Thursday, May 05, 2005

Weekly Ramblings

It is Thursday and another one of our 'weeks' is over. Beyond driving back and forth the 10 miles to MB's preschool we have been playing and I hope learning.

The week has been filled with Teacherettes, short little teaching moments that you have to reach out and grab that instant because otherwise they will be off running on another tangent. Our attention span has been a little off this week :).

K has really been into naming colors and counting things. She and I have had a lot of fun building with bloacks and playing silly games while MB is at school or outside playing.

Math has come and gone in little spurts all week. For a little while she will pull out one of her math workbooks and spend time in it. Other times she and I will go back and forth asking each other simple addition problems.

Reading aloud has been a constant. She is reading a lot out of the Dick and Jane collection that I have and is reading the stories in progression of difficulty. We are also just about finished with On The Banks of Plum Creek.

Science - The caterpillar we caught earlier this week is in the progress of making his coccon. It truly is amazing to watch and much slower than I imagined for some reason. We have spent a lot of time observing him.

Faith - we have continued our discussion about the soul. Today I took one of the more realistic baby dolls that she and K have and asked her to compare the baby doll to little EM. Then we talked about how even though the doll really looked like little EM it wasn't. And then I had her pretend that the baby doll had a heart and lungs, muscles, skin (the basic biology of a human) and asked her if it would be little EM. Little EM is little EM because of her soul. It is what makes us different, it is what makes us human. It is our personality. Then we talked about personalities and how we can use personality traits for good or bad things.

MB has also brought up being a servant recently. Earlier this week while we were over at a neighbor's house we overhead the mother tell her son when he shoved a piece of paper in her hand and told her to throw it away that she was not his servant and he could do it himself. This started a discussion between MB and I about the difference between a servant like in fairy tales and a christian servant.

This exchange also struck a chord with me because I wondered how many times I have been guilty myself of degrading the word servant with MB by making the same remarks. If I say this to MB (which unfortunately I have in the past) I am telling her that being a servant is a bad thing. That I don't want to be a servant. But I am a servant, I am called to be a servant to not only her but everyone else. Being a servant is a wonderful thing.

Now, I believe that my children should not be able to run over me with demands. They also should learn to clean up after themselves. And they also need to learn how to be a servant to others.


In bible study today we talked about moderation in all things. I really got to thinking about beyond the general concrete food, money, alcohol, tv, computer, etc. that we often think about when moderation is discussed. I thought about my spiritual gifts an how if I get out of whack using them I can set myself up for a trap there. For example, I am an introvert, generally thought of a personality type, but I also look at it as a gift. The Lord has given me gift to think through things, weigh options before I 'leap' and so on. But if I become introverted to the extreme and spend all my time saying I need to be alone, I have to think, then I am not longer truly participating in the world and using my gift as it was intended. I have become caught up in the gift and not how I can use the gift for others.

Another example would be to become caught up in say planning a worship event. A wonderful event, and worthy event. But I become so focused on the event itself that everything else in my life takes a backseat or becomes a mere interruption. I believe at that point I am focused on that event to an extreme and no longer in moderation. I have forgotten the true reason for it, but instead am totally focused on the details.

That discussion today was an eye-opener today for some reason. I am sure I have probably heard it all before, but it stuck today.

So those are my ramblings about the last three days.

Peace to all,

Amy

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A family of six living and learning. You might catch us outside in the mud or working on crafts. We always seem to be on the go, come on and join us.