The 100-Books-a-Month Challenge

I discovered the Home-Grown Kids 100-books-a-month challenge through Sherry’s blog, and just knew Amie would go for it. We already read about 100 books a month, only they’re often the same ones. (Could it be we sometimes read the same book 100 times? It sure seems that way sometimes!) So our challenge will be to …

Stories and Drawings of Amie at Just Four, and Jelly

It seems I’m no longer writing in my (analog) journal. Don’t know why, but in any case I am jotting down Amie’s sayings and doings on pieces of paper here and there. Here’s an effort to preserve them. … Amie had to have four shots at her four-year well-visit. We did two during that visit, …

How Amie’s Summer Is Going

Math Tea Party Parrot … “Mama, when you see it IN your eyes, but not outside your eyes, it’s a dream, right?” “Yes.” “That’s why when you open your eyes it’s no longer there.” … “Mama, Peter Pan [movie] is made up of pieces.” “Yes, like Kipper: episodes.” “No, Kipper episodes are stories by themselves. …

Holiday Homeschool, Eggs and Solar

Amie plants her onion sign Our latest guests have left and Amie and I have settled back into the-two-of-us routine. What with all the commotion of guests and visitors and extended playdates we have seriously slacked off on our “schooling”. August, I’ve decided, will see some school every morning. Amie so far has been enthusiastic. …

Growing Children in the Garden

A couple of days ago Amie was helping me in the garden. She was raking away the weeds I had just hoed – though raking around is closer to the truth.  There was a lot of chopping with her little rake, too close to my face. There was also yelling – “Go away, weeeeeds, go …

The Brumble/Gumble/Mumble Rule? (I forget)

A couple of days ago Amie and I were having some milk and coffee (respectively) in a coffee shop when she spotted the large lump on the back of the head of the man sitting right behind her. I had seen it long before she did and was hoping she wouldn’t turn around because I …

Pottery by Mama and Amie

Amie visited my pottery class a couple of weeks ago, just for 10 minutes while DH picked up pizza down the road. We were glazing but I fired up a wheel for her and stuck on a blob of clay and centered it, adding lots of water. Then she put her little hands on the …

Amie Again Talks About Death

(It’s that dead bird again) Well, at bedtime Amie again asked to talk about the dead baby penguin. Again she wanted to know why there was no blood. Was it really dead? I explained that it died because it was too cold. Probably its heart stopped working. I explained that our blood needs to circulate …

Amie Talks about Death Again

In the evening Amie watched March of the Penguins. We had shown it to her about half a year ago but she wasn’t interested then. This time she was, going “oh so cute!” and so forth, but really paying attention when the little chick dies of exposure and the mother mourns over it. – what …