Stopping to be thankful
Yesterday I felt so much better and consequently, the day went smoothly complete with happy children. (Funny how that works, huh?) I have been overwhelmed with thankfulness for my life and children. I thought I'd share a few examples. I'm thankful for...
- how well M. is doing in the two college classes she is taking this semester. She has been so diligent and responsible about them.
- for the all the different interests my children have and how they teach me things I would have never thought to learn. For example, B. has taken a strong interest in bee keeping. He has done tons of research, taken a class, and has paid (nearly all by himself) for a new hive a colony of bees which will begin arriving later this month.
- for how well my children can get along. Yesterday, A. and P. and D. and TM decided on the spur of the moment to have a room cleaning contest. Not only did it keep them happily occupied for most of the afternoon, but it's been a while since those two rooms have been so clean.
- that D.'s reading has really taken off. He's been reading several short chapter books a week now. (I've also been finding myself telling him he needs to stop reading a couple of times, but that's a different post.)
- that A. is so good at organizing and will happily tackle areas of the house which need attention.
- for the times when something has hurt TM and he has cried appropriate tears and come to me for comfort. Only a parent who has a child who has struggled with attachment can fully appreciate how wonderful appropriate tears are.
- that P. has been working more diligently in her schoolwork and the quality of what she has been doing is really good.
- for Shepherd's Field Children's Village and the fact that H. is in such a safe and loving place while we work through paperwork.
- when K. walks around the house informing people that he loves them and then comes and announces to me that, "Everybody loves me!"
- for two adorable little girls. Really just thankful all the time for these two. Yesterday I was watching G. and L. play. At one point, they were each lying on the floor with their heads sharing a pillow. Each girl had a book and each girl was singing a little book song to herself. It was certainly one of those moments when I wished I could stop time.
Comments
Thanks for posting about the sound boxes. Its basically a Montessori idea - learn the sound before the letter - she uses alphabet boxes for all the vowels and I have seen people who have a shelf with 26 boxes on each containing only the objects beginning with that sound (a-apple, ant, axe b-boy bus broom etc)I wanted to take it a step further and challenge her to find the correct sounds. The lid just has four plain stickers on so she knows that four objects in the box start with the sound we are working on. Once she's guessed and placed the toys on the stickers I review with her - she got really stuck when we were working on the letter L, she was convinced that the lamb was a sheep so its not a perfect system but she really enjoys it.
If any of you want to know what we're talking about, Zelda has a great post about all the things she does to introduce letters and sounds. You can find it at: http://homeschoolescapade.blogspot.com/2011/02/letter-of-week-practice.html?showComment=1299011404498#c957523747721040666
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