This was part of Noah’s Language Arts lesson yesterday…
We read Little Red Riding Hood (the PG version…the wolf actually ate Grandma and Red Riding Hood!) and then we retold the story with puppets. Learning is fun!
Today was a very exciting day for Phoebe and Noah. They packed a lunch and could hardly stand still long enough for me to get a photo of them on their first day of “all day school.” They are continuing to attend the Montessori school that’s here on campus this fall. What a blessing this is! Their schedule has been Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, but on Fridays from now on they will leave for school at 9:30. Friday mornings will be devoted to learning basic music theory and how to play an instrument …Phoebe the piano and Noah the violin. So cute.
I’m also doing some math and phonics with the both of them here at home a few mornings a week. They are both so ready to learn…even Phoebe can grasp a lot of the Kindergarten material so far. Homeschooling is really hard – really, really hard – but I love watching my kids learn and grow.
Yes, school…let me explain. For the past couple of months Noah has had the privilege of attending a Christian Montessori preschool (for free!). There is a training centre right here on the college campus, and recently they invited children between the ages of 3-6 to attend. It’s a beautiful thing. The students in the training centre have real, live children to “train” on, and my kids are learning about everything from geography to prayer to sewing. (Yes…sewing!)
So…now that Phoebe is three and potty-trained she can go with Noah! How cool is that? She was so excited today, and it was so cute to watch them walk over together. It’s literally a stones throw away from our front door, too. Well… depends on who’s throwing the stone, I guess.
The big fishing opener was this weekend and…well, we fished. Dave got a license, the kids fished for free, and I took pictures. It was really a lot of fun! Noah caught the first fish of the day… (Navinah Riley, to the left of Noah, and Tirzah Riley, to right of Noah, are pictured here…they’re the daughters of some of our BFFs from college days that have recently moved back to the Cities)
It was a Sunfish, I think. (?) Not much meat to them, so we threw it back in. Oh, and that fin on top? Razor sharp.
He was pretty proud of himself!
P.S. I like this pic of Dave and the girls…
P.P.S Elijah and Zeke wanted to make sure that you knew that they caught fish last night.
A special little person in our house turned five this week! Noah had a whole day of celebration that started with breakfast in bed…
Continued with a lunchtime surprise party with lots of good friends…
And ended with opening and assembling his new Lego Toy Story set… (Maybe now he’ll keep his hands off of his brothers’ Lego? Heh, heh.)

There’s just something so precious about a child gathering a handful of dandelions and presenting them with shining eyes and a shy grin, isn’t there? Of course, it’s the pure motives and sincere desire to please me that melt my heart every time…not the yellow weeds. And with the first gift of dandelions every spring I am reminded of a simple, yet profound truth: that pretty much everything that I can offer to my Creator is like a dandelion – a weed – and not really of any worth at all to Him unless it is given with a sincere and loving heart.
Isn’t it incredible the lessons children can teach us? I’d love to hear a lesson you’ve learned from a child/ren in your life lately.
Noah’s preschool class learned about mail for the month of February. In the January newsletter (which we never recieved because Noah wasn’t at school for January) family and friends were invited to send mail to the preschool for the students. I didn’t find out until a parent teacher meeting last week that all the other kids got lots of mail except Noah. Poor l’il guy! *sniff, sniff*
Hopefully this belated note from Elijah and Zeke will help him feel included and extra special today.