Music Show and Tell

Ella had her first annual (since she's in kindergarten) music show and tell. So far, these have always been held during my spring break and I've been able to attend. That is one of the things that I will miss when my school goes to a traditional schedule next year.

Ella and Michelle have music for a half hour a week, taught by a certified music teacher. (I mention this because most districts don't have certified teachers teaching music anymore.) And their teacher is wonderful. She teaches them to use their singing voice. She has a word wall with music terms. They use instruments such as drums, bells and rhythm sticks. They learn about a few classical composers. She works on rhythm. She listens to them sing individually and as a group. She keeps them engaged and they have so much fun while learning wonderful lessons.

Then starting in 3rd grade every child learns to play the violin. Such a wonderful music program at their school.

Anyway, Ella (and every other child) got to sing several songs, move to different rhythms and play the drums, bells and rhythm sticks. I thought it was especially cute that they sing Old MacDonald...but in their version, Old MacDonald has a BAND!!! Here are a few photos of Ella and her classmates at their music show and tell.

Naya Nuki: Little Girl's Book Club

We were able to host our neighborhood's Little Girl's Book Club again this month. The book was Naya Nuki, a historical fiction book about a Native American girl who was friends with Sacagawea. Both Naya Nuki and Sacagawea were captured by an enemy tribe. Naya Nuki escaped and traveled hundreds of miles by herself to return to her family and her tribe.

Because Michelle has so much reading homework for school, I do most of the reading aloud of teh books for her book club. Ella and Gabby also listened in to parts of the book and Gabby was fascinated by the bear. She asked "Why? Why?" (a million times) as I read and wanted to see the drawing of the bear over and over. Michelle also had lots of questions as we read the book.

We had a fun time with the girls. We started by discussing the book for a few minutes. Then we had a scavenger hunt. I had cut out buffalo and strawberries out of cardstock which I had hidden around the house. The girls had to search for "food" as Naya Nuki's tribe, the Shoshoni, had to and as Naya Nuki did while returning home. But searching was not without danger. I warned them before they began that some of the buffalo and strawberries (which were numbered) had dangers and some were bonuses. One of the buffalo represented the time Naya Nuki found a large pile of buffalo and used them to make new mocassins and this gave extra points. But one strawberry patch was by a bear and she had to climb a tree to escape. One buffalo had wolves nearby and another was near an enemy tribe. These caused the person to lose points.











After that, we had a snack of berries (strawberries and cranberries) and nuts (peanuts and almonds) and jerky (beef in our case).

Then I gave the girls some examples of Native American picture writing and had them write a story in pictures.

I think they had a fun time.

Our neighbor

Michelle made me chuckle a couple of days ago. There was a magnet on our fridge for Keller Williams Realty. It must have come in the mail or something. So Michelle was reading the magnet and said, "Hey, Mom, that's our neighbor." I asked what she meant and she said, "Yeah the people around the corner have a sign in their yard that says "Keller Williams. Why do you have a magnet for our neighbor?" I smiled and explained that it is a realty company and that they must be using that company to sell their house. Too cute!

Temporary Home (perspective,part 2)

I have a song on my playlist that I love. It is sung by Carrie Underwood and the first time that I heard it on the radio, it brought tears to my eyes. Partly because my heart is always touched/broken by stories of children suffering but also because I think it has such an important message.

Temporary Home Lyrics

Little boy, 6 years old
A little too used to bein' alone.
Another new mom and dad,another school,
Another house that'll never be home.
When people ask him how he likes this place...
He looks up and says, with a smile upon his face,

"This is my temporary home
It's not where I belong.
Windows and rooms that I'm passin' through.
This is just a stop, on the way to where I'm going.
I'm not afraid because I know this is my
Temporary Home."

Young mom on her own.
She needs a little help, got nowhere to go.
She's lookin' for a job, lookin' for a way out,
Because a half-way house will never be a home.
At night she whispers to her baby girl,
"Someday we'll find our place here in this world."

"This is our temporary home.
It's not where we belong.
Windows and rooms that we're passin' through.
This is just a stop, on the way to where we're going.
I'm not afraid because I know this is our
Temporary Home."

Old man, hospital bed,
The room is filled with people he loves.
And he whispers don't cry for me,
I'll see you all someday.
He looks up and says, "I can see God's face."

"This is my temporary Home
It's not where I belong.
Windows and rooms that I'm passin' through.
This was just a stop,on the way to where I'm going.
I'm not afraid because I know... this was
My temporary home."

I've been meaning to write about it for a couple of months and never got around to it, but it seemed to fit perfectly with my previous post about perspective. If we can just remember that this is just our temporary home, not where we belong, and that we are headed somewhere so much better, to be with those who love us most (family, friends and most especially our Savior and Father), it will change our perspective and help us cope with the challenges that come. It will help ME to focus on what's really important and help me to make better choices. I want to always remember that this is just a temporary home. I want to do my best to make this a great home, filled with love and peace, so that those I love will want to be with me in the future. I want to do all I can to alleviate suffering and comfort those in need of comfort. I want to help guide others so that they, too, can leave this temporary home behind when life ends and return to our permanent home. That is the perspective I want to maintain on bad days. I'm far from being where I want to be... but I home I'm on the road there.

Perspective

This past week has been a hard one. Well, in some ways the past month. It seems like illness has followed us around for the past month. We'd get one person feeling better for a couple of days only to have someone else get sick. I got a sinus/ear infection and bronchitis. The kids all got colds. Then the kids each got high fevers and felt awful. It is miserable to be sick, but I think I'd definitely prefer to all be sick at once and get it done rather than thinking were done and then a few days later having it start all over again.

Then this past week, Chester escaped and was taken to the pound. (Don't worry, we rescued him.) The same day, Alfredo's grandma died. He was very close to her and hasn't seen her in a long time, and he wasn't able to make it to see her before she passed. The next day, because I was so distracted worrying about Alfredo, Chester, and my own grandparents, I got a speeding ticket. My grandparents are suffering from age related dementia and things are not going well. My dad has been caring for them, and yesterday they were placed in a home. I think it is for the best. But it is sad to see two people whom I love dearly lose their physical and mental abilities. I think it will be a blessing for them to pass and yet I don't know when that will happen. It seems so sad to be locked inside a body that no longer works properly, unable to care for yourself, and unable to remember most of your life or those you love.

Anyway, it was a rough week and I was worried about family, money, etc. Most of the problems weren't problems I could solve and I was just feeling pretty discouraged. But sometimes when problems strike, what you need is a little perspective. On Friday, Alfredo called me in to watch the news of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We have watched quite a bit about it in the past few days. And while I still have some problems, it sure put things in perspective. So many people lost their lives. Thousands of others lost everything...their homes, their cars, and everything they owned. There is the nuclear threat. And they face months (*hopefully not years?) of rebuilding. And well, that puts things back in perspective. Compared to so many others, my problems are relatively small. We will be fine. We still have so many blessings.

Sunday was Stake Conference. I always go, but I admit that this weekend I just didn't want to. But I was taught that when you don't feel like doing the right thing it is the most important time for you to do the right thing. And a wise young woman's leader of mine would always say that she felt her most discouraged and worried right before a blessing would come into her life. That hasn't always been the case for me, but there have certainly been times when that has been true. So I went. And President Isaacs spoke about seeing the Savior and hearing his voice. He shared all that he has learned as he has cared for and sat with his dying mother. He taught/reminded us that our Savior wants to succor us and that literally as we turn to Him, he runs to us to help us. Others bore testimony of times that they have seen the Savior and heard his voice as they served or as others served them. (I"m reminded of a favorite song from my youth.. "Have you received His image in your countenance? Does the light of Christ shine in your eyes? Will He know you when He comes again because you will be like him? When He sees you will the father know his child?" by Janice Kapp Perry) My heart was lifted and I was able to remember times that I have felt loved by others and through them, felt the love of my Savior. I was able to be reminded of ways that my prayers have been answered. Times when I've heard the voice of the Lord. And this meeting also brought added perspective. Life on Earth really is a short time and while it can be difficult, we will not be here for long. We are on our way home. We need to live so that we can go home, but we are not alone on this journey and we can receive the help we need so that we can go home. I'm grateful for the gospel and the peace it brings. I'm so glad that I do not have to endure the trials of life without a knowledge of its purpose or without knowing that I have help along the way.

Articles of Faith

Every once in awhile I get a good idea and even act upon it. This year our Primary has challenged all of the children to memorize the Articles of Faith. So I decided to make our Family Home Evenings about them for the next couple of months. I wanted to help my daughters learn them, but even more importantly, I want them to understand what they mean. So each week we talk about one of them and do some activities to help us understand them. (I've found resources on sugardoodle.net and aboutlds.com and lds.org). I also find pictures to illustrate them as well as I possibly can. Then I'm putting this together into a little 6 x 6 scrapbook that we can take to church and study here at home. The girls are loving it. Ella has #1-3 memorized so far, and Michelle has #1-4 memorized. We've talked about the members of the Godhead and what each of their characteristics are. We talked about the Fall and about repentance and how each of us can choose the right (or not) and that there are consequences for our actions. For number 3, we talked about obedience. We discussed our Savior's atonement. For number 4, we played a game about baptism and discussed the difference between principles and ordinances. So far, I'm really happy with what they are learning and hope that this book with its visual reminders will continue to help them remember not just the words but the meaning of these articles of faith as well.

Little Girls Book Club

I can't keep up with my blogging lately! :)

A week and a half ago, it was book club night. For me. And for Michelle. Michelle is in a book club with other 7-11 year olds in our neighborhood. The book club was started by my amazing friend Aly. Usually Aly holds book club at her house and she always has such fun activities for the girls. January was Michelle's turn to pick the book though, and she wanted to do it at our house, so we did. She chose Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic, a book I had loved as a little girl. Since Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has "magic" cures for common childhood behavior problems such as being a tattle-tale, having bad table manners and not wanting to go to school, Michelle and I thought it would be fun to do some magic tricks. I don't really know any magic and didn't figure I'd be very good at it without a lot of practice, we mostly did math magic tricks.

Then we had ice cream sundaes where they could add whatever magic "cures" they needed (or wanted) on top of the ice cream. We had licorice drops to get rid of tattle tales and oreo cookie crumbs to get rid of "I thought you said-itis". They could put chocolate syrup to combat the "I don't want to go to school"ers. Since interrupters start to talk like goldfish, we even had goldfish crackers (which surprisingly many of the girls put on their ice cream!).

One fun thing about this was that after their little girl's book club, I headed over to my book club. We had read The Magic Lifein which magic plays a major role. A magic-filled night with lots of great people...cute little girls and then my friends. :)

Here's just a couple of my magic tricks (I found them online--they aren't actually mine):

Unfold the Paper - Magic Number TrickTell someone to write down a 3 digit number (example: 746). Tell them that you are each going to write down 2 more 3 digit numbers and add them, but before you do, you are going to write down the answer on a piece of paper and fold it up.
You obtain the answer by subtracting 2 from the last digit of the first number and placing a 2 before the first digit--thus 746 becomes 2744 for the answer. Now ask the other person to put their two digits down, either both at once or in succession with you. Either way, they must go before you. Now, whatever they put down, make each number, when added to the number you put down add up to 999. Don't do this but once with each person; they'll catch on otherwise. Example: (original number) 746... (Their first number) 325... (your first number) 674... (their second number) 841... (Your second number) 158...
Total 2744
They unfold the paper and you're a hero!

Name of the Dead
For this trick, you hand out three slips of paper, and ask three people to help you. Two are to write the names of living people on their slip, and the third person, the name of a dead person. These slips are folded and placed in a hat, without your touching them. You are then blindfolded, or the hat is held high over your head so that you cannot see into it. You are able to reach in and bring out the slip with the dead person's name.
This is a very easy trick. Take a sheet of note paper, and tear it into three pieces. The top and bottom pieces will have one smooth edge and one rough edge, but the center piece will have two rough edges. Have someone in the audience write a dead person's name on the center slip, and two other spectators, the names of a living person on each of the other two slips. Have the slips folded and dropped into the hat.
When you reach into the hat, all you need to do is feel for the slip with two rough edges. When you have found it, don't bring it out right away. Have the spectators concentrate on the names to make it more of a mystery. Then reveal the slip in your hand as the one with the dead person's name.