A love of learning

Well, learning is going on at the Maglinger house.  My house is a wreck almost always.  We eat basically whatever we can get our kids to swallow without much of a fight.  Instead of fall table decorations on my dining room table, I have lesson plans and stray crayons.  The music in my car is about the Middle Ages.  I'm still not wearing jean skirts, and my van is still a mini van rather than  15 passenger van with decals of my 8 children and 4 dogs.  But, I'm a homeschooling mom. 

And we are learning!  We learn all kinds of stuff and learning is fun.  We learn our timeline and love dancing along.  Here we are with our Egyptian eyes because it is way more fun to sing about Egyptians when you look like one.

 

Hope still hates basically everything that has to do with putting a pencil to a paper of any sort.  All worksheet type things instantly bring weeping and gnashing of teeth.  But, (much like myself I believe) if it is her idea, then she will go for it 100%.  During her quiet time (naps have gone like the wind), Hope often has some of her most creative moments.  Last week, she decided to teach herself a song on the tin whistle.  Most of the time, she does art.  But this particular day, she decided to become an author. 

I was lying on the couch trying to sleep a bit while Will was sleeping (because I can't even remember what it was like to sleep at night.... please pray for Hope's night time sleep) but she kept asking me how to spell words.  After I realized what was going on, I grabbed the camera because...well what if she is one day a famous author.  We have to have photos of her first writing!

I saved her first writing but there were many this day.  Once the ideas start flowing, you just have to get them on paper, right?

So, in case you cannot make out the letters: "Once upon a time there was a fairy.  Then there was a big splash from the princess.  Then she was in the city.  The End"

She is also learning to paint pumpkins.  Our pumpkin was a globe.  Dad was happy to help.  Dad loves globes.  Hope is learning a lot of geography.  Can you find the Ural Mountains?  The Danube River?  The city of Orleans? The Adriatic Sea? The Balkan Peninsula? Me either until the past few weeks.  Now I can sing you a song about it and I bet I could teach you to find all these in just a few minutes.  Geography and Math are probably Hope's best subjects right now.  Until we started school, I would have thought she'd be the history/language arts type.  She'll still tell you that art is her favorite subject.

Will is learning, too.  He's learning to blow out candles! (more birthday moments later) Can you see that I'm learning to let it all go and just celebrate their birthdays together?  Hope had Little Mermaid, Will had Cars.  I love home made stuff/cakes at birthdays, but hey- when you can't seem to find the time to make an Ariel cake, head to Walmart.  They will make you a sweet little cake that looks just like you could imagine for only $6.

And Will is learning to ride his tricycle!  Woody tells me that he still finds pedaling to be inefficient when he could just scoot his feet along and go much faster.

Oh, and if you need a Christmas gift idea: Dude could use his own helmet.  "No like it Princess Helmet!"  And I promise to get him a haircut.  Bless his heart, it just grows so fast and he hates all things related to grooming of any type.  Let's just call it the southern shag for now!