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Chalkin’ It Up To FUN! – Kids Sidewalk Chalk Art

May 28, 2009 By Laura 5 Comments

Took the kids sidewalk chalkin’ the other morning. Except in a big empty lot at the playground. They were having so much fun, but we had to get back home by a certain time that morning, so we went back later that day so they could keep going. Had my camera of course, both times, so you know what that means….. = lots of photos, and boy did I have fun too! Here’s 1/2 of them.

I’m curious….which is your favorite photo?

Mine is my boy’s back-pocket of chalk – but don’t let that influence your choice.

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When Little Catholic Kids Can’t Wait to Make Their Holy Communion

May 21, 2009 By Laura 7 Comments

We just wanted to share with you today, what can happen when little Catholic kids can’t wait to make their Holy Communion!

Our triplets (6 year old) have just flat out had it. They have been waiting to make their Holy First Communion, fully aware of all it means and how very special it is, for at least a couple of years now. At every Mass, they have watched us parents and their big sister go up to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. When we get back to the pew, and kneel down in prayer, one or the other often wants to whisper about how much longer it will be, before they can go up too.

First Holy Communion seasons are especially torturous for them. For every Sunday Mass we have attended throughout the month of May, and sometimes the end of April and beginning of June too, for years now, they have watched child, after child,.. after child… receive Communion for the first time. And they sigh, exercising all of the patience they can muster.

But this past weekend really did them in. Two little girls in our extended family, received their First Holy Communion. And it’ll be a whole year, before it is their turn. <sigh>.

They have had many Mass services here in our living room. They have alternated being alter servers, readers, and the priest himself. With tall candle sticks made of legos, toy colored strings tied around their waists as ropes, and their Bible, they’ve got it down.

But lately, Mass has evolved into their own First Holy Communion, and it has only grown more elaborate, as their need ‘for the real deal’ has set in. I finally took photos of their service.

So we welcome you, to one of their ‘Pretend First Holy Communion’ Masses…….

The Procession
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The boys found the only navy blue attire they could come up with – their running suits. {O} had a fine white dress on hand, and a brand new shoe-lace served as her head piece.

Before the Liturgy
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Listening to the the Homily
(in this case….silence. Lol)
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* NOTE: Holy Communion – *It is important to note, that it was decided among them, that it would be rather disrespectful, to actually refer to their pretend Communion, as the ‘Body and Blood of Christ‘. When in actuality, it is their toys. So they have come up with alternative language, as to not be irreverent:

The Body of Christ: “Chips”

The Blood of Christ: “Cup of Water”
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This is it!
Holy Communion line….

Thankfully, Daddy was on hand, and agreed to distribute Holy Communion, as the priest.

Some personal prayer, following Communion.
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The Recession.

Thank you for joining us.

Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord. 😉

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Elementary Writing Skills Development- Homeschooling

April 27, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

Today’s topic of thoughts. WRITING. More specifically, children’s elementary writing skills development. If we need to take it one step further in this case…MY children’s writing. : )

As a home schooling Mama, I have to say that this vocation is one amazing journey. Daily, really. Although some days are less smooth than others, they most always are very enjoyable for all of us, and collectively, absolutely REWARDING. I feel so blessed to not only teach my children, but witness them learning!

In the span of given time, they learn to write their name, and then little words, and then bigger words and then sentences. They learn to read little words, and then bigger words, ……. little books and then bigger books. They learn to spell little words and then bigger words. They learn about compound words, contractions, capitalization and punctuation, and a host of other little important things, and the proper times and places for them all.

And then one day, you witness all of these components come together, and it’s a beautiful day! The angel choirs sing. The birds are all chirping in harmony. The sun gets brighter. Flowers dance. They are WRITING! Really writing! Telling stories of their own, peppered with their personality, on paper, with seemingly magic pencils. And to Mama Teacher….they are beautiful, heart-warming, hilarious, brilliant little pieces of work………..

For context, these writing samples are my triplets, who are 6 years old. Also, please note that they are required to write their whole first name. I just edited out because I don’t use their full names on this blog, while they are still this young.

The month before, they worked REALLY hard, for 2 or 3 days, writing their first animal report. Honestly, when that assignment came up in their lessons, I thought “Oh dear.” I knew it was going to be a task, for 6 year old first graders. I wondered if they’d really be able to to do it, after only having written single sentences. But I wanted to be encouraging! And it was a great opportunity to evaluate their capabilities and work ethic, at this point.

So they all chose their animals, and we got to researching some basic information on the computer, for each of them: {J} chose dolphins, {O} yellow lab puppies (lol), and {S}humpback whales. I printed out the information we found, and spent lots of time with each of them, reading and underlining the most important tidbits of information they may want to include in their reports. And then, before they got to writing their report, we talked about that all-important P word: Plagiarism. : )

What I really loved, was that they were enthusiastic about it, once they got going. They insisted on cutting out the images that were part of the info we printed out, and including them in their reports, by cutting and pasting them. I thought this was an idea of their own….but turns out they were inspired by someone else-which I’ll talk about in a minute.

I have to admit; I have high standards and expectations – and I don’t think I could wrap my brain around just what a simple, simple animal report the lesson was probably really calling for them to do….as 6 year old first graders. Perhaps they were only expected to write a few sentences. But if you are reporting about the important factors of a particular animal, there are many facts that are equally as important about that animal, and therefore, omitting any of those facts could result in what appears to be an incomplete report. Right? That would have been a lesson that did not serve the children well, come the next time they are expected to write report. So, I may have ultimately pushed it a little. But in the end, they rose to the occasion, as they always do, when they are clear on the expectations of them. : ) And oh-how-proud they were of their papers.

Front sides…..

back sides….

Some days later, I realized where they got the incentive to paste these little images into their report. Granted, as already educated adults, we know that many times in-depth reports DO include photos or labeled diagrams of some kind. But I just wasn’t expecting them to do that yet, or to even know about that. But, turns out, they had been paying close attention to their older sister (11), who had recently worked very hard for many days, on this report she voluntarily did on her favorite presidents.

She did it and submitted it to me as extra credit, because she had gotten a poor grade on a recent History test, and she was afraid it would really effect her overall grade. It was an excellent, and interesting, 7 page report. The information she included for each of her favorite presidents were facts about them as a person, such as: the dates of their term of presidency, their political party, how many children they had, interesting tidbits events/actions they were known for, their former or latter occupations, and (something she always wants to know about people)….their religion denomination, if any, etc.

Back to the little ones, here’s another pay-off to these milestone days. Once they realize they are capable of these things, they want to do them all of the time!! After {J, O & S} wrote their first story that day, that’s what they CHOSE to do right after school, for weeks, when their formal school day ended. They would ask for paper, and write stories, filled with their imagination, or re-telling true stories they have lived. They still do this, although more randomly. They continue to do it as an activity, because they find it FUN to express themselves. To BE the story-teller. To make up characters, name them, make them look like anything they want, and have control over just what happens next in their story. And the best part….how the story ends. It’s a downright exciting, being a story teller. Just ask my kids. This is what happens, when you teach in a fun and encouraging way.

And for what it’s worth, I DO teach them that it’s “just not proper English to ever begin a sentence with the word AND.”

And they listen! ; ) (I am personally of the mind-set, that once you know the rules, you can take creative liberty to break them! )

So, who knows, we may just be raising a bunch of authors over here. Among a zillion other possibilities we’ve seen glimpses of, in the course of their little lives. I guess we’ll have to see how that story ends, too.

The End. : )

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A Quiet Dr. Seuss Day Celebration

March 2, 2009 By Laura 12 Comments

We just wanted to share with you a peek into our quiet Dr. Seuss Day celebration.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

~ Dr. Seuss

Earlier today, we celebrated the 105th birthday of Dr. Seuss. It was a much quieter celebration, than our usual fanfare, because most of our kiddos (6 years old triplets) are a bit under the weather. Low grade fevers, little coughs and headaches, and a big dose of the ‘Quiets’. That’s just who they are today. Actually, 1/4 is recovering, 2/4 are pretty down and out by this time of the day, and 1 was out playing in the new-fallen snow. But late this morning and early afternoon, they were up for a little quiet fun and reading. We did some Dr. Seuss – themed face painting for them, for the occasion.

triplets-kids-reading-dr-seuss-book
Dr. Seuss was a man of wise words. One of my personal favorite quotes from him is:

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

That’s one I try to keep in the forefront of my mind, because we need to remember it frequently! It’s so hard for us to understand why some people are the way they are. So what to do? Well, another Seuss quote comes in handy as well:

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

Enough said there. lol

We’re blessed in that all 4 of our kids truly do love reading. They just love books, and always have. And we know that will take them a long, long way in life.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

The little ones are quite beyond their grade level in reading, so the Dr. Seuss books are at this point, way too simple for them. They are reading chapter books now. But today, as we celebrate this gifted author and artist, for his great contributions to children’s literature, we honor the value of his non-sensicals, that are so cleverly woven with his words of wisdom, which even an adult can gleam advice from. So we all enjoyed his books today, none-the-less.

dr-seuss-day-ideas_2

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It was the perfect activity, for a day that called for quiet and rest.

fun-mismatched-socks

Here’s another great quote, that simply must be a Pro-Life declaration!:

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

They were somewhat smiley this morning, as quiet as they were. But as you know how fevers go….as they day wore on, they were feeling less and less their best. I sure hope they feel better tomorrow. Meanwhile, we’ll keeping enjoying the quiet, and giving cuddles. Things could be worse! lol

Thanks for dropping in! See you again soon, perhaps!

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”

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God’s World News / World News Group – A Newspaper for Your Kids!

January 17, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

(now….)

* See UPDATE Below.

Hi there Everyone!!

We’ve been wanting to share with our readers, a subscription that we have found our children really, really benefit from. It’s put out by * ** God’s World News, and there are various titles, for various reading/age/grade levels to fit the level of any child, Pre-K through young teens! We have received it for a number of years, and it has proved to be a valuable and educational news source throughout. It’s a newspaper for kids!!

* UPDATE/Revision: God’s World News is now: WORLD News Group – The links in this post (for God’s World News), will still bring you to the correct site, under their new titles. From there, there are individual site links to the newspaper for the proper age range for your child(ren): God’s Big World/Pre-Schoolers, worldkids/Elementary age, WORLD TEEN/Teenagers
** IMPORTANT NOTE: Although the titles of the newspapers has changed, the high quality content has not! The intent of the newspaper publications, for age appropriate world news, reported in the light of faith, remains unchanged.

(Is this photo of our boy, reading his newspaper, not a RIOT??! He often does sit just like this….while reading, at Mass, etc. It always cracks us up, but he looked especially like a little man, sitting in his chair with his legs crossed, reading his newspaper. Look at his flickering toes. lol)

Our triplet 6 year olds receive God’s Word News-Early Edition (now World Kids). Our 11 year old receives God’s World News-Top Story (now World Teen).

Our kids benefit from their age-appropriate newspaper-magazines so much, because they ENJOY it so much! They enjoy it so much, because it has SO much to offer! There is a LOT in each edition, and a huge (educational) variety at that. If you homeschool your kids, we highly recommend this subscription! If your kids are enrolled in school, we highly recommend this subscription! : ) This rave review is fueled solely by our family receiving this magazine, and us as parents, consistently seeing what happens with our kids, when they get it into their hands. They get many hours of social studies educational exposure and information from each issue. All in the name of QUIET for us FUN for them! That’s why we had to tell you all about it…..it just seems like it’s something GREAT for any and all kids! Read on.

I don’t know about you, but I want my kids to know what is going on in the world. They should generally be aware of current events, politics, new-breaking stories, scientific findings, history, etc. But in an age appropriate way!
The problem is, television news, as well as newspaper news, are not geared towards communicating to children.

Naturally, it’s not their mission, as it is all meant to inform adults, and rightly so. So it’s simply not conveyed in a way all children would understand, nor necessarily be emotionally ready for.

That’s what we love about this magazine. In it HIGHLY informative about the world’s news, presented in a way to catch and hold kid’s attention, and is easily understood, in kids’ terms and ways they can relate to. It draws them in. In younger level editions, it’s snippets of info they can read and truly comprehend and retain. Older kid’s issues are generally the same topics, but with more detail, longer articles and a more in-depth study overall. Then additional stuff. What I love most, is that the contents is delivered in a Christian/Biblical Worldview style.

But it’s not just serious current events news stories. Each issue is also jam packed with (reading, of course), science, history, geography, weather, funny stories, etc. And all with LOTS of photos. There are games, experiments, activities and puzzles that strengthen skills such as logic, observation, process of elimination, …. the list goes on. AND on!

Beyond the magazine itself, they have a website that has even MORE to supplement each edition. There are parent/teacher resources, bonus pages to enhance or expand on all the kids have learned, and even quizzes and keys you can use. There is LOTS at the web site, that is another educational tool all it’s own.

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When our kids are reading their issues, they are so amused by something, or intrigued with something they learned, that they feel compelled to share it with us, or read it to us. Sometimes, they ask questions, because they want to know more and more. This often launches great discussions to have with your children, that can get as deep as you want, or give you an opportunity to ask them questions, that encourage them to think through concepts, varied opinions, or their own perspectives. It’s a wonderful tool to help jump-start really good discussions, about often very important topics in the world, with your children.

For example: Here, {A} is reading about Fidel Castro-how he came to be a dictator, his ways of dictatorship, and all of the effects it has had on his country.

Here’s another page of Top Story (sorry about the glare. : ):

010_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

Each issue (all editions for all ages) most always has wonderful maps, educational fold-out spreads, and/or pull-out posters, like this one:

I love also, how these arrivals in our mailbox, bring our kids together too! They love to share with each other what they are reading, and have discussions of their own about the topic. They end up laughing together, reading together, learning together, which all means they are simply enjoying more of being ….together!

If you find yourself remotely intrigued, we encourage you to check out the God’s World News web site. Look around!! There are peeks inside these subscriptions, and you are also likely able to get a free copy if you request one, to decide for yourself what you think of them! For us, it’s been just too good of a great thing, NOT to let any parent, or teaching parent, know about this amazing tool. We find it WELL worth the cost of the subscription. We all know that our kids learn the most, when they are enjoying what they are doing, or enjoying HOW they are learning…anything at all! The more ways we can find to give them that, the better. Because when they are having fun learning, they want to learn more and more and more. So we hope you find this newspaper-magazine to be ‘good mail’ in your family.

We’re pretty excited about MANY things we’ve got coming up to share with you on our blog, so come back soon!! In the meantime, if your kids are receiving a subscription, or have a book, or watch a show….that YOU find very valuable, educational, and they really enjoy, please share it with us! We know there is a wealth of info and resources out there, and what better way than to share it with each other, complete with reviews and gold stars!

We hope you are all enjoying this long weekend!

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“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

~ Dr. Seuss

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”

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