Footprints on the Fridge

Math Made Meaningful: Lesson Two

Here's a quick look at how the second Gnomes Math story will play itself out in our house.  We're already a few days into living these plans and are so grateful our gnome friends have made their way back into our homeschool. 

Gnomes and Numbers Lesson 2:

Week 1:

Monday: (Both)Read story and illustrate Old Dismas and yellow gnome in main lesson book.

Tuesday: (Both)Count out gem stones into baskets, placing one in the first basket, two in the second, up to twelve.  Taking one basket at a time, try to pair up the gems.  If the gems pair up, place the basket on the even numbers side of the table, if they do not, place the basket on the odd numbers side.  Label two facing main lesson book pages "odd' and "even", list the odd numbers and color the corresponding number of gem stones, then do the same with even.

Wednesday:(Both)Play card game described below.  Create a form drawing border for even and odd lesson book pages.

Thursday: (Brendan)Fill numbered egg tray with appropriate number of gem stones, using one color for even and another for odd.

                (Gabriel) Make patterns of numbers following guide given.  (For example, odd, odd, even....line up odd number of gems, odd number of gems, even number, repeat.)

Week 2:

Monday:(Both) Read story and narrate, place keyboarded version in main lesson book.

Tuesday: (Both) Play card game.  Create a form drawing border for narration in main lesson book.

Wednesday: Work together to collect acorns and leaves in back yard (or park).  Place correct number of each in labeled brown bags, putting acorns in even numbered bags and leaves in odd.

Thursday: (Both) Listen to One Odd Day and My Even Day read aloud.  Create illustrations on facing main lesson book pages.

Card Game:

Deal out cards evenly among players.  Players take turn laying down cards by suit.  The ace card for each suit must be played first in the middle of the table, then the odd numbers are played down one side of the seven and the even numbers down the other in ascending order (you can eliminate the face cards altogether or count them as eleven, twelve etc...).  The first player to play all his cards wins.

Forgive my fuzzy pics, the camera was set on some weird shutter speed and I didn't realize it.  As much as they love their gnomes, I couldn't convince the boys to restage math for the sake of quality photos. ; )

The Feast of All Saints: Tender Mercy for a Grieving Heart

Sigh....

It seems this won't be easy no matter how many times I've written the post in my head, no matter how appropriate the feast, no matter how much time passes.  There are just some things that won't be easy about this process.  This is one of them.

I have wanted more than anything to find a way to send a message to the great cloud of witnesses that have held us in prayer so faithfully that we are here, hanging on, hoping, praying, healing.  I did not want any of you who have so sincerely prayed, offered support, sent words of encouragement to think of me curled up in a ball somewhere in despair.  I hope my silence did not lead you to think that.  

It was not a silence of despair that you found here in these last eight weeks.  Eight weeks.  That's so hard to believe.  At first, it was the silence of a family whose world had stood still, for whom time and place were inadequate, insufficient and surreal.  Then it was the silence of a mother summoning all the energy and mental focus she had on healing the heart of her family, trying to keep her shaking knees up long enough to give little mouths and hearts all the nourishment they needed.  As the fog of the early weeks lifted, the silence became that of a mother searching out her voice, trying to remember how she used to pray, what she used to talk about, what she taught her kids, and to evaluate what was worth saying in light of the infinite reality in which she now finds herself immersed.  And then the silence of a family gone away, retreating to heal, remembering that there is still much to be joyful about on this side of heaven.  And then the awkward silence of a writer with so much to say and so few words of worth.  And so I start with sigh.  And then I sigh again.

What I wanted to share with you most in all these weeks is this.  We have endured two months of unutterable sorrow and incomprehensible grief.  We hurt, every day.  We have known pain, fear, worry, confusion, guilt, doubt, and horror beyond any I could have ever imagined.  But we have never once been far from the tender mercy of our God.  I have used the phrase over and over again, since I first spoke to Elizabeth in the early hours after Bryce's death--"Tender is His Mercy."  There is no way for me to recount the vast majority of those mercies here--they are far too many and far too intimate.  But there is one I will share.

In the immediate hours after we lost our dear baby, as we huddled in shock and grief, an army of believers from around the world gathered and prepared itself for battle.  Soldiers were set to task, some taking the lead, some handling the communication, some delivering supplies, and some on watch, the constant watch that prayer warriors stand so faithfully.  We got snippets of information about the work you all were doing, but an even better testament to the job you did was that we knew very little of it all.  We were whisked from one momentous mountain to the next on the wings of grace, and every obstacle had been so carefully moved from our path that we were often not even aware that there had been any in the first place.  As I sat near Bryce's burial spot this morning, I prayed for all of those whose efforts made those first incomprehensible days a time of healing, a time of grace, a flood of tender mercy.  As much horror as there is the memory of Bryce's death, there is a flood of consolation in the memories of the tender mercies that were poured out to us as we gave him to heaven.

And though most of you found yourselves stationed at your posts far away in those moments, I know you were united to us in prayer.  I know because I know the grace that flooded us and I know it was won for us, an abundant, generous supply of grace, that carries me still tonight.  And so it could make its way back to you, the Good Lord saw fit to mobilize one sweet soldier to stand by my side, exercising that special gift she has to find the beauty in all things. She snapped away in those two days, documenting for us the healing and hope our faith brings.  They are images I am eternally grateful to have.  They are tender mercies.  I have wanted to share them with you for a long time, but I have been unsure how.  Today, as I sat at that spot for the first time since we buried Bryce, I knew it was time.  The soldiers who never made their way to the front lines deserve to see the victory.  And so here it is.  Here we are.  We are today much as you see us here, wounded and broken, and yet full of love, full of life, full of hope--fellow soldiers still engaged in the battle.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

While I am grateful to have found my voice and finally been able to say some of what I have wanted to say, I cannot assure you of what the future will look like here in my little corner of the internet.  Most days I find I am still a bit of a stranger to myself.  But this blog was always first and foremost about a family.  It was a place for me to share the memories I wanted to keep.  It was a place for me to think out loud about my life, my God, and my mission--how I was going to get us all to heaven.  Those things are important to me now more than ever.  Some days you may come here and find me pensive and grieving, I won't be able to help that.  Some days, many days, you are likely to find me silent.  I hope you will understand.  And then there will be those days when you find me much as I once was, teaching math with sweet gnome friends and frosting cupcakes for a feast.  I welcome your kind words and encouragement and reminders of prayer, but am hoping you'll send them via the e-mail I've added here.  There's no way for me to know what each day will bring and comments seem an all too time-sensitive means to communication.  I hope that no matter what you will know that I have come back here because of you--because a grateful heart has beckoned me back, because a world that has confounded me so often with its ambiguity and potential for harm has proven that at the moment of truth, we who seek each other in this world for like-minded conversation and inspiration, are in fact, an army, capable of great things, capable of carrying one of our own, wounded, across the battle field to safety, and then waiting until she finds the strength to speak.  Today, I say utter a weak, quivering "thank you" that seems not enough, because you deserve to know that I can.

Math Made Meaningful This Year

I must tell you, I can't believe I'm writing a post about math.  I'm so not a math mind.  Like most homeschooling moms, it's the one aspect of learning I'd happily leave in someone else's hands.  That's the reason I'm such a fan of the quality programs at Teaching Textbooks.  It has been totally liberating for both Quinn and me for him to start each day with his Teaching Textbooks lesson at the computer--he loves the style of teaching and learning, has never run into a problem he cannot learn after following the process the program lays out, and I do not have to stress over trying to figure out how to explain processes that quite frankly intimidate me as much as they do him.  I am so glad to say that for math this year, he'll work his way through Teaching Textbooks 6--and there's nothing left to explain.  Whew!  Thank goodness!

On the other hand, one of the advantages to homeschooling is to ensure that my children don't have the same experiences with learning as I did in school.  I don't want them to think that math is the one part of the day that we must struggle, suffer, butt heads and be frustrated.  I want to introduce them to the world of numbers in a way that is interesting, inviting, familiar, and fun.  That is what appeals to me about Waldorf math stories.  I really want my boys to be introduced to the mathematical world in this wonderfully creative, gentle way.  I have been enamored with Katherine's Gnomes and Gnumbers tale since she first began posting it at Serendipity.  I keep hoping the timing will be right for her to finish it one day, but in the meantime, my Gabriel, who is eight, is approaching the end of his introductory years in math and if I'm going to do this with him, the time is now.  In addition, Brendan, who is six, is beginning his formal learning adventure this year and this is the perfect introduction for him.  So I will begin my year using the six lessons Katherine has already laid out for the first semester.  Both boys will hear the stories and do some of the activities together, and then each will complete age appropriate hands-on work, main lesson book pages, and Kumon workbook pages for reinforcement.  Next semester, I'll work on writing some stories of our own to introduce the processes of multiplication and division and work with the same rhythm we set this semester.

Here is a sample of the plans for studying Lesson 1 for three weeks of math instruction:

Week 1:

Monday: (Both)Play the gem trading game.

Tuesday:  (Both)Listen to story 1, re-enact it, draw the gnomes in main lesson book.

Wednesday: (Brendan) Work on counting out gems up to 20.  Practice recognizing numbers 1-20 by counting out piles of gemstones that are given him and matching them to the correct number written on card stock and laminated.  Begin modeling numbers 1-20 out of Crayola Model Magic.

(Gabriel) Work on counting to 100 by placing gems on hundreds board, counting aloud as he goes.  Practice number recognition by making the number I call out of card stock number card (example: I say "72", he finds a seven card and a two card and lines them up side by side to make the number).  Reverse the process by letting him make a number and call it out to me.  Begin main lesson book activity of writing numbers 1-100 in the fashion suggested in the lesson.

Thursday (Brendan):  Do dot to dot activities with numbers up to twenty.  Play guessing game:  Have him pour out what he thinks is twenty beans from a large jar into a tray.  Then have him count them out and add or take away as needed.  Finish modeling numbers.

(Gabriel): Do dot to dot activities with numbers up to 100.  Play guessing game with 100 instead of 20.  Complete main lesson book page. 

(Both) Listen to Turtle Splash: Countdown at the Pond and The M and M Counting Book.  

Week 2:

Monday: (Both) Gem Trading Game

Tuesday: (Both) Listen to story (acting out breaking of the stick as we read), re-enact it with gnomes and sticks, draw Old Dismas in main lesson book.

Wednesday: (Both) Make roman numerals 1-12 out of toothpicks.  Place correct number of gems next to numeral. Match modeled numbers to roman numerals.  Begin main lesson book page writing numbers 1-12 in a row, followed by roman numeral, followed by correct quantity of gem stones.

Thursday (Both): Complete assigned pages in Kumon numbers workbooks, finish main lesson book page. Listen to Anno's Counting Book and One Beautiful Baby read aloud.  Draw a baby in main lesson book page and label from the story.  

Week 3:

Monday (Both): Gem Trading Game

 Tuesday: (Both) Listen to story, re-enact, narrate story and place keyboarded version in main lesson book, decorate page.

Wednesday: (Both) Play hopscoth with roman numerals in the boxes.  Count out loud as they go.  Practice counting to 100 out loud, taking turns saying the next number.  Complete form drawing for main lesson book.

Thursday: (Both) Work in Kumon workbooks.  Listen to Roman Numerals I to MM  and One Hundred is a Family read aloud.   Narrate and illustrate for main lesson book.

We will follow a similar rhythm for the other lessons, alternating the story and main lesson book work with hands-on learning, play, and math-themed picture books.  We'll post our plans for those lessons in the weeks ahead. If you're considering using Gnomes and Gnumbers this year and have thoughts, ideas, or questions to share, please consider leaving us a note in the comments for Lesson One over at Serendipity.  I'll meet you there! 

Oh Blessed Day

Bryce Philip

welcomed into the church on

July 26, 2009

  on the feast of Sts. Anne and Joachim

anointed with the oil of salvation

 washed cleaned in the waters of baptism

and enkindled with the Light of Christ

  in the joyful company of his parents

godparents

 grandparents

and the merry band of brothers

  who watched attentively

and served joyfully

  as we welcomed you joyfully into

the richness of our faith!

God Bless You, Bryce Philip!

  Good St. Anne, pray for us!

Heralding the Faith This Year

  I am in the final phases of putting our school plan together for the upcoming year.  I hope to share as many of them here as I can for the sake of organization and record-keeping and because, let's face it, we like to talk plans, don't we?

We'll continue to hinge our day on prayer--marking our starting point, important transitions and evening with family prayer.  Before breakfast, we join in offering our day to God and our Blessed Mother in our Morning Offering.  Before lunch, we stop to pray the Angelus.  At the 3 o'clock hour we quiet ourselves in personal prayer and in the evening, we come together for family prayer.  I have not been as good about getting the boys to settle in for quiet prayer in the afternoons, so I will put my efforts toward better forming that habit this year.   In addition, I'd like to work toward getting to Mass or Holy Hour at least once a week with the children. 

Our faith plans this year were a bit more open as I do not have a First Communicant to prepare.  It was the perfect year to undertake a family study of the Mass and what we find in our church.  In addition to this study, we'll continue with our plans for the Year for Priests.  We'll continue to live the liturgy and this year focus on commemorating those saints who served the church as priests.  Without really meaning to, we've ended up reading through a different collection of saint's stories each year.  This year, we've added the Loyola Kids Books to our collection and use them to learn about our saintly friends on their feasts and other special days.  In addition, we'll encourage personal growth through our mantle's monthly messages and weekly tea times to discuss the virtue we're focusing on.  In conjunction with our virtue study, we'll strive to memorize a coordinating beatitude each month.

  We'll undertake a study of the Mass that includes understanding each part of the Mass and what we do and say during that section as well as learning the prayers of the Mass and several traditional hyms in both English and Latin.  Copywork, dictation, and recitation will be our process for this undertaking.  Here is the breakdown for our monthly learning:

August: The Entrance Prayers and Penitential Rite
September: Gloria
October: The Liturgy of the Word
November: Tantum Ergo and Panis Angelicus
Advent Break
January: the Creed
February: Offertory
March: Prayers of the Consecration
April: Prayers in Preparation for and After Communion
May: Closing Prayers /Hymns: Ave Maria and Adoro Te Devote

In addition to these plans, each week, we'll head to church to spend some time before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and to learn about the things we find in our church.  Here are what we'll focus on each month:

August: Church architecture (nave, crossing, vestibule, sanctuary,etc...)
September: Sacred items (crucifix, baptismal font, holy water fonts, paschal candle, pulpit, etc....)
October: Christ present (tabernacle, sanctuary light, altar, etc...)
November: mini-unit on stained glass
Advent Break
January: mini-unit on priest's vestments (from Ruth and we'll introduce our own version of Jen's Fr. Oak )
February: mini-unit on altar linens and sacred vessels (using the presentations in the mini Mass kit) 
March and April: break for Lent and Easter and to focus on learning about the Consecration and Eucharistic prayers
May: A tour of our priestly heritage (I had a great uncle who was a well-known and well-respected priest in the diocese in which we now live--which is not where I grew up--I have contacted the diocesan archives to get a list of the parishes in which he served--we'll visit as many as we can this month, and use what we have learned throughout the year to take a close look at these churches)

Resources for our study:

• Maria Montessori's The Mass Explained to Children
• Patmos' A Child's Missal (hard to find)
• An Illustrated Catechism
• The Mass Book for Children
• A is for Altar, B is for Bible
• The Weight of the Mass
• Jesus With Us: The Gift of the Eucharist
• A Handshake from Heaven
• Understanding the Latin Mass

Our liturgical plans are all pretty much repeats of our own traditions, or ideas borrowed from elsewhere in the blogosphere.  I'll share these in more detail as we live them.  You'll also see our monthly mantle messages and virtue teas as they are lived and celebrated.

I am always excited and yet slightly burdened by the awesome responsibility God has bestowed on us as the first heralds of our faith to these young souls.  I pray that the Holy Spirit has guided my choices for this year and that He will inspire us daily as we seek to grow in Holiness and walk in His way.  I'll be praying this prayer from my Mother's Manual often, I think:

Most loving Jesus, I realize motherhood is a sacred trust.  Let me not be neglecftful of my duty.  I know that proper religious education is of supreme importance and that, compared to it, all other learning is of little worth.  I appreciate, too, that it is a serious and grave obligation for a Christian motherto strive generously and perseveringly to obtain a good religious education for her children.

Let me not be too selfish to make the necessary sacrifices.  Rather let me generously and bravely strive to obtain for them the religious education which education you desire.  May I always remember that I shall have to give an account to you for every soul trusted to me ; and, remembering this, may I generously fulfill that most important duty of any mother--to afford the proper spiritual instruction for her child.

Heart of Jesus, fountain of all Knowledge...Have mercy on us!

 

Welcome to July

 

The Mantle This Month

 

And That's Only the First Paragraph

I have vowed to get my prayer routine back in order this summer.  It is one of the few things I can do with my arms full of precious baby.  And then the ladies at 4real offered the opportunity to prepare together to re-consecrate ourselves to Our Blessed Mother in August.  In order to get going in that direction, I am promising myself to finally read a b ook that has been sitting in my prayer basket for far too long: Humility of Heart by Fr. Cajetan Mary de Bergamo.  (No linking possible...not on my own computer!) 

It's been four days and I still can't get past the first paragraph.  There's enough there to provide thought for a long, long time:

"In Paradise there are many saints who never game alms on earth: their poverty justified them.  There are many Saints who never mortified their bodies by fasting or wearing hair shirts: their bodily infirmities excused them.  There are many Saints too who were not virgins: their vocation was otherwise.  But in Paradise, there is no Saint who was not humble."

I hope I can share some more of the gems this volume has to offer throughout the summer.

The Year for Priests: A Plan

Pope Benedict XVI has declared this year, beginning on the recently celebrated Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Year for Priests.  He is encouraging priests to renew their life of prayer and service and encouraging the lay faithful tp pray for and support their priests.  In a family with six boys to date, we do our best to encourage and pray for vocations to the priesthood.  We also make an effort to befriend our local priests and give our boys the chance to know the good and holy men that serve them beyond their presiding at Sunday Mass.  We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to pray for our priests this year. 

In order to make sure our enthusiasm doesn't wane and to send a message of support to our priests, we are going to spend the year making spiritual bouquets for our priests.  I have set up the area next to our mantle as the space dedicated to the Year for Priests.

 

Our statue of Our Lady of Fatima and the reminder to pray stand next to our old Liturgical Tree which we have repurposed for this special time to pray for priests.  It is our spiritual bouquet.  The plaque in front contains the name of the priest we began praying for on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  We will add a new name each month as we assemble our spiritual bouquets. 

Under the cake dome are four small glass cups containing different colored hearts and leaves.  Each represents something for our spiritual bouquet.  We'll add leaves to the tree each time we offer a special prayer for our priests.  Blue flowers are for rosaries or chaplets prayed.  Yellow flowers are for fasts and sacrifices offered for our priests.  And pink flowers are for Masses and holy hours. 

 

I had ordered a lovely little statue of the Cure of Ars, patron of the Year for Priests, which stood in front of the dome.  But the first time a toddler climbed up proudly to get a leaf to add to the tree, our poor little statue suffered a devastating accident.  I am in the process of Mod-Podging a much more toddler friendly plaque with an image of the Cure. 

At the end of each month of prayer, we'll photograph the tree (which will hopefully be much more full than it is here just a few days after the year's inception), print it out on card stock and send a note to the priest we have prayed for over the month.  If he is a local priest, we will invite him to our home for dinner as well. 

The boys are so excited and have begged to pray rosaries or go to the Adoration Chapel so that they could add flowers to the tree.  I hope the fact that we will see it full every month and then empty again will motivate us to continue to pray fervently throguhout this year for the holy men who lay down their lives to serve us.

She Should Know

Don't miss this piece from Suzanne Temple on homeschooling boys.  It's so true to my experience, and she says it so well.   

Happy 11th Birthday Quinn, Finally!

 

Happy birthday to you, my first born little man.  We knew from the start that your natural wit, wisdom and desire to please would make you a great leader.  We couldn't have envisioned then the mighty band of brothers that would follow in your footsteps or the amazing big brother you would become.  We are ever amazed as you welcome each new baby with your loving heart and willingness to serve.  God knew you were designed to be a great leader, and He gave you your very own band of merry little men to guide--we are so grateful for the great maturity with which you've heeded His call.  Happiesy of days, of summers, of years, of lifetimes to you, my darling first born son.

These photos are of Quinn opening a very special birthday gift.  He just loves the Ranger's Apprentice series of books that were first recommended by  an Aussie friend at 4real.  Because the author is Australian, the books are released there well before they are released here.  There are eight books in the series and all of them are available in Australia.  Here in the States, five are available and the 6th is due out in August.    But with the help of an extremely generous Aussie friend (with a lovely new blog look), we were able to purchase those three volumes there and have them shipped here in time for an amazing birthday surprise.

  

As you can see by the look on his face here, Quinn was surprised and thrilled with such a gift.  And he deserves every bit of that joy!  I was just as thrilled to be able to make it happen.   Anne, we cannot thank you enough for making this possible for our boy on his birthday!

P.S.--I have been trying to publish this post since early yesterday, but typepad kept freezing my computer--a little late but better than never!