Strong and Courageous

This week, Delaney had an assignment for Girls Scouts. She was supposed to research a strong and courageous woman, write a little bit about her, and share it with the troop on Friday.

We just happen to have been studying about this at home, and have several good books around the house from the library right now, From Amelia to Zora, Outrageous Women of Colonial America, The Sky's the Limit: Stories of Discoveries by Women and Girls, to name a few. She was trying to decide between Helen Keller and Amelia Earheart, when she put down her book and stated that she was going to write about me.

I told her that was very, very sweet of her, but was she sure she wouldn't rather choose one of these other women? I am not very exciting.

She was very firm with me. "Mom,  you are VERY strong and courageous and I am writing about you."

"My mommy is brave and courageous because she acts calm even though she is afraid of spiders."

Then at Girl Scouts, while the other girls were sharing about Gracie Gold and Rosa Parks, Delaney told them that her mom always stays calm, even when there are spiders.

I do aspire to be strong and courageous for my girls, and teach them that they can be and do anything they want, to offer them many different opportunities to see what can be possible for them. It's moments like these that I know I am doing the right thing, choosing to stay home and teach my girls. ♥

Inspired

There have been bounds of creativity running around here lately.

Delaney has been filling her days with art. She gets even more creative and full of ideas when I mention that we should probably work on some math...haha.

I had some art picked out for the girls to do for Thanksgiving, but instead they created their own turkeys. Delaney made hers independently, and Sophie just needed a little help drawing her feathers before she cut them, and a little bit of gluing assistance.

Delaney drew the Mayflower.

Over the weekend, Delaney wrote several "word" books, to "teach Sophie how to read". They start out easy and then increase in difficulty.

I especially like that she included "barf" and "puke" on her "words to know" list, as well as the girls' favorite word to yell, "gaggle". Who doesn't laugh hysterically when yelling that silly word?

She also made some visual math problems, several crowns and some rings...This equation has something to do with the time at which Delaney is hungry.

A game, in which we have to jump over lollipops and only land on the safe spike...

And a self-portrait...

I found the "What Shall I Draw" book, and Delaney spent the morning drawing a princess and a sea monster, and writing a little story to go with it.

"Once upon a time, there was  sea monster who said the next one to touch him would be his dinner. No one ever touched him ever though."

We go to the library most Monday mornings, and I encourage Delaney to chat with the librarians in the kids' section and practice her "speaking with grown ups" skills. She brought her picture to the library to read to them, and they hung it on the wall. She was so proud. I am a bit annoyed at my self for forgetting to take a picture...it was a good drawing and a cute story!

Sophie watched Delaney drawing all of her fun pictures with the drawing book, and wanted to try to draw her own creation. With just a little help, she made this cute little tiger.

Sophie also made an owl with me. She liked him so much that she asked me to hang him up in her room.

Delaney has been experimenting with fashion design. She made Sophie this dress out of some flannel and yarn...

And a belt out of craft foam for me.

Next, I will get out the sewing kit and teach her how to stitch a little bit. She will probably surpass my sewing abilities pretty quickly, since I know how to sew on a button and that's about it. :)

I taught her how to play checkers a few weeks ago, and Cullen is now teaching her to play chess. Sophie likes to help Cullen, and she knows the names of all of the chess pieces now. Delaney is learning to play Battleship with me, and is picking it up pretty quickly.

Now we have to get planning and working on all of our December crafts and goodies. I love the holiday months!

Ace Reporter

Delaney decided to be a reporter one afternoon. She made a sign. "Reporting Come"

She brought the little table to the sidewalk, along with a chair for herself, a notepad, a pencil and some water, and proceeded to flag people down. This mostly shy, quiet 5 year old suddenly morphed into a self-assured, poised reporter.

"My name is Delaney. I am a reporter. Do you have any interesting stories from your day for me?"

She had several neighbors wave and smile, and one stopped to share a story about her son. I love nice people who take the time to make my girl's day.

Our street is rather quiet, so I suggested that we walk around the neighborhood, and she could talk to people that she saw outside. She met a neighbor who is having her front yard landscaped. The neighbor shared that she has a bathroom in her front yard right now, which Delaney thought was definitely report-worthy.

As Delaney left, the neighbor added that being interviewed by Delaney was the most interesting thing to happen to her, even more so than the port-a-potty. :)

Cullen happened to pass us while Delaney canvassed the neighborhood, so we hitched a ride and went home, my reporter feeling successful and ready to review her notes.

"Three kids ruining (running) and jumping crazy. Baby being nody (naughty). Bikes silfer (silver) wears helmet. Bathroom in front yard."

I think she has an exciting journalism career ahead of her.

Raven Date

The Museum of Northern Arizona hosts a children's author every month or so. Last week, Diane Phelps Budden visited to talk about ravens, and her book, "Shade". Delaney and I made a date of it.

We learned about the characteristics of ravens, and all about Shade, a raven who had been trained to help Search and Rescue teams. He lives in Tuscon and is part of a research program at the University of Arizona. We have a lot of ravens in our area, and we learned how to recognize a raven vs. a crow, which we also see a lot of. It was fun learning about their habits, and how they only have one mate for life. Ravens are devoted birds, and very intelligent.

After the talk, the kids made a raven puppet with Diane.

 

 

 

When Delaney was finished with her puppet, she sat and read "Shade" and told me all about it. In the book, Shade helps rescue a hiker who is lost in the desert near Tucson. 

My girl and I decided to go for a nature walk on the trail by the Museum, since it was a beautiful cloudy afternoon. We saw 8 ravens on our walk, and at one point they were flying rather close to us and making a lot of noise. Perhaps they had babies or eggs nearby? Did they just wanted us to get out of their forest? Or maybe, they were just saying hello, and knew how much fun it would be for Delaney to see them up close?

 

 I didn't take very many pictures, and these are a little too dark to see the birds, but these trees were full of the big black birds.

 

 

They are beautiful!

The Cook Book

Delaney and Sophie love to be in the kitchen with me. They are both getting very good at legitimately helping me cook, from stirring to pouring to chopping things with a knife - BOTH of them! Sophie is closely supervised, of course, but Delaney is proficient enough that as long as I know what she is doing, I don't feel like I need to be right next to her anymore.

One day just before Easter, Delaney sat at her table, diligently writing another book. She brought it to me, and was super excited.

"Mom!! I wrote a COOKBOOK!!"

And she certainly had.

" How you make Easter Eggs. Shooger."

"Butter. 3 eggs, four minites. Cook them for four minites then take them out and cool them!"

An apron for cooking.

 After I looked at it and complimented her, she said, "Ok, let's go to the kitchen."

The kitchen?

"Yes! We have to make the recipe now!"

To sound a bit like our favorite writer Dr. Seuss , if your four year old wrote a cookbook, now what would you do?

So off to the kitchen we went.

Delaney found a bowl and a spoon and all the ingredients that her recipe called for. She decided on 2 cups of sugar, 1/4 cup of melted butter and 3 eggs. She put it together all by herself, with the exception of melting the butter, since she isn't quite tall enough to reach the microwave. She had me heat the oven to 200 degrees. She greased a pan, poured her concoction into it and set the timer for 4 minutes.

When the timer went off, it wasn't looking quite how she expected. I explained that sometimes when you try to cook (or write) a new recipe, sometimes you have to adjust the heat and cooking time to get it right. She decided to increase the cooking temperature to 350 degrees, and leave it in the oven for about 20 more minutes.

This was the final result.

She tasted it hot. We put it in the freezer, and she later tasted it cold. She had mixed reviews, but ultimately decided that she is "a total natural at this." ;)

Since then, she has made up a recipe for ranch-filled tomatoes.

Cut the top off of a cherry tomato.

Dig out the seeds with a spoon.

Fill with ranch dressing.

Replace the top and eat. Yummy!

She made her own salad yesterday with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, sweet peppers and carrots.

 As well as a drink made from water and the seeds and a little bit of juice from her tomatoes.

These have been the ideal moments for me to just say "yes" and see what will happen. She has learned a lot about measuring and baking and creativity, trying new tastes and being confident in her experimenting. She is also learning how to handle it when things don't turn out quite the way she expects. I am a little glad that she hasn't requested any taste-testing services yet, though...:D

Author Preview

Delaney has written a little library full of books so far. Here are the cover pages...

Ted and the Candy Maker...a book about a boy and his friend.

 Clown's Lips...a tale of the various ways a clown looks.

 First Day of July...an unusually cold July complete with hot chocolate.

 Lovely Day. A Poem and a Song.

 Three Facts About Spiders. Folk tales of how three spiders got their names.

 Sophie and Delaney Out Under...A tragic story of two sisters drowned at sea.

 The Cookbook. I am going to have to do a whole post on this one. :)

I keep a stack of paper in the living room for her. She began folding and stapling them together to make a book on her own. I love the determined look on her face when she writes, and the way she doesn't even hear me talking to her when she is in the midst of a story.

There is an free site, Youblisher, that allows you to upload files and publish them in a flippable pdf format. As soon as I turn these into digital books, I will be sure to post them for your reading pleasure!

Doubts...and Reassurance

We have been doing many of the same activities over the last few weeks. Delaney spends most of her time writing stories, drawing pictures, writing letters to family members and reading books. We listen to cello music and the girls paint how it "makes them feel", in Delaney's words.

Writing letters and drawing pictures for the Easter Bunny

Read-a-thon

Cello art by Delaney

Cello art by Sophie

Sophie continues to love the alphabet magnets and we work on putting them in order and spelling her name. I downloaded the app, Endless Alphabet, after reading some comments that Brandi made about it, and we absolutely love it. Sophie has to match up letters to spell big words like "gargantuan" and "invisible" and then a cute little monster acts it out while the narrator tells her what it means. I am dying to see if she will incorporate all of these words into her vocabulary as she starts speaking more.

I limit my girls' screen time so their eyes don't fall out and their bodies don't become too stationary, but there are so many fantastic apps for the iPod and android tablet that I don't feel guilty anymore when I let them play for awhile. The land of Motherhood can be such a judge-y place, and I think moms are often made to feel like if they are not talking/interacting/playing/reading with their children every moment, that they are doing something wrong, or being selfish, or any number of other things. I have been having a bit of a rough week in this respect, beating myself up for my "lack of". I need to just *stop* and realize that I am doing just fine. My kids are happy. They are learning. They are playing with each other more every day, making up cute little pretend games. They are both curious. We all love books. There is nothing wrong with playing computer games for an extra 30 minutes or sitting around reading books all day long, doing "nothing". It's okay if we stay in our pajamas until noon, and then enjoy a midday bubble bath. That's the beauty of homeschooling.

Some days I begin to question my belief in child-led learning, and second guess if I am teaching Delaney enough math, and if I need a curriculum, and if I am going to fail her academically some day, and a million other doubting-myself-questions.

Then, she asks me with questions about the aurora borealis, which she learned of while she was watching her very favorite show from the BBC, "Walking With Dinosaurs" (it's on Netflix if you have a dinosaur lover).  We looked up pictures and definitions and learned so much. Did you know that the different colors in the aurora depend on electrons striking oxygen or nitrogen at certain altitudes? I certainly didn't!

And then there was the evening that I pointed out the constellation Orion in the sky (she still has a love affair going on with the sky) and she immediately ran inside, found her constellation book and drew Orion, Sirius and one other unlabeled constellation that I am supposed to look at and identify. (Who knew I would be the one taking the tests? :) )

I've probably said it before, but my very favorite thing about homeschooling and letting her tell me what she wants to learn is how much I get to learn too. She was interested in past U.S. presidents a month or so ago, and we checked out some library books and learned some very interesting facts about our nation's leaders that I would probably never have known had she not been intrigued. She is also curious about gemstones and jewels and how they are formed. Back to the library we went, and we (both) studied those books, learning where and how they are made. (We are saving the rest of that study for when Grandma Gail comes to visit. She is a jewel expert.)


All of these things remind me that I am on the right path, and as long as I nurture the girls' curiosity, and encourage each learning endeavor, we will all do just fine.