I remember the moment like it was yesterday. When Aidan realized he was going to share us with a sibling. He was four.
We had driven to the library and parked across the street in our little two-door coupe. Aidan was chatting with us about his sister coming home. He got all sad and weepy and said, "But you're MY mommy and daddy!" At this point we were all crying. We got into the back seat with him (no small feat) and held him and told him how much we loved him, but that we loved his sister too.
That moment happened tonight with Iona.
She was sitting up in bed, well after lights out. I walk upstairs to find out why she is calling me. She looks really sad.
Iona: Mommy, why is Brendan living in our house?
Me: What do you mean, Iona? He's not here yet, but he's coming soon to live with us.
Iona: But you're not HIS mommy. You're MY mommy!
Me (hugging her): I am Aidan's mommy and Iona's mommy AND Brendan's mommy.
We went round and round about this for a little while and then she got all goofy and got herself into trouble.
I'm so blessed by my kiddos, and I'm so honored that Iona sees me as her mommy, no questions asked. I know the questions will come one day, but I'm thrilled at her attachment to me and her starting to think through having a new member of the family.
Meanwhile, Pete and I are reading through Ann Voscamp's One Thousand Gifts, and we've both just started our "gift lists." I'm excited to see what God will do in our hearts and in our family as a result.
Showing posts with label Aidan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aidan. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Thursday, October 14, 2010
First quarter update
Hi friends! It's been a while since I've posted...this is one of a few I have planned.
We are just finishing week 8 of school. We are enjoying the time spent together and much of the content. It's been hard to keep Iona happy, as I have not had the time to spend coming up with ideas for her from Before Five in a Row. I'm hoping to sit down with the material soon. So we've played around with spending schoolwork time at different times of the day.
Here's a rundown of how his subjects are going:
Bible--Aidan really likes his Old Testament Overview, although we are on course to finish this after only half a year instead of a full year. He loves drawing the Bible stories, so much that he prefers doing at least two pages a day instead of the one page planned in the schedule. We decided not to go ahead and get the New Testament version for spring, but just to work through another devotional once we finish. Aidan is also going to AWANA and memorizing verses there.
Writing--Writing with Ease is SUPER easy and we both really like it. The excerpts from literature have drawn us both to want to read the longer works, and we are keeping a list. :)
Spelling--Aidan likes Spelling Workout A a lot, and he can do large parts of the lessons on his own. While this is nice, I'm not yet sure how much he retains. This may be an area where we switch curriculum next year.
Reading--The Ordinary Parent's Guide is going much better this year than last. And Aidan is doing awesome at the readers we are working through. It's been fun to watch him pick up a random book and just start reading.
Grammar--First Language Lessons is also super easy. We are enjoying the topics in the book and Aidan is retaining it well.
Handwriting--Aidan is almost done with HWT already! Since he writes in most other subjects, we will wait on cursive until second grade.
Math--Saxon Math 2 is going much better than math last year. We are a little behind my original schedule, but we are making great headway. This year we are doing one minute math drills, and that is the hardest part for my little budding perfectionist.
History--SOTW1 is tons of fun. We love doing the projects together, although I don't think I'll be mummifying another chicken anytime soon. I've heard mummifying an apple is much easier... Aidan really looks forward to this subject.
Science--We decided to switch last minute to Astronomy, and it is going well. We've done some fun experiments, and Pete has done a bunch with Aidan as well.
Literature--This is one of my favorite subjects, of course, and Aidan loves to color or draw while I read aloud. Pete and I have pulled a few books from the lineup because of Aidan's tender heart, and we will revisit those at a later time. In general, the list we are working through has been fun.
Art and Music--Harmony Fine Arts is amazing. Aidan has made some neat art pieces when trying to copy some of the greats. The kids both love to dance around the kitchen to the classical music each week.
PE--We have continued with swim lessons this semester for both kids since Aidan was not ready by the end of the summer to stop without losing a ton of ground by next summer. He's picking up so well that we think he'll go back to taekwondo in the spring (and Iona to gymnastics).
We've been on some fun field trips as a family to a pumpkin farm and to see a Chinese orchestra.
We also decided to join a homeschool co-op, so every other Monday we spend the morning there. I work with Iona in the 2's and 3's class, and Aidan takes classes in Ancient Rome, PE, and Crafts. It's a nice break for us and it gives me some special time with Iona.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how the year is going. I will be looking for ways to take us away from the kitchen table so much, as I feel we are spending too much time there, but otherwise things are lots of fun.
We are just finishing week 8 of school. We are enjoying the time spent together and much of the content. It's been hard to keep Iona happy, as I have not had the time to spend coming up with ideas for her from Before Five in a Row. I'm hoping to sit down with the material soon. So we've played around with spending schoolwork time at different times of the day.
Here's a rundown of how his subjects are going:
Bible--Aidan really likes his Old Testament Overview, although we are on course to finish this after only half a year instead of a full year. He loves drawing the Bible stories, so much that he prefers doing at least two pages a day instead of the one page planned in the schedule. We decided not to go ahead and get the New Testament version for spring, but just to work through another devotional once we finish. Aidan is also going to AWANA and memorizing verses there.
Writing--Writing with Ease is SUPER easy and we both really like it. The excerpts from literature have drawn us both to want to read the longer works, and we are keeping a list. :)
Spelling--Aidan likes Spelling Workout A a lot, and he can do large parts of the lessons on his own. While this is nice, I'm not yet sure how much he retains. This may be an area where we switch curriculum next year.
Reading--The Ordinary Parent's Guide is going much better this year than last. And Aidan is doing awesome at the readers we are working through. It's been fun to watch him pick up a random book and just start reading.
Grammar--First Language Lessons is also super easy. We are enjoying the topics in the book and Aidan is retaining it well.
Handwriting--Aidan is almost done with HWT already! Since he writes in most other subjects, we will wait on cursive until second grade.
Math--Saxon Math 2 is going much better than math last year. We are a little behind my original schedule, but we are making great headway. This year we are doing one minute math drills, and that is the hardest part for my little budding perfectionist.
History--SOTW1 is tons of fun. We love doing the projects together, although I don't think I'll be mummifying another chicken anytime soon. I've heard mummifying an apple is much easier... Aidan really looks forward to this subject.
Science--We decided to switch last minute to Astronomy, and it is going well. We've done some fun experiments, and Pete has done a bunch with Aidan as well.
Literature--This is one of my favorite subjects, of course, and Aidan loves to color or draw while I read aloud. Pete and I have pulled a few books from the lineup because of Aidan's tender heart, and we will revisit those at a later time. In general, the list we are working through has been fun.
Art and Music--Harmony Fine Arts is amazing. Aidan has made some neat art pieces when trying to copy some of the greats. The kids both love to dance around the kitchen to the classical music each week.
PE--We have continued with swim lessons this semester for both kids since Aidan was not ready by the end of the summer to stop without losing a ton of ground by next summer. He's picking up so well that we think he'll go back to taekwondo in the spring (and Iona to gymnastics).
We've been on some fun field trips as a family to a pumpkin farm and to see a Chinese orchestra.
We also decided to join a homeschool co-op, so every other Monday we spend the morning there. I work with Iona in the 2's and 3's class, and Aidan takes classes in Ancient Rome, PE, and Crafts. It's a nice break for us and it gives me some special time with Iona.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how the year is going. I will be looking for ways to take us away from the kitchen table so much, as I feel we are spending too much time there, but otherwise things are lots of fun.
Friday, July 9, 2010
First Grade Curriculum
I've been wanting to write this post for a while, but I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and do it.
For this next school year, I purchased Homeschool Tracker Plus to help me plan and organize school. It took a bit of time to get it started, but so far I really like it! I was able to download some lesson plans and tweak them, and creating my own lesson plans was pretty simple. I really like their online forums as well...I can even get a daily email of the topics discussed. This program should be useful for all the kids throughout their schooling.
I will say that we are following a classical model of schooling and we use The Well-Trained Mind for the basic structure of classes and curriculum, with some changes.
We will be using the following curriculum:
For this next school year, I purchased Homeschool Tracker Plus to help me plan and organize school. It took a bit of time to get it started, but so far I really like it! I was able to download some lesson plans and tweak them, and creating my own lesson plans was pretty simple. I really like their online forums as well...I can even get a daily email of the topics discussed. This program should be useful for all the kids throughout their schooling.
I will say that we are following a classical model of schooling and we use The Well-Trained Mind for the basic structure of classes and curriculum, with some changes.
We will be using the following curriculum:
- Bible--Grapevine's Level 2 Old Testament Overview
- Language Arts: Writing--Writing with Ease Level 1. Thanks to the advice of a friend, I just bought the workbook and not the text. I also went to Peace Hill Press's site and downloaded the workbook pages so that I could print them off instead of copy them. If you do this, you still want to buy the workbook because it tells you what to do each day in addition to including the worksheets.
- Language Arts: Spelling--Spelling Workout A and B
- Language Arts: Reading--lessons 141-end of Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. We went through lessons 1-140 last year. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have necessarily stopped at lesson 140, but just stopped whereever we landed at the end of the school year (after 140 preferably). Susan Wise Bauer recommends getting at least to that lesson by the beginning of first grade. Finishing this won't take us the whole school year. We also will be supplementing with Sonlight's reader's list for first grade...we're using the Reader's 2 schedule. We already started with The Beginner's Bible a little this summer because Aidan has caught the reading bug.
- Langauge Arts: Grammar--First Language Lessons 1
- Language Arts: Handwriting--Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book. We are not using the teacher's guide this year. I really think we COULD use a regular handwriting program this year since Aidan is doing so much better with his writing, but we opted to stay with the familiar and let him go through just the workbook at his own pace. He doesn't seem to need the extra activities for fine motor that the teacher's guide gives.
- Math--Saxon Math 2. We had a difficult time by the end of Saxon Math 1. Math often brings tears in this house. We decided to stay with Saxon one more year at least and try to change things up a bit as far as what manipulatives to use. Aidan is excited to start math again, which is encouraging!
- History--Story of the World 1: Ancient Times. I am super excited about this. We're actually starting history a couple of weeks early because there are so many chapters and because I want to beat the rush to the library for some of the supplementary books for each chapter. I also bought the workheet pack for level 1 on their site so I can just print out the worksheets I needed instead of copying them. I have an older edition of the workbook, and the pdfs are the newer edition and much nicer.
- Science--Apologia's Zoology 1: Flying Animals of the 5th Day. I am excited that Apologia has now made Notebooking Journals for each of their elementary science books! We are looking forwarding to studying bugs and birds and such.
- Literature--Sonlight's Read-Aloud books for first grade. I have collected all of these through Paperback Swap over the last year. I'm already starting to collect the 2nd grade books. We loved the books from last year. We are supplementing with books listed for first grade in WTM; these go with the history curriculum. We are also pulling a few from Ambleside Online's literature books.
- Art and Music--Harmony Fine Arts First Grade. We're using the option 2 group in Art.
- Health/Character--Generations of Virtue has a curriculum for Preschool-Grade 4, and we will gradually use that this year. I don't have any of the books, so I added them to my PBS wish list and will also check the library.
For PE, Aidan will continue with taekwondo. Over the summer both kids have been in swim lessons, and we will decide soon whether to keep them in it or not.
We also have the chance to join a local co-op, which meets once every 2 weeks for the morning. We just sent in our registration for it, so we're hoping to get our first choice of classes.
I also gathered together the worksheets for each subject that uses them for the whole year. I divided them into six-week groupings and then paperclipped each week's workheets. I store them in file folders for each set of six weeks. (So I have bible, history, math, and writing clipped together for each week.) I know we will get off of that pre-planned schedule, but I have all the stuff printed off and ready to go. I got the idea for this here, though we will not be saving the worksheets after the fact in this way like she mentions. Instead, we'll file them in 3-ring notebooks per WTM.
We're making a timeline this year!! I'm using Homeschool in the Woods Timeline CD and we'll make a timeline that includes history and bible combined. I made a test timeline myself this past week and I'm really glad I did!! I did it in 2 evenings for the whole year, and now I'll be going through and marking which figures go with which chapters. I did a notebook timeline, in case you want to try to do this too. I think when we don't have little ones, I will graduate to a wall timeline, but I'm afraid Iona might try to pull stuff off the wall right now.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
handwriting
Handwriting has been really hard for Aidan. He got glasses when he was 4, and it was amazing to see how well he could draw shapes after that!
This year for homeschool we decided to use Handwriting Without Tears for his handwriting curriculum. Can you believe we finished the kindergarten curriculum last week? Aidan has consistently wanted to move faster through the workbook than the "schedule," so I've let him. He loves to do the workbook page and then color the pictures.
Now that we're done, I have him writing his uppercase and lowercase alphabet on separate days as practice. For the other 2-3 days, we're working through book 1 of Draw Write Now. LOVE IT!! We're using HWT's Draw and Write Notebook to do the lessons.
I bought book 1 at the beginning of the school year because I thought it would be a fun activity book for Aidan since he LOVES art. I wasn't sure if writing the 4 short sentences for each lesson would be too much for him, but he is doing so awesome with the drawing and the writing. Today I let him color his drawings with colored pencils, and you would have thought I had given him the moon!
Yeah, my boy LOVES art. Any kind. We bought him a STACK of $.10 notebooks at the beginning of the school year and it was the best purchase! He has filled about 10 of them with his drawings...they started out as just ninja turtle after ninja turtle, and now he draws creatures he makes up, draws his toys while they model for him, and lots of picures of the family.
I think I'm going to buy the complete set of Draw Write Now books this summer and then sell this copy of book 1. We can work through them slowly over the summer and then when we finish our first grade HWT cirriculum early...
It's so amazing to see his progress in handwriting after all the specialists we've seen for his motor skills. God is so good, and Aidan is so determined! He is such a huge blessing.
Meanwhile, Iona has taken to drawing because she sees her beloved big brother doing it. She scribbles all over a paper and then says, "Ta-Da! Mommy, see!"
This year for homeschool we decided to use Handwriting Without Tears for his handwriting curriculum. Can you believe we finished the kindergarten curriculum last week? Aidan has consistently wanted to move faster through the workbook than the "schedule," so I've let him. He loves to do the workbook page and then color the pictures.
Now that we're done, I have him writing his uppercase and lowercase alphabet on separate days as practice. For the other 2-3 days, we're working through book 1 of Draw Write Now. LOVE IT!! We're using HWT's Draw and Write Notebook to do the lessons.
I bought book 1 at the beginning of the school year because I thought it would be a fun activity book for Aidan since he LOVES art. I wasn't sure if writing the 4 short sentences for each lesson would be too much for him, but he is doing so awesome with the drawing and the writing. Today I let him color his drawings with colored pencils, and you would have thought I had given him the moon!
Yeah, my boy LOVES art. Any kind. We bought him a STACK of $.10 notebooks at the beginning of the school year and it was the best purchase! He has filled about 10 of them with his drawings...they started out as just ninja turtle after ninja turtle, and now he draws creatures he makes up, draws his toys while they model for him, and lots of picures of the family.
I think I'm going to buy the complete set of Draw Write Now books this summer and then sell this copy of book 1. We can work through them slowly over the summer and then when we finish our first grade HWT cirriculum early...
It's so amazing to see his progress in handwriting after all the specialists we've seen for his motor skills. God is so good, and Aidan is so determined! He is such a huge blessing.
Meanwhile, Iona has taken to drawing because she sees her beloved big brother doing it. She scribbles all over a paper and then says, "Ta-Da! Mommy, see!"
Thursday, January 28, 2010
house hunting
Our house has officially been on the market for 8 days. We've had 9 showings, and we hear 5 people are VERY interested. We have an open house planned for Saturday morning.
We totally feel like we're back waiting for a referral!! Every time the phone rings my heart leaps, hoping it's our realtor saying she has 1 or more offers for us. She and I even chatted multiple times today. But we still wait.
Meanwhile, we have 3 houses we are very interested in. We could see ourselves happy in any of the three. And 2 others, just in case. We've listed all the pros and cons for each and have gone round and round about an order for them. But we can't move forward until we get an offer, and we are trying to wait until we make an offer to do our taxes (because of the $6500 tax credit we can get).
Did I mention 9 showings in 8 days? Our vacuum died at the beginning of the week. We do have a backup, but it's just a canister vacuum, the kind with the long hose. We need a new one. We've priced the one we want out, but we are trying to wait to see what kind of floors we'll have in the new place. Oh, and the area rugs we bought? They have black borders. That show all the dirt. No matter how long it's been since you've vacuumed.
So tonight, as we are preparing to leave the house for another showing, I hit the button on the garage door and then promptly backed into it. CRUNCH. After we finally left the house, we called our realtor so she could let the realtor coming tonight know we planned to fix it in case his client asked. We got home from our errands and I called our insurance agent and a local garage repair person, who just "happened" to be coming near our house tomorrow anyway. It makes me sick to think we might have to replace the whole door before we move, but we'll see.
We're trying to move a little faster in homeschooling so we can prepare to take 2-3 weeks off for the move. Aidan's having no problem with the change in pace...he's actually doing better in math and seems to enjoy learning to read a bit more. I've been putting off the science experiments having to do with bread rising because of the mess while we are trying to sell, but since we need to stick around tomorrow for the garage repairman, we just might attempt it. And he can zip his coat by himself now!! All that occupational therapy is paying off!!
I finally bought winter running gear tonight so I can start training for the half marathon. I think this means I actually need to get outside and run now. I plan to start next week. Pete is already running 4 miles. Makes me sick.
We had a little issue a few weeks ago of Iona taking off her clothes in bed and throwing everything, diaper and contents included, out of the crib. Thanks to suggestions made, the onesies are working! Iona is looking more and more like a little girl and is really trying to converse with us. Aidan and Iona seem to be getting along even better. He just loves to make her laugh and comfort her and hug her. She has been trying to delay bedtime by continuing to ask for another hug from Aidan. Tonight she asked, "Ina give Aida a hug?" So cute!!
I'll let you know what happens with the house!!
We totally feel like we're back waiting for a referral!! Every time the phone rings my heart leaps, hoping it's our realtor saying she has 1 or more offers for us. She and I even chatted multiple times today. But we still wait.
Meanwhile, we have 3 houses we are very interested in. We could see ourselves happy in any of the three. And 2 others, just in case. We've listed all the pros and cons for each and have gone round and round about an order for them. But we can't move forward until we get an offer, and we are trying to wait until we make an offer to do our taxes (because of the $6500 tax credit we can get).
Did I mention 9 showings in 8 days? Our vacuum died at the beginning of the week. We do have a backup, but it's just a canister vacuum, the kind with the long hose. We need a new one. We've priced the one we want out, but we are trying to wait to see what kind of floors we'll have in the new place. Oh, and the area rugs we bought? They have black borders. That show all the dirt. No matter how long it's been since you've vacuumed.
So tonight, as we are preparing to leave the house for another showing, I hit the button on the garage door and then promptly backed into it. CRUNCH. After we finally left the house, we called our realtor so she could let the realtor coming tonight know we planned to fix it in case his client asked. We got home from our errands and I called our insurance agent and a local garage repair person, who just "happened" to be coming near our house tomorrow anyway. It makes me sick to think we might have to replace the whole door before we move, but we'll see.
We're trying to move a little faster in homeschooling so we can prepare to take 2-3 weeks off for the move. Aidan's having no problem with the change in pace...he's actually doing better in math and seems to enjoy learning to read a bit more. I've been putting off the science experiments having to do with bread rising because of the mess while we are trying to sell, but since we need to stick around tomorrow for the garage repairman, we just might attempt it. And he can zip his coat by himself now!! All that occupational therapy is paying off!!
I finally bought winter running gear tonight so I can start training for the half marathon. I think this means I actually need to get outside and run now. I plan to start next week. Pete is already running 4 miles. Makes me sick.
We had a little issue a few weeks ago of Iona taking off her clothes in bed and throwing everything, diaper and contents included, out of the crib. Thanks to suggestions made, the onesies are working! Iona is looking more and more like a little girl and is really trying to converse with us. Aidan and Iona seem to be getting along even better. He just loves to make her laugh and comfort her and hug her. She has been trying to delay bedtime by continuing to ask for another hug from Aidan. Tonight she asked, "Ina give Aida a hug?" So cute!!
I'll let you know what happens with the house!!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
taekwondo and hair
Today Aidan earned his orange striped belt in taekwondo!! You can see pictures posted in the flickr album. He performed his kibon, broke a board, sparred, and then got his belt. It was super fun to watch him, although Iona got bored after a while.
This morning I "did" Iona's hair for the first time! Pictures are up on flickr. I didn't think it was long enough, but the ladies I talked with at Aldi last week assured me it was. So today I gave her a bath, put product in her hair, and then started with coils. So cute!! She loved getting to eat gummies while I was doing it. Her hair is still pretty short in the back and it's not staying in the best right there, but the rest is really fun. I don't know why I waited so long!!
Before I did the coils, I watched the videos on Shuruba to see what I was doing, and I was encouraged that the age of one of the "models" was close to Iona, with the same length of hair. After I did her hair, I ordered my first beads and snaps and beader and rubber bands. :) I'm looking forward to trying flat twists and some of the other styles with the beads and snaps.
I also wanted to point out the flickr photos of my new nephew, Gavin! I am leaving soon to take the train up to my sister's house for a couple of days to help her sleep with a newborn in the house. Her hubbie RJ just went back to work, so I'm going to come and help with cooking and cleaning and cuddling with little Gavin while she rests. I'm excited to get a "break" from here, but I know I'll be busy there too.
This morning I "did" Iona's hair for the first time! Pictures are up on flickr. I didn't think it was long enough, but the ladies I talked with at Aldi last week assured me it was. So today I gave her a bath, put product in her hair, and then started with coils. So cute!! She loved getting to eat gummies while I was doing it. Her hair is still pretty short in the back and it's not staying in the best right there, but the rest is really fun. I don't know why I waited so long!!
Before I did the coils, I watched the videos on Shuruba to see what I was doing, and I was encouraged that the age of one of the "models" was close to Iona, with the same length of hair. After I did her hair, I ordered my first beads and snaps and beader and rubber bands. :) I'm looking forward to trying flat twists and some of the other styles with the beads and snaps.
I also wanted to point out the flickr photos of my new nephew, Gavin! I am leaving soon to take the train up to my sister's house for a couple of days to help her sleep with a newborn in the house. Her hubbie RJ just went back to work, so I'm going to come and help with cooking and cleaning and cuddling with little Gavin while she rests. I'm excited to get a "break" from here, but I know I'll be busy there too.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Aidan turns 6!!
My miracle baby turned 6 this past Saturday. Pete put our Flickr photos on my blog, so just go to the album for Aidan's 6th birthday party and you can see the fun.
We celebrated with grandpa and a few friends at Chuck E Cheese. We didn't do their birthday package, but we just ordered some food, brought our own cake, and just played. Aidan wanted his icing ninja turtle green, and we gave his mini turtles a bath before we used them as cake toppers. His friends Kiri and Atticus came with their families and played with us there. Aidan got some LEGO sets, a bunch of games, some books, some turtle figures, and a fun Wolverine-like claw that makes noise--he calls it his Shredder claw. Grandpa came to the house after the party and stayed most of the afternoon, helping Aidan play with his toys and just hanging out.
For dinner he asked for hot dogs and mac and cheese, and then we watched Monster's vs. Aliens together.
It was a nice, relaxing birthday (except when I was literally CHASING Iona through Chuck E Cheese), and I didn't even have to clean!!
We celebrated with grandpa and a few friends at Chuck E Cheese. We didn't do their birthday package, but we just ordered some food, brought our own cake, and just played. Aidan wanted his icing ninja turtle green, and we gave his mini turtles a bath before we used them as cake toppers. His friends Kiri and Atticus came with their families and played with us there. Aidan got some LEGO sets, a bunch of games, some books, some turtle figures, and a fun Wolverine-like claw that makes noise--he calls it his Shredder claw. Grandpa came to the house after the party and stayed most of the afternoon, helping Aidan play with his toys and just hanging out.
For dinner he asked for hot dogs and mac and cheese, and then we watched Monster's vs. Aliens together.
It was a nice, relaxing birthday (except when I was literally CHASING Iona through Chuck E Cheese), and I didn't even have to clean!!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
weapons
I loved this post.
Aidan is a total boy. His dress up bin is half-full of nothing but weapons--discards from friends' collections, clearance Halloween costume parts, an old jump rope, and even weapons made out of paper towel and wrapping paper rolls and just rolled up construction paper taped together. He loves to go in the basement and fight with swords any time we will do it with him. He's even gotten his sister in on the action--she can wield a sword, at 15 months old, with the best of them. She just laughs and laughs! Aidan loves to take his swords outside and run around the yard fighting imaginary enemies. We don't let him play with guns, although he did acquire a small water gun from somewhere.
Sometimes his obsession with Ninja Turtles is irritating--instead of drawing a picture about the Sunday School lesson at church he wants to draw a turtle and his matching weapon. He even has notebooks full of them. But, as one of the SS teachers always reminds me, this is who God made him to be.
I pray that he will be a man who fights for honor justice and truth and will know how to wield the Word of God so that he falls more in love with Jesus each day. And I pray God will give him unique eyes to see the spiritual warfare happening around him and fight through prayer, surrendered to Jesus.
And I hope to even teach him a little about the artists the Ninja Turtles were named after. :)
Aidan is a total boy. His dress up bin is half-full of nothing but weapons--discards from friends' collections, clearance Halloween costume parts, an old jump rope, and even weapons made out of paper towel and wrapping paper rolls and just rolled up construction paper taped together. He loves to go in the basement and fight with swords any time we will do it with him. He's even gotten his sister in on the action--she can wield a sword, at 15 months old, with the best of them. She just laughs and laughs! Aidan loves to take his swords outside and run around the yard fighting imaginary enemies. We don't let him play with guns, although he did acquire a small water gun from somewhere.
Sometimes his obsession with Ninja Turtles is irritating--instead of drawing a picture about the Sunday School lesson at church he wants to draw a turtle and his matching weapon. He even has notebooks full of them. But, as one of the SS teachers always reminds me, this is who God made him to be.
I pray that he will be a man who fights for honor justice and truth and will know how to wield the Word of God so that he falls more in love with Jesus each day. And I pray God will give him unique eyes to see the spiritual warfare happening around him and fight through prayer, surrendered to Jesus.
And I hope to even teach him a little about the artists the Ninja Turtles were named after. :)
Saturday, July 25, 2009
some fun links
We enjoyed sitting around the computer and looking through these this morning...
Last week at a local park we got to see a turtle laying eggs. We went home and looked up videos on you tube of turtles laying eggs, and we laughed and laughed at this video.
Like legos? We adored the use of legos here and here.
Aidan is the family inventor, and it was so neat for him to see what can be done with drawing and inventions and some of his favorite toys.
Last week at a local park we got to see a turtle laying eggs. We went home and looked up videos on you tube of turtles laying eggs, and we laughed and laughed at this video.
Like legos? We adored the use of legos here and here.
Aidan is the family inventor, and it was so neat for him to see what can be done with drawing and inventions and some of his favorite toys.
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