A Beautiful Gift

Yesterday, as we were leaving our homeschool Park Day, Karen says from the back of the car, "How about if I make dinner while you and Dad relax together and Linda and Melissa watch a movie?"

Really? OK!

When we pulled into our driveway, Dave was just coming out of the house. He had also just gotten home and was getting ready to go for a walk. Karen got her sisters set up with a movie, got out the walkie-talkies, turned them on, handed me one, and sent us out the door. So, Dave and I headed out for a walk TOGETHER! Just the two of us!

When we returned from our walk, Andrea Bocelli was playing on the cd player, and the table was set with a fresh green tablecloth. Karen was whipping up some buttery scrambled eggs, and had some fried eggs already on a serving plate. We got out of her way - it's easy to want to offer "helpful" advice and she was doing just fine on her own. After cooking the eggs, she set about making blueberry muffins from the recipe in her American Girl Samantha cookbook. A few minutes later, she called us all to dinner and we enjoyed delicious eggs, yummy blueberry muffins and romantic music. It was a wonderful peaceful evening.

It was such a joy to receive this special gift from our lovely daughter, given straight from her heart.

Thank you, Karen!!

Learning to Read

I had been wondering how reading happens. It is difficult to "see" how someone learns to read, to really see the process that is going on inside. A while back I decided to ask Karen how she thought she learned to read. Here is how the conversation went.

I (Mom) ask Karen, “How did you learn how to read?”

Karen: “I don’t know.”

Mom: “Can you remember when you couldn’t read, and then you could? Remember when you used to read the BOB books?”

Karen: “Zoophonics helped”

We talked a little about my memory of when Karen read her first Bob book by herself. She doesn’t seem to remember it, but I told her how excited she was bouncing on the bed “I can read!”

Mom: “But then you stopped reading for me. Remember when we used to take turns reading? I read some of the page, you read some of the page?”

Karen: “Oh yeah, the easy reader chapter books. I like books with bigger words. I like you to read Nancy Drew to me because of words like Pierrot.” [Nancy Drew and friends find a life-size Pierrot puppet in The Clue of the Dancing Puppet…]

Mom: “So how do you think you learned to read after we stopped doing Bob books and you stopped reading out loud to me?” (Karen was never fond of the take-turns-reading-aloud thing.)

Karen “I taught myself. It’s like the world is full of words and there are words all around me all day and every day. And the words are like… cookies and I slowly eat them up day by day.”
***

Happy Mother's Day!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Outdoor fireplace!

A few weekends ago, Dave moved a wood-burning stove/fireplace into the garden. It looks like a funnel turned upside down, with a curved opening for adding firewood. I picture it having been in someone's cabin in the '70s. Dave's parents found it at a yard sale (I think) some years ago and passed it along to us. Yesterday, we enjoyed a fire out there for the first time. I was able to sit outside with my knitting warm by the fire. We brought snacks, blankets, and had a great time.
-JC

Poetry

"It is a beautiful quiet morning

i make believe you sing to me love
inside I laugh and cry for you are
my mother"

Karen posted this on the fridge last July using magnetic poetry tiles. She then wrote the words down on two notecards - one for me, as you see here, and one for Dave with "mother" changed to "father" at the end.
-JC

Corn Husk Dolls

Karen got up early one morning last week so she could get started making corn husk dolls. The day before, she shucked six ears of corn and laid the husks out in the sun to dry. The instructions we printed out from the internet said to dry them in the sun for one to three days. The evening before, while Karen was at choir practice, Linda and I went to Wal-Mart. (We were after a black headband that is to be part of Karen’s choir uniform). On the way to the check-stand I spotted a package of corn husks and picked them up. Karen was very happy not to have to wait for her husks to dry. These store-bought tamale husks are also bigger. Karen studied the photo illustrated instructions here for a more detailed step-by-step description of the process. I think they turned out great! She had already drawn faces on them when we read the story of the corn husk doll. The story explains why corn husk dolls are made without faces. So she made one more that does not have a face. Later Karen tried to wash the faces off the others. The ink did not wash off, so she decided that those dolls are Sister Corn before she loses her face. So we have lots of "before" Sister Corn dolls and one "after". See the cute red-head faceless doll on the far right?

Karen Says:

I just joined the Antelope Valley Children’s Choir. I am very excited! And I can’t wait to go to rehearsals on Mondays. This week is a special week of my first rehearsal, which is on Tuesday. I’m going to get a t-shirt and a folder with my music in it. I love our teacher, Ms. Schuette. I’m looking forward to lots of rehearsals with her. I’ll keep you posted.

First Post!

Welcome to our blog. I'm hoping to keep family and friends informed of our family's activities and homeschooling journey.

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