richer than I you will never be,

For I had a mother who read to me.

Thomas Carlyle

as quoted in The Art of Teaching Children by Daryl V. Hoole/Donette V. Ockey, c. 1964 Deseret Book

I felt quite clever. A few days ago I used that delightful multi-tab internet function: one open to easy browsing at Amazon.com, the other had the search engine for our local library. Through Amazon, I found a plethera of books our family can't live without; with our public library I reserved most of them for free. Right now we're enjoying:

Fancy Nancy: Bonjour Butterfly

Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin

My Daddy Is a Pretzel (This is yoga for kids. It's geared for elementry school coordination, but I'm encouraging it persistently, anyway.)

The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (I was embarassed to find that the title accurately portrays the activities of the picture book)

. . . with more holds waiting to be filled! I hope Fantasia 2000 is available for this week's movie night. I really didn't prepare for last week, and felt the lack.

Superintendent of Public Instruction, Part 2

Remember David Blomstrom? One of the candidates invited to this forum, but who neither replied to the invitation, nor was present? Well, I accidentally came across him responding repeatedly and heatedly to a blog that supported Randy Dorn, former chair of the K-12 house education committee (the one in the Legislature). Trying to be thorough and objective in my notes, I've added included the link to that candidate's views.

What strategies would you promote to encourage and support minorities and students who are different?
Randy: recognize differences. Have their parents involved in all the grades. Eliminate roadblocks. In the Math section of the WASL we need to eliminate the essays. We need to follow the guidelines of the National Math Advisory Panel. We’re way off!
Donald Hansler: I am opposed to any discrimination. We need to improve the ESL program. The high drop-out rate is because of the WASL program (kids with test anxiety). We need two levels of HS diplomas: one for those who can pass the WASL, and one for those who can’t.
Dr. Terry B.: (Referenced House Bill 1209). We need high standards in all skills. We have statewide core standards. The achievement gap is because of racism in society. We need respect between communities and school. We need to have resources to support. Native Americans: we recorded Tulalip stories from tribal members to incorporate into the children’s reading curriculum.
Enid Duncan: we all function differently in different parts of the brain. Look at new developments in science.

What is your vision for education for the next 20 years?
Donald Hansler: I’d make a lot of changes. E-mail me for details. We can develop a fair, efficient education system in this state, then the country, then the world.
Dr. Terry B.: All kids in our state will meet state standards. We need to fully fund education for all kids in the state. We need a connection between K12 and higher education.
Enid Duncan: We need to do something now. Don’t wait 20 years! I took my struggling child, labeled “IQ of 59” across the country to Harvard. The man did not use papers, but used his body to learn he is very dyslexic. I didn’t sit idle.
Randy Dorn: Beyond tenth grade, kids choose interests so they can choose a career, not a job. We need more resources. It may take 1-on-1 or 2 or 3 to get struggling kids up. We want education everywhere. Have quality and skilled teachers in every classroom; that will take more resources.

Momma Called the Doctor . . .

They have a disease around here called elephantitis.

Would you still love me if I came home looking like an elephant?

The Other Side of Heaven

So, Momma called the On-Call Nurse late Saturday evening. That morning, Kaith had a small red mark on his cheek, perhaps a mosquito bite. As the day progressed, the redness increased, and his cheek began to swell. At bedtime, he could no longer open his right eye all the way. After he fell asleep, the swelling around his eye covered his eyelids, and his eyelashes jutted, not down but stark forward. The nurse said that, since he could breathe and didn't have a fever, we could wait until the Walk-In Clinics opened in the morning to get medical attention.


The doctor was 95% sure that Kaith was just reacting to some kind of bug bite. He prescribed steroids to bring the swelling down. The 5% uncertainty was that it could be a bacterial skin infection. Until he lab results tell us otherwise, we have to keep him away from the public and give him two kinds of antibiotics. Kaith was in tears about missing Church, and I'm in awe at the complexity of the dosage schedules. Plus I'm not sure how to get to our follow-up appointment while hauling all the children.

Incidentally, our camera has face-recognition software and red-eye correction. A couple posts ago, the camera recognized the book picture of Molly as a face, but today, we could not use the red-eye correction because the camera could not acknowledge Kaith's face!

Later, the tree which was a Woozle gave me imaginary medicine that he told me to take three hundred times a day. Yes, that was Kaith.

Ward Campout

What do you do for fun on Saturday nights? Go and throw rocks in the lake?

The Parent Trap (1961)

Our Ward Campout was Friday evening. Unwilling to sleep on rocks, we showed up for the evening only. Our children:
Threw rocks in the river.
Explored the Farstead’s camper

(Miriam) Played run-away from Mom and ran into deep puddles

Threw more rocks in the river

(Kaith and Trevor) Found friends to play with

Watched the Homemade Boats' Race (we came in third)

"Played" softball

Swung on the exciting bucket swings

Used flashlights

Made (with help) and consumed s'mores

Japanese Girl, American Girl

Last week, for Mom’s Movie Night, we watched the Japanese-animated film Whisper of the Heart. It’s great for the subtle exposure to everyday life for youth in Japan: drying laumdry on the balcony, biking or taking the bus everywhere, popularity of the American "Country Roads," school uniforms, and studying to get into a good high school. If I’d known how much name-calling there was during part of the movie, I might not have shown it to my impressionable preschoolers. It took several days to mostly weed out their new vocabulary. Cory, on the other hand, has been singing “Country Roads” all week.
This week we watched Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front. I got out my precious The American Girls Club & Historical Society Handbook (a disbanded organization) and found the recipe for Victory Popcorn. When Cory walked in, Kaith informed him “Sweets were rationed because of the War.” I think something sank in.