Life and Learning Lately

Library books continue to be a huge part of our lives...Summer loves all books!  Last week she went up to librarian Ms. Sarah and asked her to help her find books about shells so she could identify the ones she plays with.  Ms. Sarah helped her find her shell books :)

Colton loves anything car/truck/train related, Curious George, and learning about tigers :)

Summer has been very interested in large numbers and peoples' ages lately, so we decided to an activity based on the number "100"... 

We listed the numbers so she could see how many "100" was, colored the squares, and then found peoples' ages on the chart.

Summer has been enjoying math lately using flashcards that have numbers on one side, and that number of "dots" on the flip side.  She makes up her own problem with the cards such as "2" "+" "5" "=", writes it on her paper, and then flips over the cards to count the dots and write the total.  It is a nice activity for her to do on her own.

Colty has started to show an interest in helping in the kitchen...dumping in ingredients and stirring...

One of the favorite zoo animals-- the crocodile...

Water break at the zoo!

Our first dinner outside this year!!!

One of my almost daily prayers for my kiddos is a strong conscience.  I desire that they learn right from wrong and desire to do right from the inside out, so that when they leave me to go to school, friends' houses, etc that they will do right even when I am not watching/directing.  I'll share a quick sweet story about each of the kids in how I see God working in their lives in this area:

Summer
Summer's conscience has been so sweet since last October when she invited Jesus to be her Savior.  I really don't have to discipline her much anymore, as discussion will bring her little heart to sorrow at her wrongdoing and she wants to change and do right.  An example was at church recently when Ms. Pam was giving out candy after church.  Summer came up to me while I was chatting with a friend and asked me if she could have some, and I told her she could have one piece...just one...(so as to leave some for other kids).   She came back to me with two pieces.  When I questioned her about it, and reminded her what I had said, she told me that Ms. Pam had told her she could take two.  Her answer made sense to me, as I pictured the likelihood of Ms. Pam telling each child they could pick two, and we resolved the situation saying that one piece of hers could be for Colton.  In my mind, the situation was resolved and done.  On the car ride home, she brought up the situation on her own, and told me that Ms. Pam actually hadn't "told her" to take two, but rather Summer had "asked" if she could take two and Ms. Pam had said yes.  We discussed how her actions were wrong, and then I thanked her for being honest.  When I peeked back in the rear view mirror, she was crying.  No punishment had been issued...she was crying because, in her words, "I am so sad at myself.".  Her little conscience was disciplining her more than I ever would!  What a sweetheart.  We prayed together and she asked Jesus to forgive her for her disobedience, and I told her that Mommy and Daddy forgave her too.  I praise the Lord that he is working in her heart and giving her a strong conscience.

Colton
Colton is, a very two-year-old-boy, currently.  He gets frequent time outs for pushing his sister (often for no reason--I think just because he has energy and doesn't know what to do with it positively and also because Summer gives a fun reaction!).  He also has been testing boundaries lately-- a LOT!  While he is an adorably sweet kid, he definitely shows remorse over consequences rather than over his disobedience ;).  Since these flare ups of frequent testing moments have begun, I have been praying specifically for his little heart not only during our morning Bible reading as usual, but also each time I tuck him in.  I saw my first glimmer of hope that God was working this past week.  After a timeout for pushing his sister, we came back downstairs and he was putting his boots away like I asked him.  I heard crying in the coat closet, and went to see what was the matter.  He told me, "Mommy I want to "pway", to which I responded, "You can play after you put your boots away, Colton."  He continued to cry and said again, "Mommy, I want to pway".  I then realized he wanted to "pray".  I had forgotten to pray with him after his time-out!  (Normally we try to pray and have him ask Jesus to forgive him for his specific infraction and then help him to do the opposite in the future.)  I almost melted I was so grateful for his little heart wanted to come to Jesus before he did anything else, and as he sat on my lap and repeated his prayer after me, I hugged him close as I silently thanked God for working in my little guy's heart.  Sure enough, after he said, "Amen", he was the happiest little guy and ran off to play.  So sweet.  Thank you Jesus for working in Colton's heart!

I'll end this post with the verse of the week--I'll just include Summer's video this time, because Colton has been doing his verse in a "monster voice" lately and you can't even understand what he is saying!  Oh, Colty ;).