ALL IN A MONTH'S WORK.

after an unplanned hiatus from our little blog, i am way too lazy to write all the posts i had planned. life has been tear your hair out and run down the street naked screaming dear god help me busy full the past few weeks. we've had a couple bouts of sickness in the house, a friend visiting from out of state, conferences, new adjustments at paul's job, and all those other little unexpected things life brings your way. we've also had a couple unexpected blessings and we are exceedingly grateful for those. god is good.

here's a quick word explosion about the month of january around here. one little snow storm was outdone by multiple days of beautiful sunny weather. the kids have been able to spend more time outdoors than usual for this time of year. a little breath of fresh air to knock out our winter cabin fever. all of my glass jars have been confiscated and filled with "nature collections". if anything in the jar moves, it must remain on the back deck. the kids wanted to learn about dinosaurs and learn about them we did. we read books, watched several documentaries, got to be paleontologists and go on a dig for stegosaurus and apatosauraus fossils. we measured how tall our favorite dinos were and then measured each of the kids to compare height. we wrote dino adjectives on the chalkboard, which lasted about 60 seconds before charlie erased them all. we're hoping to drive up to woodland park soon to visit the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center.

jesse finn has shocked us all by how quickly he's growing. he's nearly four months old and wearing 9 months clothes already. it's basically ridiculous and he should definitely stop that. he's been sleeping through the night since twelve weeks and oh my heavens, what a dream it is. sleep is happening here, actual sleep. thanks blue eyes.

oh yeah, that last picture of madi? she read almost an entire chapter of genesis in the bible without any help. cue obnoxious parental bragging. she is something else that girl. i love her like crazy.

wow, long-winded much? i'll stop now. i have a birthday party for a soon to be three year old to plan anyway.

-bette

YOU BE YOU.

at the start of another new year our thoughts begin to fill with goals, aspirations and the new adventures ahead of us. while i have plenty of goals for this coming year, another word seems more fitting for where my heart is at.

focus. "a central point, as of attraction, attention, or activity."

what is our central point? this little family.

this year i want our focus to be set inward. keeping our hearts focused on jesus and guiding our children's hearts toward jesus. there are many seasons in life, all of which carry a great importance, but this time with our children passes by so very quickly. i plan to pour all i can into these precious ones the lord has entrusted to us.

something has been in the forefront of my heart the past few weeks and i can't seem to think about much else.

how do our lives and the people around influence who we become and how do we preserve the identity god has given to each of us?

always, without exception, we are judged by others. that can make finding and accepting our own identities very difficult. our society promotes and encourages cookie cutter children, especially within the walls of school buildings. kids grow up trying to squeeze into the one size fits all mold, which most certainly was not created for them by their heavenly father. they are labeled, scrutinized, weighed and measured by those who carry the arrogance of "we know what's best for you". i'm sorry to say it, but many parents are guilty of this same disservice to their children, myself included. i will continue to pray that god would search my heart and keep it free from thoughts like that. i don't want to control my kids or force them to fit into some absurd identity that society deems as appropriate. i simply want to be a participant in their lives, sharing what wisdom i have with them while they develop their own character and identity.

so here is my view of these little beings that i am surround by day in and day out:

they were fearfully and wonderfully made by the lord. they were given their own hearts, their own minds, their own passions and desires. they were entrusted to me to nurture, love, cherish, honor, respect and guide. they are deserving of the opportunity to become who they choose to be and to exercise the free will god gave to them. they are unique and set apart to their very core. they are free to make their own choices in life and free to dismiss anyone that tells them otherwise. they are not required to live by the standards of another or to accept judgements placed on them by another. they are independent, eccentric, perfect. they are a treasure and a gift from god.

they are precisely who they were meant to be.



-bette


*a few similar posts i loved reading:

are homeschooled kids weird?
i don't care if my kids ever fit in.
in pursuit of the thing.
what kind of work do we value?
unsolicited evaluation is the enemy of creativity.
TED talk about how schools kill creativity.

WE HIKE...SORT OF.

we hoist each other up to see. we get our shoes stuck in crevices and scream for help. we carry our water bottles in fancy shmancy holders. we poke our fingers on cactus after mama says it will hurt. we commandeer misplaced tree branches. we cover rocks with dirt to make sure they're not too clean. we trespass. we crawl into pipes that we can't see the other side of. we read and comment on ugly cowboy coats. we cheeese. we pose. we say "i do it myself". we point. we dance with our shadows. 

yep. we totally hike. 

-bette

UNSCHOOLING IN NOVEMBER.

i suppose i dropped the ball on these unschooling posts. i'll try to get back to posting our unschooling activities and resources next month. as usual in our household there has been an abundance of crafting and costumes. this month we focused on the first thanksgiving but, didn't dig too deep into specifics. the kids mostly enjoyed dressing up like indians(no one wanted to dress up like a pilgrim.) with war paint, fighting each other in a pretty epic backyard battle and recreating the first thanksgiving with toilet paper roll dolls. we watched some fun videos on youtube about the first thanksgiving, squanto and some american indian dances. i love that when they get to do the things they love, they retain much more about the topic than if they were staring at black and white text on a page. i also think it makes a difference that they're learning about what's relevant here and now. obviously, in november we focused on thanksgiving as most schools do and in december we'll focus on christmas, etc. but i love having the freedom to do that any time of the year and with any topic the kids are interested in. it doesn't need to be limited to holidays or historical events. the past couple of months the kids learned quite a bit about pregnancy, birth and babies, because that's what was relevant and happening around us. the knowledge and experience they gained from that is something they could never get from being in a classroom. it's important to me that they're learning things that will serve them well in real life. i've said before that providing them with rich experiences and concentrating on developing good character and relationships is a higher priority to us than academics. when they are given the freedom to make choices about their learning, they take ownership of and pride in their learning. when that happens, their self confidence and self motivation increases. and those are the kind of people who are successful in life. i see it happening already and i am so proud of these little learners.

-bette

THE GARDEN OF RULES.

monday morning we headed out with all the littles to the denver botanic gardens. the gardens were absolutely gorgeous. there were some amazing bamboo sculptures set up all around, vividly colored koi fish in the ponds and all kinds of crazy looking plants and flowers we've never seen before. so much to see. only we were with four children who love to explore and quickly tired of all the signs stating don't touch, stay on the path, no climbing, keep out and look only. you can see above what charlie thought of those signs. it wasn't long before the comments from the peanut gallery began. you know the ones, "are we allowed to do anything?!" and "there sure are a lot of rules here!" the saving grace was discovering quite possibly the best rolling hill that ever existed and the promise of a picnic lunch and fun times at the children's garden across the street.

i think we'll wait a few weeks and give it another try. i think if jack has a camera in hand and madi brings along her sketch book and pencils, they'll have a much better time. and charlie, well...he'll probably still yank the signs out of the grass and try to drive the stroller into the pond. if nothing else, memories will be made and we might even learn a little something amidst all the rules.

-bette

THE CHILDREN'S GARDEN.

this was the second half of our day on monday. what an awesome place this was. this is the mordecai children's garden in denver. it's part of the botanic gardens and it's located on the rooftop of the parking structure. how cool is that? and yes, the view was amazing. everything at the children's garden is interactive and the littles played their hearts out. they put on a show at the sagebrush stage, bought and sold groceries at arlo's mercantile shop(all while speaking "spanish" mind you), they stopped to read and follow all of the little signs throughout the garden(mama thought the waddle sign was an insensitive suggestion to some of us), they had a little native american feast and fossil discovery at the roots'n rocks campsite, they got to climb marmot mountain and be eagles on pika peak, and finally they got to get soaked and build a dam in springmelt stream. they even made up a little tune about building their dam. it had the word dam in it about a thousand times and i think the other parents appreciated it as much as i did. thank goodness i was mature about it and didn't bust out laughing every time they started the song up again...not.

how very grateful i am for the freedom to spend our days like this. one of the many blessings of learning outside of school. i aim to never take that for granted. i love learning alongside these sweet kiddos and witnessing firsthand the joy of their discoveries. may there be many more wonderful adventures and songs about dams.

-bette