Update on My Book

Just a quick note to let everyone know what's happening with The Pillar of Light. You know all those awards out there? They don't just go through all the books out there, you actually have to enter a book to be considered. I've sent my baby to several (Hemingway First Fiction, Newbery, Horn Book, and some others), and am excited: any notice is awesome. One that I've been entered in, Best Books Awards, posts the entries for each category (it's a small award), which is cool 'cause you can check out the compitition!

Months and months before I hear anything from any of them, but wanted to keep you posted!

Fun in Ft. Pierce

So, we spent a week letting the boys learn about nature first hand...

M focused on bouyancy and L studied marine biology, tidal currants, and the effects of water on sand. It was tons of fun and we had a safe flight home! It'll take us a day or two to get over the travelling, but I have some more fun pics coming!

Snippet for Sunday

"For the evil is, that children get their knowledge of natural history,

like all their knowledge, at second hand."

-Charlotte Mason

We are going to go do some first-hand studying this week. Hope you can too!

Hey Everyone!

Hey! We're having a great time on our Ft. Pierce vacation, but only have dial-up in this location, so I'll be saving my postings for when I get back! I did try to put up a single picture, but after 15 minutes or so told it to stop - I'll be able to do it more justice back home. Have a great week!

Sunday Snippet

"Nothing in excess."

- Euripides

Tada!

So, with all this "work" L and I have been doing on his motor skills, he's finally been willing to put those lines and circles together and try to draw some things! This is our second exciting display, so I thought I'd post it. I drew bits and pieces of Daddy and he followed along, then did the others with my verbal encouragement!

L also had his first speech therapy session today, and had a great time. It's a very small group (which is what he functions well in), and Ms. F said he was wonderful, and did extremely well (following directions, staying on task, keeping focused, and being social), so much that it she said it was not like a first day at all (having experienced so many first days at my old preschool, I am really pleased with this)! Not only did I get to hear about how great he acted, but she was also shocked at how interested he was in trying to read their words for the day and that he was sounding out the letters.

We really have done so much with our little learning time! I feel great!

PS - In order to limit confusion, I've decided to keep calling our family school stuff "school" and call speech, "speech" because we will be adding motor skills soon, and it will be a different teacher. Silly, I know, but this way when you Greats and Grands read this, you'll have a better chance of talking with L about it!

Silly M!

Chocolate on the chin, bum on the ball! Here's some picks of M's silliness...

Note the Square: he carries it around tons! When driving, he either uses it as a saddle blanket, or puts it on the steering wheel like so:

L using my hand to make "indian" and other silly noises.

And here's M. He did this himself and found it hysterical! So did we!

Snippet for Sunday

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are,

‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ ”

—President Ronald Reagan

I just found this so funny. As a kid I liked Mr. Reagan, and hearing the president say something like that cracks me up!

Fun in the Rain

Fun in the Rain! M loved it, and L tolerated it! We had another day of swords!

The end of the day brought a fun surprise! The mailman tossed (quite literally!) a package from Nana on the doorstep! She made both the boys a little picture book, and threw in fun things like Jell-O and fizzy tabs for their bath! The books were a big hit, and here are the boys examining them...

Happy day!

Whirlwind

Last couple of days have seemed a whirlwind, and I'm not really even sure why. We've been living at both extremes - having tons of fun and having battles too - which I suppose adds up to the whirlwind feeling.

Here I am getting a haircut (with a saw) and being a mountain road.

Now, L is such a riot! He is so silly about this kind of thing, and he wanted me to "Take Ebi picture mommy!" Of course I obliged, and then he dissolved into peals of laughter when I showed it to him!

Sigh - a sweet moment. Don't I have handsome sons?

Okay, moment's over. Back in action!

Today we played knights and pirates - sooooo much fun! We brought out all the swords (and sword-like objects), and the three of us had a riotous time! I love this action shot...

The littlest knight has gone off to rest-time, and Sir L begged for some extra school time (as we had such an amazing time labeling things around the house this morning! L was sounding out words, and begging for more. Later he drug Lindsay around the house pointing out "buh-books" and "kuh-keys" as proud as can be of his ability to sound out the first letters from the labels!). So I indulged him and we went to starfall.com to do some more phonics. The picture doesn't quite cover the moment, but I adored it: sword resting quietly while boy brain whirs...
And here we are ready for bed, still bearing swords, but now riding his horse (which I went and found for him after he was trying to make other things into a horse). We got this cute thing at IKEA for $5.00 a long time ago, and had it packed away long enough that he was really excited to see Horse, gallop about the house, and shout "Neigh!"
Well, my little whirling dervishes are sleeping now, and I hope you have a peaceful night too!

Are they Twins?

So, whenever L wears his shirt, M has to have his too, and invariably, someone will ask if they are twins. Two women asked at the grocery, and were rather embarrased when I explained, why no, and they're 4yrs and 16mths old. But looking at these two bubble shots, I can see why someone would ask, can't you?!

And here we are, playing school! M made the beautiful scribbles and then played with blocks while L and I did a "Go together" worksheet (easy as pie) and then played "Letters" for a while. He worked on phonics for the letters in his name (see the pile next to the computer), and then played the games where you figure what words begin with what letters.

Our Visit to Gramma & Grampa's - Part Three

So here's L fishing at the pond with Daddy and Grampa:

And later that day Gramma & Grampa gave me my first shot at canning! We did peaches, and it was lots of fun! Now that I've had some experience with it, I'm going to try and find a good jam recipe, and drag Aunt Lindsay off for some berry picking at our first opportunity!

Our Visit to Gramma & Grampa's - Part Two

So we left sleeping M with Gramma & Grampa, and had a great adventure with L! We went to this place called Panama Rocks (DH used to go there when he was a teen), where you can crawl up through all these crevices (some are rather a tight fit) as you hike around a 1-mile loop. L was very cautious at first, but after a while he grew more and more brave (as usual), and Daddy really loved watching his little guy be so bold!

Okay, in all honesty, I didn't go much further than this... I had my chunky hiking boots on, and it was mossy & damp-ish, but it is such a cool picture, that I couldn't resist! I wanted to take my shoes off and keep going, but how do you explain that to a four-year old?

Here I did go off on my own, over a rock and down a crack that was too big of a drop-off for L , so he and Daddy met me on the other side!

Somebody loves me...



We finished off the day with ice cream! L and I had chocolate, Daddy had peanut butter! Mmmm!

If anyone's looking for a grand way to spend 3 million dollars, Panama Rocks is for sale. It's very, very beautiful, but as the trees were already turning and it was still August (August!), it would be a rather cold place part of the year, but oh so lovely!

Our Visit to Gramma & Grampa's - Part One

To Grandmother's house we go... it was a rainy drive, but thanks to Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Clifford, and a highly coveted counting book (all courtesy of the library), and then later with some fun movies (the boys took turns), we had a lot of fun.

L posed the question of the day, "Go see Gramma/pa d-day?" about 300 times, to which I answered, "Yes... we... are!" in a sing-song voice about 300 times! It was a great road-trip (sigh - I do wish my boys understood the art of a good car-nap though)...

We made it! Showing Gramma his Leapster!

A cuddle and a read with Gramma for M!

Helping pick tomatoes!
Isn't M looking very grown up here? My goodness, the minutes doth fly swiftly...

And L, begging for me to take one more shot of him and the funky thing we built!
As I post this, it occurs to me that I've been so busy with this blog, that I haven't ordered real photos in about 4 months (oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear). Whoops.