Kieran's been doing the doing the "ready to walk" dance.  Every time he gets himself up from the floor into this awkward positon he's cheered and applauded by an audience of siblings, and he's been loving every minute.

He also gets a "golden scissors award" for letting me cut his hair without making a single protest peep.  What a little-big boy!

Yesterday I saw these--abandoned on the kitchen table:

Because these distractions kept doing stunts directly overhead:

Kaira's always been a shepherdess at heart.  This past week we visited my parents and took a jaunt to a petting zoo near their house, and Kaira gravitated toward the sheep. 

Over and over my sheep crazed daughter nuzzled the sheep lovingly crooning to them and saying how beautiful they smelled!  Only a child who has poured over Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep from age four would have be so enamored as to even love their smell. 

(They were pretty clean, but they still um... smelled like sheep.  Even from 1/2 a  mile away.)

Kieran didn't quite share Kaira's enthusiasm about the sheep.

It is a good thing Keegan only drives pedal powered vehicles.

As we left the grocery store he said, "People in the parking lot have to be careful so we don’t bump them with the car."

I explained that we need to be careful so they aren’t bumped!

He said, "We don’t want to run over anyone except naughty people and yucky people."

I asked, "We shouldn’t run over anyone.  But who are the "yucky people"?"

He replied, "People who are mean to ‘Anna or Kierie."

I then asked if he knew anyone who was mean to Keianna or Kieran. He shook his head, "No. But if there are any, they should watch out so we don’t run over them."

Again I reminded him that we shouldn’t run over anyone--not even imaginary, mean-naughty people. (He only seemed half convinced.)

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

Here's a few shots of our party.  I was busy chasing children and hostessing, and didn't take many pictures, but we enjoyed good food, extended family, cooking over the fire-pit (roasted apples, brats, and s'mores, oh my!), fireworks, and tractor rides for little boys!  (My nephew was especially excited about the tractor ride!)

Tomorrow is the 4th of July!   Having just studied the American War for Independence and the founding of our beautiful country, my daughters have new appreciation for our celebration.  Freedom has been a resounding theme around our home, and our hearts are full of gratitude.

If we grow complacent in our freedom, we are already enslaved.  

Let freedom ring!   (And have a spectacular holiday!)

Evidently Keegan pays attention to his sisters' geography discussions.  While driving around town the children were inquiring about the plants beside the road or on medians.  I explained that many were just prairie weeds growing wild, but that others--especially within city limits--are planted and tended by hired workers.  We talked a bit more about the purposes of these grassy islands between lanes of traffic.  Keegan perked up at my makeshift term, "islands in the road."  Pointing at the center median he asked, "Is that Road Island?"   Befrore I could answer he was shaking his head and declared, "Road Island is small." 

In other news, I will be working with Keianna on her memory work.  Specifically on John 3:16.  Her unfortunate rendering is, "For God so loved the world  that he gave his only forgotten Son..."  That just won't do. 

Heading out the door to a fellowship lunch yesterday, we had our hands full.  Ken turned to Kaira and asked, "Would you like to carry the brownies or take Kieran out and buckle him?"  With a cheerful smile she answered, "I'll take the most precious thing!"

Hmm... brownies or her brother, which would she choose?  

Her face radiant, she scooped up her baby brother.  Although she loves chococolate, there was never any doubt.

More precious than brownies!  Now THAT is love!

(Still trying to learn the manual settings on the camera...)

Happy Anniversary to us!  Ken suggested we purchase a new camera for our anniversary!  (What a sweetie!  He knew I'd been itching for one.) Our anniversary is still a few weeks away, but our present is here!  I've been having fun playing and trying to wrap my mind around it. 

Today's experiment with Depth of Field:

And, trying to figure out settings for indoor, moving subject and using only available light:

Yesterday the resident three-year-old boy, in a moment of supreme three-year-old boyishness found a styrofoam Itsy-Bead-Sie (yes, that's their real name--truly), and realized it fit quite well in his olfactory orifice.   Evidently he was quite persistent, because he managed to get that little styrofoam ball up around a little bend--which I learned is called a turbinate. 

Various attempts to extract the object at home failed, including nasal irrigation, tweezers and other rare forms of tortures reserved for little boys with impulse control issues. (Poor little guy. He was a trooper.) We gave him a break from the tortures, and he ate lunch and played outside while I made myself a mocha frostie and pondered what to do.  It wasn't blocking air, and he was active and fine--our only concern was infection if it remained--and it clearly wasn't going to budge on its own. Finally a call to the doctor resulted in an appointment.

It took them most of an hour. One gal tried, called another, then called in the doctor, then when all attempts failed they called ER for suggestions (all stuff I'd tried and they'd tried). They were about to refer me to an ENT when finally they found a tool thing that held open the passage further, and after another 10 minutes of torture (poor boy's nose bleeding by now) they got it!

Interestingly, one of the nurses mentioned she had a three year old boy, and a vase filled with

Itsy-Bead-Sies, and she told us that just last week she extracted said beadsie from said three year old's nose. Beware the beadsies with the threesies!

I must say I was amazed and impressed by the beautiful atmosphere of local family practice office!  We'd never been in before, being generally healthy and not really having a need. Several signs were up about how they seek to serve God through medicine. The exam room we were in had the fruits of the spirit on the wall, and when, at long last, the nurses/doc/tech/whatever people triumphed, one of them said (reverently, with tears in her eyes from the intensity, not in vain), "Thank you, Lord" and the other said, "Amen."

The staff all praised him for how brave he was, and indeed I think he did pretty well for having people dig in his nose for almost an hour.  

Boys! What an adventure! Watching Kieran (who doesn't walk, but instead scales things like a mountain goat) I'm sure we have more adventures in store!

Session 1: I have them count the beads on every row of this little abacus, confirming that every row has ten.  If an abacus isn't available this step could be skipped and go straight to some other manipulative like my magnetic marbles a few steps down. 

Session 2: Again with the abacus we begin dividing the "tens" in each row into "different kinds of tens" We count them, counting the two parts of each ten and then recounting that the whole row is indeed still ten.  When this has been verified, we then do a little chant as she touches the groups of beads,

Chant:

9,1:10;

8,2:10;

7,3:10;

6, 4: 10;

5,5: 10;

5,5: 10;

4,6: 10;

3,7: 10;

2,8: 10;

1, 9: 10; 

Session 3:

Substituting magnetic marbles for the abacus we again make groups to match our chant.

Session 4: As a child points to each section of each ten, we do the chant again, going faster each time to make it a game.  Sometimes I say it and demonstrate, sometimes I have one of the children chant solo, and sometimes we go through the list in unison.   

 Session 5:  (The wee ones are feeling mathish so we have several sessions in a day.)   This time they help set up the groups.   I get out 9 and ask, "What does this need to be a 10?" Keianna (or maybe Keegan) answers, "1".  Then they may get out a contrasting marble.

Once we've formed the tens by adding up, we will do our chant.  The chant changes this time though, and we add in addition termonology!   Instead of just saying, "9,1; 10" we change to "9 plus 1 equals 10" and so on...

 
Session 6: Again I have them count to verify that each set is ten.  (Easier to count if break the circles into rows.)  They count, and then break the groups into the two parts.  They will now touch each part as they say the chant, touching the 9 marbles as they say, "nine" then touching the single marble and saying, "plus one", then touching both togher and saying "ten".  We continue through all the groups.

Session 7: At this point I introduce numeral symbols instead of just the concrete numbers. I simply have them match up numerals to the dot values.  Somehow they knew the numerals already, so it was a short lesson.

Session 8: Now it is time for subtraction.  we separate the contrasting marbles, but keep them near their partners and again do our chant, but this time saying, "10 minus 9 is one; 10 minus 8 is 2; 10 minus 7 is 3" and so on first with the larger number first, then back the other way touching (and saying) the smaller number first.

Session 9:  Now for the chalkboard!  I write a chart of our chant.  I tap the chart while we go through it backward and  forward.  Sometimes we just say the numbers (like the first chant), sometimes with "plus" for addition, sometimes with tapping the 10 on top first, and doing subtraction.  We go through it until it is firmly set, usually just 10 minutes or so because really it is the same thing we'd drilled with abacus and marbles already.

Session 10: Finally I begin erasing numerals and drilling the children on "what was here?" as I erase a single numeral.  Then we run the chart with that numeral missing.  When it is solid, I erase another, tapping all the empty  holes saying, "What goes here?"  Again, we then run the chant with my tapping the chart.  Then we erase another numeral and so on until the chart is a blank tree.  I then drill them tapping just the blank tree a few times a day for a week or two to make sure it is set. 

Additonally, I'll tap the chart as I call out the random facts, calling "10-8" and then tapping the place the "2" would go, I wait for a child to call out, "two!".   

After that, we move on and do the same thing for the 9 chart, 8 chart, 7 chart and on down to 2.  We go through the same steps--marbles and all. (Except after the 10 chart, we skip the abacus in steps 1& 2 and the numeral cards in step 7.).  Usually long before we get to the two chart the child has predicted, "I know what the 2 chart will be, Mommy!  One, One Two!"  They catch on to the pattern pretty quickly.

Once they know all the charts (hence all the addition and subtraction facts up through sums of 10), they are ready to zip through a first grade math text--mostly just doing the text to acquaint themselves with written math.

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*Note: The abacus and marble adaptations are my own, but the chart idea came from the Professor B Math Curriculum.  I used Professor B with Kaira for several years, and retained a few aspects in my teaching for the youngers.