Here's Katy...

Here she is...

Katy's Performance

Katy's girls' group ended tonight for the year. They had their annual end-of-year program, where each group shares a bit about what they have been doing all year. You may remember the Christmas banquet, where Katy faced the back during her group's entire performance. Well, we prepped her for this one, and she was excited about it and ready to go. We prayed with her in the car, asking for God to help her enjoy it and be brave. Well, she did GREAT!! She did everything the group did, from doing the "secret handshake" to sharing her special thought from this week (she mentioned me using my sewing machine today!) to even saying her lines for the "H" attribute. I will upload a video later (you can't hear her very well, but she does say "God is Holy").
Anyway, we are so proud of her! She has come a long way from the fall! Several friends of ours also came up and expressed how proud they were of her as well. I told her about it in the car, and she commented that God had helped her. Praise Him for answering the prayers even of our children!

Humbled...

I read this quote on my Google Reader this afternoon. It's an excerpt from a new book John Piper is writing...

The most fundamental task of a mother and father is to show God to the children. Children know their parents before they know God. This is a huge responsibility and should cause every parent to be desperate for God-like transformation. The children will have years of exposure to what the universe is like before they know there is a universe. They will experience the kind of authority there is in the universe and the kind of justice there is in the universe and the kind of love there is in the universe before they meet the God of authority and justice and love who created and rules of the universe. Children are absorbing from dad his strength and leadership and protection and justice and love; and they are absorbing from mother her care and nurture and warmth and intimacy and justice and love—and, of course, all these overlap.

And all this is happening before the child knows anything about God, but it is profoundly all about God. Will the child be able to recognize God for who he really is in his authority and love and justice because mom and dad have together shown the child what God is like. The chief task of parenting is to know God for who he is in his many attributes, and then to live in such a way with our children that we help them see and know this multi-faceted God. And, of course, that will involve directing them always to the infallible portrait of God in the Bible.

John Piper

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.