Summer Reading Volume 4 - Blueberries for Sal

It's my 36th birthday tomorrow - I'm sitting here thinking about ways to begin this blog - what super connection I can grab you with - what snappy thought or link to something deeper. And all I can think about is myself - and then blueberries.

Just 6 short years ago - I was turning 30 - and I was in graduate school. One of those programs where you go to class all weekend long and so it's impossible to miss any time. Anyway - it was my birthday - and I was to spend it in poetry class. My wonderful twin sister came up from NJ along with her husband (or almost husband at that time) We got dressed up and headed into Worcester for a lovely night at Union Station... dinner and dancing. I was wearing red and can remember at some point dancing alone on the dance floor. The next day - as my head felt groggy and my dehydrated body sat in poetry class, I was reflective about it being my birthday - and the wonderful evening before. When we were suddenly encouraged by our professor to go on a poetry walk.... exploring the sights and smells with a pen in hand. We were to get inspired - and jot down as much or as little as we connected to. Good activity - I headed out with my sweet friend Kate to explore the hidden poems around us.

It wasn't long before we found ourselves walking the steep main driveway of the campus... a drop off on one side protected by a shiny new guardrail. There had to be inspiration there somewhere - it was hot, Augusty, and we were trying our best to not get distracted by the distant sounds of dump trucks to end up writing really bad poetry. When all of a sudden... jewels glimmered in the sunlight! Tiny, droplets, round and fragrant... resting, hardly weighing the branches that grew them... blueberries galore awaited our hands and mouths. Poetry Shmoetry... we sat and gobbled and picked and licked until we had to go back to class. I felt like God had baked my very own blueberry birthday surprise to share with my friend. I will never forget that delicious day.

And now - years later - I just spent a week with my two delicious children - reading and re-reading Blueberries for Sal. We did so much pretending...kerplunking random berries we happened upon into tin pails, canning piles of foam "berries" for winter with a real mason jar and lid, hunting for blueberries in our own backyard and finding just one, and repeating favorite lines from the story until Ivy walked around one morning pretending to be mother and saying, "Now, Sal" about fifty times. It was a wonderful summer book... the two stories presented all woven into one made for good conversation with Gavin - I love that he gets so much - we can have little literary conversations and talk about what if's and whatnot.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of some of our adventures.


The little ones reading together - how it melts a mother's heart!


An illustration in the book shows the old-timey kitchen complete with an egg beater. Gavin tried his hand at whipping up some bubbles... only to say how hard it was and how he could have stuck his finger inside it if he had wanted to.


Our one found blueberry - so small and red! It's lack of appeal didn't stop Gavin from gulping it down.


We had to come inside and head deep into the downstairs freezer to find a hidden bag of blueberries (thanks Grandpa!) The children were delighted to get to eat them frozen from their tin pails. They marveled at the frost that formed on the pail's outside and scraped it to lick the ice from their fingers. Oh childhood joys!


Our "canned" berries - more fun to plink and plunk into the pails and make a little music.



We took some blueberry leaves from our bushes and did some crayon rubbings in green. Ivy enjoyed taping the leaves to the table, Gavin enjoyed rubbing the crayon so hard until each vein almost ripped through the paper.


We then added some berries with blue paint - and called it a day!

We had to agree - we had a pretty sweet day together! And who knows - maybe I'll have a bit of blueberry ice cream tomorrow night when we celebrate!

Summer Reading Vol. 3: Setting Sail.... and Hoping not to Bail!

What do you get when you take an old plastic bottle, add some rice, a pencil and a piece of craft foam?? A super duper boat, of course? We greatly enjoyed reading My Blue Boat by Chris Demarist - another fantastic summertime tale of imagination and adventure. Told in short sentences but introducing such rich vocabulary as swells, fleet, and harbor, we read the story several times before we were able to imagine ourselves sailing away from home to a world of water wonder.

Both Gavin and Ivy enjoyed creating their own toy boats. Ivy loved dumping and pouring the rice and listening to the music as her bottle filled and was emptied again. Shortly after finishing her boat, she dunked the whole vessel under the pool water and it was clear that the making was much more interesting than the playing. She quickly abandoned her boat to pour and dump more rice and then fill up other deck toys with water. I love to see what interests her - such a beautiful season of exploration and engagement.






The boat was such a simple craft, and one with a strong purpose. I have found Gavin is a bit pragmatic - if he is going to invest time into something (like craft projects) he wants it to be something, or do something. Tying some fishing line onto the boat made it a sea worthy vessel, one that almost visited our pond out back... until Daddy had a better idea. Why not take the boy out for his first solo canoe trip?



With Grandpa and Daddy close at hand, Gavin boarded his own canoe. He listened to explicit directions being commanded - and followed them like a true mate. He paddled out alone, and when the wind caught the front of the vessel, he did his best to dig in and turn the craft around. With encouragement and praise, Gavin thrived in the independence - and it was a joy to behold. Watching Mike beam, Grandpa grow proud and Gavin's smile widen, I knew today was special. On one hand, I love that Gavin is mature and responsible and ready to take big boy steps... while on the other hand, I still want to cuddle and carry, and savor his tininess. Perhaps that is one reason why we read and re-read (and snuggle with) books like My Blue Boat. We are taking the plunge of life together - and are blessed each day as the Lord takes us to new places.

Summer Reading Vol. 2: Yellow Ball

We have a neighbor across the street. Her children are grown, she has many ailments that keep her inside this time of year, and she is a hugger. So we try to go spread a little love around as we can. Ivy loves the hugs, Gavin loves to control the leash of her dog, and our neighbor is happy to have her home filled with our noise. Anyway - it seems her basement is a wonderland. Every time we visit, we go home with something wonderful - old rubber stamps, waxy bendy sticky sticks to create whatever out of, and this one time... a big yellow ball.

Little did our neighbor know that we were reading Yellow Ball by Molly Bang. We had read and re-read the book all week. We looked at the struggling moments showing the boy loosing his ball at the beach as it slowly drifts out to sea. We watched it grow small as it appeared like a dot under a huge bridge... and watched it get tossed in the waves as a storm blew it high and low. We too took a journey as the ball made its way to a new beach and a new family. A lot like our new ball.... being loved on and played with with new little hands.

One nap time, Gavin and I discussed horizons, and took time to recreate Molly Bang's cover illustration. Gavin did a bit of a color study as he happily swirled white and blue... then black and blue. We made shade after shade of blue and more blue and then painted the sea and sky. It was lovely - and relaxing - and exactly what summer reading should be.

We spent some time talking and reading the account of Jesus calming the wind and the waves. Gavin loved that Jesus spoke right to the wind and water. He asked it they had ears - and I had to say yes! How else could the elements so quickly obey?? What kind of ears, Mom?? Obedient ones was my only reply - just like the kind of ears we all need to hear the voice of our Lord.

And who knows what types of games we will play with our new ball. Hopefully big games with high tosses and loud booms. I know one thing - Gavin would never let our ball blow out to sea - or in our case the pond. Each (and every) time we leave the deck to head out to the backyard, the gate is shut and locked so the wind does not snatch up anything that does not belong to him. We have learned by mistake here and I don't think it shall be repeated.

So thank you Ms. Nancy, Molly Bang, and my special blessings, Gavin and Ivy... for making motherhood so colorful, joyous, and fun!

Summer Reading Vol. 1B: It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas???

I know - it seems like a silly thing to say! Only in our world of make-believe can a small child want to create winter in the middle of a heat wave. It may be 88 degrees outside, but in our schoolroom playtime, Jesse Bear needed a hat, mittens, winter boots, and a chin muff.

Gavin was so deeply engaged in creating clothing for his own Jesse Bear after sharing the story again today, that I had to get in on the fun. While Ivy napped and probably dreamed about cooler days, we pretended Jesse was going out for an icy walk. Gavin asked me several times to help him cut out different parts or pieces for his bear. At first, I resisted, saying things in my head like - it is good for him to do it himself, and good for him to struggle a bit. And that may be true, but we are still working on fine motor skills, and those trick scissors just wouldn't cut through the felt very easily! So - with PLENTY of glue and lots of giggles - we created some Bears to share and cozy winter memories (in the middle of July!)

Later in the week - Gavin found some ragged old clothes on the top of the trash. He knew he could use that fabric for something! He spent the next few hours creating all kinds of clothes for an entire Jesse Bear family. Who knew costume design could be so much fun!

We had to play with our bear puzzle of course! How perfect to dress Mama, Daddy, and Baby Bear after reading all about Jesse!

Summer Reading Vol. 1A: Only in America

I love America... the freedoms of worship and education, the bounty of rich foods, and closeness with family. A super great library system...I'm sure others experience similar joys.... but as we begin summertime on the Leo Homestead, I am reminded to give thanks to our Father for His great blessings.

Yes - I threw the library in there. I am so thankful for a quality library... new books to read - old ones and hard to find ones are delivered without cost. And then we enjoy them over and over again. One such is Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? It is a lovely rhyming poem showing the love and care of Jesse and his parents... as he wears such things as sand on his hand and water to float. Jesse is an explorer and well loved. One wonderful toy Jesse has is a patriotic toy ball. After examining several American flags, the children happily found the stars and stripes on many of our homey decorations. Then we shared Jesse Bear... found his patriotic toy ball illustrated several times, and each child made a "flag" snack from cream cheese toast, cherries and blueberries. It was a lovely way to enjoy a new good book, introduce the fun Independence holiday to come, and rest with a healthy snack. Thank you God for your many blessings to us!

We had a super time cleaning our home today... the children were motivated by the understanding of guests coming over and the blessing of a newly decorated home to enjoy. Decorations are always a time for joy here... and I love the cute places that children think decorations should go. Left up to them, there would be one highly decorated, somewhat tacky pile of fun and the rest of the house would be sparse. Happy Fourth of July Weekend! Hooray for America!

Late Winter Review

I know... It's spring, right?

This morning I awoke to an outside temperature of 19 degrees.... and as I fed the fire I watched the sunrise glisten off of the thinnest of ice that had formed over the pond I'm pretty sure that Ol' Man Winter is still lingering around.

Despite the cold, our homeschooling days have been so very fruitful. It seems like our days go by so very quickly. I fell like we have concentrated a lot of training time on correct responses... obeying right a way (with a smile)...understanding authority and trying to yield to it... not crying immediately when things begin to anger or frustrate... and what to do when your baby sister knocks down your stuff or tries to snatch away anything more interesting than what she already possesses. It has been a very strong season of homey togetherness - lots of time for indoor play, for sharing, and learning what to do when. And lots of fun chores! Little ones just love to help out! Here are a few pics of some of Gavin and Ivy's work!

Some folded clothes to wear again later...




A bed made by a four-year old! Not too shabby!

Ivy helping to clean the.... wait a minute - that's not helping!

Oh! Here she is helping to pick up one tiny piece of her creative mess!

BIBLE:

We've focused on the life and ministry of Jesus during our time in the Bible. I guess I followed this idea after the Christmas season - it seemed logical that since Christ came, we should read how the Baby Jesus grew and how He began His world-changing ministry.

Here we are practising how to care for one another!

Boy - does it feel great!

PHONICS/ MATH / SCIENCE

We have studied the later letters of the alphabet in phonics, their initial sounds at the beginning of words, their shape and qualities. We've done quite a bit of measuring, counting, sorting and predicting... lots of mathy and sciencey type activities. We are still logging the growth of our amaryllis plant as we patiently wait to see if the third leaf will do anything different than the first two.

And the big news... We have pets! We are so greatly enjoying our tadpoles and our snail! We call them "The Guys" and what fun it has been to watch legs slide out of little slits and grow into useful tools. Ivy especially lingers at the tank. She wants to feed them "tim tims" - their fishy flaky food all the time. I now give her an empty cumin container for her to pretend. And then she walks around inviting the family to smell from her treasured box of smokey wonder. (Just an aside - Ivy seems to be so interested in animals. She listens acutely whenever a neighborhood dog begins to bark, asks to visit Cooper and Ginger, our nearby canine companions, exclaims,"Guugle" every time she spies a squirrel on the bird feeder or bounding across the backyard. She is very aware of the animal world, wanting to hug, kiss, pet and love whomever might come her way.)

T is for tadpoles... and teeth (it was dental hygiene month!)

U is for up and umbrellas... V is for volcanoes and vegetables and so on...

I suppose as the warmer weather slowly approaches and we spend more time outside, we will forget all about the long snowy winter we have joyfully grown through. The Lord has blessed us with joys and struggles over the season and we are all the stronger for it. Mike has recently begun an amazing new job as the program director for an elder day service. It was a bit of a surprise move for him - but such a good one! We call him "The Big Boss" and although it's been mentally taxing, he is adjusting quite well. There is a lot to learn and many changes are on the horizon, but he is such a natural leader and will surely bring the Lord glory as he works to care for the elderly.

Whether it be snow, back troubles, extra doctor appointments, a new job, better nutritional choices and stronger meal planning, .... we will continue to be yielded to the Holy Spirit and seek wisdom for our family.

I should have posted this one long ago... we finished the alphabet in early June and we are having a marvelous summer. I don't get to post blogs like I thought I would. I would rather read a story or go play with my little ones. I am learning to be content with what remembering and recording I can do... and this is it.

The Greatest Teacher

what could it be??

some teacher in high school who really 'got you'?
a humbling failure?
a time of reflection???

no.

It was Jesus. You gotta figure the He used the most perfectly simple plans... chose visuals that could be smelled, touched or tasted. He connected right with whatever people knew... roots, weeds, trees, seeds, water, weather, wind. He knew the properties of His creation and used them to teach about His Kingdom. He spoke with authority, was clear and short. He didn't trouble himself with worksheets, and red pens. He stuck to what was important - truths that outlast the ever changing culture.

So here I am... a mother of two very small children wanting to learn from The Greatest Teacher. And as I reflect on my lesson plans - all the crafts, activities, songs, projects and sweet little somethings that we have accomplished... all the tiny connections and steps my little ones have made over the last six weeks... I am thinking about what of lasting importance have I presented. How have I led them to know the Savior in tangible ways??? Am I preparing the soil of their little hearts? Is the Word of God sinking down to where it needs to go?? Am I spending time watering their souls with Living Water and leading them to wash in the love and forgiveness of their Savior? Heavy - right.

I guess I figure this blog needs to say what I'm processing - or else why am I writing it. I want it to be a place where I can hold my thoughts and look back to see if I am meeting some of these goals.

And this brings me to a story...

My oldest sister and her two precious sons visited this weekend - and we spent Saturday at Old Sturbridge Village. I could go on and on - it is one of my most favorite places in the world. And as we toured the small one-room school house, Gavin couldn't pass up the opportunity to be the headmaster. Climbing the tall chair, his body could barely be seen from behind the tall wooden podium. Meanwhile, our family took their seats where pupils would have quietly memorized whatever text book their parents could have afforded them. Ivy wandered around up the inclined aisles of the damp, dark schoolroom holding a little dipper found in the communal drinking bucket. And I encouraged Gavin. "If you are going to be the authority, then teach us something we might not know." Just an aside - I was proud of my boy. Albeit a bit difficult at times, he wants to lead. He knew where the place of authority rested in that building, and he climbed right in. He met the eyes of his "students", spoke firmly, and didn't hesitate.

Just then a woman walked in. An older woman with graying hair accompanied by her granddaughter. The little girl, maybe 9 or so, saw us all and just watched and peeked around the dank room. And Gavin began. He pulled from his pocket a small souvenir he had made earlier in the day - an elongated penny he had cranked out of a machine - one now stretched and stamped with a little lamb on it. He held it in his little hand, looked at me in the eye and said, "This penny reminds me of something very important. This has a picture of a lamb - and it reminds me that Jesus is both the Lion and the Lamb."

As I sat there and witnessed my son's first public sermon, I noticed that my ears were not the only one's to have heard. The old woman looked at Gavin, and she could tell by my beaming who I was no doubt... and she smiled. A beautiful grandmotherly smile. Perhaps her ears were not deaf to the words - to the power of our God - to His Lion like strength and Lamb like gentleness. Perhaps she saw before her a child who was bold like a lion, yet his tender age and young stature showed meek childlike faith. What a blessed moment - one I will never forget.

I've been a bit sad that I haven't blogged. I thought this was going to be a place where my preschool activities would be logged and linked - easy to reflect and reminisce. I thought I was going to get pictures here - finally a place where I could journal a bit about the everyday. But everyday is too precious to be sitting here - in front of this keyboard. Everyday I don't want to write my own reflections - I want to write on the hearts of my kids. So while I still have soooo much to learn about The Greatest Teacher - I am encouraged each day to seek the wonderful guidance of The Holy Spirit. His faithfulness to His children is such a precious gift. I am not solely responsible for teaching my children the lessons required for life. Preschool is just our time to grow in our children the appetites for the best things in life... the simple things... like Jesus... and God's creation that points us toward His glory. What a blessing - I am so thankful each day that I get to be the one who shares these moments and truths with my children.

OK - a few pics because it's been a while.
These were all taken on St. Patrick's Day - in the still cold mud pile of our backyard. So fun!