After reading and totally enjoying Jotham's Journey last year during the season of Advent, we are anxiously awaiting Bartholomew's Passage to arrive in the mail. We fully expect to buy Tabitha's Travels when it is republished next year. Here is the description of the 1 we are waiting on: Bartholomew's Passage is an engaging story that guides families through the Advent season. Young Bartholomew's adventures start when Roman soldiers destroy his village and disperse his family, continue through his enslavement to a tyrannical master and his escape with his new friend Nathan, and end with a reunion with his family in Bethlehem. Along the way Bartholomew makes a new friend, a young boy named Jotham!
When I had a chance at a good price at the end of last year, I bought a few as gifts for those I knew who had been looking for them, but had missed out on the great price I had paid for mine earlier in the season and a couple of others as gifts.
One thing I should add, though, is that if you have very young children present for each nights reading, I would make sure you pre-read and potentially edit some of it as it could be potentially scary to very young children (I am talking about the 5 and under set here, in my opinion - but we read a lot of great literature that includes edge of your seat stuff - it could be different for your family).
Anyway, for those of you reading and have read the series during Advent and enjoyed them, please add your .02 here for the books!
Daddy and Baby G - Daddy wore this fun outfit when HE was a baby (Mid. G did as well).
Baby G being silly while I try to get a picture of the curls on the back of his head.
Finally got a picture of the curls.
These next 2 were taken in the field by our library's parking lot. The children are on even ground with the base of this plant! So you can imagine how tall this plant is!
The summer started off with hot week this year, leading us to think that it would be a nice, long, hot one. Instead, we had one week of summer in late June and then did not see much in the way of hot temps again
until the 2nd week of August.
So, the pool the children ordered that hot week did not get much use in the month of July. That is okay - it gave me time to learn pool chemical 101 before they were in there more. The last couple of weeks, the outside temps and the water temps were much more tolerable and acceptable for swimming. So, even I have ventured into the pool twice this week. Baby G was not pleased with the bigger pool initially. However, once it was more than mommy dangling his footies in and he did not freeze to death, he was much,much more pleased with it.
I think the children thought they would not get to use the 2 sets of free passes they earned for reading programs this year. We had to forego Noah's Ark due to the temps bottoming out around July 4th. They
expired before it warmed up enough to make it actually fun to go. Oh well, next year, we will try, try again. I suspect after that, they figured Lions Daze was going to be the only "fun" they got to do this summer.
However, at the last minute, they were able to use their 6 Flags tickets! They and Daddy were free (due to the free teacher ticket we get) and they went with their Grandma J, Aunt L and 3 cousins. They had been to the lake to swim the day before, then to 6 Flags on that Tuesday (and thankfully, they now have a water park at the 6 Flags here, so it sort of made up for not going to Noah's Ark).
Then, they had a play date on Wed. at a friends house (someone we had not had a playdate with before). The next day (a Thursday), we went dirt cheaply to the WI State Fair and got the annual State Fair Cream puffs. They are so big, we share 2 of them. They even got to ride a couple of rides because not only was it get in cheap day, it was ride the rides cheap day. A fun day out of under $25! We had piano lessons the following day.
However, that Friday night, Mid. G came down with a fever that ran through the night into the next day and low grade temp that ran through Sunday. So, he and I stayed home from his cousin's birthday party and Daddy took Baby G and Young M. Sadly, Young M ended up with a fever on Sunday night, but by late Monday morning, she was without fever. Whew! And, it seems as though the rest of us missed out on it.
This week was a MUCH slower, less exhausting week, but the icing on the Summer cake will culminate tomorrow. My husband's company gave him 4 free tickets to a Pre-season Packers football game. So, Daddy, Mid. G and Young M will go w/my MIL up to Green Bay tomorrow afternoon. Baby G and myself will once again be on our own for a day.
We have taken the last 2 weeks entirely off from doing bookwork and I am working on figuring out what I am going to change for Mid. G. He seems terribly overwhelmed with what I have been having him do, so I am trying to figure out a change. Interestingly, my husband said he had troubles at the same age, so I will be including him in my planning sessions.
Hope you all are having a great summer - Baby G is napping, so I am going to go take a quick dip in the pool to cool off.
Needless to say, I will be ordering it soon. However, I think I will wait until after their piano recital at the end of the month - otherwise, she will be distracted from her Sound of Music and Star Wars pieces that she should be working on.
Time does not wait for chores to get done anymore than babies wait to grow up while you get them done.
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Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue, Lullaby, rockabye, lullaby loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peek-a-boo
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullaby, rockaby lullaby loo.
The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep! I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.
I cannot get over how much he has changed. He is a super fast crawler (the cats are ever on the look out for him). He loves to stand and move around the furniture, grabbing whatever is within his reach. He growls and says "Key" (aka Kitty) when he sees the Lion in his Touch and Feel book. He waves at people (especially those he knows). He is LOUD! He makes his siblings seem quiet in comparison. He hates getting into his seat in the van (and hates the ride even more, sigh - can babies have motion sickness??). He is a stubborn little stinker - I have absolutely no idea where he got that from.....genetics, I am afraid, lol! And, of course, we love him dearly!
Here are pictures from his 9 mo. photo shoot....
First, look at those eyelashes - women would kill for these and he was blessed with them, lol!
I learned something interesting watching my little guy last month as he was introduced to finger foods (well, as much finger foods as a 7 or 8 month old cares about, lol). Baby G had gotten a container of the new flavored "puffs" from Grandma in his Easter basket. When I felt he was ready to try picking up food, I tried a few of them on the high chair tray. As I watched over the next few days, I grew a little concerned. It seemed as though something was lacking from his small motor skills. He could not get those puffs into his mouth for some reason, but was fine if I stuck them in his mouth for him.
So, I watched him closer (learned to watch processes closer when there are problems as I taught my sister to drive my standard transmission car forever ago). I realized it was not necessarily that he could not pick them up or that he was not getting them to his mouth. The issue was something wholly different - the "puffs" are made to disintigrate into baby's mouth (to prevent choking, I guess). But, that was a problem here. Baby G's fingers (and hands) were damp often (teething) or got that way trying to feed himself. The "puffs" would start to disintegrate on his fingers and stick there - making them unmanagable for him.
What to do about this interesting situation? I went back to the old, non-sticky standby - Cheerio's! And Baby G learned how to handle those much, much easier. He has not choked on them yet (neither did his older siblings). And so, Baby G has developed those, oh so important small motor skills that he needed. He now can manage those "puffs" with ease. So, my lesson learned to pass onto new mom's - rather than start with the "puffs", start with the Cheerio's - they are better for your baby, lol!
Well - mostly. Baby G finally figured out crawling forward last night. He had been getting around the floor quite nicely anyway, but it would be a 2-3 crawls forward, sit back on his bottom, turn himself about, go backwards, etc. type of thing. Then, suddenly, another developmental switch flipped and he started crawling forwards all over the place yesterday afternoon.
He can steer his walker quite nicely through the kitchen/dining room. We need to baby proof the kitchen now as he can open the cabinet doors. We have put the baby friendly magnet toys on the fridge for him - it keeps him mildly entertained when I need to clean out there. But, he is a killer with the walker. If I am standing at the sink, he sneaks up behind me and trys to kill me by tripping me when I turn around.
Baby G has been waving "bye" for the last couple of weeks as well. I had seen him do it randomly a couple weeks prior to that, but I am certain now that he knows why he is doing it, lol! I am working on teaching him a very few baby signs so he can communicate with us a bit. But, babies are pretty good at doing some of their own sign (think of waving bye-bye as one of them) - we just have to figure them out sometimes.
M & G are still playing piano. Med. G was in a spot where Young M was a while back - the songs (though good for skill building) were not familiar, thus not much fun. Young M, when at the same spot, was blessed with an easy Sound of Music book from T. She LOVES that book and plays many of the songs by heart now. I regularly hear Edelweiss & 16 going on 17 during the day. Soo, for Med. G, we made a trip to Interstate Music and found some other books. One I selected was one of traditional patriotic music (and some older folk music songs mixed in). Young M picked out a soundtrack from Narnia book and we picked out another that had music from the newer Star Wars movies. She already has a couple that she is working on. Med. G was thrilled with the Star Wars Music. It is hard (much harder than where he is at, really), but I told him to start working on the top line of his favorite (theme music from the movies). He is taking it slowly, but getting there. Young M has requested music from the musical OK. That and some "easy" classical music from the masters. I know it is out there, but one book at a time, lol! I know they did not have the OK one at IM, though, so I may have to order it online.
Med. G has outgrown his last bike. It was borderline last summer, but he grew so much over the winter that we had to put it away. Thankfully, we had another bike sitting there. Our friends the T's had given us Ben's old bike (almost used, lol). He is short, so it fits Med. G beautifully! It is a several speeded bike (8 or 10?) with only hand brakes, so that was a challenge for him. Young M is still using her bike and I suspect she will be using it for another year or 2. She does not grow as fast as Med. G - that boy is a bottomless pit. We will need our own cow and chickens when he gets a couple of years older, lol!
Anyway, that is all I can come up with for now - summer has finally arrived up here and I am thankful. Have a lovely week!
A journal of our home educating endeavors and our walk through life.
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