Gathered around the table today, we were discussing our current week of history. We are chatting about vocabulary words; as I read one if they already know what it is, they tell me. Nice and simple, yes?

Anyone know what a Sentry is?

Child left un-named to protect her mother: Oh, that’s easy. 100 years.

Wise, college educated, refined mother: Um, that would be a century, goofball. (said with deep love and respect. I promise, I wasn’t laughing. Really.) This word is sentry.

Child still left un-named to protect her mother: Oh, that’s a soldier. *giggle*

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A bonus episode brought to you by FYI, Inc.

You can make your daughter’s head explode by talking about transitive and intransitive verbs, verb inflections and reflexive pronouns. We did make a breakthrough. Reflexive pronouns seem to make sense when I told her to just think of “I hit myself” and then to hit herself on the head. I had her practice a few times to make sure it clicked. Laughter is better than tears, right?

**Disclaimer: No cute 4 year olds were hurt in the making of this post. What you see here are two sisters with some yarn, paper, crayons and scope of imagination. Carry on.

I decided why not make this a bit of a vacation for us? We will be doing a tiny bit of school but other than that we are just going to RELAX! Nice walks in the morning and evening. Running around and climbing trees in the afternoon. Ok, I won’t be climbing trees but I might take a picture or two of the kiddos. We saw a sign about an old band concert tomorrow. Mary is begging to go so I think we might swing by and see how it is.

We will have a game night here or there. I think we will be starting a new read aloud. Make some yummy snacks. A movie night or two.

Yep. Works for me!

In other news….

Last night for dinner, we were served jello with bananas. Bekah does not like bananas. However, she does enjoy jello. She decided that risking a bite of banana was worth it to get the jello.

Today, we had grapes and sliced bananas for snack. Bekah was hungry. So she said, “Well, the bananas didn’t make me throw up last night like I thought they would so I guess I’ll try them without jello.”

Ooookay.

Surprise, surprise, she liked the bananas.

Does this mean I should toss some green beans in jello? Snort.

Copywork is a wonderful way to practice perfect penmanship, spelling, writing and grammar. Oddly, copywork is a favorite among the Tribe. Bekah and Mary LOVE getting their copywork assignments each day. I found a little way to make it extra fun.

We have a bit of a literary contest. I go to AO Copywork, I find two books we have read and selected a passage for copywork. I print the selections out and call the girls who are eagerly waiting. Then I read the passages. However, I don’t tell them what book it is from. They have to tell me the book. Whichever girl is correct gets that passage for her copywork. If one girl gets both passages, she gets to pick which one she wants to keep and which one she passes along.

For some reason they love this “game”. I love seeing how they remember all these wonderful stories!

Here is an example:

#1 – The bureau was crowded with caterpillar jars, and the shelves with birds’ nests and cocoons on twigs, and on the mantelpiece there was a procession of minerals. Mounted specimens of butterflies and moths hung in cases on the walls, and over the bed five tacked-up snakeskins were tastefully arranged. The turtles occupied a tank cozily situated beside the wastebasket.

#2 – “A little girl – coming here, Miss Harrington? Oh, won’t that be nice!” cried Nancy, thinking of the sunshine her own little sisters made in the home at “The Corners.”

“Nice? Well, that isn’t exactly the word I should use,” rejoined Miss Polly, stiffly. “However, I intend to make the best of it, of course. I am a good woman, I hope; and I know my duty.”

Do you know these books?

Thankfully, my library had a few titles from them and I was downright delighted when I saw this one:

I knew that I had one child in this house who would give a squeal of delight when she saw it. All of my children love Chronicles of Narnia, but Bekah was the first to enter the land of Narnia. She was delighted when she saw it and devastated when I told her she had to wait. Hee, hee. It is the little things that make life fun, right? After a short time of torture I gave her the book and told her to let me know when she finished it.

Naturally, she finished it that afternoon. This is why the library lets me go over the 100 book limit.

Then I asked her to tell me all about Mr. Lewis. She shared wonderful details of his life; things I had no idea about! I was going to read it myself but after her thorough narration, there isn’t a big rush.

Bekah and I highly recommend C. S. Lewis: Master Storyteller and the other wonderful biographies from YWAM Publishing!

Oh, I almost forgot. One fact about Lewis that brought a huge smile to Bekah’s face was that Lewis was fan of E. Nesbitt. We adore her books as well.

Please share if you decide to read about Mr. Lewis and any other great biographies we should read!

On January 31^st she turned 11. Once again her birthday was celebrated with the ground covered in ice; just as her 1^st birthday was. She didn’t care. Did it dampen her celebration? Not the slightest. All she wanted was a late night girls’ night at home with chocolate and a movie. Precious. She is just precious to my heart.

To think I once held her in my arms and cuddle with her during her naps.

She is my right hand. All the little ones love her to pieces. She is such a blessing to our family. It was a bittersweet birthday for me. I love seeing the young woman she is becoming but it is sometimes hard to say good-bye to the little girl she was.

Happy Birthday, Bekah!!!!!