1. When your 20 month old spills an entire bottle of white out on the wooden kitchen floor, you better get to it fast or else it's REALLY hard to get up. Let's just say I had to get out an SOS pad to scrub the floor. Note to self: Keep white out out of reach next time.
2. Don't get the girls started on a conversation of the Bill of Rights. It will go on forever, there are 10 of them right? We discussed our freedom of religion and the right to bear arms (you know, your right to keep your arms. haha) all the way to dance the other day. I didn't know what the third one was, so the conversation had to end. This all got started because we had learned that day in history how the Pilgrims had come to America to pursue religious freedom and the girls wanted to know what that was. Wouldn't you point them to the Bill of Rights too? History is really coming together at our house. And no, I did not get into Obamacare!
Last night while we were skyping with Matt, I was telling him about our conversation and he looked up the Bill of Rights and I remember him saying that number 7 or 8 was the right to not be punished with cruel or unusual punishments. Today this came up. We have talked a lot about how the English king and others punished people in the 1500-1600's. The girls wanted to know if we beheaded people here in America. That would go against "cruel and unusual punishments," right? Then they wondered if they still beheaded people in England. I said I don't think so. Bloody Mary didn't get her name for nothing back then!
During the same lesson, we were learning about the Puritans and it mentioned how they had settled at Jamestown (named after King James of England, of course) and about John Smith. I looked at Megan and said, "Now how do we know about John Smith?" She just looked at me. "Pocohontas" of course! I wonder how accurate that movie/ story is?
Then her next sentence was, "How come we are studying American history? I thought we were studying world history." We are studying world history, but this all ties together, I can't wait for American history next year! I sometimes have to stop myself with the history lessons and making connections.
Like right now, the girls are watching "Annie" and I just want to stop and point things out, but I'm not. You know the "Mona Lisa," "Venus", the red carpet, President Roosevelt, the New Deal, orphans, orphanages, New York, poverty vs. rich, etc. But not everything has to be a lesson, right? I'm sure they picked up on some of these.
3. Today we were out digging in the dirt. Three children, scoops, buckets, and we were just having fun. Soon we started to dig up these white little bugs that looked like roly polies. Right away Courtney said, "Mom, where is the computer???" She wanted to look them up right away and learn about them. We kept digging and burying these poor little bugs. Soon we dug up a worm and watched that for awhile. I think Christian would've picked it up if I would've let him! I think Courtney would have too, Megan stayed back!
Anyway, when it started to thunder, I made everybody go inside and right away Courtney wanted to learn about these bugs. I didn't know what they were either, so after some searching online, we finally found on that they were white grubs! This was no surprise, but the very interesting part was their life cycle. Courtney had learned in preschool last week how caterpillars spin a chrysalis and then turn into a butterfly. These grubs do the same thing! They go into a pupa and then turn into Japanese beetles! Courtney got out her notebook and copied down the entire life cycle of these grubs. These Japanese beetles then lay the eggs in the ground and they hatch in the spring. We had found the larvae (like the caterpillar stage). It's just so much fun watching them be so eager to learn!
4. Everyday during our Bible time, we read about a country or a specific people group around the world and the impact of Christianity in that country. Today we read about Haiti and learned that it is the poorest country in the western hemisphere (even before the earthquake last year, which I did not get into very much) and they speak French there. Megan caught that right away. Why do they speak French in Haiti and Spanish in the Dominican Republic? They are on the same island. I need to find the answer to that question before I go to bed!
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