On Calvary

Of all twenty Mysteries of the Rosary, Joyce's favourite one is the Crucifixion. This drwaing was done by Joyce last Tuesday at the Atrium (Catechism of the Good Shepherd). According to her, Jesus is talking to the people there, including Mary, Joseph, and Mary Mother of God (on the right). Everyone is sad.

We thought it was John there with the letter "J". But Joyce insisted it is Joseph, Mary's husband. We didn't correct her on the spot. But we'll be sure to read more with her in the Bible on what happened there on Calvary.

Reflections on the First Month

It has been a month already! Well, I've been pleasantly surprised by a few things.

• Matthew has a longer attention span than I expected, and is willing to spend at least 1 hour with Joyce and I in the learning room before asking to play somewhere else.
• Joyce enjoys narration! I had thought she'd be very reluctant to try since she's a perfectionist and hates to make mistakes. But after we made sure she understand that she doesn't have to re-tell the story word for word, she found it fun and often wants to do more than one story at a time.
• I actually find myself enjoying this... I hope I haven't jinxed it by admitting it :) I enjoy watching them learn; I enjoy being with them during their "Ah-ha!" or "Look! I did it!" moments; I enjoy talking and playing with them; I really enjoy sharing great picture books with them; the list goes on. If you had asked me even half a year ago whether I would enjoy homeschooling, I'd have said "No, but I'm doing it because I feel very strongly that God had called me to do this."

I thank God for the graces He has bestowed on our family during this journey. I remember that one of the biggest doubts I had about homeschooling was my lack of patience. Then, I read
passages from this wonderful book that helped me cast away this doubt:

"The particular circumstances in your life that are trying your patience might be precisely the means through which our Lord will teach you to be patient and to rely on Him more instead of on your own power." ... "So, does it take patience to home school? Well, yes, but you don't wait until you have it to begin homeschooling; you learn it along the way." ... "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me." - Philippians 4:13 (all from p.101 of the book)

I'm still not as patient as I'd like to be, but objectively speaking, I must admit that it has improved (at least DH agrees :)

There's one aspect which has taken me off guard completely, and it's the fact that I am now the most influential role model for my children. I must have read this a dozen times in different books, yet they were just words on a page to me until I notice how quickly my children pick up my words and actions. When they are impatient and loud, that's because I've been impatient and loud. When they are courteous and polite, that's because I've been courteous and polite. At first I felt really bad about this because I know I have a lot more bad days than good days. But then, I somehow convinced myself that this can be a good thing if I get my act together. So, I actually had a heart-to-heart with Joyce that went something like this:

"Joyce, Mommy knows that you are doing your best to be a good girl, to love God and others."

Joyce nods in agreement.

"Mommy is trying to do the same thing. I have noticed that at this point, the most important thing for us to work on is your obedience, and my impatience. So, Mommy is going to try extra hard to be more patient and polite and not yell at you two. At the same time, will you try extra hard to be more obedient?"

"Yes, I will," she said simply.

I wasn't sure if she would take this seriously at all, but I needed to say it out loud and make a committment to myself to be a better role model. But somehow, it must have touched her heart as well because very shortly after this talk, she became a lot more obedient and willing to help. And she would even be my little guardian angel and remind me, "Mommy, I think you are getting loud. Remember that you are trying to be more polite?" And she says it with such
authority too :) "Yes, Joyce. Thank you for reminding me."

I truly believe that God wants to cleanse me and mold me through this vocation. And I'm so glad that my children are together with me on this journey.

A Slow Week

Matthew and I have been sick - he has a fever and I have a sinus infection. So it has been a very slow week here and I haven't had much time or energy for blogging at all. Interestingly enough, I found more time to read and also to reflect on our first month of homeschooling. I'll post more on that another day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

First Narration

Tonight, after we got DS to bed, we sat down with DD and started her very first narration session. We haven't done this before, so we were not sure whether it would go well or not. We started off by explaining to her that Mommy is going to read her a short story (we picked one from The Early Reader's Bible), and then she will tell the story to us in her own words.

Mommy read the story slowly with frequeny pauses, with a formal attitude that properly drew her attention into the work at hand. After the story was read, it was time for her to repeat the story back to us. Being a somewhat perfectionist like mommy, she was a little bit frustrated at first, wanting to start the story off exactly as she heard it. But we reassured her that we wanted to hear the story, in her own words. We wrote down her first narration word-for-word:

God Made The World
Long time ago, there was no world.
There was no sun. There was no moon.
There was no stars.
God said, "I am going to make a world."
So God made a world.
"Now I am going to make a sun," said God.
"Now I am going to make a moon, and
I am going to make some stars," said God.
God made the fish in the sea.
God created big animals and small animals.
Last of all, He made one man and one one girl.

She had so much fun hearing us read her story back to her, we narrated two more stories. Thanks be to God that this went off so well. Mommy now plans to do this with her everyday.

-- post by Lorraine's DH

I'll get the water

Last night at dinner...
Matthew: "Can I have some water?"
Daddy gets up from chair...
Joyce: "No, daddy, sit down! You didn't get to rest today at work. I rested so I'll get the water."
Daddy and Mommy (melting inside): "Oh, thank you so much Joyce!"

Novena to St. Therese

Thank you Elizabeth for posting this novena which starts today! Joyce's baptismal name is Therese and we are very thankful that she has grown quite fond of her saint. She is looking forward to the celebration on October 1! Which means I need to figure out something really good for us to do :)

St. Padre Pio

For the past couple of years, I've forgotten where I had placed a third class relic of St. Padre Pio. Lorraine's parents, who received the relic almost 20 years ago from a family friend, gave it to her, so I feel really bad about it, and the parable of the servant who buried his talent came to mind. I know I could not have purposely thrown it out, but must have put it in a place so safe that I could no longer find it. After learning that it is St. Pio's feast day today, I resolved to ask him for help. And guess what, the first place that I looked, I found the relic. Thank you St. Pio!

Here is a prayer found inside the prayer card that the relic is attached to:

O Jesus, full of grace and charity, victim for sinners, so impelled by love for us that you willed to die on the cross, I humbly beseech you to glorify in heaven and on earth the Servant of God, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, who generously participated in your sufferings, who loved you so much and laboured so faithfully for the glory of your heavenly Father and for the good of souls.

With confidence I beseech you to grant me, through his intercession, the grace of ... which I ardently desire.

Glory be to the Father ... (three times).

-- post by Lorraine's DH

Fun with Addition

Joyce has been having fun with addition using the golden beads and the colored bead stairs. We followed the album pages from MWEI and MTC for the golden bead addition exercises. For now, we're using two instead of three addends because we don't have space to put all the beads and number cards on our coffee table :) We've began with addends that will not involve exchanging. Here're two examples from her notebook (I forgot that she knows how to use a ruler... oh well, next time :) We have been "adding" using the colored bead bars as well. Many thanks to Lori at Montessori for Everyone who provided the ideas for the Bead Stairs. We've tried Making Ten which allows the child to become familiar with combinations that make up ten:

Let the child pick a bar from the left set:
Ask "How many more do we need to make ten?" And then count with the child. Let the child get the corresponding bar and place it to show that they add up to ten.
Then, we perform the reverse equations and let the child notice the symmetry. The Addition Snake Game is Joyce's favourite for the moment. We used the MTC and
NAMC albums as reference. Here are the required materials:
- ten bars
- one black and white bead stair
- five colored bead stairs
- red felt mat
- notched cardboard marker
- (optional) a pointed stick (like a long toothpick) for counting beads
Set up the black and white bead stair and the cardboard marker:
Let the child choose a bunch of colored bead bars and arrange in the shape of a "snake."
Count along the chain. When you reach ten, stop and place cardboard marker over the bar after the tenth bead. "Oh, we've counted to ten. So we can exchange it with a ten bar." Place ten bar above the counted beads. Count the remaining number of beads on that bar (e.g. 7 in this case). Get the corresponding black and white bar above the counted beads. Place the cardboard back to its original position and put the counted colored bead bars into the empty bin for the black and white bead bars. Join the ten bar and black and white bar into the snake.
Start counting at the first black bead. Repeat the process:
- count up to ten
- get ten bar
- count remaining beads on colored bead bar
- get corresponding black and white bar
- remove cardboard, put bead bars back
- join ten bar and black and white bar into snake
After all color bead bars have been counted, show the child that the sum of all the color bead bars equal the ten bar plus black and white bead bar (if any) (e.g. 34 in this case). The child may write the equation in her notebook (9+8+7+6+4=34).
There are more variations to this game, such as using the same colored bead bars to make up the snake, and this is a great way to introduce multiplication.

The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

Thanks, Elizabeth for sharing this wonderful meditation for this feast. I honestly didn't even know about this feast (I've got lots to learn indeed). This was very powerful and touched me deeply. It was like watching the movie Passion from a whole different perspective - the pain and sorrow she went through seeing the scourging of Jesus, wiping Jesus' precious blood off the ground, watching Jesus fall on the way of the cross, and finally witnessing his suffering and death on the cross. I'm so thankful for this feast and this meditation. It's like a "Mini Lent" for me.

The Cost and Conditions of True Discipleship

Today's Touched by Grace column in Catholic Exchange is an excerpt from the past Sunday's homily by Fr. Roger Landry:
Cost and Conditions of True Discipleship

The entire homily by Fr. Landry can be found on his website:
http://catholicpreaching.com/index.php?content=homilies&homilies=20070909

After reading this homily and yesterday's article on the same topic, I realize that I have the "Jesus is part of my life spiritual cancer" which Fr. Landry talks about. I have to be more aware of my decisions, however small, that it may be a choice between Jesus and something else. Am I ready and willing, to always put Jesus first?

Sharing Two Posts I enjoyed

Sharing two posts I enjoyed reading today:

A Gospel to Make you Squirm
For a long time, I held the same belief as the author did - that I just need to be a "moderate" Catholic. I thank the Lord that He has shown me the "need to run for the gold" and not to just "finish the race."

God's World Has No Cages
I was just feeling really guilty that I'm not doing enough for my children, that I should be driving them to as many soccer/piano/art classes as possible. And it reminds me to be always present and learning alongside my children. Thanks Cay!

What happened to those pictures?

After receiving emails from some well meaning family and friends (one of whom works for the police) who voiced their concern for the security of our children, we've decided to remove their pictures from our blog for now. We can look at it negatively - "Oh, how sad it is that this is the way the world is right now!" Or we can look at it as more motivation for us to keep our children safe, to teach them right, and to pray for all those who are afflicted. It is also an opportunity for us to improve our writing skills - I know "a picture is worth a thousand words," so if worse comes to worst, we'll just have to write a thousand words to explain what we mean :)

We hope you will understand and continue to visit! And thank you for those of you who voiced your concerns - we know you did so out of love for us.

Let us pray for all the children whose innocence have been exploited by others. Let us also pray for those whose souls may be clouded with darkness and hope that they will see the light of Christ.

Some Highlights from Our First Week

Thanks be to God that our first week of homeschooling went quite well. I had anticipated that my kids would fight over materials, that Matthew would play with all the materials or hop back and forth between the learning room and play room, that Joyce would complain that she is not interested in any of the work, that they would last through the work period. Well, none of that happened! Each morning, they were able to "do work" for 1.5 hours, and on a couple of days, I had to cut them off. I know this won't always be the case, and it's most likely the novelty of "doing school at home" that's keeping them interested. I'll work hard to try to make things interesting and engaging for them. Here is a summary of what they've been doing this week:

Matthew is in a sensitive period with water. He likes to transfer water with whatever container or utensil he can grab, during or outside work period. I've found him standing in front of the kitchen sink and scooping water with a spoon, back and forth between bowls. He is enjoying building the pink tower again, which is nice. For a while I thought both of them had completely lost interest in it. He also loves animals. I'm so thankful for that because everyday he goes through most of the 5 animal puzzles and that is usually a good time for me to show Joyce something new :) (Usually I alternate between showing them a new presentation while the other one is doing something on his/her own. It is working out nicely and they're not fighting for my attention all the time.) Another favourite activity for him is the knobbed cylinders. He usually picks at least 2 per day. It is amazing to see a bouncy and chatty 2.5 year old boy sitting still, completely focused, placing little pieces of wood into holes in silence.

Joyce is already an expert in a lot of the practical life and sensorial materials, and she likes to show Matthew how things are done (she likes doing that a lot and claims that "I am a teacher also." :) She's enjoys working with the moveable alphabets, reading simple 3-letter words with CHC's Little Stories for Little Folks, and the bank game.
She has been having fun with this wooden puzzle where each shape is split in half in 3 different ways. Just a few months ago she was haivng problems with them and got frustrated easily, but this time around, I gently gave her a few tips and she was able to persevere and figure it out. It is heartwarming to see her beaming with confidence after completing it.

It has been a very good week indeed. Thank you Lord for guiding us. Thank you Mother Mary for watching over us.

Our Learning Room

This is our learning room in the basement. This space in the basement used to be our family room and now half of it is devoted to school.Starting at the left hand side is our bookshelf of picture books. Next to that is the metal insets and sandpaper letters. Around the corner is another shelf for language material, followed by a practical life shelf, and then the math shelf. And there is Matthew folding a tea towel :)
A closer look at the three shelves: a half-empty language shelf (more language materials to be made :) with the movable alphabets and a chalk board for writing. The practical life section contains materials for washing leaves of a plant, dry and wet pouring, spooning, medicine dropper, nuts and bolts and clothpins. The math section contains the golden bead materials, sandpaper numerals, spindle boxes, numeral and counters, large and small number cards, ten and teen boards, and the color bead stairs.Going around the corner, are two low shelves for the geography/sensorial materials. And as you can see behind the shelves and the sofa, there are toys in the other side of the room (our "downsized" family room). So far, it has been a blessing that the children have not set foot in this "play area" during "work period." For geography, there are the globes of land/water and continents. We have two maps for now - World and Canada. The free standing sensorial material are the red rods and the pink tower. On top of the shelves are the geometry cabinet, geometric solids and metal fractions. The sensorial shelf contains the knobbed and knobless cylinder, sound boxes, color tablets, brown stairs, binomial and trinomial cubes, and constructive triangles. Turning around 90 degrees (on the opposite wall to the previous language/practical life/math shelves) is our shelves for "things that didn't fit in the other shelves." There are some toys e.g. leappads and doodle pros on the two left columns of that big 5x5 bookcase. Then the rest of lower shelves are plant and animal puzzles and dressing frames. The tall bookcase on the right is waiting for more materials, probably math related such as addtion and subtraction strip boards.
Finally, our library. It used to be books for the parents, but children's books have invaded almost half the shelves (and we are happy with that :) The lower corner shelf holds the tabernacle from Our Father's House. The lower shelves of the CD tower hold the items from their miniature mass kit. I'm hoping to add more CGS materials and store them in those empty shelves behind the glass doors.It took a long time to get this planned and organized, and I'm sure there will be more tweaking and moving things around along the way. I'm so grateful to everyone at the 4real forum! I don't think I would have achieved this without their sound advices, generous support and prayers. Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated!

First Eucharistic Adoration for Joyce

This morning, we missed the 8 a.m. mass (everyone slept in :) so we went to the 9 a.m. at a parish which is further away. When the mass was over, we noticed a group of people walking into a hallway near the back of the altar. DH had been to the morning mass at this church a few times before so he remembered that they have a little chapel back there where Eucharistic Adoration takes place after mass every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Joyce asked where everyone was going, and I explained that they were going to see Jesus "in the form of the consecrated host." We had never explained clearly to her what Eucharistic Adoration is (shame on us). Not surprisingly, she wanted to go. I explained to her that we have to be very quiet and very respectful, because Jesus will be right there with us.

We knelt at the door of the chapel since it was quite full inside (and I was afraid that she would be noisy and disturb others). I have never seen Joyce so still and so respectful. Even though she couldn't see the monstrance in the beginning (there were people standing up), it was as though she knew that Jesus was there. I later picked her up so that she could "see Jesus." We remained for a few more minutes (as DH was with Matthew waiting outside the church and he's running late for work). Joyce told me later it was a bit noisy so she couldn't hear what Jesus wanted to tell her (there was a fan running in the room). I reassured her that it was OK, and that Jesus was really happy that she was there with Him. Would she like to go again? Yes, she would. Well, I guess we'll purposely miss our 8 a.m. mass at least once a week :)

Give all of yourself to Jesus

Just before bedtime...

Matthew: "Hello, children!"
Everyone else: "Hello... Matthew."
Matthew: "No, I'm a priest and I'm saying 'Hello, Children!' So you have to say 'Hello, Father.'"
Everyone else: "OK... Hello Father."
Joyce: "If you want to be a priest, you cannot get married."
Matthew: "OK."
Joyce: "And you have to give all of yourself to Jesus."
Matthew: (pauses and nods) "OK."

Mom and Dad: silent, savoring the moment, thanking the Lord for these little angels.

Blessed Mother Teresa

As we were thinking of the blog title yesterday, Mother Teresa's quote - "We can do no great things, only small things with great love." - came to my mind. Since we were one day away from her feast day, and have always loved this quote, we came to agreement quickly. Today I read Demi's book for the first time together with my kids. I was moved to tears near the end of the book because I remembered watching her funeral on TV 10 years ago and the sea of people who came to give her tribute... it was just so touching. Anyways, I didn't know that the book was quite lengthy (note to self - should always read it once before showing the kids :) so I wasn't surprised that Matthew lost interest 1/4 of the way through. But Joyce was very interested and asked if she could be one of the nuns! Yes, I answered, if that's God's calling for you, and that will probably happen when you're older. Later when I looked at the map of the missionary centers around the world, I told her that there is a center her in our city (because I remember that her Godmother had visited there) and she asked whether she could visit them. I told her that we could when the time is right, but I'm thinking it would be too traumatic for her at this young age to see the sick and dying. We'll keep this in our prayers.

The following are some of our favourite quotes by Mother Teresa:
"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
"If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"
"God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try."
"I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness."
"Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home."
"Each one of them is Jesus in disguise."

Blessed Mother Teresa, pray for us! Pray especially for Canada, where the sanctity of life and traditional family values are under attack.

Our First Day (and my first blog post :)

Thanks be to God! Our first day of homeschooling went pretty smoothly. We made it to church on time at 8 a.m., which was incredible considering the kids woke up at 7:30. We came home, had breakfast, and started our designated 1.5 hr work period at 9:40 (only 10 minutes late... which is pretty good for the first day, I think :) Matthew went straight for the practical life activities, which was nice because I wanted to show Joyce the alphabet sound cards from LSLF (made by DH last night... Thanks so much, dear!) as the "new" work. As I had expected, she knew all the names and sounds of the alphabets, some better than others, so hopefully with more practice, she will be able to move onto the next stage. Meanwhile, Matthew had mixed the little wooden beads from the dry pouring jug into the bowls for spooning... Now why didn't I see that coming? So, we spent a good 15 minutes sorting these tiny wooden beads back into the correct containers. I think he learned his lessons (on how to sort beads quickly and never to mix materials together again :).

Joyce practised writing her numbers from 1 to 29 and stopped because she said she forgot what's next. I praised her for her efforts (as opposed to the results, because there were some mistakes but I didn't correct her) and she beamed with joy. She moved onto "writing" with the movable alphabets and some farm animals. She likes to take turn with me and pick an animal with our eyes closed and then writing the name out. I love it when she writes d-o-g and always does this - "If we switch the first and last letter, we get g-o-d!" At which point she usually says "Now I want to write jesus!" followed by "juh... juh... Now I want to write joyce!" Matthew, who was in the process of building the pink tower, stopped everything in his tracks to play with the animals. I said the forbidden "no" word once but then decided that it was OK as long as he wasn't disturbing Joyce's work. Well, at least he was learning the names of the animals in English.

Time actually went by really quickly, and that was the end of our work period. Afterwards, we went to the science center for fun and came home for quiet time (Joyce) and nap (Matthew). A little art work from "A Catholic How-To-Draw" for Joyce in the afternoon - tracing the Sacred and Immaculate hearts (made by DH who scanned the pictures, put them side by side, and laminated the finished product yesterday... Thanks again, dear.) I was so proud of her because I could tell she did it with love. She requested that it be put on her wall so she won't be scared at night (that's a whole other issue and post if I get around to it.) Matthew woke up just about that time and we then got ready to go over to my mom's for dinner. I love Tuesdays... dinner at mom's is a highlight of my week. Mom, if you're reading, thanks so much. You have no idea how much it means to me to be at your place once a week. It's not the food (which help enormously and tastes great every time), it's the warm and fuzzy feeling of coming home. And DH brought a cake for dessert to celebrate this special day! Tomorrow should be fun - I look forward to reading Demi's Mother Teresa to them.

Thank you Lord for this wonderful day. Thank you for making it a smooth ride today. You know how weak I am and how I would be doubting myself very quickly if things had gone the other way. Grant me more patience and self discipline on this journey, so that together with DH, we can bring Joyce and Matthew up to be who you created them to be.