I was enjoying a quiet half-hour with a book while all four kids played happily, when the three older kids started shouting excitedly. David is crawling!

On the precise day he turned six months old, David was sitting on Baba’s lap at dinner when he lunged for the banana Ben was holding. I took a few snapshots and some video of David’s introduction to solid food.

 

 

 

After joining friends to watch the WASO perform at an outdoor concert Saturday night, Sunday afternoon it was Nikki’s turn to take the stage with her violin at a summer recital.

Teacher Sandra let her choose which of her recent pieces she wanted to play, and Nikki selected a swinging Australian folk song, “Click Go the Shears.” If you listen closely to the video, you can hear the audience laugh appreciatively as they recognize the familiar tune.

Nikki makes it look easy. She only paused in the middle of the song because I distracted her by moving into her line of sight so I could take pictures. Ooops!

That’s my current photography ratio with my new-to-me camera: 100 shots to get one I love. Clearly I have a lot to learn, and I found it useful to flip back through all the photos from my recent portrait session of the kids to see what worked and what didn’t.

[If you missed them, my favourite shots of each child from this photo shoot can be found here: Nikki, Michael, Vi, and David.]

Here’s what I’ve learned so far…

Worked: having Nikki and Michael tell me about recent dreams they’d had while I shot on the continuous setting.

Didn’t work: cutting off their necks with the edge of the frame. Better shots included either some body as well or were zoomed in so close only their faces were in the frame.

Worked: asking Vi to perform various tasks, like dressing David or showing me her fingers.

Didn’t work: shooting from angles that left distracting elements, such as moving boxes or the vacuum cleaner, in the background.

Worked: setting up right by a window with lots of natural, indirect light.

Worked: taking lots and lots of photos! I took nearly 600, but the free slideshow software I used only allowed me to upload 300. The five-minute video below includes roughly half the shots I took.

It is such a joy to me to hear Michael drum and sing every day. This four-minute video should give you an idea what I mean. Toward the end, he even incorporates some of the new technique he’s learning in his lessons. Enjoy!

As a homeschooling parent, I have the privilege of making many choices about what my kids will learn. In addition to following their interests and making the most of opportunities when something grabs their attention, there is one non-negotiable item on our homeschooling to-do list: Bible study and scripture memorisation. We do it first, before we eat breakfast.

Right now we are examining and memorising the Shorter Catechism at a rate of one question per week. We are also memorising Bible passages between 7-15 verses at a time.

Scripture memorisation is so easy! Each new month we select a passage of the appropriate length. This month it is Psalm 46, the last two months it was the first and second halves of Psalm 2.

Every morning right before we eat breakfast, we read the passage out loud twice. On the 23rd of the month, we ask the kids to say it for us. They then say it every morning until the new month brings a new section to memorise.

Our five-year-old repeats the chapter without prompts the first time. Our 3-year-old usually needs around 3-5 prompts the first time. And our two-year-old is memorising, too! Right now she says only the big words, leaving out conjunctions and prepositions (“Why nations conspire, peoples plot vain?” instead of “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?”). She needs more assistance than her big brother, but she loves to join in and get high fives just like her older siblings.

I am often asked why my children are so well-behaved. There are many factors that go into it, most of which have nothing to do with me. But I do feel that scripture memory has certain benefits for Christians. One benefit is a proper focus: remembering that the universe does not revolve around us, and being reminded of God’s rules that govern all of our actions, parents and children alike.

Another benefit of scripture memory that ties into homeschooling is wisdom. If you believe as I do that God is the creator of all things, then He is also the source of all wisdom. If we let God drop off the priority list while we busily focus on a bunch of other things, the Bible says our thinking will become futile.

On the other hand, seeking God first is rewarded… He gives us the other things we need!

I love how this homeschooling journey is as much about my education as it is about my children’s. Memorising scripture as a family reinforces the fact that we’re all learning together!

It is always a treat to hear Nikki play her violin. We are taking a break from lessons this term to allow us time to adjust to being a family of six. I took this video so Teacher Sandra could hear what Nikki is up to these days, as she plays from Suzuki book two.

When David was born, one of the gifts he gave to Michael was a set of two drum brushes. In one month, both plastic brush handles, and all of the bristles of one brush have been drummed to destruction.

This video shows Michael singing and playing with what is left of his first set of drum brushes.

Fortunately my parents arrive this weekend with another couple (sturdier?!) brush sets I have ordered from the US.

thank you for the book, Grammie!

Vi and I enjoyed a Pat the Bunny marathon the other day, reading the book over and over while Nikki and Michael played outside.

Somehow I managed to hold David and our camera to take a video during one reading, because I simply had to share the cuteness with you!

The children found two tall toadstools in our backyard. I asked them to bring them inside so we could have a closer look.

I cut the mushrooms lengthwise with a knife, and we felt and examined the various parts.

Michael helped me rinse the dirt away to look for roots (none found). Nikki pretended the gills were the very thin pages of a book, which she read aloud in a silly voice. Vi reminded us all that we shouldn’t eat mushrooms found outside, “Eat mushroom, no.”