Not long after I read that post, I was going through old photos as part of my ongoing de-cluttering adventure. While doing so, I came across these photos of Kathryn, reading at three years old.

In these photos, she is reading one of our very favorite books to me: Dr. Seuss’s ABC. I wish I had this on video; I can almost hear her little-girl voice, complete with dramatic inflections and giggles. {sigh…}

I could eat.her.up.

Friends and family were amazed at this child reading at the age of three, but I was sure to tell them she had really just memorized it. Which is true — but as I think about it in retrospect, it really was reading, on some level. She knew all her letters and the sounds they made; she could spell her name; and most importantly, she understood that letters put together in certain ways make words which represent certain things or ideas. That’s reading.

I have a photo somewhere of my mom reading at the age of four; no one taught her, but she had such a strong desire, she taught herself. I read at a young age, too. This love of words must be genetic.

Other than passing on a few good genes, what did I do to teach her to read? I read to her. Every.Single.Day. We read a variety of books, but certainly had our favorites. We snuggled while we read, which meant she saw the words as I read them, and eventually learned to recognize many of them. When we sat at the table to eat, I drew letters on paper or napkins to keep her entertained while I snuck bites of oatmeal into her mouth. I did this simply because I was better at drawing letters than animals. This is how she learned her letters. Sometimes I’d write out words, like “Kathryn” or “Mama” or “dog,” and she began to recognize them. At some point, she wanted to draw them, too. I didn’t write down these milestones, because they were simply our everyday life. I wasn’t trying to meet some arbitrary standard set by the government, and I wasn’t trying to create a child genius. I merely did what came naturally and we both enjoyed it.

Kathryn still eats, sleeps, and breathes books. And words. Just like me. We enjoy reading, and I think that’s the key here.

I realize that it doesn’t go this way with all kids. Regardless of age, regardless of what standardized tests say should be accomplished by a certain age, I believe children should learn to enjoy reading — but I don’t pretend to know what works for all learning styles, or for all individual kids! I only know what worked for my child.

In Jimmie’s post, she shared the main factors she believes are key to teaching her child to read: 1) a literate family, 2) reading aloud since birth, and 3) a low-key approach to learning phonics. Commenters shared some good input in the comments section of her post, too, so I’d encourage you to pop over and read those if you haven’t already done so!

©2012 See Jamie blog. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve been rockin’ and rolling with photography sessions this month — three just this week — so it’s cut into my blogging time. But I’m not complaining; I hope to keep building my clientele. Once I get in more of a groove, it shouldn’t cut into my regular schedule as much! Anyway, this weekly report is a bit more brief than usual since I’m squeezing it into a Saturday morning before I jump into photo editing!

This week, we had a field trip! It was another one arranged to be held at our church with our homeschool group, and the speaker came to us — along with an assortment of reptiles. I hate blurry iPhone photos, but this is proof that Kathryn thinks snakes are cool. She touched every critter they had an opportunity to touch, including this big python! She said it felt very soft. It’s not the first time she’s touched a snake, as we’ve caught them in our yard, and we are nice to non-venomous snakes since they often eat the venomous ones!

Another blurry camera phone photo, this time with Mr. Greg holding a large Australian skink. We also saw a large bearded dragon, a baby alligator, an assortment of snakes in varying sizes, and a tortoise!

Kathryn snapped this photo with my iPhone. This tortoise is about 35 years old, and Mr. Greg’s grandkids are already taking dibs on who will inherit it because it will likely live to at least 100 years old. He says his dogs get along really well with it when he leaves it in the yard on warm days; I don’t know what Lacy would think about that!

Math: I think it’s just about time for me to write a review of Teaching Textbooks, since we are finally far enough into using it. Short version: we like it, and math has ceased to be painful, as it had become before using it. Longer version: coming soon in a blog post near you.

History: In our readings, the Civil War has begun and Abraham Lincoln is now president. I hope to start our Civil War lapbook next week, since our schedule should be less out-of-the-house next week!

Science: A whole lot of bird-watching nature study, plus that reptile show field trip! We may start back up with our Swimming Creatures zoology study again in the next week or two as well.

Social Studies: State geography study of Nebraska, and a new God’s World News magazine (that always brings an enthusiastic “Yes!!!” when Kathryn sees it arrive in the mail).

Enrichment classes: another new type of stitch in knitting class; talk of being a witness for Jesus and of taking care of our bodies; and more cool building and discussion of what helps what makes a structure more stable in LEGO simple machines class.

Other: Kathryn is required to write a paper answering specific questions from a book on Hebrew history in her mitzvah classes; today they’ll be learning more Hebrew letters, which is her favorite part of the classes. On a totally different subject, she had a computer science lesson with Ken when she helped him replace the memory in one of our computers earlier this week.

I’m sure there were other things this week but I’m blanking out, despite jotting down notes throughout the week! I’m linking up again today with Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

©2012 See Jamie blog. All Rights Reserved.

Please pop on over to The Homeschool Village to read more about what happens “When A Homeschool Mom Sends a Child to Public School.”

©2012 See Jamie blog. All Rights Reserved.

“I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.” Woody Allen

1213 – Kathryn really enjoys her homeschool enrichment classes.

1214 – Finally getting a much-overdue eye exam, and already having improvement in a weird eyelid rash I’ve had for months!

1215 – Exciting news that my youngest niece is expecting!

1216 – Being listed on a “Top 100 Homeschool Blogs” list.

1217 – We are now re-certified for CPR/first aid, and completed five of the required yearly training hours to maintain our status as approved for foster/adoption.

1218 – Letting my artsy side out a little by doing an art project with my daughter, instead of just observing and instructing. (Our chickadee pastel project.)

1219 – Fun — and funny — memories from old photos my mom dug up.

1220 – I now have better fashion sense than I did in high school.

1221 -  More boudoir sessions last week with beautiful (inside and out) Christian wives.

1222 – Families who are committed to raising their children to know and love the Lord. (Baby dedication at church this week!)

1223 – Ken and Lindsey began training to go on the high school mission trip to the Dominican Republic in April. (This will be the second year, and Ken will again be a group leader.)

1224 - Financial blessing that allowed us to pay for mission trip deposits, eye exams and glasses for both me and Lindsey, and the CPR class.

1225 – Spending an afternoon re-living memories with my mom, my aunt, and a cousin while cleaning things out at my grandmother’s house.

Consider counting your gifts, if you haven’t starting doing so already!

©2012 See Jamie blog. All Rights Reserved.

Monday our public schools were out, which meant Lindsey was home, and that threw Kathryn for a bit of a loop in regards to us doing school when Lindsey was off. Which was totally my fault because I’d let that holiday slip up on me and forgot public school would be out. We ended up doing a bit of a lighter school day than usual.

We dove into Oliver Twist for our literature read-aloud. The first few paragraphs were brutal in terms of understanding what we were reading, but once we got into it, we’ve really been enjoying this book! Enjoying it so much, in fact, that Kathryn is disappointed when I have to take a break — but reading aloud all that Dickensian language wears out my tongue more quickly than modern language! Actually, I think it’s my brain that wears out in trying to read those more unfamiliar words with enthusiasm. Regardless, it seems so far that Oliver Twist is a hit, but I shouldn’t be surprised; our Ambleside recommendations usually are.

(Kathryn watercolors her state maps while I read from Abraham Lincoln’s World for history.)

A few weeks ago, we discovered Wonderopolis, and it’s fast become one of the highlights of Kathryn’s day. After she finishes her Teaching Textbooks math lesson on the schoolroom laptop, she opens up several “brain food” links. She usually saves Wonderopolis for last, as it’s her favorite. There is a new “Wonder” for each day, and she’s been gradually working on catching up on all the past ones she’s missed. This week, for instance, she’s learned about how Post-It Notes were invented, and why you can see your breath in cold weather.  That’s some fun science learning!

No formal nature study this week, despite my good intentions, but we still watch the birds at our feeder every day, as it’s just outside the window by the table where we eat. When I saw the chickadee chalk pastel art tutorial at Hodgepodge, I knew we had to do it because we see chickadees just about every day and because they are one of my very favorite backyard birds! Since we did this project late in the afternoon, Lindsey and Ken were able to join in the fun. These projects are definitely sometime we need to do more of!

(the results, clockwise from top left: Kathryn’s, Ken’s, Lindsey’s, and mine)

The new term for Kathryn’s enrichment classes started this week, and she’s excited. She’s taking a loom knitting class, which means that she’ll have new stitches and techniques for making hats, but will also learn to make something other than hats! She’s continuing on with her Girls in Grace class, which teaches homemaking skills in context of the Proverbs 31 woman. This is one of those classes where I could do all these projects myself at home, but she really enjoys doing this with a group of other girls — and quite frankly, I probably wouldn’t actually follow through with doing all these projects on my own. (But I plan to do more this year!) Her other class is LEGO simple machines, and she is really excited about this one. She’s also excited that there is ONE other girl in there with her, as I’d prepared her for the fact this would be a class that could be all boys. We do these classes just once a week, and it’s a nice change of pace for us both.

Those are the highlights of our homeschool week! Find more at Kris’s Weekly Wrap-Up!

©2012 See Jamie blog. All Rights Reserved.

Please head on over to Heart of the Matter to read the rest of this post: “Is it Useful AND Beautiful?“

©2012 See Jamie blog. All Rights Reserved.

At a baby shower with two of my best friends.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve loved babies. I always knew I wanted to be a mother, but I spent years preventing pregnancy until I was “ready” to be a mother. Then came nearly two years trying to get pregnant, hoping all those years of birth control hadn’t messed something up, hoping my family history of endometriosis wouldn’t cause infertility issues.

I knew I was pregnant from the very day I conceived. Kathryn’s father and I had prayed that night; it’s one of the few times I remember praying with him about anything. Although I believe name-it-and-claim-it preaching is heresy, and that prayer is not some magic charm to get what you want, somehow I knew God had answered our prayer. The pregnancy test a few weeks later was simply a matter of confirming what I already knew. This is why Kathryn’s middle name is Faith.

Several years later, I was divorced. He and I hadn’t learned the lesson that I believe God was trying to teach us: the prayers of a husband and wife are immensely powerful.

I had my one sweet daughter, and she was such a blessing.

Kathryn, age two.

I was “done” having children, and I was okay with that. I’d grown up as an only child, and didn’t feel I’d missed out on anything. When Ken and I decided to get married, I was rather relieved he’d had a vasectomy years before because I wouldn’t have to worry about birth control. But that was before God got hold of our hearts about this.

We are very pro-life, and we are enthusiastic proponents of adoption; we have often talked about how our work with nilmdts has made us appreciate all the more what a gift every child is; we celebrate friends’ babies… but we had taken the possibility of having more biological children out of God’s hands. We began to be convicted that we were not really living what we were professing to believe.

Ken and I had thought about doing a vasectomy reversal, and had even researched doctors. One of the two we’d narrowed it down to had performed a vasectomy reversal for some of our dear friends, and they had wonderful things to say about him, and a child to show for it. But even with that, we still weren’t sure.

We hemmed and hawed for years. God dealt with our stubbornness patiently but persistently, until we finally got the message loud and clear. Words from a visiting Austrian missionary named Wolfgang were the undeniable “YES” we needed to hear from God.

Just a few days after we’d made the decision to go ahead, we found out our state tax return would be enough to pay for the surgery and all our expenses. Another nod from God.

Ken called and scheduled the appointment, and we then worked out where the kids would stay and who would look after Lacy the WonderDog, because this would require a 600-mile (each way) road trip to Arkansas.

We wanted our kids to know how God was working in our lives, and we did not want to lie to them about where we were going. We want them to be fully truthful with us, so we felt convicted about setting the example in this. Despite the fact that this is a bit of a touchy subject, we explained where we were going, what we were doing, and why.

We explained that God had shown us very clearly that children are indeed a blessing, and that when we took that decision out of His hands, we were not living out our beliefs. We told them that many of our friends and family might think us crazy, but when we follow God’s will, rather than the ways of the world, sometimes people will think us crazy.

(Explaining all of this — even to a ten-year-old — was much easier due to the fact that we openly discuss things like this in our home. We want them to learn the truth about puberty, sex, pregnancy, and so on from us, rather than from peers or media.)

Two days before we left, our state tax refund arrived. Perfect timing. Only a few very close friends knew we were doing this, but it was a comfort and blessing to know that their prayers followed us all the way there and back.

There were a few scary traffic situations on the way; a strange man who approached Ken while pumping gas (as I prayed like crazy); a powerful thunderstorm that started just before surgery and knocked out power around the town, but not at the medical center; and another potentially dangerous storm that ran through that night as we were in our hotel room (just a couple of weeks after all those deadly tornadoes in the area). The Lord kept us safe through it all.

We liked the doctor immediately. He met with us to find out why we were doing the reversal, and his words as to why he performs these surgeries at such a low cost echoed what we’d been convicted about. Then he prayed with us.

I worried that the surgery would be painful, but Ken said he felt no pain. As we drove to the hotel (making a quick Starbucks run on the way), Ken was chattier than usual. I asked if he was relieved it was over.

Ken said he felt like he had been put back together, back to the way God made him. “Restored” was the word that came to my mind. At that moment, I believed the surgery had been a success and Ken had been restored because of our obedience to the Lord.

We don’t assume that this means we’ll ever actually have more biological children. Reversals don’t always work, and my history doesn’t show me to be extremely fertile. We decided ahead of time that we won’t do any fertility treatments because this was just about putting back in God’s hands, but if He chooses to bless us with a child from my womb, we’d be delighted. And if He doesn’t, we’re praying to be at peace about that, too.

(Sharing this story is rather scary, but it’s another thing we felt led to do.)

©2012 See Jamie blog. All Rights Reserved.