Jotting it down

Motherhood.

It changes us so much.

Sometimes I plain wonder how I've become the way I am.  I realised suddenly how my inner anger has smoldered a bit.  How I manage to stop before I loose myself in my anger.  How I search more and more to interact with God.  How much pleasure it gives me finding less time on this laptop because I am finding more time for my children.

Motherhood moulds me to fit my children's needs.  It moulds me to become a better person.  To be the best for my family.

I hope I can radiate such to them.  It is quite a big task.

The art of writing

It's been an exceptional day.

Out of the blue my 2 yr 10 month old toddler tried his hand at writing.

Hereunder is the result!

The letters in red are my own written on his request.  Underneath in blue is his quite good imitation at writing.



We were at the Parish Priest and he asked for paper and pen. He told us he is drawing fireworks - MURTALI in Maltese. Than he asked me to write the word for him which I did. Me and the Priest continued discussing my dream of building a community of mums in our village. The next time I look at his handiwork I saw that. It felt awesome. I was shocked. I was utterly proud. Me who has been against teaching kids early the art of reading and writing have been twice erred. Because first he was very interested in learning his letters, numbers, colours and shapes and so I obliged. And now because he showed me quite clearly that he wants to learn to write. Upon asking he did confirm this (although such statements can't be taken always at face value from him) and so next week we will see if he truly wants to try this and will give it a shot.

161. open and eager to learn
162. puddles to jump into
163. curiosity
164. initiative

Beauty

Life is beautiful isn't it?

Today we went for a car ride in the rain.  Smelled the rain, saw it fall, saw the beauty around us that make up our home environment.

It was lovely and it was peaceful.

Grace 151 seeing the beauty of the Lord
152. early toddlerhood
153. playing pretend
154. identifying plants
155. baking bread
156. experiencing new food
157. praying together
158. love given to grandparents
159. excitment
160. goals achieved

So many things come our way.  Sometimes I wonder how many more we miss!

Unschooling in Autumn

Gregory is a little boy now and about to start kindergarten in February.  I am still of two minds about starting him school at 3 years old. However, he seems quite excited at the idea of going to school alone and make friends so I am taking his cue about it.

  In the meantime, I am continuing our unschooling which I find as interesting as I am learning lots myself.


Vocabulary & Alphabet: Letters seem to fascinate him and he loves to find letters from a short story. He can identify all his letters although he still can confuse a few of them at times. Books are still favourites! We go monthly to the library and pick up books to his liking. Right now we are reading books on insects and planes mainly.

Nature:  We also have a book that identifies all wild plants and flowers in Malta. He loves it and wants to look at the pictures everyday.  However that is not all, while out we are trying to identify the plants we meet along the way.  If we can't we take a little bit of it with us to search for it at home in our book.  If we are specifically going into the countryside however, we have started taking it out with us to identify the plants.

Around the house: It all depends on the mood- there are days were he wants to help with the food preperations and the setting of the table.  Sometimes he also dusts for me or cleans the bath and sink.  Other times he doesn't feel like and so far am not pushing him into it unless of course he has made an unduly mess and so it is his duty to help clean up!

Play:  Mainly playing is with planes and cars.  I try to coax him into puzzles but he is off them right now.  Its a joy hearing him play alone though- telling stories of what is happening and so on.  He loves to play with others at the moment as well and especially catch or jumping off stuff.

Learning should be fun and I am happy to say it is :)