love to paint

For Christmas, I gave my husband the game, Settlers of Catan.  We had talked about getting it for a long time.  It was on sale at Target just before Christmas and so I was glad to be able to get it for him. We sat down to play it with our girls yesterday and had a great time!  But, I noticed a few things about our game. When my younger daughter wanted a particular resource card, I said "okay."  My husband looked at me with incredulity and said, "You're not supposed to do that!"  I watched us reaction.  A minute later, she added another section of road and took a card from my husband that gave him some points towards winning.  Both my daughters and I responded by going "Ahhh..  Oh, we're so sorry.  It'll be okay."   That's girls.  I sat there for a minute and realized what had happened.  Then, I made an announcement to the group.  I said, "This is what happens when girls play this game!  If it had been a group ...

My little boy is in kindergarten.  He's sitting beside me looking at a dinosaur alphabet picture book.  He loves the pictures.  Teaching a child how to write their letters sound like a very simple thing, but I've discovered over the years that it isn't.  Especially if you have children who track from down to up and right to left instead of up to down and left to right!  All three of my children have found their own ways of writing some of their letters.  My oldest daughter is now in fifth grade and continues to write some of the letters the way she taught herself--not the conventional way.  My middle daughter has followed the same pattern.  And now my son...  Well, I began thinking about my middle daughter and youngest son this past summer.  I came to a few conclusions with the help of fellow classroom and homeschooling teachers. Conclusion #1:  Children have learning differences.  Not all children's brains are wired the same...

I did actually think about it...  A few weeks ago, my electric pencil sharpener died.  I was honestly sad.  It was trustworthy and faithful.  It had survived twenty plus moves all around the country and kept sharpening pencils for me through seven years of homeschooling.   But, it died.  At first, it sputtered.  Then, it really died.  I couldn't fix it.  I didn't know what to do.  I needed a new one fast because of all the pencils my kids write with every day.  As a bandaid fix, I went to Walmart and bought a $7 Xacto manual sharpener that used suction to stay on the table.  Ugh.  It was a disaster!  $7 completely sadly wasted.  So, I started looking around and came upon a sharpener that a lot of teachers seemed to love.   I was skeptical.  It was a manual sharpener.  It didn't look like anything that special.  Was it worth the price? It was comparable to a good electric sharpener.  H...

Right now while I'm writing this post, there is a documentary playing in the background.  It is called Raw Faith.  It is a documentary about Marilyn Sewell, a unitarian minister.  It is honestly just what I expected.  My heart hurts for the pain of her childhood and family life.  But, I hurt too for some of the choices she made--like leaving her husband when her children were toddlers.  She talked about it--and didn't say there was abuse--only that he didn't feel like "the right one".  Interesting.  She talks over and over about people being "good" people.  She mentions having a "calling", but not WHO that calling is from or where that calling comes from.  She mentions love over and over, but not the source of that love.  She attributes that love to the beauty of people.  Her ministry took her from her children because she hasn't had much left over for them.  Several people, including her two boys, talk about the role that...