A break?

People ask me if we take a break from 'school' during the Christmas holidays. Well, I would say no. Both of the girls are preschoolers and we are homeschoolers, so the learning really never ends. We've done lots of great stuff in the last few weeks. Cooking, baking, playing, shopping, decorating... there is learning to be done with all of these things and we take the time to do that. We also focused a lot on giving as a family. Every time we would go to Walmart or the grocery store we would stop to put a little money in the red bucket. I always told the girls that we were giving a little bit of our money so that other people without enough money would have food to eat. We also spent a day shopping for the foster child we chose off the tree at church. It was fun to pick things for this little girl and I think Alex really understood that we were buying for a little girl whose parents couldn't afford to buy her pretty things for Christmas. I also made a point to not buy anything for ourselves on this trip, to reiterate that we were shopping for someone else and not ourselves.
Daddy was home for 2 1/2 weeks and we had lots of great family time together.
We are now at Ft. Sill with him for the next few days and plan to visit the wildlife refuge again while we are here. We are all looking forward to the prairie dogs again.
I'm continually impressed with the knowledge that Alex is picking up and retaining in regards to the alphabet. They got flash cards in their stockings and the other day I caught them in the living room floor. Alex had the cards all spread out and was naming them to Emma. She is really doing great. I sat down with them and asked about certain cards and although she isn't 100% yet, she is certainly getting there. We are still working on colors with Emma and she doesn't have it down yet, but I'm thinking that it will be similar to Alex's process. After working FOREVER, one day it just clicked.
Anyway... we aren't on a learning break. We are never on a learning break. We have a learning lifestyle that always has opportunity for something new and exciting!

stuff, stuff, stuff

Lots of fun stuff lately. Daddy is home until the 28th! The other night we laid in the bedroom floor and put together the creation puzzle together. The girls had so much fun, and in addition to putting together that big floor puzzle we got to talk about so many things once the picture was complete. Nature scenes with lots of animals, plants, etc. We've been singing Christmas songs and just now made jingle bell shakers out of toilet paper rolls, Christmas fabric & jingle bells. We've been shaking and singing Jingle Bells. Lots of cooking lately also. I'm always amazed at how much we learn while cooking. Aside from gaining cooking and baking skills that will develop with time, we measure, stir, taste, feel, etc. And lately they are really interested in watching the mixer as it stirs. Curiosity leads us to most of our learning and it's great! Oh, we also found a little dinasaur that we bought when we went to the museum in Eureka Springs several months ago. We put this litte dinasaur in a cup of water and watched it grow over 2 or 3 days, then we took it out and have watched it shrink back down. It's fun to take a look at it everytime we are in the kitchen and watch how it is changing. Oh, and can't forget all we are learning about Christmas this year. Of course the girls are loving all the Santa and presents stuff, but we are also learning a lot about Jesus' birthday. In fact, I was buying fabric at the Walmart the other day and Alex asked me what it was for. I told her it was to make some Christmas presents and she she said, "For me!?" ... I said, "I don't know, maybe." ... her answer "No! For Jesus!"
Oh, and conversation skills are much improving! I love talking to them and getting a glimpse at what their little minds are thinking about! We are also having lots of fun with the preschoolers at church, preparing for our Christmas program. The kids are loving it and I'm feeling really great about making a special effort to take it down to their level. It may not be a huge & fancy production, but they are most definitely learning something and having fun this year! I'm really loving our learning lifestyle and how it seems to be growing and spilling into all parts of our life. Praise God!

Great day

This afternoon after quiet time we loaded up to go shopping for the foster child we are buying Christmas gifts for. We picked it out together at church a few weeks ago and chose the child we did because she was a 9 year old girl who wanted a Hannah Montana outfit. We've talked about it (casually) a lot the last few weeks and today was the shopping day. Alex was happy to do it, but also had questions that showed me she was thinking about it. She mainly wanted to know why we were buying this girl gifts. We just talked again about how this girls mommy & daddy couldn't buy her presents, but since we had enough money we were going to buy them for her so she had presents on Christmas. She was very pleased with this. We picked out jeans, a sweat shirt, a t-shirt, striped socks, pjs & boots. Mostly what she wanted and few extras.
Oh, stopped in the cold to put a few coins into the Salvation Army bucket. I just told the girls (like I always do) that we would give a little of our money so that other people could have things like food to eat.
Once at home we decided to make 'green things'. If you aren't a member of my family then you will have no idea what those are. The are a lot like rice crispy treats only made with cornflakes and dyed green to look like holly wreaths. We took our time and the girls got to count (and eat) marshmallows, melt the butter, measure food coloring & vanilla & corn flakes... and stir! Aside from tasting as we went, the girls favorite part was sprinkling red cinnamon sprinkles at the end. And for our finale... we wrote a letter to Santa to tell him what they want for Christmas. Word has it that Santa will be in Siloam Springs tomorrow and is planning on stopping by Poppy's house to see what the kids want for Christmas!!! At bedtime tonight Alex prayed for Santa to come and Emma prayed for a pink car from him! So cute... so much faith.

Friday

The last few days we've stayed pretty busy. Wednesday. Therapy as usually, checking on, to church. I have to stop and point out what patience and compassion they are building by being with my grandparents. Both the girls are learning to be so sweet and helpful to grandma. These relationships and character traits are so important in my book.
Thursday we went to the Green's to play. I took the dishwasher box for the girls to play in. They had so much fun and played with it differently than I had thought they would. I was thinking it would be a house, but they were much more creative. The little girls got in and Hannah turned the box up, they all thought that was hilarious. By the time they were done the end was torn open and it was more of a tunnel than a house. So... playing, disagreeing, making up, etc. Then we all went to lunch together. I was most touched by how Hannah helped Alex eat her lunch. It's very hard to eat a taco anyway, so lots of time I help Alex with it. Hannah was sitting between us, and before I knew it they were getting it done on their own. Hannah was helping Alex eat and they got it done. They figured it out on their own. Then... to therapy for the afternoon and back home again.
Today is a stay at home day. Emma found the crayons and wanted to color, so I pulled out to Christmas coloring books from last year. I couldn't believe how long they sat and colored together. Then they moved from the office floor, to the living room floor, to the couch. They worked so hard and got along really well most of the morning.
Other random stuff. We've been singing a lot. Every song I can think of. The current favorites are still "It's raining, It's pouring" the "ABCs". New ones are mainly Christmas songs. They love hand motions to go with songs. It really keeps Emma tuned in. I've also found that I get some great one on one time with Emma for 45 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday while Alex has that extra therapy. We sing, count, do ABC puzzles, and snuggle. What else? We've been counting backwards from 10 & counting to 100 by 10s. Emma's ABCs are getting pretty good. She will tell me, "Q is for quilt" even when the picture shown isn't a quilt. Memorization I'm sure, but she remembers and recognized several letters on her own. Alex's knowledge is also growing in that area.
A book I'm reading (several actually) on homeschooling refers to these sort of things are learning hooks. I had never thought of it that way before. They may not have a full understanding of something that we do, but they are establishing learning hooks to add info on to later and build their understanding of that subject or topic. I really see that happening in our learning lifestyle over the last 6 months. It's amazing and wonderful!

Christmas is coming

Now that Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is coming at our house. Monday we spent the day in the kitchen. For breakfast we made homemade biscuits and they were so yummy. I let the girls help knead the dough. They liked that, but were mad when they couldn't keep going. Then we made sugar cookies. They picked the cookie cutters they wanted to use and took turns cutting them out. After baking we decorated them with icing and sprinkles. My patience was running short and I felt bad for not letting them be more creative, but we got through the process nonetheless.
Alex found some papers I had printed out when I was planning our Christmas program for church and has been carrying them around for 2 days. She has a green twistable crayon (the best crayons ever!) and has been 'working' diligently at it. She has underlined sentences and calls it her homework.
More and more often I find the girls in their room reading books. They sit on Emma's bed and go through books and 'read' them to each other.
I've also noticed that Emma's play is getting more imaginative. She was at her little kitchen the other day and playing with the coffee maker. She's done that a million times, but this time she was making the coffee maker noises while she 'made coffee'.
Both girls are really becoming more conversational. Speaking more clearly and in longer sentences. Vocalizing their though processes instead of just repeating what they think they should say.
Alex will be fitted for braces this week. We realize she doesn't need them for her feet, but she does need some stabilization in her legs to help her balance. So, she will be getting braces again very soon.