Rachel is learning to read! She's been working on sight words for the past month or so: we, see, me, my, the, a, look, here, at, is. She's also done a lot with short and long vowel sounds. Yesterday, her teacher sent her home with 4 little "keep books" (ironically, she had to return them to the teacher today), which used many of her sight words, as well as other simple words she was able to sound out. While Malachi ate, we went through the books together, and she was able to read most of them on her own! The best part was seeing the elation on her face when she realized she was actually reading. She's been sounding out words when we go places, too, like S-T-O-P, and M-E-N (on a restroom door), etc. Her teacher is very big on parental involvement in the learning process, which was annoying at first, with everything we've had going on the past 6 weeks. But it's forced me to make the time to work with her, and I LOVE it.
She's also stopped asking me every night if she's going to burn to death in a fire after she goes to sleep. And it's been several days since we've had a discussion about her school bus or our van catching fire. Hey, it's progress . . .
Zekers has become a memorizing machine. Now that Rach is in Sparks (AWANA), she learns 2-3 verses per week, and has been somewhat resistant at times. A couple of weeks ago, when she kicked up a fuss and refused to learn the reference to one of her verses, I was about to throw up my hands in frustration, when I heard Zekers pipe up from the other end of the table: "Romans 1:16". I couldn't believe it - he seemed to be paying no attention while we worked on the verses, but could not only say some of the references, he quoted James 2:10 to me: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point, is guilty of breaking all of it." And now, all I have to do when trying to work with Rach, is look at Zekers and mention nonchalantly, "Well, your brother probably knows it", and bam! she makes sure she says her verse before he has a chance to show her up! It's hilarious. And he actually asks me to work on his Cubbies verse with him every week.
His vocabulary cracks me up. Today before I spanked him for kicking Rachel in the face, he bleated out, "But she provoked me!" (which, I have no doubt, was true)
Kari Bou memorized her very first verse this week. I was experiencing pangs of guilt because I hadn't taken time to work with her on her Sunday School verse for the month. Frankly, I didn't expect her to be able to learn verses yet. But with the other 2 working on theirs, she actually wanted to learn one of her own! Now when they say their verses, she loves to interject "This is My Son . . .Listen to Him."
Kari Bou and Zekers have also been playing together really well this week. Some days are still better than others, but it's so sweet to watch them run around together outside, and start to share with each other a little more. I've decided that maybe we need to just spank all three of them as soon as they get up, just to start the day off right! (just kidding . . .sort of) It seems like after they've had a spanking or 2, things get much better from there.
And finally . . . Kai smiled at me for the first time today! He opened his mouth wide in a huge grin and even made noises that sounded a little like laughter when I would make silly faces at him. Of course, later on, I made the same faces and he cried. But that one smile was pretty great. He's also seemed much more content the past few days. He still has long crying spells, but he's gradually spending more time just looking around - being awake and not crying. I think it's helping that he can see a little better now; he's keenly interested in what's around him.
As for me: I found out a couple of days ago that I'm going to be facilitating our small group discussion for the Daniel study next Tuesday when Linda, our regular facilitator, is out of town. (It was by default - no one else in our group wanted to do it!)Man oh man - knowing I'm going to be doing that is causing me to study this week's material in a whole new way, and it has been incredible. Funny how I get more out of the study when I actually take the time to absorb it rather than rushing through it as fast as possible just to get it done. I want to go on and on, and I plan to in a later post! But for now, I simply feel very, very convicted/challenged/blessed and I'm just 2 days into the week's work.
It's pretty amazing the way that God works. This has been a long week, and last night was the worst one we've had in several weeks, so I started off the day tired and grumpy. But God has given me so many reasons to smile today, and reminded me continuously of all that I have to be thankful for.
And now, just for the fun of it . . .
Do you notice a common thread here?
9 comments:
Charity, Wonderful to hear about all thos *baby steps* (literally) forward! Neat how each child has his/her (their) own unique stuff. Seriously, your little Kari knows a memory verse? Wow!
Charity, recently ran across the absolute neatest article written by a homeschooling mother of 5 kids - some now in college, a couple still at home. It's about parenting, mothering. (Dear MMM might have already passed it along to you...)
*Best Advise I Ever Received* Find the link to that article at the author's blog:
http://julieunplugged.blogspot.com/
In her Nov 5th entry, as I recall. So good! It inspired me so much - and I'm not even a mama (except to a couple of birds). =)
Bless you, EE
(http://russiawithlove.blogspot.com)
Thanks for that post. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It has been a crazy day or so around our home. I had a good laugh at your expense!
Sarah
I never read your blog without nodding and smiling at the same time...
I have said the exact same thing about spanking everybody first thing in the morning so our day would go better! :-)
Now that our oldest is 20 and youngest is 10 (5 in all) those days have passed.
So, don't despair...don't give up hope. The day will come when you will see the fruit of the Spirit working in their lives on a consistent basis. Then you will look back and know it was worth it!
Charity, the pictures are simply great. I like how happy *everybody* looks just simply to be together - with the exception of Little Red over there on the right side. =)
i love zekers' vocabulary! I especially loved that period of time where he would answer "yes or no" questions in complete sentences...every time!
awwwww i miss the whole wright family so much!
I need to stop by and take the little ones off your hands for a few hours sometime over break yes??? anytime you need a break! i miss playing the ridiculous games that your kids created!
Marfin, anytime you want 'em, they're all yours. :) They still bring up stuff from when you spent the night with them this summer. And I'm sure they'll have a whole new batch of ridiculous games ready for you! Seriously, come by sometime when you're home . . .we'd love to see you.
Eileen, I loved that blog/post. Being on this end of mothering, it really ran a bell. OH, and your "Little Red" comment cracked me up. I like THAT so much better than his dad's "Meat Biscuit!!!" By the way, that could be "Little Red 'Caboose'"...get it?
Charity, I didn't know the Greenville fire had affected Rachel so much. How did she know so much about it? Did they talk a lot about it at school? church? Did she bring up THAT incident with you much?
So proud of my grandkids. Wonderful post! mom
I love reading your posts. I can't believe the last couple! Wow, a couple days at your house would be fascinating to watch. That sounds bad, but I mean it in a good way. I would learn a lot, I'm sure, about parenting!
Yay, I'm finally getting caught up on some blog-reading here! We were without a computer for nearly a week. (maybe a blessing in disguise?) Things have obviously stayed busy at your house since there has been no new entry. :) Congrats to Rachel on learning to read!! How exciting...isn't it amazing how quickly it happens?
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