amandaspace1330

Five years! Tristan turned 5 this week! I look back over the memories, milestones, moments that pile onto one another, overlapping and recurring in my memory. We reminisce about what Tristan did or said when he was just learning to walk, or talk, like it was just yesterday, and I am so grateful and blessed to have been a part of Tristan's five years of life. Hopefully we have many more years of memories and milestones to go! He is a special kid. God perfectly placed him in our family. Our first born, responsible, rule follower, erring on the side of perfectionism, with a smile that brightens up a whole room. To celebrate his birthday we had special days with grandparents on both sides as well as a day at the Philadelphia Zoo and a birthday party as a family on his big day. Lots of animal cakes and lots of fun! We are excited about beginning Kindergarten (at home) soon, and he wants to begin playing Soccer and Basketball this fall/winter. We are excited about what n...

One of the empty lots in our neighborhood holds a retention pond and with all the rain this spring, we have spent many lovely afternoons visiting the pond and looking at the water. About a month ago we noticed the pond was filled with tadpoles. Little black tadpoles by the thousand. We decided we should watch them develop and whenever we had a free afternoon we would go and see how the tadpoles were coming. They grew quickly into little froglets with long tails, and then the tails diminished. We decided we might take a few home to observe in our little bug viewer. Tristan,  very gently (and quickly) gathered seven tiny black frogs and a few weeds for us to take home. Over the next few days we observed them. Watching them climb the walls of the container and swim in the water and sit on the weed. We began throwing bugs in there with them. I put in a tiny spider, Jason, a millipede and Tristan put in a fly (as big as the frogs!). The frogs did not eat what we put ...

We just finished Henry the Castaway by Mark Taylor. Because this book came from another county's library system, I got it two weeks ago, midweek and decided to begin right away and spend a week and a half reading and digging into this book. It is a really cute book, perfect for early June. The story is packed with alliterations and references and Graham Booth's beautiful artwork. Tristan correctly identified the pictures as watercolor (I think Graham Booth used multiple mediums, watercolor being one), so that is where we began.  Tristan and Ana are getting better at using watercolor. Their paintings are looking more than just watery blobs, and Ana hasn't disintegrated her paper in quite some time, now. In addition to painting, we made crocodile crafts, kingfisher handprint crafts and toilet paper tube terriers. While crafting these animals we were able to chat about different kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and mammals. We discussed wha...

I've been trying to read more, and I am trying out chapter books with the kids.We just completed some good ones. I read Thursdays With Naomi by Phillip R. Thorne and Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis. As a family, we read, Cinnabar, the One O'clock Fox by Marguerite Henry.   I spent a quiet afternoon reading Thursdays With Naomi at my in-laws house. I saw it sitting there and thought I'd give it a try. I proceeded to read the entire book! The stories are sweet and memorable and I love how each one points to Christ in some way. This book turns every day encounters between a grandpa and his granddaughter into life lessons. It's an easy read with quick chapters. Each chapter leads into the next, introducing the characters and inviting the reader to become part of the family for a little while. I really enjoyed this book.    Kisses from Katie is an amazing true story that is not over, the book simply tells the beginning. I am inspired and challenged to read ab...

Last week we read the book Truman's Aunt Farm by Jama Kim Rattagan. This is a book introduces the idea of homonyms. Truman asks for ants for his birthday and ends up with a house full of Aunts. The story is silly and unbelievable, the illustrations unrealistic and exaggerated;  we enjoyed it. We also enjoyed learning about Ants/Aunts. Our morning Bible time centered around what Proverbs has to say about Ants. We stamped Q-tip ants on a large A, and read about ants and the colonies they make. We discussed how we are related to our aunts and the children wrote letters to their aunts (living in America) just like Truman. We looked through the illustrations of the book and made a list of all the things the aunts are doing on the pages. This reminded me of the Highlights magazine, "What's silly" page.  For math and counting we discussed the cost of sending a letter, how many pennies does a stamp cost now, and how much money do 10 stamps cos...