Rebuilding Jerusalem, African Tribes, USA Flag, Eggs, and Babies

William:

We finished going through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and talked about the rebuilding of the temple and walls in Jerusalem after some of Judah returned from being taken into captivity by the Babylonians. The Medes and Persians took over the Babylonians, and they allowed the Jews to return to their land. Now, we're in the book of Esther. William has learned about Esther before in sabbath school. Oh! I was pleased that when the Persian king Darius was mentioned in Ezra or Nehemiah (he's mentioned in both, but he only commented once), Will said, "I learned about Darius in sabbath school!" Yes, he would have learned about Darius when he learned about Daniel being thrown in the lion's den. That would have quite some time ago. I've read stories to him about Daniel, too, but it's been a long time. I told him it would be a while yet before we made it to Daniel.

We continued working on phonics and reading, using Rocket Readers and Complete Curriculum for Grade 1, also reviewing phonics flash cards sometimes. He works on his writing, too. We haven't done Explode the Code in awhile, so I think I'll take that book out this week.

In Our Christian Heritage, we went over the United States flag. He's always loved the US flag. Now he knows more about it, like how many stars and stripes are on it, what they mean, and how many stars were on the original flag and why. He also learned what the colors mean and learned about the pledge of allegiance.

I'm always telling William not to act like a heathen (my mom would tell us that when we were little, too). One of the things he does is constantly take off his shirt and toss it somewhere in the floor. He'll come to the table to eat a meal without a shirt. I'll tell him to go get his shirt on, that he's acting like a heathen. Well, I've told him about how there are still some hardcore heathen tribes in the world, especially in Africa, and I've told him about some of the things they do. I'd been telling him for awhile that I was going to find some videos on Youtube to show him so that he could see the same stuff I watched on PBS while growing up. Well, a few days ago, he was flipping through this comic book thing--The Far Side. I've had it forever. Don't much care for it. But, anyway, he brought it to me and asked about a certain picture. It showed some civilized characters with smiley face heads and cameras around their neck, coming out of a jungle. They were obviously exploring and taking photographs. Well, right there outside of the jungle was a heathen tribe, ragged skirt things, no shirts, bone necklaces, huts, and there were sticks stuck in the ground with smiley face heads stuck on them. I explained quickly to Will what it was all about, and I said, "See? Isn't that what I've been telling you--that heathens go around with no shirts?" So, then the next morning, I finally did show him some videos, much to his delight. Well, he sat beside me rather dumbfounded. I asked him whether he hadn't believed what I'd been saying for so long, and he said he hadn't. I guess he thought I was joking.

Anyway, he learned about the Ethiopian Mursi tribe, whose women wear lip dishes, and some of them had stretched ear lopes, too, like maybe they wore ear dishes. They wear raggy clothes, those who DO wear clothes, and the men fight with sticks. No one had any upper clothing, and many of the males--adult and child--were completely naked! He also learned about the Dinka tribe. It seemed much more civilized than the Mursi tribe, but they used cattle urine to wash their dishes and hands (it showed the Nile river, so ther was water available). They also like to burn cattle dung for fragrance and for insect repellant. Well, I must say that at least it's cattle dung and not some unclean animal. They do have the best-smelling of all animals I know, but I thought it kind of odd to deliberately burn it for the fragrance. I have yet to tell William about Ezekiel having to bake his bread over cow dung. I think I'll save that for when we get there. Anyway, they translated what a Dinka tribe male member was saying as he stood by the Nile river. He said something like, "Oh, Nile of our fathers, I have no offering for you, but thank you for...this, this, and this." I can't remember what exactly. But, that gave a great opportunity for me to explain to William a real example of someone talking to the creation as if it is God. The Creator God is the God of OUR fathers, I explained. I reminded him that He is the true God who created all things, including the nile river, and He is the one we are to thank for our blessings.

We read his newest issue of Your Big Backyard magazine. One of the main focuses of the March issue was eggs. We talked about different animals' eggs and their similarities and differences: amphibian eggs, fish eggs, bird eggs, reptile eggs, and insect eggs; land eggs and water eggs. We also discussed sandhill cranes and cheetahs, and the song of the month was "Little Sandhill Crane," sung to the tune of "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" Very cute. We always love the songs. I think we'll do the food project this time, too. Sometimes I do, sometimes not. It will be a fried egg with the yolk showing in the middle, and then strips of toast situated around it to look like the sun. He always loves when I make fun food for him. Maybe if I did it more, including Trusten, maybe I could get Trusten to eat more.

I'm pregnant with another blessing, so William said, "Momma, did you know that God has nothing but eggs in the sky, and he puts them in us and then a baby is born?" Of course, this was after the talk about the animal eggs, too. So, we're going back over human and mammalian reproduction. He watched a birth video this morning. He totally forgot about watching them with me way back in the day. He says he doesn't even remember Trusten's birth (less than 2 years ago) now. Well, we FINALLY got to see my video of labor with William. I had the 8mm video converted to dvd a couple months ago, but it wouldn't work on the computer. Nathan just bought another tv. He wants to have a nice big screen to do some workout videos that he bought. Anyway, I got the video to work on there. It doesn't show the actual birth, but I'm glad I got to show William what I went through to get him here. Anyway, later today I will refresh him on the reproductive system and how babies grow in the womb, etc. He's totally forgot things.

Let's see. What else? We've done a little math. He's catching on to that better.

We go over new things every day, but I just can't remember it all to include here (nor would I have time to record it all). Oh, yeah, we finished his social skills book. So, we'll start on the other book for that.

Trusten:

I'm sure Trusten will probably be completely potty-trained (day, anyway) by his second birthday (in May). He's doing pretty well...still a ways to go, though.

ddd

I get extremely aggravated with Blogger's bold feature. It doesn't work properly, and I have trouble with it all the time. So, sorry about the above d's. I don't have time for that. Anyway, Trusten actually sat through his ENTIRE "Wild Animal Babies" (don't like that Blogger doesn't have underline, either) magazine a few days ago. YAY!!!!! I had to go semi-quickly, though. He loses interest in things so quickly.

He loves light. "Light, light!" He's always wanting to see some lights on. I don't use artificial lighting inside the house during the day, unless it's dark and cloudy. I love lots of windows that let in a lot of sunlight. I explained to him that we have the wonderful sunlight outside. I showed him the light on the living room carpet and the shadows. He pointed to his shadow and said, "Boy!" :-)

It's a nightmare getting his teeth brushed. We let him brush himself, but he doesn't do them efficiently yet. So, I usually am the one to do it. Sometimes we both do it. One of us holds him and the other brushes. He's very strong and very determined. It's really an effort to get that job finished. I never look forward to it.

Of course, he doesn't like his hair brushed, either. Well, there's not a whole lot that is easy with him, actually. LOL He certainly keeps me busy. I'm tired sometimes now, though, being pregnant. Thankfully, I haven't had much nausea. I hope I can keep my energy levels up and avoid nausea. Then, I'll be okay to deal with Trusten and continue to gain weight. (I've had a fat deficiency problem--not just fat in general, but mainly Omega 3s, as I require a very high intake to get my neurological system to work appropriately, and I've also, as a side effect, lost too much weight, so I'm working hard to gain.)

Myself:
Well, yesterday (Sunday), I left the boys with Nathan and got to spend some time alone. I went to the forest and sat atop a cliff and looked over the mountains. I was able to pray and think in peace. I also was able to sit at a picnic table and write and also read a few pages in the book I've been reading (I'm almost finished!), and then I went and bought a laptop computer with some money that Nathan gave to me. I've wanted a laptop for years, but I kept talking myself out of it (Nathan has told me he'd get one, but I've said, "Oh, I can do without.") When we bought a new computer, we bought another desktop (an Apple Imac). A laptop (I didn't request bold, see what I mean?) would enable me to write outside, but I've told myself I'd spend too much time on the computer while outside, BUT I decided that I won't. I don't think I'll even be tempted. I'm just going to use it for the days I get to leave and spend time alone. I didn't get a really expensive one, the second least expensive. I didn't need anything fancy. It does have a built-in wireless card, but I won't need the service on it. I can access the Internet with my iPhone. I just hope they make available an application that I can download so that I can tether my iphone to the computer and be able to access it on the bigger browser. Some people do it now by "jailbreaking" their iphone, but I looked into that, and Apple said that it's a copyright infringement, so I will NOT be doing that. I'll just make do with it as it is for now.

Well, I can't think of much noteworthy to discuss right now about what Nathan and I have been learning. By the time I'm finished writing about William, I usually don't have time for anything else. It's hard enough to even be able to write that much and watch the kids, too. So, ta-ta for now.