Miss Twiggley's Tree

 

Miss Twiggley's Treet by Dorthea Warren Fox was a new book for our family to read it and we really loved it!  It is a wonderful story of a shy woman who lives in a tree alone with her dog.  When a hurricane comes to her town she invites everyone to come stay in her home to stay safe, even those people who were not always kind to her.  It was such a sweet story and there were lots of good lessons to learn in the book.

 

We continued learning about Hurricanes and all sorts of weather emergencies reading some extra books including Hurricanes by Gail Gibbons (which they recommended in Memoria Press's Enrichment guide),  Exploring Weather, Hurricanes! and Rain and Lightning. 

 

 

 

Since we were discussing weather we used this opportunity to discuss our weather plans in our home.  We talked about what to do in a fire or tornado (the most common weather concerns in our area of the country) and discussed our fire escape route.  We used our kids 911 Emergency Phone to practice calling 911, telling them our address (our 6 and 4 year old already knew their address, but our 3 year old memorized it this week), and what the problem is.  We played around with lots of different scenarios and they had a lot of fun. 

 

We also did a tornado drill and discussed where in our house we would go.  Ironically for September we then had a tornado warning this week.  When the city sirens went off our kids were SO EXCITED that they had practiced and knew exactly where to go. 

 

Next, we made a Hurricane or Tornado in a Bottle!  All you have to do is get two 1 or 2 liter bottles and a Tornado Tube.  Fill one bottle up with water, hook it all up, give it a shake and you are good to go!  We all had so much fun and have probably played with it over 100 times this week.  We also played with our lighting light and discussed how lighting works.

 

In the book Miss Twiggley did a good deed to let others come to her house during a time of need even when they were not always nice to her.  The poem that we read this week followed the same theme called "The Golden Rule" in A Child's Book of Poems.  We also read the bible verse Matthew 7:12 which says: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you".

Finally, we studied the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major 3 by Bach and the Tree of Life window panel by Louis Tiffany.  It was great to have the children learn that art comes in many different forms.  After studying this image of the stained glass window this week our son exclaimed during daily mass "Mom, look the windows at church are all art!" 

Remembering 9/11 - 15 years

 

I remember the morning of 9/11/2001 like it was yesterday.  I was my Senior year of high school and I was on a field trip downtown with my class when the reports of the first tower being hit were given.  We went back to school and we all waited...waited to hear what was happening.  To make things significantly more terrifying, my father was flying that morning for a business trip.  I do not even remember where he was supposed to be going.  All I remember was getting a phone call in my band class from my mom.  She told me that my dad was ok, and that his flight was directed to Denver, Colorado to land.  Once he got safely to Denver there were no cars to rent so my mom drove the 8 hours from Nebraska to go pick him up and bring him home.  At that time we had no idea about the extent of the attacks and we all wanted to be home together as a family.

 

Years later, when my husband and I were able to take a trip away to New York City we were able to visit the 9/11 Memorial.  It was incredibly powerful to walk in the place of such a terrible event in the history of our country and to really let it sink in the severity of that day, and of this war.  Today and always I hope that we remember all of those who lost their lives on that terrible day.  I pray for their families and for all of the families and people who continue to protect our country today.  As it says at the Memorial "No Day Shall Erase You from the Memory of Time" - Virgil

 

 

As our children are growing up and very interested in history, especially war history they start asking more and more questions about the attacks of September 11th.  This is the first year that we really started explaining the severity of the events to our 6 1/2 year old.  We read the book The Little Chapel that Stood, which is a "Beautifully illustrated book tells of the historic chapel less than 100 yards from the Twin Towers that miraculously survived on 9-11. Firemen hung their shoes on the fence and raced to help the people in the towers: Oh what gallant men did we lose/Who never came back to get their shoes. The story of terror overcome by courage and bravery that teaches us no one is too small to make a difference."

 

We also read September 11th, 2001 and America is Under Attack:  The Day the Towers Fell.  These provided a good introduction and place to begin discussions on this important day in history.  As we remember the 15th anniversary of this day may we come together as a country to remember all of the men and women who lost their lives on this terrible day and continue to pray for their families and loved ones.

St Peter Claver

We celebrate the feast day of St. Peter Claver on September 9th.  He was born in Spain in 1580 and then traveled to Cartagena (modern Columbia) in 1610.  He became a Jesuit Priest and dedicated his entire life to the abolition of slave trade.  We love the book Peter Claver, Patron Saint of Slaves which beautifully shows the life of this wonderful man!

 

St. Peter Claver, pray for us!

A House is a House for Me

This week we had another great week with Memoria Press's Enrichment books and activities.  The core book was A House is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman.  It is a wonderful story to teach us all how homes look different for all of the different people and animals.  To further learn about homes we also read about Why oh Why are Deserts Dry? and also How a House is Built by Gail Gibbons. 

 

 

I have also learned that when we are learning about a certain topic and theme that I can quickly pull together other things that follow as well!  Knowing that we were learning about houses this week, although it was not suggested by Memoria Press's book we watched Bob the Builder: Houses and Playgrounds (which is free on Amazon Prime).  We also had lots of fun building our own houses and buildings with our Magna Tiles and blocks!

After reading the book and answering the discussion questions together the next thing that we did this week was going on a nature hike.  It was so much fun to walk around and find all of the different "houses" for the birds, bugs, fish, worms, etc!  They loved taking a picture of each "house" that they found!

This week we studied the painting View of Paris from Montmarte by Raoul Dufy.  Studying this painting brought up a great discussion of how houses look different in different parts of the world and also how houses have changed over time.

We learned about the song "Movement 4: How lovely is thy Dwelling Place" by Johannes Brahms.  We are really loving our new exposure to classical music and enjoy listening to it while we are doing other school work as well.  This week we also learned how Brahms is also a part of "The Three B's" - the trio of genius composers including Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.  I quizzed them to see if they could hum me the tune of songs from Bach and Beethoven and even our 3 year old started singing Beethoven's 5th symphony all on his own!

We finished reading the poem "How They Sleep" in A Child's Book of Poems.  This was such a cute little poem about where different animals live and how they sleep!  We were able to also talk about how each of us even sleep in different positions and like different things with us while we sleep.  Another fun week of learning!

Happy Birthday Mother Mary!

Our children have come to know that September 8th, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin means that we have cake!  I love these little traditions that we are creating within our domestic church and hope that when our children are all grown that memories of these special feast days remain dear to them.  Sometimes the most simple celebrations are the best.  Our day consisted of cuddles on the couch reading sweet stories of Mary, singing Mary "Happy Birthday" and enjoying an afternoon snack of cake!