Pure Magic!: Our Day at Disneyland

One of the very special things we were able to do during our time in California over the holidays was visit Disneyland. Seth and I have some very fun memories of our various trips to Disneyland growing up and in our early years of married life, so we really wanted to take the kids. We were so thrilled that it worked out.

We were able to spend the day with Seth's parents and his brother's family. We had 7 little people and one big-un (love ya, Katie!) and amazingly enough our day could not have gone more smoothly! The park was crowded, the lines were fairly long, but the kids all had a great attitude all day long, even though some of us didn't get back to the car until about 10:30pm. :}

I don't think the kids really knew what to expect, so they were kind of stoic about the whole thing at first, but they definitely got into the spirit of things after the first ride or two. They especially loved the flying Dumbo ride, driving cars on "Autopia" (even Leila got to drive!), and visiting the "Tiki Room" (they LOVE that song!) Benjamin & Talia got to go on a special big kid detour with Daddy, Mommy & Uncle Ben to ride "Star Tours" (a 3D ride with a Star Wars plot). One of the high points of Benjamin's day was riding "Pirates of the Carribean" with Daddy. Talia and Leila really enjoyed "It's a Small World" and were in absolute awe of the entire experience.

Here are some of the highlights of our day in photo form:

100th Day of School

Yesterday was our 100th day of school. We have been counting the days of school this year to work on developing math concepts in a fun way. Each morning during our morning meeting we colored in the day on a 100 grid then counted up to that number in various ways (regular counting as well as skip counting by 2's, 5's and/or 10's). We also used our daily number to talk about place value and spelling the number words. Even Leila is now counting to 100 with help and knows some of the general concepts behind place value.

As we got closer to 100 I started thinking about what I could do to make this achievement special, homeschool-style. Here's what I came up with:

We started off the day with a special breakfast. I almost never cook breakfast - we're doing good to get cereal served up and eaten in a timely manner - but I decided to try an idea I've been wanting to use from Pinterest: Apple Ring Pancakes. I also made some "line" pancakes for 1's and used the apple ring pancakes for 0's to lay out 100 on their plates. We joked that they were eating 100 pancakes. :)

After breakfast we had a brief morning meeting where we had a big ceremony to fill in our various boards where we have been counting up to 100. We counted in all the ways we know... 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's. At the end of this amazing display of counting I presented each of them with a crown to decorate. Each crown said "______ is 100 days smarter!" It was exciting stuff, let me tell you!

Next up was math. But not regular math, 100th Day math. I gave each child a 0-100 grid and 4 crayons: red, blue, green, and yellow. I explained that I had hidden star stickers all over the school room. Each star was numbered 0-100. Their job was to find a sticker, look at the number on the sticker, find the corresponding number on their charts, and color the square to match the sticker. The colors made a pattern on the chart. They LOVED this activity. Benj attacked the project very systematically, making his way around the room methodically, filling in each square as he went. It took him about 35 minutes to fill in his entire chart perfectly. Talia (as expected) was a bit more haphazard, flitting from one side of the room to the other, filling in random squares here and there. She made a few mistakes with this method, but had just as much fun. Leila loved this for about the first 15-20 minutes, then wandered around for the next 10 minutes ("I'm just going to take a little break, Mommy"), and ended up happily coloring her chart randomly.

Our writing assignment was to complete "My 100 Book," filling in the blanks to complete various 100-related sentences. Here are the (sometimes quite humorous) results of that project:

My 100 Book by Benj
If I had $100 I would buy Lego Star Wars.
I would never eat 100 apples.
I wish I had 100 toy cars.
I'm glad I don't have 100 sizzres (scissors).
I would eat 100 raisins.
In 100 years I will look like this.

My 100 Book by Talia
If I had $100 I would buy a $100 princess fishing pole.
I would never eat 100 cupcakes.
I wish I had 100 dresses.
I'm glad I don't have 100 dogs.
I would eat 100 raisins.
In 100 years I will look like this.

My 100 Book by Leila
If I had $100 I would buy a princess seat.
I would never eat 100 potatoes.
I wish I had 100 windows.
I'm glad I don't have 100 Legos.
I would eat 100 M&Ms.
In 100 years I will look like this.

Next I announced that we were going to spend some time reading and that we were going to set a goal: Each of us was going to try to read for 100 minutes before the end of the day. I printed off a thermometer template and we colored in a section for every 10 minutes we read. I let them choose whatever they wanted to read. We got quilts, blankets, stuffed animals, and pillows and spent the next 30 minutes reading, Benj & Talia silently, me reading aloud to Leila.

While I went to make lunch I had the kids work on a project that proved to be too ambitious for one day, even though it sounded fun. I gave them our old magazine box and asked them to cut out 100 words they know how to read and paste them in a collage. (Leila just cut out things she likes.) The big kids each got about 20-30 words cut out before we quit for lunch.

For lunch I made them each a cup of trail mix with 100 pieces in it (raisins, chex, cheerios for the girls, and chocolate chips). I served this with celery sticks and a cup of peanut butter (sunbutter) for dipping. The kids love to have "ants on a log" for lunch, so I guess this was a take-off on that.

During lunch I read from our read-aloud book to them, which gave us 30 more minutes towards our goal. By this time we were getting a little weary of our celebration so I skipped my final planned academic activity (100 words I know how to write/spell) and went straight for our final fun activity, putting together 100-piece puzzles. We each picked a puzzle to work on alone. The first person to finish was to pick someone else to help, and so on, until everyone's puzzles were complete, which added in just a bit of friendly competition.

During rest time the kids each read for 20 more minutes. When Seth got home we finished out our day with dinner (no 100 theme - I was out of ideas!) and cupcakes. I didn't get fancy, just piped "100" on the top with icing. Our final activity for the night was our nightly reading from the Chronicles of Narnia, completing our 100 minutes of reading.

The kids loved 100th Day. Although I had told them we were going to have a special celebration I think they were expecting more like a "cupcakes and it's over" kind of thing. They told me over and over how much fun they had. I definitely do NOT have what it takes to put this much energy into school every day, but it was so worth it to see my kids enjoy their day so much.

So, we've survived 100 days. Here goes the last 80. :)

Christmas 2012 Slideshow

I have been organizing and editing pictures like a mad woman. And I finally got through all 700+ from December! Phew. So, even though it's way past the appropriate time to post a Christmas slideshow, here are the best of the best from Christmas 2012.

Highlights: Channah's First Christmas, a visit from "Auntie Ruth," and our trip to California

Next slideshow: Disneyland!

Introducing: My New "Notebook" Page

This weekend I started a much-needed update for my poor neglected blog. Yes, for those who have been wondering, this will include some updated pictures for my header (thanks Becky!) So, just so you know, blog renovation will be in progress. Progress will probably be slow, though, so don't hold your breath.

I would like to draw your attention, however, to one small change I have already made - a new page entitled "Notebook." You will find the link just under the header. (I personally don't think the way it is displayed is very intuitive.) I created this page for the purpose of sharing some of the kids' writing projects, both for your enjoyment and to give them a place to share work they are proud of with people they love. As we have new writing to share I will update this page, pasting the newest work at the top. At least, that's the goal.

We hope you enjoy!

The Laundry Girl

The Laundry Girl
a modern poem, by Talia

The Laundry Girl, o-o-oh the Laundry Girl
She carries clothes left and right
And everywhere she goes
She leaves a trail of laundry ...
Behind her

Happy Birthday, Mr. Benjamin

We celebrated Benjamin's 7th birthday with a Lego party. We had a great time playing Lego games and eating colorful treats.

 

Layered Jello cups were a hit! 

 Lego Cake designed by Benj

 The kids had a blast playing "Lego Creationary" (each kid chose a card telling them what to build and the other kids guessed)

 Another game: Tallest Lego Tower in 90 seconds

 Benj enjoyed his cake

 Talia kept building her tower while she ate cake

 Benj passed out party favors - Lego cookies for the little kids and minifigures for the big kids

Leila and her tower

 

Happy Birthday to our big boy. I can't believe you are 7, my Benja-Bear. We love you and are so proud of the young man you are becoming.

 



The Painful Process of Parenting

(From the Archives: a previously unpublished post mostly written in February 2012)

I have often wondered, when facing various situations that I encounter on a regular basis in my strange and wonderful career as a mama, "why didn't anyone ever tell me ... ?" No one ever told me, for example, that as a mom I might find chunks of poop in my washing machine after the load (a dark load, by the way, with no underwear in it) had been run ... TWICE. Or that I might forget basic points of grammar and become quite vocabulary deficient as the effects of sleep deprivation settled in. I'm not sure I ever really adequately grasped how quickly I could go from "zero to panic" when we are outside and I suddenly realize I'm not sure where my two year old went. Often I am surprised and exasperated and humbled and exhausted by the weighty task of parenting. The past two days have been those kinds of days.

Yesterday I started a new process in the ever-challenging realm of caring for my children's health: keeping a speech journal for my sweet Leila.

Let me back up. Back in October (2011) our very, very quiet little girl began suddenly to explode with speech. It seemed like one day she was barely putting two words together and the next she was speaking in 5 and 6 word phrases! Shortly thereafter, however, she began to develop a stammer that seemed to accelerate with each passing week. We weren't overly concerned, but at the same time we thought it would be a good idea to get an outside opinion on this completely new-to-us development. Fortunately, Leila was already in an early intervention program, seeing a physical therapist weekly for her significant gross motor delay so at our 6-month assessment meeting I asked about the possibility of qualifying for a speech evaluation. We were approved for an assessment that same day. Our initial visit with the speech therapist determined that Leila's stammer was not due to difficulty with the speech patterns themselves, which was good news. A limited number of speech therapy sessions were nonetheless recommended to allow us to better determine the cause and give us some strategies for helping Leila correct the pattern before it became a bigger issue.

So I find myself, after 2 sessions of speech therapy, faced with the task of documenting (as completely as I am able) each instance of stammering throughout Leila's day, recording the words or phrases on which she stumbles (and which parts of them) and the details of the situation (who is involved in the conversation, the noise level in the room, whether she is initiating interaction or answering a question, etc.) I was prepared for the fact that recording this information all day long would be a logistically difficult task. I was not prepared, however, for the emotional difficulty of my assignment. As my role at this stage is just to observe and gather data I am having to sit by and watch her struggle painfully to communicate. And not only to watch, but to focus on and pick apart and analyze and record the details.  I have patiently waited in silent tears for her to stumble as many as 15 or 20 times on a certain word or syllable before she was able to complete her thought. I can't adequately express what a painful process it has been to magnify my sweet little girl's struggle in this way.

Like so many tasks in parenting, keeping Leila's speech journal is something I am doing because I love her and I want to get her the help she needs to grow and succeed, not because it is in any way enjoyable to me. And yet, even as I strive to do what is best for her, God is using this process that brings me pain to do what is best for me. I am reminded of this biblical truth:

"No discipline [instruction, teaching] seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:11)  

Earlier in this same chapter of Hebrews we are urged to, "endure hardship as discipline." (v. 7) This tells me that God can use this hardship to discipline and instruct me in selflessness, gentleness, love, and probably a hundred other heart attitudes He wants to work in my life. And it gives me hope that the sometimes painful process of parenting my children has a greater purpose. Yes, I am hoping that keeping Leila's speech journal will yield information that will help us give her the freedom of easier speech, but this season can also bring about an abundance of blessing as God uses this trial to train and mold my heart. I'm looking forward to that harvest!





Update on Leila's speech: She has now graduated from speech therapy and her stammer is nearly nonexistent. The process of keeping the journal helped us to determine that she was not having difficulty with any specific speech sounds and that her stammer was more developmental and situational in nature. Developmentally, she was having to learn the muscle movements associated with words she knew, but had not spoken. Her speech "exploded" so quickly that her mouth was sometimes just unable to keep up with her brain. Another layer to the problem was that she was just trying to be heard! She wanted to join the conversation, but wasn't always able to keep pace with the rest of the family (especially the more... ah-hem... talkative members) so she would "hold her space" by repeating a word or sound over and over until she could figure out how to say what she wanted to say. By employing strategies like slowing down the pace of our conversation, asking less direct questions, and making sure she knew we had time to listen to her, she improved greatly within the span of about 3 months. We had a huge "relapse" when Channah was born (which the speech therapist warned us might happen), but after about a month she was able, once again, to articulate and speak without a stammer. We are so thankful for the expertise of our wonderful therapist and that this issue was resolved so quickly.