Another First Recital!!

We have been attending a homeschool co-op every thursday since January. One of the classes the girls take there is a music class, in which they have been learning to play recorders, along with some basic theory and fun songs and games. This past Thursday was the last meeting until fall, so they were sent home with their recorders afterwards. Katy has been telling us for weeks about learning "Hot Cross Buns" and has been humming it and tapping out the rhythms. Saturday, when she showed Matt, he asked her to try to pick it out on the piano. She sat down and he showed her where E was. Well, she picked it right out! She has tried before and has not been able to figure out the pitch progression (up or down), but she did it! Then, she picked out "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and played a C scale (do, re mi...which she knows from The Sound of Music)! She was so proud of herself, giggling and beaming afterwards. She has since then gone back to the piano and played it again several times!, even finding the right starting pitch! Our friend, Gina, remarked that only two music majors would be excited that our 5 year old could find E on the piano! :) Anyway, just wanted to share a video of our proud daughter, taken by her proud parents! :)

Time for School??

We have begun homeschooling the girls, obviously doing more with Katy than with Darsie at this point. Katy has learned about 45 or so phonograms so far and 30 spelling words. With Darsie, I have been focusing on one letter/phonogram at a time. I love the program I have for this, but I have also taken a break from it, figuring that we would pick it up again in the fall and focus more on the literature/science/art stuff for right now. At least, I figured that until I looked over at Darsie in church Sunday night. I heard her making sounds and was going to remind her to be quiet until I realized that she was sounding out letters to write words. Her paper had "buckit" (bucket), "prsin" (person), "god", "caw" (cow)....Amazing! So, maybe we'll start back in this summer! :)

Impromptu Science Lesson

I sent the kids outside for lunch today, because we had been indoors too long. After playing for a while, they were sitting eating their lunches when we noticed a baby (we think) mourning dove walking around the yard. It was not at all afraid of us and even ate off of Darsie's plate. Being the "super" homeschool mom that I tell myself I am, I decided that naps could wait and that we would learn about mourning doves for a while. We got out our science notebooks and drew the bird and read about it in our bird book and wrote down observations (it ate peanut butter and graham crackers, it drank with its head down, etc.). The girls were thrilled and named "her" Alice. It is funny that she didn't fly away at all and that there was no mom mourning dove nearby, so I am not sure what is wrong with her. She's out there in the yard still, walking around, nibbling on crackers the girls dropped, drinking some water and enjoying the sun. The girls were very hesitant to come in for their naps because they were worried about her. Hopefully, she'll be there when they get up.

PE Lesson

The weather being slightly warmer than freezing, we decided that it was a good day to take our bikes out for some exercise. Paige, Ellia and Ben accompanied us to Rose Tree Park near the church, and the kids rode bikes and then climbed the "huge" (it really is pretty tall!!!) hill there. They had a blast, and we decided that it counted for our PE lesson for the day. Here are the girls waving from the top of the hill.

Snow Day!!

What a great day! We had playgroup this morning at our friend's house and read a book By Lois Ehlert in which she had made some creative collage illustrations about snowmen. Then, the kids all made snowman collages. Katy and Darsie both enjoyed making their snowman and then showing them off to their daddy tonight! Then, we packed up and headed over to our first co-op experience down the street. The girls got to do music, PE, art and Spanish classes today and were both teary and sad when it was time to go home (a good sign, I think). It had begun to snow while we were at co-op, and by the time we left, it was a wintery scene outside. The girls were very excited and wanted to go out immediately, to which I responded that they had to wait for their daddy to come home (:0). When Matt got home, we ate a quick dinner, and then he headed out with the girls for a freezing family fun night. They rolled snowballs, made snow creations, and had a snowball fight (complete with Katy tattling on daddy for hitting her in the face with a snowball). Anyway, here is a photo of the scene. Wish you were all here!

What is real?

Katy has been trying to sort out "real" stories from "pretend" ones lately, from Super Why on TV to Pilgrim's Progress to Flat Stanley and stories about kings and princesses. She will often ask us if something we are reading or watching on TV or a movie is "real." Today at lunch we were talking about these things, and she turned to me and asked, "Are we in a story?"

I just thought it was a cool question. I told her that, yes, we are in a story, just the most real one of all, and, even though we know the end in one respect, we are still having to find out how it goes each day. Pretty cool to think about, though, being in a story. We are in God's story, and He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. It was just a good reminder to me that it is so not about me, but it is all about the REAL story and the Author of that story!

Sharing Favorite Stories

It is so fun when I get to share some of my favorite books with the girls! Last night, I began reading to them from Pilgrims Progress (one simplified a bit for children), and they were hooked. They both sat listening to the first chapter, and then they had to know how he got his burden removed, so we read three more chapters. Katy especially was interested and asking lots of questions - Who put the burden there?, how did it come off?, is the king Jesus?.... So neat to have that opportunity to talk with them! So, they begged all afternoon to read more, and Matt got to sit down with them tonight while I finished making dinner. Here is a shot (believe it or not, Darsie did sit still for it yesterday, but she was still listening for the most part tonight).