Learning Every Day

I just wrote a post about the kids and how they're learning every day in different ways. I accidentally posted it to the blog we have for them to post on. Here's the link. It's about Jonny being curious and finding out more, the girls gaining insight from literature, and Jacob being committed to just get something done. Love my kids. Love that we get to learn together every day.

First Time For Everything

At dinner, the kids were talking about having ice cream for our family home evening treat. It's Jacob's turn to pick and that's his usual. Megan asked, "When was the first day we started having ice cream?". Jacob stated that "It was when Grandpa Riding first fed it to us.". I had just been having a similar thought. There seems to be a tradition of Grandpa Riding being the first one to give each of the grandchildren their first ice cream. As parents, there are times some of us have realized after the fact. Apparently, there's a repent later theory instead of ask permission first on that one.
Of course, all of this is helped by the fact that Grandma Riding makes sure there's always a variety of ice cream in the freezer.

Location, Location, Location

I saw the lights of the fairgrounds as I was driving home from the store tonight. It reminded me that I love our location. We are close to things like the fairgrounds, freeways, downtown, the airport, and more...and yet, it feels like we're in a quiet tree lined neighborhood. Oh wait, we do live on a quiet tree lined street. We even have a park that's close by - but, not close enough to hear the noise or have people park in front of our house when there's a crowd. Nice. We like it.

An Extra Cookie

I just picked the boys up from seminary. They came out of the classroom with cookies. When they got in the van Jonny made a comment about them. He said that he'd asked if he could grab one for his mom. He then proceeded to say that as soon as the question was out of his mouth - the room went quiet. Needless to say, there was no cookie brought to me. He realized once he was embarrassed what the answer might be. Although, I'm guessing the teacher would have been fine with it if all of the students had already had one. I love that he was being thoughtful.

Reading and More Reading

I was sitting with the kids in our front room this morning. Jonny was reading to us. The idea came to me that this is so much better than rushing to get kids off to school and then not seeing them for the rest of the day. So grateful to be able to be together and work on some of the things they want to do. We're currently reading the Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis) because that's what they chose. I was glad about the choice. I have never read through them myself. (And I call myself a reader. Ha.)

The girls and I are trying to decide what we get to read together. We did some of the American Girl books earlier this year. We want to get back to them...but, would like to do something different in the meantime. We tried starting Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, but Rachel seemed to be a little nervous about that before we even finished the first chapter. (She is the one we see the most about nightmares - so, we're just not going to go there.) There are always more options. We're looking into The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett or Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery). Rachel still likes a few illustrations in her books - so, I got a couple different versions from the library of The Secret Garden - one is hard bound and illustrated by Tasha Tudor and the other is illustrated by Inga Moore and has a soft binding. Both beckon to be opened. Maybe we'll try that first because I just can't stand it. It is one I do remember reading when I was younger.