Before Bed

Bedtime sometimes feels like a time bomb ready to go off, and we never know if it's just a dud or a real explosion that's going to happen. Why is that....

Well, sometimes we bribe the kids to get ready for bed cooperatively so they can gain some extra quiet playtime. It usually works and we get a bedtime free of "I'm too tired!!!" whining and "I don't want to!" fighting.
On a good night we are all smiles, and on every other night we just want to quit this parenting thing forever! You know what I mean?

They can drive us so crazy.
But we love them.

And we would never really quit on them.

Systems :: School (Part 3)

How can we "unschool" and have our children still manage to learn anything??



I've given a bunch of links and books to research for yourself, but I wanted to end these school system posts with an outline of how we learn in our home. This time it's personal( some of this I briefly touched on in the part 2 post, but it bears repeating here).

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We trust our children. I've said it before but I'll keep saying it. It's critical to trust them to know what they need to know when they need to know it. And we do. We believe it doesn't matter if you learn something at six or at sixty. I just learned all about flower gardening two years ago -- names of flowers, growing zones, plant hardiness, pest control. Because I wanted to. Flower gardening isn't any more or less important than knowing what date a battle in the French and Indian War happened. We don't need to keep testing or questioning our kids to make sure they are learning something because we believe learning is ongoing, so who is to say what stage of learning should be happening and when.



We read aloud everyday. Lots of books flow in and out of the house from the library and as gifts. Even if the kids don't ask me to read on a (rare) given day, I make it a priority to grab a book and sit down -- they always come running. I believe in reading aloud no matter how old a child is, as long as they enjoy it. I also believe that children who are read to often develop reading/writing/spelling/grammar skills just by sitting there next to me. The older they get the more time we spend in books. Along with reading aloud to our kids is being readers ourselves -- Todd and I have books in our hands quite often too.



We answer our children's questions (or help them find the answer). The number of questions asked in one day rises and falls like waves in the ocean. Sometimes we are so swamped that we actually grow weary from listening to and answering the questions, but we never ignore them. Our kids ask us anything and everything, from the important to the trivial. We've established that we don't know it all, but that we are willing to hear them and help every time.



We try to be interesting people. If we have some kind of project or hobby, the kids are all over it. And they should be. Todd does carpentry work and all sorts of construction/ plumbing/ electrical projects. He is also the resident mechanic for our cars. He likes dreaming about building his Jeep. He is interesting to be around. I play the piano and sing and draw. I take pictures and work on scrapbook pages because of my photography hobby. I dig around in my flower garden weeding and transplanting and caring for my flowers. I am interesting to be around. The kids have learned all sorts of things alongside and hands-on with both of us.



We learn together. Something that is interesting to one of us isn't always interesting to the rest, but often times we get involved because we are family and it matters. Learning cooperatively is what families should do anyway, but we are intentional about this. In the early spring we are all starting a vegetable garden. None of us knows anything about growing food but we will all play a part and learn something together.



We have made our home a stimulating environment. It is hopefully obvious to anyone coming to our house that learning happens here. The toy collections we have are open-ended and can be used for all sorts of play. We have baskets and jars filled with acorns and buttons and gemstones and seashells and popsicle sticks and cotton balls.... I like to call them un-toys. We have maps and reference books and measuring tools and art supplies.... All of it is accessible to the kids -- it belongs to them. They don't have to ask so this gives them freedom to just keep on playing and learning without interruption stunting their creativity. Children who live in a stimulating environment don't grow to depend on things or on people to entertain them or teach them. They naturally self-learn and it can stay that way. (This paragraph was a bit hard to put into words or even summarize in a few, so I hope it came across right.)



We leave the TV off. I know this one's a controversial topic, but this is just how it is in our house. There are just so many more things we find to enjoy in a day besides just letting the screen entertain us. We do have a TV in our basement set up for movie watching (about once a week at most). They like three: the new favorite Wall-E, the former favorite Mary Poppins and original favorite Cars. They also love the Planet Earth set we have. Upstairs we keep a mini-TV upstairs on my bedroom dresser specifically for home-video watching (instead of cartoons while I'm cooking dinner or something). If we're going to do TV time, we almost always try to make a way to sit together (even if it means I'm quietly reading a book or journaling while they watch).



We spend time in nature. Even the backyard counts here. There has always been a place in our yard they can dig up and call their own. There are beautiful intriguing things everywhere and kids will find them if they are given the chance to look around. I find that being a quiet observer outdoors helps them to be the same way. Instead of wandering around pointing out everything I notice, I let them lead or point things out. We have found a handful of places over the years that seem extra special to our family, so we revisit them often to get to know those areas of the world as our own -- certain parks, specific places in the woods, a special creek, the perfect beach for rock collecting.

*************************************

If you still don't believe that any of this could possibly work, then I guess all I can say is, wait and see :-) We know you will like what comes out on the other side!


This may be the final installment of my school posts since I think I covered everything I wanted to.

So Different

We could not be more different, Chloe and I.

She thinks out loud, every thought. I share only a few of mine.

She likes to be noticed. I prefer to hide.

She wears her heart on her sleeve. I am usually guarded.

She has elaborate ways of playing and living. I like things simple.

To be a mother of a girl so completely opposite myself has been my greatest challenge in life so far, and I long for the day when the struggles between us fade to gray.

Is it possible that somehow we will both arrive at a place where we finally understand each other??

Can two people so different from each other realize that in God's big picture for our lives we are simply perfect for each other?

I do believe it's possible and I'll never give up.

Going On

It's still February and there's still not much exciting stuff going on, but here's a bit of our lives from last night and today.


After the recent thaw we just had, the ground was bare. So when snowflakes started falling after dinner yesterday it was as if this was the first and most exciting snow ever! (To Todd, it was.... well, the ongoing nightmare that is winter in the northeast.)

Chloe wanted to capture some snow in case it began to melt again. She ran in and out with little cups filled up and put them all in the freezer (by herself).
We have been enjoying later evenings as a family with Chloe napping more regularly again instead of rushing right to Chloe's bedtime followed by Evan's bedtime. We thought she was winding up this season of her life when I had a realization that we should push nap back to 2pm instead of 1pm and she now sleeps almost every day. This leaves us with lots of together time after dinner. Of course this doesn't mean we are that much more energized!


Evan's front teeth are still no where to be seen but he has been cutting new molars in the back. Maybe all the energy his body needs for growing teeth is being converted into hair-growing energy. He has asked for a trim three times in the past few weeks and then retracted his wish. That hair over the eyes is not my favorite thing, but he really is determined to have long hair.



Chloe has really loved coloring in her horse book and sometimes spends an hour on just one picture. She puts such thought into her color choice and "shading" as Granny taught her ;-)



Evan likes to trace pictures from our library books -- Wall-E and Star Wars droids have been what he focuses on. His pictures are getting more detailed as he is more confident in himself. He and Chloe also love to cut out the small tracings they do "to save." I love walking through the living room and hearing the rattle of tiny pieces of tracing paper flying all around from the slight wind I generate.


Our kitties get much love from the kiddos. I'm not sure they like this.



After eating a big bowl of spaghetti for lunch, an orange-stained mouth sweetheart gave me a prize-winning smile. Too bad she is stained. Evan is doing the usual. (As you can see, Leslie -- it only gets worse with age!)


This is Evan's new serious big guy look. No smile. Half open eyes. Little bit of attitude. The smile-on-command part of him is so over.

The Mania

Star Wars mania, that is.





Evan is enraptured with all of it since playing the Lego Star Wars game on our PC with Todd. It's a good time for them to be together and fun too (minus a few scary parts that Todd edits with a 'close your eyes').

Evan gets all the books on Star Wars he can find from the library -- his favorite is the Lego Star Wars book. He looks through it from cover to cover, reading aloud to himself from the captions and descriptions, several times every day. He likes to sit next to me with it and dream about all the sets he wants someday including the two foot long Millennium Falcon Collector's edition (which Todd said goes for at least $800 on ebay, I think.... so, yeah).
He knows the names of nearly every character and has particular favorites. Droids rank highest on his list with R2D2 being the 'cutest' and C3PO being the 'funniest.' He loves droids.

Evan does a pretty fun imitation of C3PO with the waddling stiff-legged walk and, of course, the British accent. We overheard he and Chloe in the backseat of the truck one day pretending we were flying in the Millennium Falcon. Chloe was being R2 and Evan was C3PO.

He said, "R2, this is the fastest ship in the galaxy," to which she replied, "beep beep bplplplplp beep." They are constantly in character.

They have even resorted to naming themselves Star Wars names when being horses. Chloe is Tauntaun or Rancor or Lego Garbage Can the horse. Evan sticks with R2 the horse.

Warm Enough

for chilling on the deck railing together....
breathing in that warm air!






for stomping around in the slush...
with no coats on!





for running through the house from door to door...
and climbing in and out of the kitchen window!




for spending time outside and inside...
wearing shorts and t-shirts!

it was almost 60 degrees today!!

Ice Sledding

We met up with friends and their kids this morning to do some sledding together. The sun was warm and the wind was cold and the ground was absolutely f-r-o-z-e-n. It was super slippery and no one got seriously hurt. This kind of packed down snow is such a different experience from sledding in soft powder, but the kids had such fun. They were all over the place trying different hills and paths and methods of going up and down the slippery slopes.

I didn't take many pictures since all he kids ran off and left us grown-ups to talk :-) This one shows Evan head-first (click to enlarge)As you can see they didn't even need sleds.

And here's Chloe doing the same.
She did not cry today even though she was really tired and cold. And we were outside for about two hours in 25 degree weather. This is progress, no?

Peg Board

I've been at a loss for things to post about lately as it feels like we do the same boring things all the time in the winter and I don't take pictures of the kids when they go out to play in the snow.... so here's a short story about our peg board instead ...

I'm sort of amazed at Chloe's ability to look at a set of directions and make what it shows. She does it with simple Lego sets and now this peg board.

I remember playing with this set with Evan when he was younger and him getting so frustrated about understanding where to put the pegs. Not Chloe. She really gets it and I don't have to do as much work for her as I did for Evan. It's cool watching them enjoy something I played with as a kid -- this set belonged to my family :-)
They made a Wall-E together (and I did help with this one since we made it up) and also a bunch of American flags that I didn't snap pictures of.
Any ideas for creative posts while I'm in my slump??

Systems :: School (Part 2)

The kids did some color mixing with food coloring and water this week -- after which Evan figured out that in order to make black, you add all the colors together. Then he told me he couldn't make red. That puzzled him, so he asked me why. I told him there were three colors that make all the others and red was one of them. That's all he wanted to know (since he didn't ask any other questions and went back to playing). Chloe was enthralled with how she could add a drip of one color and make the water get darker with each drip: "Watch this Mom!!" Most of her experiments turned dark green, not black, she told me.

Did they learn anything?
I believe so.

This is sort of a picture of unschooling.

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So I already mentioned there really is no 'system' for what we do, but these posts are to build the foundation for it all.

I read a lot of books (probably six a month) so when I had to narrow down a list of reference books for what helped us decide on unschooling as our method of choice, it took some thought. If you are intrigued by this topic or want to learn more in any way, there are three books I recommend:

Teach Your Own by John Holt
You have to start here. It's the overview and best book if you are only going to read one.

The Well-Adjusted Child by Rachel Gathercole
Are you worried about "socialization" for our kids? Read this book and I guarantee you will never pester any homeschooling family with such a ridiculous topic ever again. Ever. It's simply not a concern.

Better Than School by Nancy Wallace
This book is outdated but worth a read if you want to find out what unschooling looks like on a daily basis for one family. It also covers how the parents showed the school district that a fantastic education was, in fact, happening in their home. And her kids are incredible.


There are several other great books, but I'm not going to list them here. Search the internet and you'll find dozens of them the same way I did.

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Here are a couple websites devoted to information about natural learning, if you have time to click around and read. Not everything on these sites is what we believe, but unschooling looks different in every family.

besthomeschooling.org

joyfullyrejoycing.com

livingjoyfully.ca

sandradodd.com


Again, there are hundreds of links, so you could get lost in all the information. I haven't even read all these, but have used bits and pieces from each.

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To show the school board what we are learning, I have been keeping track of "schoolish" things on a word document list over the past two years (I do this as practice, since I don't have to report until next year). I divided things into subjects (which always seems unnatural) and wrote them as a list of things Evan has learned.

I'm attempting to link my word document as a web page but it's not working so I'll try some other way to show it here later today..... not working..... here's the copy and paste version till I figure it out. I know this is not a good format for seeing the big picture, but it will do in the meantime.

Kindergarten 2009-2010

Read Aloud Literature

Stone Soup -- Marcia Brown

Chanticleer and the Fox --Barbara Cooney

Peter Rabbit books -- Beatrix Potter

Capyboppy -- Bill Peet

Velveteen Rabbit -- Margery Williams

Winnie-the-Pooh -- A.A. Milne

Charlotte's Web -- E. B. White

Pippi Longstocking -- Astrid Lindgren

Stuart Little -- E.B. White

Readers for Fluency

Billy and Blaze -- C. Anderson

Mr. Putter and Tabby -- Cynthia Rylant

Frog and Toad -- Arnold Lobel

Henry and Mudge -- Cynthia Rylant

Dr. Suess Beginner Readers

Handwriting

1) display alphabet chart

2) allow writing/spelling experimentation

3) practice writing letters in cornmeal

4) write short "notes" to each other

Math

count objects up to 100

make and recognize patterns with beads/objects

do addition to 10 using objects

money play

calendar posted to reference months/days

measurement

Anno's Math Games -- Mitsumasa Anno

How Much Is A Million -- David Schwartz

Geography

globe familiarity

US A map familiarity (placemat and puzzle)

books about states in USA

Science/Nature Study

My Big Backyard magazines

Animal Stories

Phoebe Dunn's collection

James Herriott 's collection

various Field Guides (library)

nature study through observation

insects, trees, flowers, seasons, day/night, sky

experience frequent outdoor time

various scenic walks

various beautiful views

water scenes

experiment with color mixing

visit Children's Museum and Zoo

World History

Child's Story Bible -- Catherine Vos

(age-appropriate stories)

American History

recognize National symbols/holidays/President

Picture Books

The Little House --Virginia Lee Burton

Mike Mulligan --Virginia Lee Burton

Katy and the Big Snow --Virginia Lee Burton

Choo Choo --Virginia Lee Burton

Make Way for Ducklings -- Robert McCloskey

Blueberries for Sal -- Robert McCloskey

One Morning in Maine -- Robert McCloskey

The Story About Ping --Marjorie Flack

The Story of Ferdinand --Munro Leaf

Tikki Tikki Tembo --Arlene Mosel

Miss Rumphius --Barbara Cooney

Owl Moon-- Jane Yolen

Millions of Cats -- Wanda Gag

The Little Engine That Could -- Watty Piper

My First Little House series -- Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ox-Cart Man -- Donald Hall

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Grade 1 2010-2011

Read Aloud Literature

James and the Giant Peach -- Roald Dahl

Little House in the Big Woods -- Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Trumpet of the Swan -- E.B. White

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- Roald Dahl

Mr. Popper's Penguins -- Richard Atwater

Farmer Boy -- Laura Ingalls Wilder

King of the Golden River -- John Ruskin

?Pinocchio -- Carlo Collodi

?Peter Pan -- James M. Barrie

Tales

Just So Stories -- Rudyard Kipling

Poetry

A Child's Garden of Verses -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Handwriting

Write sentences copied from reading material

Write notes and cards

Math

count by 2's, 5's, 10's

addition and multiplication with objects & mentally

play games -- Monopoly, Dominoes, Bingo, etc.

play store (money)

work in the kitchen with recipes (fractions)

card games (scorekeeping/following rules)

Science/Nature Study

various Field Guides (library)

nature study through observation

insects, trees, flowers, seasons, day/night, sky

experience frequent outdoor time

various scenic walks

various beautiful views

water scenes

observe first-hand the life cycle of a butterfly

observe and tell stories about our pets

wildflower collecting

leaf/seed collecting

shell/rock collecting

visit Children's Museum and Zoo

World History

Child's Story Bible -- Catherine Vos

American History

begin discussion of American discovery and colonizing

Geography

learn address/phone #/map our yard

recognize sunrise/sunset and wind direction

continue learning map of USA (placemat and puzzle)

Picture Books

various library books as interested

You can see that an education has already occurred without any prompting. I do my part to read aloud every day and to make sure good literature is on the bookshelf at all times since I find that children who are read to develop in all areas just by exposure to language. I also make sure we are having experiences that are worthwhile, not just sitting in our house staring at the walls (although that has it's place in our lives too). We don't watch tv. We enjoy a movie maybe once a week, but not as a rule. This offers us lots of TIME to enjoy the world and from there learning just flows.

I didn't list learning in the areas of music, art and physical education yet (even though they happen throughout our days), but will add them for next year as they are part of our requirements.

Also my Grade 1 page is obviously still in progress since we are halfway through the year. At the end of the year I'll fill in the picture book list with library titles he loved.

So, you can hopefully see Evan is thriving and will continue to thrive as he pursues his passions and has all the opportunity to live and enjoy his days as a child.

***********************

Is there anything else you would like to know or something I haven't covered that you wondered about? Most of what I wrote was general information, so if you want to know something specific, let me know! (I write these long posts in fragments as I'm taking care of kids and household stuff, so I'm sure they don't make complete sense sometimes!!)

Horse Arena

On my living room floor there is a horse arena.

Yesterday it was a stable and before that it was set up for barrel racing.

My two horses are getting lots of exercise today.

I think they each ran the circle 7 million times, neighing wildly, only stopping for food.


Evan is Robin and Chloe is Comet (for now).

Our House

Evan said this was a painting of our house. And the basement with stairs and a radio in the corner.

I love how kids' art is a reflection of what is important to them. For the past several months, Evan has spent countless hours in the basement with Chloe listening to music on their favorite CDs and dancing or galloping or jumping all over. Of all the stuff down there, they LOVE the radio. And there it is in the bottom corner of the painting.

Systems :: School (Part 1)

If you get our blog updates in a reader, you have not seen our sidebar updates, but the rest of you surely have noticed on the right my list entitled "how our children are learning." We do what is called unschooling. Here in our home we just call it living... learning.... following our interests.

We know that most of you readers (grandparents especially) have a serious interest and concern that we don't screw things up for these two and their education :-)
So that's really why I'm typing. Hopefully this post about what unschooling is (and isn't) will give everyone a taste of what's going on and also some confidence that Todd and I haven't lost our marbles. Please know I am no expert. Click on all the sidebar links for a better explanation -- this is just a summary of what it is like for US.

First the back story has to be told so you know what a journey we've been on to become the extremists we seem to be. I'll try to keep it brief and not bore you with every detail, as there are indeed many, and I'm sure this will be long regardless.

We have been on this homeschooling path since Evan was about four. We were able to shrug off most of the pressure to put him in preschool -- most folks were fine with it when they said to themselves, "oh, well you're a teacher, so...."

I had taught preschool for a couple years and never liked the feel of it all. Actually, I never saw myself being my own kids' teacher. I'm sure that works for many families but it felt foreign to me since all along they had taught themselves so many things already -- it just came naturally to them to be curious and learn. I figured, why intervene unless they asked me to.

When we committed to keeping Evan at home at least for Kindergarten I started wondering what I was supposed to do. I asked a long-time homeschooling mom at our church what she did for kindergarten, and she very briefly said, "Get 'Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.' That's the only book you need."

This floored me since I expected to be diving in headfirst to the unfamiliar world of curriculum and she suggested only one book?? And the only part of that entire year that mattered was reading? This got me thinking. Maybe doing this at home wasn't as complicated as it seemed.

We never got that book. (I'm sure it's a great book.) We never bought any books at all. (I'm sure there are great books to help all kinds of families do this in their own way.) We just kept using our library card. (That was what was working great for us.) And you know the rest of the story: Evan learned to read with minimal input from me.

So the Kindergarten year passed and Evan was obviously still curious and learning constantly. His never-ending stream of questions fueled his need to learn more. And I was right alongside him as he explored.

But I still wondered about reporting things to the state and all the legal jazz that overwhelmed me. How would we convince anyone that an education was indeed happening? I knew that we could keep him out of 'the system' till he was eight. So that was enough to keep our preferred and effective natural learning going for at least another year. We'd just have to figure out a "system" for reporting to the state how we would do second grade in 2011-2012. And like most people we believed we would have to buckle down and "do school" for third grade and beyond since that was when all the meaty stuff came into the picture. This worried me.

Around this time a friend of mine told me about Charlotte Mason -- a woman who did a natural type of homeschooling over 100 years ago. This was intriguing and I soaked it up -- all about nature and literature as the basis for all learning. After months of researching the Charlotte Mason method, it still seemed a bit too 'schoolish' for me so I took notes on what I liked and ditched the rest. I found a book during that time called For the Children's Sake by Susan Shaeffer Macaulay and loved it -- it was about looking at education differently than I ever had. I started asking myself important questions and realized what we had been doing all along felt so much more right for us.

This was the turning point.

I decided to immerse myself in books on learning and homeschooling. In the process of searching for a book (not at my library) called Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto, I found out about John Holt. This was it. I read his book Teach Your Own and knew we were on the right track. Everything he said rang true in my heart. He summed up our teaching 'method' in one brief sentence. Trust children.

Amen.

I read several of his other books (all that my library had) and began researching "unschooling" on the internet. It began to seem possible that natural learning could work all through the school years, not just the beginning. He gave success stories that opened our eyes and lifted our spirits even more. We had finally found our match. (And once I found out how to do the reporting so that the school board wouldn't question our method, we had sealed the deal. The trouble was in telling others about it. This unschooling thing is not well-received :-) We still call it homeschooling -- that way no one questions it -- but we know it's not school at home for us in any way. It's life. Learning happens all the time. It can't not happen. Try to go a day and NOT learn something.

By the end of summer 2010 (before his first grade year began) I realized how much learning had taken place without any help from a "teacher": Evan had been playing with numbers in his mind so much that he had taught himself how to multiply most numbers up to at least 10x10. He knew about the inner workings of the human digestive system. He knew the names of the planets. He could talk about a space shuttle launch and the parts of the shuttle itself. He knew how to care for our cats and had a responsibility for them each day. He could describe and name dozens and dozens of plants (fruits, vegetables, trees and flowers). He knew the characteristics of the four seasons. He had a rock collection, a shell collection, a feather collection, a dried leaf collection. He knew exactly how the suspension of an automobile goes together and can build a model with technic legos.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of where his ideas and interests have led. I have tons more things he has learned in my mind right now that would take hours to write.

He is self-taught.

Will he learn everything the "average first-grader" learns? Nope.
Will he skip right over things like American history or fractions or other subjects most adults find boring? Probably.
Will he decide to learn them if they are important to him? You bet.

We trust him.

It is a proven fact that people only retain in their memory what has personal significance to them. Isn't that how your brain works? Children are people too :-)

Unschooling doesn't mean leaving kids to themselves and hoping for the best. It means making their environment stimulating and being an available resource and a learner alongside them. Most importantly it means trusting them, that they know what they need to learn when they need to learn it.

We want to give our kids the childhood we ourselves felt robbed of. Freedom to dream. Freedom to wander. Freedom to question. Freedom to play. Freedom to think. Freedom to become themselves.

The end



(And you're thinking, oh my... this was just part 1?!! Yeah, next time I want to post a list of other books to read and links to follow for more info. It'll be shorter, I promise)


If you have any questions about any of this (now or at any time) feel free to inquire. I will do my best to answer :-)

More Random Stories

Since I missed a whole week of blogging, I guess this one will be a catch-up of lots of little bits and pieces of our lives since that is the most interesting stuff to me anyway :-)



I'm so distracted by the empty space in this kid's mouth. When he talks I stare at his mouth. Did his little baby teeth really fall out? It doesn't seem real to me.




Still sporting the Superman gear constantly. I go through my photos and feel like they are all from the same day....


This picture was taken as I peeked in to capture what they had been doing for two hours while I was doing housework and reading a book. They were busy tracing pictures and playing horses together with no fights all morning. In their pajamas :-)



We spend good portions of our time reading. I love how, even still as they are getting bigger, if we sit down with a book and just start reading, they come running to hear it! Evan's taste in books officially diverged from Chloe's reading level over the last few months so he's fine with just sitting alongside with his own stuff whenever he wants. They do both really like these Breyer horse books that Todd is reading, but Superman was what Evan wanted instead.





Chloe is still choosing her own outfits each day. Do I even need to write that? I mean....



Evan is hungry all.the.time. Not just a I-need-protein-to-feel-full kind of hungry, but an I'm-growing kind of hungry. He is taller by the day, I swear. So, to keep up with his constant demands for food we asked him what kind of foods he would like to have access to as snacks and then made a way for it to be available. His favorite is clementines which he eats at least four a day. He makes a small slit in them with the knife and peels them up.
He's still not confident in himself to actually chop anything yet, so I still chop his apples or carrots or whatever. I love hearing him rattling around in the kitchen putting together a cup of trail mix or helping himself to a treat.





Chloe has been wanting to help me with absolutely everything she sees me doing. First, I have to say we're not big on making our kids do things just because we think they should. We like for them to have a genuine interest and want to do it. Okay, back to the story. So if she is not engaged in playing, she will tag along asking, "Can I do that?" -- laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, getting dressed -- she wants to learn how to do it too. So I try to accommodate whenever I can. This time she wanted to "cheese the popcorn" by herself :-)



Sometimes I find these two all set up together, but not playing the same thing. They just love being side by side. We've experimented with 'alone time' and trying to organize their days for them, but they seem to figure out their own balance 99% of the time.




This is Evan's bed after he made it one morning. He had very neatly put together this pillow house for his precious kittens. Can you see them in there?





Chloe still insists most days that she is, in fact, a horse and requires to be treated like one. Here is Strong the horse eating oats out of his trough.
(translation: This is Chloe the adorable stuffing her face in a plastic dish that was once full of toasted o's for her snack time)





She still picks out her own.... blah blah blah.... you know.




He actually asked me to trim his hair the other night. I told him to think about it and we'd talk again in the morning. He had changed his mind. Of course.
And so it grows....

So Cute

He is so cute.

And it's kinda weird how much he looks like my sister Brook. And Kylie too.



Have you all seen this ad yet?




Evan's hair is famous :-)

Gone

That title could either be describing me in blog-land this past week

(sorry for the massive lack of posting)



or ........





something


a


bit



more


interesting....

Goodbye front tooth!

Evan is officially sporting the giant gap now.

He was goofing around with his snaggletooth insanity while we were playing checkers on Sunday afternoon and suddenly, "Ah!!! My tooth!" and there it was in his grip.



Hith thpeech hathn't been too thtrained tho far. Although he called me "Thilly" the night it fell out and I have to admit I laughed really hard :-)

And he's really glad he can eat "peet-tha" again without it hurting.


(Those giant black socks are his new Superman boots since white socks just don't cut it. What is it with my kids and the white socks??)


It's crazy how much older he looks with each lost tooth. He lost six teeth in seven months. No others are loose (yet) but I know he's excited to have grown-up teeth on top.