A Great Picture!

Happy Birthday Papa!

grACE
HAPPYBIR
THDAA
Y
PAPA
PAAPA
grACE

We love you, Papa!!!

A Homeschooling Update

Did you know that this is week 6 of our homeschooling adventure?!? I didn't! Haha! It has flown by but feels like forever at the same time. I thought I would give a little update for you and so I can remember what has going on...

Let's start by saying that during week 1 (and maybe points in 2 and 3) I was pretty sure that this was going to be a complete catastrophe. This is not so anymore. I did have to do some (and am still having to do some) major adjusting of my methods and mindset. Grace was not really the issue. She is pretty eager to learn. She is also pretty obedient for the most part. Jack was the issue. It's no secret that Jack enjoys his mothers attention. And let me tell you that he was not too keen on me sitting at the table with Grace for 45 minutes while he played nicely in the sunroom by himself. Ain't no way that was happenin folks. He wants to be in my lap and in on the action and with his sister. Not even allowing him to watch Elmo would give us peace. The kid doesn't want to be left alone. SO I had to re-evaluate the situation and try some different things till we found a few that have been working lately!

So what are things looking like for us now?
Well, thanks to our early riser, Jack, and the fact that Jonathan has to be at work by 7 we are usually all up and going by 6:45-7. Grace watches Curious George while Jacky and I make breakfast and do morning chores and we eat at 7:30. We listen to our classical conversations cd while we eat for about 10-15 minutes. Then I clear the table quickly while the kids munch vitamins and we get started. Usually we do the alphabet flash cards first thing every day. Grace is super fast at this now. She says the letter and it's sound or sounds. Then we may practice writing a letter or two or do some other "sitting" work. Jack is usually okay for the five or ten minutes this takes at the table. He colors or plays on his own. If things are going well I may give Grace a little "assignment" like drawing a picture of something or writing as many letters as she can think of while I clean up the kitchen. Many times they will do play dough at the kitchen table. By this time it's around 8:30 or so and I usually feel like we have covered a good amount of information. If we have an errand to run or bible study to go to or a play date we get dressed and enjoy the day!

Tuesdays we all go to the Classical Conversations co-op from 9 to 1. I'm really glad we are going even though it's hard to do. Wednesdays I go to a Kay Arthur Bible study at church and the kids play with four other friends in the nursery for a couple of hours. Many Fridays we will go to a park or a friends house for a play date. This leaves Mondays and Thursdays totally free (and Friday if we need it). I love our free days! I feel like we get a LOT of learning done while just playing. Because of this I don't worry so much about not pressing the point too much on the other days.

This week we did a few activities that were big hits. I showed Grace a number flash card and she had to tell me the number (she is not great at this past 10). After we figured out what the number was then the kids would do something (jumping jacks etc) the number of times said. I put in a lot of numbers she knew (which were lower too) to keep things moving.

We also pulled the chalk board easel into the living room and I wrote 1 simple word at a time on the board. Once Grace read the word the kids would act it out. Some of the things I can remember were hug, met (had them practice introductions), and wet (pretended to swim). We have done this several times since. It's really fun for both kids.

Several times jack has seemed to have had enough group play time to be happy on his own after these activities. Then I can either let Grace play (which is just as important as "school" to me) or do a little more "sitting" work if things didn't go well earlier.

Lots of learning also happens when we go on walks lately! The weather has been so nice and I'm so glad to be able to walk again. I try to take advantage of our walking and talking and exploring time. We try to sing some of our school songs while we walk. I think Grace learns them best during these times. Also, We will play a sort of "I Spy" game. We spot an object and then try to determine what sound and letter it starts with. Many times we just walk and talk though.

Car time is also talking and learning and singing time as well. The other day we were practicing our history sentence for the week while we were driving to the doctor. We were doing the little chant. I would start it and then stop and G was supposed to fill in the blank. It goes like this: The Roman Republic fought the Punic Wars which were followed by the Pax Romana in 286 AD. The empire divided into the western and eastern empires until Germanic Barbarians defeated the western empire in 476 AD. I have to be honest that I was a total sceptic when I saw how much stuff the kids were supposed to learn each week. Memorize the 10 commandments? All the times tables? Latin? History facts? Biology facts? There is no way its possible and WHY IN THE WORLD would you want your four year old to know all that stuff... They can't even understand it yet! Well, as a non-memorizor myself (I still don't know my times tables and have a major mental block and serious self doubt when it comes to memorizing anything at all) I can say I totally get it and am absolutely amazed at how easy it is to learn all this stuff. So what if you don't understand skip counting? Learn it and then when it's time to learn multiplications tables spend your energy learning the concept and not the tables... You already know them! Even if we send our kids to public school I am holding on to these CDs and teaching my kids their times tables and other facts by letting them learn simple songs and chants. I'm not a crazy lady quizzing my kid on her memory work or anything, but we do listen to the songs a couple of times a day and try to sing them in the car and on walks etc. And would you believe that Grace is learning them?!? Ha! Can you tell I am in shock?? So back to my story about singing our history sentence in the car... I think kids this age are supposed to be pleased with learning the catchy tunes and not worry with the meaning... Not my Grace! She wanted to know what war was.... What the Pax Romana was and how they got peace... Did God give it to them? What happened to the people in the war? Did they use swords? Did they die? Were they bad guys? Did they go to hell? What is a barbarian? Are they mean, bad guys? What is a country? What does 476 AD really mean? Sheesh! All on the way to the doctor with my Roseola child who hadn't slept through the night in lord knows how long and had been running fever for 5 days straight. And then she was quick to learn this weeks song: Taxes, slavery, unemployment and diseases all contributed to the fall of Rome. Yeah. Try explaining those concepts to the barely four year old who is skipping down the sidewalk singing the tune. Oh well! I just want her to learn her times tables eventually! Haha!!!

I guess if I had to sum up what I've learned so far it would have to be that I really need to know the information before I can teach it. We really try to be intentional about getting some work done first thing each morning. I have to have the mindset that this is not traditional school. We don't have to do worksheets and sit at a desk and have a super organized schedule that can't go with the flow. We want to encourage a learning lifestyle... Not a you learn sitting at a desk only kind of a thing. Learn on a walk. Learn in the living room. Learn at the breakfast table. Learn in the bathtub! Everybody learn, not just the kids. And don't forget that History and music and art and literature and the BIBLE are important too! It's not just math, science and reading and a good sat score, people. (this may be a slight pet peeve) And parents take responsibility for making sure your kid learns it all. I absolutely can not believe how much I have learned in the past 6 weeks!

So am I glad we made the decision to home school this year? Absolutely! It's kind of crazy looking at times. It's not perfect. It has downfalls. But we are doing it. And I feel like we are doing it well! And I am LOVING having my kids together all day every day. And I am LOVING that I am getting to teach Grace and know exactly what she knows and needs to know etc. And I am also LOVING that we are all having fun together... Even Jack!

Today Jack Said:

I. Got. The. Whistle!

He calls a whisk a whistle. It's super cute.

What's possibly even more cute is when he pretends to have food on the whisk and take a bite. He smacks his lips a few times and says "ooooohhhh. So. Good, mama! So. Good. To. Eat!" Then he feeds me some as well and I dote on his cooking abilities. :)

This was the best way I could think to write out the way he speaks... It is very deliberate, like he is thinking hard of what to say, and there is a slight pause between each word.

Also, Grace made up a "game" to play while we walk. She decided that whenever anyone sees a Magnolia tree the person has to yell out "magnolia". There is no real winner or looser. The point is that it's just fun to spot a magnolia tree (because she likes collecting their leaves the best).

Jack yells out "magola!" "migola!" "magnola!" but never gets it quite right. We do however appreciate his enthusiastic participation. It makes us both giggle a little. I'm glad we can all play games together now.

Two Drawings That Make Me Happy

Since Jack is so sick and puny and always being held by me Grace has been enjoying some alone play time today. I think she really likes a chance to play without a brother always wanting to play too! She has been in make believe heaven all day long. Here are some pictures she drew and put on the refrigerator...

Drawing 1:
"A person planting some flowers for you and some flowers that are grown up and you and me and a heart"

The "grown up" flowers are easy to spot.

Here is the gardener. See the seed falling from his hand into the ground and the flower in the other hand? Fabulous!


And of course mom and Grace and a heart at the bottom. :)



Drawing 2:
"you and me wearing headbands together at the playground"


Grace Abbie and the swingset. I love the slide on the end!


And my favorite: Grace and I wearing headbands.


I can't think of anything else I would rather display in my kitchen than these two drawings!

Thank you, Grace!

Sick. Yuck.

Jacky is sick. I noticed he had a high fever today and took both he and Grace to the doctor to get them checked out. She said they have a virus. Yuck. We are SO blessed that our kids are NEVER sick. Every now and then they get a cold, and about once a year they get something real like a virus or something. I will say though, that even though it's awful to have sick kids it makes me SO thankful that we don't have truly chronically ill children. What a blessing that I take for granted every single day!

And another thing I want to remember is how unbelievably, absolutely wonderful my kids are when they are sick. Jack just wants to snuggle and have me hold him and read to him. It is precious and I want to snuggle right there with him. And Grace is just so kind and thoughtful. I am always surprised by how considerate she is. For example, I had gotten them both out of the bath tonight and Jack was literally convulsing with chills he was so cold. I got him dressed and he didn't want me to put him down. Grace saw all of this and knew it was going to be hard for me to help her get dressed. So she said "don't worry mom, I can get myself dressed!". So cheerful even though she is sick and still has trouble getting all dried off and dressed by herself. Then she went and found Jacks favorite books for him and made sure he had everything he wanted while he was sitting with me. What a blessing that child is! What a blessing they both are! I surely do wish we weren't dealing with sick kids on our first nice week of fall, but I am also thankful for the reminder of our many blessings that has come by this.

Today Grace Said:

Grace and Jack were digging in the dirt. She was making "mud castles". He was making "cottage cheese for dinner". He kept on getting her dirt and throwing it in the air. She got frustrated and the conversation went like this:

G: I don't ever want another brother!
Me: Oh, Grace, don't ever say that!
G: why not?
Me: Brothers are wonderful gifts from God!
G: Well, brothers are good, but sisters are better.

Poor girl! She does not have much hope as a Nida girl. They tend to be outnumbered!

More Birthday Fun

We had an impromptu little brunch on Saturday to celebrate Jacks birthday while Uncle Andrew was in town. I think we decided Friday to get together on Saturday! It was a lot of fun. I really liked having brunch foods and the time of day.

Everybody brought something which made it super easy on me! I just prepared some fruit and made a sausage and cheese grit casserole the night before to pop in the oven. All I had to do on Saturday was make the "cupcakes"... Really just cinnamon muffins!

Jack was totally happy with muffins for cupcakes.


Mmm... My kids had powdered doughnuts for the first time ever. They were impressed.


Happy Birthday, Jack!!!


Cousins!!



Presents!


These kiddos love to play together!


I'm glad we were all able to get together to celebrate Jacks special day!

Bun # 1

Grace started ballet classes this week. She was NOT eager to go.

She was very excited about her outfit and shoes and learning to dance. She was just not looking forward to the actual class part.

Not. Excited.

Her school requires the students to wear a certain ensemble and all hair in a bun every week! Whew! It's been a while since I've made a bun on a regular basis. And let me tell you that Grace E. has a LOT of hair! Bun #1 was not too shabby, but I still think we will improve... And hopefully speed up the process.


Here she is not wanting to go or take a picture.



And do you know what? She went on in that studio like a brave big kid and ran back out when class was over with a huge smile on her face talking about getting to go back next week! YAY! I'm SO glad she had such a good time! She has been putting on her outfit and "practicing" at home nearly every day! I guess I'll have to keep y'all posted now on how her ballerina skills start developing. :)

Jack at Two

I thought I would write down some things I want to remember about my two year old Jack.

I LOVE the way you are talking lately. You speak very slowly and deliberately and think about the words you want to use. You can say anything you want to, but sometimes your sentences are still very basic... you are just barely two afterall.

I also love how you pronounce some words. You use the w sound in place of the l sound. So you say "widdle" for "little" and "wuv" for "love" etc... You also call Grace "Waycie". Melt. My. Heart.

You are not too picky when it comes to food. You don't like many veggies though, and so we are working on that. You do like broccoli! You really love any kind of pasta. You will clean your plate when I serve macaroni or lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs!

You enjoy playing with trucks and cars and sticks and dirt. You are 100% boy all of the time. You even make fun "truck noises" now while you are playing.

You NEVER stop moving.

You are a much better sleeper than in the past but still don't seem to require as much as I would like. You take one afternoon nap for about 1-1/2 hours every day. You go to bed at 8 and wake up at about 6. Grace sleeps a lot more than you even though she is two years older.

You love your Mama. This is for sure. since Iv'e gotten back from London you have not wanted to be out of my sight. You actually would rather me not even put you down. My left arm is very very strong.

You know all your colors and most of your shapes. You still confuse an octagon and pentagon. Sometimes you have trouble with Trapezoid. Grey, black and brown are sometimes a little confusing for you, but most of the time you get these correct.

You can also count to 10 easily by yourself and 20 with a little help.

You really like to play with Marshall even though he is Grace's age. You scream out "Mama, it's Marshall!" whenever we see him, wherever we see him. You also like Aubrey. You talk about him a lot, but when he came over to play the other day you did not want to play with him. Hopefully this will change since he only lives a block away and will be a good play mate as you get bigger.

You of course adore your sister and want to be with her doing whatever she is doing whenever she is doing it. You really like to play with her "bunny house" but this is off limits because of the small pieces.

You love Elmo and Curious George and Barney. Oh my. Barney. He comes on when I am fixing lunch, and many days I let you watch him so I can work in peace. You used to call him "Pawmey" and I had no idea what you meant. You would say "Watch Pawmey, Mama" and I was totally confused for a long time. Now you can say it correctly.

You are a good little boy, Jack, but you are disciplined a lot. You seem to just have a hard time slowing down and thinking before you act or speak (or scream). I think as you get older and are able to control this more you will be in trouble less and less. You really do NOT like time out. We have spanked you, but I think you hate time out more than a spanking. You scream and cry and pitch a huge fit every time we send you to time out. But you sit and do your time and answer our questions afterwards for the most part. It is really hard to discipline a kid by the way.

You love Mr. Kyle and Ms. Suzy. You call them "Mr. Kyle and Mr. Suzy". You also love "Mr. David" Hamm from church. Apparently he sings and dances with you.

Your teachers at church say you sing non stop the whole time you are there, and I believe it! You LOVE music more than anything else. You can turn anything into a pretend guitar or violin or drum.

You really like to draw too. You especially love the color wonder markers that you have. We have to get more paper so you can keep coloring.

That is all I can think of to write right now. I will try to post more as I remember it!

We love you and your sweet little (or perhaps I should say BIG) personality, Jack!

Happy Birthday, Jack!

You are two years old today, Jacky! Here is what we did to celebrate your special day!

We made blueberry muffins for breakfast. You call them cupcakes cause let's just be honest, that's kind of what they are...

We put two candles in and sang "happy birthday". You thought this was GREAT! You even sang along!


You needed a little help to blow the candles out, but you gave it a good try. The muffins were still so hot right from the oven that they melted inside the muffin as well as where they were lit at the top. It was a big waxy mess and I ended up giving you a new one... And you ended up eating 3! All with your fork!


Grace is showing you the card she made for you. It said "bappy birthday jack" and had a picture of you and her.


Sweet pair of kiddos!


After you dumped a whole shaker of salt on the floor and I cleaned it up we all got dressed and went to the park! This has kind of become a birthday tradition.


You went down the huge tunnel slide over and over! First with Grace and then by yourself.


Then your friend from down the street Nannette came to play too. I'm glad you have such a sweet friend that lives so close!


After we came home I let you watch Barney (a big time favorite) while I made the lunch of your request... Fish sticks and "Macawoniancheese"... And I added some fruit too.


We sang happy birthday again! You were still very pleased. :)


Did I mention Daddy came home for lunch? He did just to share it with you!


After lunch you opened presents. Grace helped you very nicely.


You wanted to play with each gift before opening the next. Grace helped with this as well.


We now have no shortage of "boy toys".


After a good nap we all met up at your hands down favorite place to eat, Strawn's. You got more macaroni and mashed potatoes and chicken fried steak.


And a piece of chocolate pie and more candles. :)





"ffffffffff"


I think you enjoyed it.





After dinner Granny and Papa came over and gave you their gifts and played for a while. Then it was baths and more playing and bed time. I think you had a pretty good day doing things you love to do.
Happy Birthday, Jack Nida! We love you SO SO SO much! You are most definitely a gift from God and such a blessing to our whole family! I can't wait to see how you grow this next year!

London: Day 9

After a couple hours of sleep we made out way back to Heathrow International and found some breakfast. Cheese and tomato croissant. Not too shabby.

Mom and dad all bright eyed and bushy tailed with their porridge and honey... A very English breakfast for the last English morning.



Not too crowded in our terminal...


This flight was about 5 million times better than the flight over. Our plane was much newer and larger. It was freezing cold, but other than that it was wonderful. (as wonderful as sitting in a small seat for 9 + hours can be.) I watched four movies and read some and took a little nap.


My view over the wing. Haha! This always happens to me!


Jonathan picked me up in Houston and we immediately found some old friends and BBQ and sweet tea. Lordy, Lordy, is it good to live in the USA or what!?!
Then we enjoyed our drive home and turned onto our street...


Since the moment I walked through the doors I've been loving on my family and they've been loving me back. We really don't like to be apart for long periods of time. I think it's going to take us a while to recuperate and make up for our lost time!

London may be nice for a few weeks, but I surely am glad to be reading books during a "thunderstorm" in my kids tent, "skating" across the hardwood livingroom floor to NPRs "performance today", skipping down the sidewalks in our neighborhood holding tight to my four year olds hand, watching our antenna tv at night with my husband, cooking, cleaning, teaching, and just in general taking-care-of my family in Louisiana, USA.
I do lead a charmed life... Even if it's not in a castle... Or a fairy tale cottage in England. Its real and that's pretty hard to beat.

And so ends the season of Milford vacations to Wheelchair athletic events. It all started with summer camp in Houston, then Jr. Nationals in Birmingham, then the bigger and better. It has been fun for this non-sport girl! Now the question remains... What in the world will our family do for a vacation if we don't have a sporting event to be at!?!

London: Day 8

On our last day we headed out of town to Windsor Castle. It was one of my favorite things we did the whole trip!

We left from Paddington Station. Visiting the station and riding the train feels like an adventure in and of itself!

We made it to Windsor and Eaton!


Now that's what you call a castle.


Waiting for the changing of the Guard.


Here comes the band!


The changing of the guard. It was really neat to watch. I was glad we made it in time to see this. I had heard about it but wasn't expecting it to be as neat as it was.


Ready to tour the castle.


Check out that downspout. This place was built to last for sure.


Picture with a guard.


Dad with a guard. The guard did not seem to be very jovial. He did not enjoy finding himself as a tourist photo prop.


The castle gardens.






The chapel where King Henry VIII and Jane Seymour are buried.


After the castle tour we ate a late lunch in the cobblestone streets near the gates.


We figured it was going to be our last relaxing meal out so we needed to make it a good one.


I finally had tea the English way (with milk). It was surprisingly good to be honest. I put some sugar in it and it tasted a bit like weak coffee instead of tea to me.


We ate Italian. I had some more fresh mushrooms in my pasta. Mmmm! There's nothing like slightly browned super fresh mushrooms and ham in a cream sauce. Yummy!


The building was built in 1423. That's just amazing to me.


The inside had the same kind of construction as our little apartment.


Walking through the town.


Heading back to the station.


And we of course had to pick up a treat for the train ride home. :)





Once we got back mom and I had a little time to kill while dad went all the way out to the east end one more time to get the final tickets. We walked through the park to Buckingham Palace.


How neat is it that I was able to see the famous balcony I saw on tv just a year or so ago after the royal wedding!


Monument across the street.


Me by the gates.


Mom by the gates.


The last basketball game. Boy, this was a total downer. I was SO ready to be out of Europe by the end of this game and be back in America. We lost pretty badly. But it wasn't the fact that we lost that got me so upset. It was realizing how much everybody in the rest of the world hates the US. Every game we went to the whole time the fans would cheer for anyone other than the US. China, Mexico, Germany, whoever. And I'm not taking a little favoritism, like the camera men would never show the US fans (not even during the national anthem) or bring US fans down on the court during half time games etc... It was just obvious that the rest of the world is only tolerant of us because we are powerful... And they kind of resent that. I dunno. Maybe it's sports that brings out national pride in people, but I was surely ready to be away from those crowds and back in the south in the US.


Oh, and to top off the terrible game (remember, we weren't even supposed to be in this game. We had a bad call that kept us from the gold medal game) I couldn't even get a coke. I went to one vendor and they had no fountain drinks (didn't even know what that meant?!?). The next one took a good 15 minutes to serve the 1 person in front of me and when I got there (and had already paid) they remembered they were out of coke! Would this happen in the US, folks? I think not. So I got a fanta instead. (they are so much better in England). Then dad said he would get me a coke if he could have my Fanta. He brought back a coke with no ice. Apparently they just couldn't get it together enough to serve a fountain coke with ice at the major arena there. Sheesh. Can you tell I was in a bad mood. Thinking about that night puts me in a bad mood again. Then I had to drink my non-iced coke amidst all these orange wearing people cheering "Holland!" and watch us get stomped and not medal. Not exactly the evening I would choose to repeat.


On a happier note. Basketball is now over and MA can get to living her life with only one full time job now. She started it off with a date after the game with her hunk. Not a bad way to begin, I'd say. The rest of us went home and prepared to get all of 2 hours of sleep before the long journey home.