an impromptu lesson in physics

 What started out as a skip counting by two's lesson for the 5 year old with the marbles quickly turned into exploration-playtime by all three boys...

I ran upstairs to put some things away and came down to find them full of giggles, wonder and excitement.

They had discovered the glories of centripetal force as they rapidly spun their marbles around in their army helmets...  Experiencing the REALITIES of centripetal force (or anything for that matter) makes the formal learning and understanding of these concepts so much easier down the road! 

Play and discovery learning at its best.  This was just what I needed to see today...  As the birth of our little girl approaches, the plan is to take a month off.  It is always nice to see that while I won't be doing anything structured with them, learning is always taking place.

It is amazing what happens when the TV stays off and kids are given ample time and opportunity to explore and discover! 

And thankfully, I didn't have to know much about the topic with them being this age...  I love biology and chemistry, but physics makes my head spin.  I'm hoping that my engineer baby sister will be available to step in and help me out when we get into some of the more in depth physics down the road. 

Anytime Art...

We love artistic pursuits over here.  Not because I'm especially artistically inclined or talented, but because it is soothing and there is something powerful about CREATING something.

With the intense summer heat, we've spent a good deal of our indoor time watercoloring, using finger paints and of course our favorite standby - colored pencils!

But art really is for anytime, anyplace.

Up at the cabin, we only took a few toys (matchbox cars and playsilks) and then plenty of paper, our water colors, colored pencils and playdough.  This time of year it is quite typical to get afternoon storms on a daily basis and so I wanted to be prepared for our cabin bound times...

It ended up being surprisingly dry, but that didn't halt their desire to paint or draw.  We merely took it outdoors.

The advantage up there was that my sister, a definite artist, was present and gave my little budding 'artist' some excellent tips.

(photo's courtesy of my artist sister!)

A Welcome Break...

 Two grandparents, 3 sisters, 3 hubby's and 5 cousins (+ one in utero) took up cabin living for a week.

After our delightful experience last year, we all excitedly embarked to leave our 'oven' home and head for the cool pines of northern Arizona.

  While my pace was understandably altered from last year (less hiking and playing basketball with the boys didn't work out too well...), it was a delight once again.   This pregnant mama is so thankful for this final getaway before the baby comes.

I'm thankful for time spent with family and precious memories made:

cousins busy playing and exploring the woods, artwork filling the walls of the cabin, watercoloring, morning and after dinner walks, board games, two nights of playing Hoopla - epic, ample time for reading, no computer, family and maternity photo's taken, front porch conversations, two birthdays to celebrate, frozen meals made in advance, men who wash dishes, flowers picked by eager little hands, the sound of "Ha-ha" greeting me each morning (what my niece/nephew call me), family worship time...

(Gifts: 826-844)

I'm still here...

just busy, overwhelmed, tired and moving ever so S.L.O.W.L.Y. these days...  But I guess that is to be expected as I approach the 34 week mark this weekend.

We had a wonderful time up north at a cabin with my family last week, so this week has been one of pulling the house back together, catching up with laundry, restocking the kitchen, meal planning, starting formal academics back up again, having grand plans to get to work on a writing project that I had previously set aside and now really need to get working on, attempting to move our 3 year old into his brothers room {again}, replacing elastic in the cloth diapers we have and realizing that I need to start {mentally} preparing for the birth in about 6 weeks...

Plus I've been continuing to pray and write down some of the goals and vision that we have for each of our children this semester on my goal sheets while at the same time realizing how tenuous everything is with the addition of a new family member...  Oh and I have more thoughts on the whole process of setting goals that I wanted to share with you.  (Oh and by the way, I fixed the goal sheets, so my graphics aren't fuzzy.  I'm not sure what was up with my pdf maker, but it was messing everything up...)

And have I mentioned that my pace is slower than S.L.O.W?????  I feel like a turtle struggling with my inner rabbit...

I will be back shortly.  In the meantime, continuing to catch-up and enjoying sweet time with the Lord.  Aren't there always blessings in the midst of struggle?!?!?!?

Setting Goals

As I've said before, I love setting goals and casting vision.  It really helps to keep me focused!  I'm also a big 'to-do' list person.  Can anyone else relate?  There is something just so satisfying about checking things off...

Continuing in the tradition of my mother, I've been in the habit of making 'semester' evaluations since I was in college.  It is nice to take some time to sit back, pray and take stock of where I am at and what direction I feel the Lord is leading me towards in many different areas of my life.  Now that I have children, I've taken to setting semester goals for them as well.

Because we seek to live integrated and holistic lives, my goals for my children encompass far more than just academics.  We write down our priorities and goals for each of our children in the following areas:

• Spiritual - I pray about how to reach each child and help them draw closer to Jesus.  In this section, I outline areas that I would like to see them grow or things I would like to relay to them.   For instance last semester I hoped to talk to my oldest about communion, have opportunity for a clear gospel presentation with my middle and help my youngest start talking to God (prayer).
• Character - It is tempting to me to work on character development in a variety of areas, but that can easily get overwhelming and the impact is lessened if we are not focused.  So I try to pick one character trait per child to focus on specifically while allowing for life circumstances to certainly give clues to needed adjustments.  This last semester, obedience was a huge theme in our family and coincided nicely with our curriculum which is based around character traits and focused on this trait.
• Academic - While there are many things that we learn and explore at any given time, I've found it helpful - especially with core academic subjects, to have a special focus.  I try to always be mindful to make sure that goals and expectations are attainable and age-appropriate.  It is easy to get ambitious in these areas and set goals that our kids brains simply aren't wired to do yet.  Doing flashcards with your 3 or 4 year old in an attempt to get them reading early and reducing them to tears is one example that comes to mind... 
• Chores - With the arrival of our chore chart, this has become so much easier to keep up on.  I try and pick a new chore skill that I want my children to learn how to do per semester.
• Physical - Especially since I know how much movement and exercise play into other aspects of their lives - like neurological development and future academic success, not to mention burning off an abundance of energy allowing everyone to stay sane, I like to set goals for this area as well.

Of course, I don't leave myself out of the equation.  At the bottom of this sheet, I have a section for myself with areas to write goals for my roles as a child of God (spiritual), as a wife, as a mom, for my home and physical.

As I look back at last semester's goals I'm quite please, overall, with progress made and aware that some of our goals I failed to work on or are ones that are simply still in process.  But it sure is nice to have a general game plan.

I plan on unplugging for the next week or two and spending focused time in prayer as we seek His will on what our family needs to be focusing on.  In the meantime, I thought I would share my goal sheets with you all in case you might find them helpful.  I've included a one page goal sheet for 2,3 or 4 kids + mom as well as a sheet with more room to write if you want a separate sheet per child.  I prefer to keep one sheet with all of us on it and place it at the beginning of my lesson plan notebook so I can reference it often!

I'd love to hear how you set goals and any approaches you have found helpful as well.

I'll be back in a week or two...

SEMESTER GOAL SHEET download!

Mission-Minded Motherhood

A re-post from last year since I'm in the process of setting goals for the semester!!!  Up next, I'll share my semester goal planning sheet with you all.  Since my goals encompass far more than merely academics, I really enjoy sitting down and praying through what my goals are in a variety of areas for each of my children... Enjoy this post in the meantime.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m a visionary. Give me a lofty goal to shoot for and I’ll put everything I have into it. Put blinders on me and ask me to just take things one step at a time with no goal and I flounder.

Since I view my role as a parent as one of my primary vocations, I decided that I needed to have a mission statement in place to remind myself of my end goal. Why am I doing what I’m doing? Why is it so important that I stay home with my boys?

Anyone with small children knows, raising them and maintaining your sanity certainly isn’t easy… For those days when the whining never stops, there are unending disputes to settle or I’ve changed my 5th poopy diaper of the day, it’s nice to be able to maintain (or regain) some perspective.

“Without vision, the people perish”                 Proverbs 28:19

My mommy brain suffers from this on those REALLY bad days. Ever have one? You know, the kind of day where you just want to crawl out of your skin and run away. Ok, ok, that maybe a bit melodramatic, but you get my point, right?

So I remind myself of who God has called me to be – both as a person and as a mother to these boys. Reminding myself of the big picture brings me back into balance!

I wrote my first mission statement two years ago and it has been interesting to go back and read my thoughts. I’ve made some tweaks and added a new goal to the bunch, so here you go!

I desire to live holistically, authentically - meaning that I want my core values to play a critical role in every decision that I make. I want to live what I believe instead of merely having a piecemeal/compartmentalized approach to life. This undergirds my goals as a parent and really as a human being.

I have three primary interrelated goals:

1. That my children would have a deep and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ,
2. That they would have a genuine love for other people,
3. That they would be joyful, life-long learners.

I’ll write more about each of these aspects later and give a more detailed explanation on how I hope to build these goals into my everyday life and not just have it be a random thing that I mark off a ‘to-do’ list.

Mission-Minded - Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Play Silks - the winner

Dear Readers,  I've had so much fun reading through all of your comments on how your children would play with a set of playsilks or what they are currently dreaming up in their imaginary playworlds...  Children are simply so creative and it is a joy to hear about!

Sorry for the delay.  I made the mistake of letting in a salesperson today to 'quickly clean the carpet' in one of our rooms...   I was so distracted because I was in the process of trying to get dinner ready and prepare cinnamon rolls for my birthday boy tomorrow that I relented after my first refusal because she promised it would be quick.  An hour later and after a strong sales push to buy a fancy $2,000 vacuum/carpet cleaner/do-all, we were finally able to eat our dinner and then whisk the kids upstairs for bed.  I'm still shaking my head and wondering how I could have possibly been crazy enough to let them in - especially right before dinner time.  Oh the poor pregnancy brain that my husband is enduring these days...  He's such a trooper.

But back to the giveaway winner announcement.  I used Random.org to generate the winning number and it was comment #21.

Desi Brown said...

Judging by how the heat is making everybody a little kooky, I imagine my boys would turn their playsilks into a make shift bomb or a sister torturing device. My daughter on the other hand would use them as costumes, baby slings, baby blankets, clothing accessories or as ropes to tie up her little brothers.

Your comment totally made me laugh.  The heat has been making us a little kooky over here too, especially since I've put the kibosh on playing golf or football in the backyard at 3:30 in the afternoon.  They've taken to donning capes and running laps around the house at breakneck speeds.  I'll be contacting you so you can pick out those playsilks! 

A Rebirth-day Milestone

Last week marked a milestone - 30 years since I became a child of God. It’s been 30 years since the day when in the midst of build-up for my physical birth-day, my mom read me this book.

The King’s Invitation relays the parable Jesus told about a king who sent out invitations to his son’s wedding feast (found in Matt 22:1-14). The important people didn’t want to come, so the King opened up the invitation to everyone. He provided wedding clothes and invited them to a feast. Even at that young age, I was able to comprehend this beautiful picture of life with God. God opened up my heart and I responded to His call!

30 years in His family.

30 years as His child.

30 years of sweet fellowship.

Indescribable…

And yet, I always feel compelled to try. As I look back it is just beautiful to see how God made Himself real to me through the different stages in my life. I’m thankful that my parents introduced me to Him, even at that young age.  I'm thankful that they didn't think I was 'too young' to have a real relationship with the Lord.

But Jesus called them to him, saying,

"Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” 

Luke 18:16

And I’m praying for my own children. One has made that step of faith and we are praying for our other children, planting seeds and watching for God’s perfect timing in reaching each of them.

What a glorious privilege we have as parents to introduce our children to our heavenly Father and then disciple them and help them to grow closer to the One who gives us life, hope and meaning.

So I continue counting His many gifts to me as I make my way to 1,000!

816. Memories of quiet conversations with God at night before drifting off to sleep and waking to joy that I just knew came from Him in the morning as a child.

817. Memories of the Spirit's whispers to my soul and hungering for more of Him these many years…

818. The fact that I really don’t remember life before Jesus became the center of it.

819. Looking back and seeing how my understanding of and trust in the Lord has grown and changed over the years.

820. Time spent in I John celebrating and contemplating how God brings us into His family and makes us His children.

821. Parents who not only introduced me to Jesus, but faithfully encouraged and taught me to pursue him in every aspect of my life.

822. Grace and a new opportunity to embrace “30”. (My initial reaction to reaching this ‘birth’day was not met with excitement or enthusiasm.)

823. Seeing God at work in my children by the questions they ask.

824. Glimpses of God's creativity and care as He uniquely calls us each to a beautiful relationship with Him.

825. Getting to read that very special book to my children now.