Closing Out Our Egypt Study

This morning, we headed out to the Penn Museum of Archeology (our GPS calls it the Penn Museum of Archeo) to see some real stuff from Egypt up close and personal. It was pretty neat to see columns and other artifacts that we had previously only seen in books. The girls each searched for the first letters (sounds) of their names in hieroglyphics, and we noted some of the hieroglyphics that we recognized. They also drew pictures of some of the things we saw there. Katy said that her fevorite part of the Egypt exhibit was the bones, even though they were kind of gross (her words). Darsie was most fascinated by the little child's mummy. Matt and I thought the sphinx was pretty cool. It is the third largest spinx in existence and the largest in the US. All but its head is in excellently preserved condition, because it was apparently buried up to its neck in sand when it was found, so only its face has worn away in the weather.

Posing with the head of Ramesses II

Posing with a whole statue of Ramesses II

Afterwards, we continued our field trip to our favorite milkshake restaurant, Nifty Fifties!

Fairness vs. grace

Yesterday evening, we had an interesting story play out in our home. Since we had not been making the girls clean up all week, the living room was pretty trashed. I finally made it to the library to pick up some books I had requested and found that the movie that I had requested was also in - The Secret Garden, which we had just read together a few months ago. When the girls saw it in my library bag, they were thrilled and wanted to watch it. However, there was really no where to sit in our living room comfortably to watch, so I said that we couldn't watch until the room was cleaned. I didn't tell them that they had to clean it up, because we were giving them until today.
Well, one of our girls wanted to watch the movie so much that she took the incentive to clean the whole room by herself, while the other one chose to play and actually had a pretty nasty attitude about it. So, before dinner, I told the one that she and I would get to watch the movie that evening. To the other, I explained that she would not get to watch the movie that night, that she had chosen to play instead of cleaning up, which was fine because we were not requiring them to clean up, but that it was not fair for her to watch it, too, since she had not helped at all. This one was crushed and went weeping to sit on her bed.
At dinner, while the second child was still upstairs crying, Matt talked to our one daughter and commended her on choosing to clean up all by herself, without much complaining or fussing that the other daughter was not helping. Then, he told her that, if she wanted, she could choose to say that her sister could watch the movie with us that night, even though it was not the fair thing to do since she had not helped clean up the room at all. This daughter immediately and joyfully asked if she could be the bearer of the good news and invite her sister to watch, too. She did this without pride or boasting, just excited to see her sister happy.
After our other elated daughter came flying down the stairs, Matt took the opportunity to talk with the girls a bit. He explained that this was an example of grace instead of "fairness." What was fair was for the first daughter to watch the movie and the second to go to bed. What was grace was the second daughter getting to watch the movie, too, despite her choice not to contribute. He went on to explain that this is what Christ did for us, though He did even more. What Christ did would be like if our first daughter not only cleaned up perfectly and then invited her sister to watch anyway, though she had not done a thing, but if she also then went upstairs to take the punishment (going to bed and not watching) that the sister was going to receive in her place, even though she had not done anything wrong. It is horribly unfair! Our hearts would cry out against it if we were asked to do such a thing, but, amazingly, Christ counted it all joy to do just that for us! He took all of our sins upon His perfect sinless self and bore our punishment in our place, and then He gave us His righteousness so that, in Him, we (who are anything but perfect and sinless) don't even look like sinners but are perfectly spotless in His sight! Amazing! A great gospel opportunity with our kids! I pray for more of these and for all of us to grow in our appreciation for and understanding of these amazing truths!

Outdoor Time!!

The girls attended their second homeschool club at Tyler Arboretum, so Liam and I had time for another nature walk while we waited for them. The birds were everywhere, and it was fun to see chickadees, sparrows, male cardinals, tufted titmice and even this funny guy:

This is a white-breasted nuthatch, whose particularly distinguishing feature is that he runs up and down trees (even upside down) and is therefore able to find nuts and seeds and bugs that other birds miss by walking only the "right" way.

No red-bellied woodpecker this time, though. I want to remember our nature journals and bird guide the next time we go!


And here's Liam, posing for a goofy picture in a chair he insisted on sitting in. :)

Basketball!

We signed the girls up for Upward Basketball this winter to get them acquainted with team sports in general and basketball in particular. I do feel a bit for the poor coach, who has a team of 7 giggly 5-7 year old girls! We were not too optimistic at the beginning of their first game, seeing as they still had to work on dribbling and passing, much less shooting! However, once we saw them play, we were actually impressed (for them!). No one shot at the wrong basket, and the girls did pretty well attempting dribbling and even made several baskets! The older girls definitely have the height advantage at this point!
It has been interesting to see the girls' personalities display themselves in how they play. Darsie plays with a big grin on her face the entire time and is always where the ball is. She hustles amazingly well and has even stolen the ball from the other team several times! You should see her dribble, too! It is something to watch! ;)
Katy is more timid, we think more because she is worried about what all the other people are thinking and wants to be able to do it all perfectly first. She can actually make baskets pretty well, so we are waiting for her competitive side to kick in, and then I think she'll really get into it!
Both are really having fun, and Upward is perfect for them! Even in the games, the ref focuses more on training than calling them on things like traveling (they ALL do it!), etc. Now for soccer next fall!

They have everyone line up at the beginning of the game and then call each player's name and have them run through the line as we clap and cheer. Here is Darsie. Katy ran too fast for my camera, so I'll try again next week!

Normal Rockwell

We visited an exhibit honoring the art of illustrator Norman Rockwell this afternoon. It was a really well-done display, with several of his paintings brought to "life" by creating life-size sculptures of them. Very kid-friendly, with lots of stuff to climb on or touch. I always have loved Normal Rockwell because each of his pictures tell a story, making it fun to stand and explore them. The girls seemed to enjoy the exhibit - they like to draw pictures that tell stories as well, so I think they identified with that aspect of his art. See if you can figure out what was Liam's favorite part of the exhibit!

We had the girls "act out" this illustration...

Then we added a modern twist...



An intro to civil rights....