Stories

Last week our homeschooling was very relaxed.  Jace has started learning cursive, which he's excited about until he actually has to practice, and I was just beat.  So, we talked about stories. 

We sent out questions to our families back when we did our family unit study.  We went over those, talked about the things Grandmas and Grandpas and Aunts and Uncles shared with us.  The kids enjoyed the connection to the family they don't see much.  Thankfully they're getting some visitors over the next few months and can't wait to see everyone who will be stopping by.

We also learned about the origins of Valentine's Day.  I don't remember ever hearing the story and I think it's quite appropriate that St. Valentine have a holiday all about love named after him.  Apparently, before he died and it was decided that he would be a saint, he was a priest.  He lived during a time of war and the ruler of his country declared that young men were not allowed to marry.  Young married men didn't make the best soldiers and he wanted them focused on fighting not on family left behind.  Valentine secretly kept performing marriages for those that wanted to unite with their loves.  When this was discovered, he was sent to prison.  The jailer's daughter visited him often and they fell in love.  He wrote her letters and, as the story goes, he signed them, "With love, from your Valentine."  Fast forward to today - smother your loves with cards, chocolate and flowers! 

We created several stories too, using Mad Libs and just on our own.  We spent time at the mall, drinking chai and people watching.  Then we told stories about the lives of the people we saw.  This was an interesting activity for me to watch the kids do.  Gracie was very excited and had lots of ideas about what people might be doing at the mall, what they might do when they're not at the mall, who they could be on the phone with.  Jace was not as excited and answered my prompts with very realistic sound bites.  "Shopping."  "Work."  "His wife."  Granted he was probably right, but Gracie's answers were much more dramatic!  "Maybe he's going shopping to find a present for his girl friend because it was just Valentine's Day and now everything is on sale and he's looking for a really cute dress to buy her and he's on the phone with her best friend to find out what style she wants.  Because, Mama, there are lots of dresses that are cute.  She could like sparkly or pink or ruffles or all three - like me!"  Such different children!

We played lots of new made-up games too.  Like the noun game that Jace made up, that turned into the adjective game.  He thought of coming up with as many nouns as we could related to a subject (like vehicles or horses) and we decided that it would be easier to come up with adjectives...so we did.  We also read and recited nursery rhymes and told about our favorite cartoons, books, or songs. 

Jace also suggested, at dinner one night, that we go around the table and say a reason why we liked each person.  When it was Jace's turn to say something he liked about me he stumbled a little.  "Hmmm.  Let me think about this one."  Then after he hemmed and hawed for a little he said, "Well, I can't come up with anything else so I guess I'll use this: I like you because I wouldn't be here without you."  He's such a pip squeak!  I'm glad he understands my role in his existence, but it would be nice if there were one or two other little things he liked about me! 

So, our week was pretty relaxed as far as school goes, but very busy otherwise!  All in all, it was a good week.  I hope you can all say the same.