U-N-O

Has a year really passed?

Today we were at the YMCA for swimming, Julia Davis park for lunch, Zoo Boise to enjoy the spring weather and see some animals.

Happy Birthday Leo!

Brain Neurons and Life Long Learning

Last month our Relief Society held a Parenting class. The instructor was an experienced father and social worker who seeks truths (he's my Visiting Teacher's Dad). One of the things he shared with us is that human brains change over time. Neurons are connected and disconnected throughout our lives. A lot change as babies, adolescents and seniors - "it's like waking up with a whole new brain everyday"! This knowledge has allowed me to be more forgiving when dealing with my children when I expect them to know something that they've known before. Also he told us that when we have stress or anger, we lose our ability to be creative. And parenting requires creativity!


Leo has been displaying his neuron growth. For example, two Sundays ago, while the sacrament bread was being passed, he noticed that he was the only one in the chapel in our family that did not take a piece of bread. Oh the unfairness! He protested as it passed him by on our row and again as it passed him on the row behind us. I learned a lesson and this past Sunday he was not skipped (and was thus quiet).

I have taken life long learning to a new level in our home. Last July, I decided that since my children were not being taught at school the rhyme

"In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue."

and didn't know which happened first the Civil War or the Revolutionary War, I needed to educate them myself. I created a timeline and it hangs on our wall in the dining room.

It starts with 1440 with Gutenberg's printing press and goes through Leo's birth. I have included dates of importance (birthdays, anniversaries, temple dedications, when my parents got their first TV sets, MLK's "I have a Dream" speech, wars, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan). I have also put pictures of composers and the different periods of music.


The next idea came from Caitlin during 'Soup Day' at Summer's house. Do you read the cereal boxes at your house? All of us who can read do at our house. (We ALL know the story behind the creation of Honey Bunches of Oats!) I have now covered up the cereal boxes with things I want us to read/memorize. We've got math facts for Roderic (and Hyrum), the Beatitudes, the first 3 Articles of Faith, key signatures and other scriptures. Some of the papers are in sheet protectors and some aren't. All are attached to the boxes with masking tape. When one box is emptied, I move the page to another box. It has been fun to sit next to Hyrum at breakfast and hear him doing math.


In the study guide for the New Testament lesson 9, it has this idea for a family discussion:

Display a map. Ask family members how a map could help them plan a trip. If your family has recently taken a trip or will take one soon, discuss how a map was used or will be used on the trip. Explain that in our journey toward eternal life, the scriptures and the teachings of the living prophets are like a map, helping us know how to return to our Heavenly Father.

And I thought, what a great idea for giving out kids a visual of how much driving we'll be doing country we'll see this summer on our Epic Vacation. Roderic, Hyrum and Sabrina can all point to Boise on the map. They know where Layton is. And Roderic and Sabrina can point to New York. I'm thinking it would be fun to put pictures of family members on the map where they live and perhaps pictures of our vacation locations.

And look at this scripture I made for Hyrum.


He gets to read it during Primary on Sunday and I thought this was better than me just standing next to him whispering the words into his ear for him to repeat. We're working on it.

And Roderic is giving the talk in Primary, so last night I gave the FHE lesson on the POTATO method of giving a talk. I first heard of this method on keepapitchinin.org
Pray and Prepare
Opening on Topic
Tell Two or Three examples of the Topic
Answer why or how this matters
Testify
Over

100th Day of School and then President's Day

In First Grade they have all sorts of celebrations. Like Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, the 100th day of school, Valentine's Day, President's Day, Dr. Seuss' birthday.

100 seems like such a large number, especially to a 6 year old, so to celebrate the 100th Day of School, he got to do a worksheet to help grasp what 100 is.

I can eat 100 crums (crumbs). {Cookie and Cake crumbs preferably.}
I can hold 100 LEGO. {As long as they get put away afterwards.}
I can run 100 mils (miles). {Not all at once, though.}
But I would never want 100 pupees (puppies). {AMEN!}

For President's Day, he filled out a booklet on what he would do if he were president. The underlined words are Roderic's responses.

If I were President, the first thing I would do is mac lose (make laws).
If I were President, I would eat chickin (chicken).
If I were President, I would travel to Uootuoe (Utah).
If I were President, I would have a pet cat named Fluflee.
If I were President, I would pass a law that teflfoones (telephones).
If I were President, I would help Bagpaprs (Bagpipers).

Joy School

Hyrum is enrolled in our neighborhood Joy School. There are 5 other kids in the group, so I get to teach every 6 weeks. Last week was my turn and the lesson topic was The Joy of Spontaneous Delight. It was so much fun to teach! We blew bubbles in a cup with straws. We acted out "Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business" by Esphyr Slobodkina. We watched popcorn be popped without the lid on the hot air popper. We shook hands with a doorknob. We played with balloons. We learned the finger plays "Grandma's Glasses" and "5 Little Monkeys". We sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" with actions that each of the kids chose - bite your sleeve, jump up and down, run around the room, clap your hands.



I'm glad I am doing this with Hyrum. It is good for me to be a formal teacher for him. And it is helping me to see joy all around.

Missing Teeth

We now have a boy with a "Jack-o-lantern" smile at our house. Roderic's tooth has been loose for a while and last Thursday night it was really loose. I offered to pull it for him and he said he'd rather wait and pull it out at school so he could go see the nurse and get a small treasure chest to put the tooth in. Sure enough, Friday he came home from school with a tooth in a treasure chest. He pulled his tooth out right before lunch.

February Recap

In February, some of us played in boxes:

One of us went to Wisconsin on a recruiting trip for Micron during the blizzard of the decade, coming home in time to go to the Klondike Derby with the Boy Scouts.

One of us sang 10 Singing Valentines with a quartet.
One of us took some tests (college ACT included) for admission to Treasure Valley Math and Science Center.
Some of us ripped holes in jeans that then needed to be patched.


All of us celebrated Valentine's Day with heart-shaped pancakes.

All of us got sick: colds (no voice Feb 9-12), conjunctivitis (Feb 12-15, 21-27), stomach flu (Feb 20-22).

And now for things we did that didn't have pictures taken. We attended Junior High orientation, TVMSC orientation and Environmental Field Trip orientation. Sabrina babysat all of her brothers while Ryan and I went to Ballet Idaho's "The Piano" - it was really cool! Hyrum discovered that the place he likes to go on Wednesday mornings to play is not "Bodies and Lotion" but "Bodies in Motion". Leo was given the push car for 1 year olds and likes to push and be pushed on it (it's a toy Sabrina got for her 1st birthday). Roderic freely admits his favorite thing about learning to play the violin is playing with the Legos at his teacher's house while waiting for Sabrina's lesson to finish. I finished the finishing touches of our 2010 Christmas pjs (the elastic had been safety pinned, and the appliqué was only attached with wunderunder). Soccer practice started for Sabrina. We bought more wheat for our food storage and Ryan put the containers in the crawl space, doing a little reorganization at the same time. I took Roderic, Hyrum and Leo to the Jim Gill concert at the Egyptian Theatre. Roderic was impressed with the 'artifacts' of ancient Egypt. [Speaking of Egypt, during the last week of January, Trail Wind Elementary had an art exhibit on display to teach the students about ancient Egyptian art and the whole school did art projects on that subject. Since Egypt was someplace they now knew something about, when they heard mention of Egyptian protests, they asked me all sorts of questions. It was good for our family conversations.]

Lunch with Hyrum

Sometimes you have to stifle your 4-year-old's creativity.

Today I drew the line at making a ham, cheese, pickle, mustard sandwich using chocolate chip zucchini bread. Even though he says it would taste good and he would eat the whole thing.

I think I would puke while trying to make it.