A Story, A Story!

Jacob amazed me tonight. Part of our bedtime ritual is story time, when I get to read to Jacob while baby sister (hopefully) falls asleep in the other room. Tonight, Jacob asked me to tell him the story of how Baby Bird and Baby Bird's Mama and Dadi Saved Christmas. I asked him how that story went, and, well, look at what came of it.

How Baby Bird and Her Mama and Dadi Saved Christmas

By Jacob Schindler, Age 3

Once, there was a baby bird named baby bird. And she said to Santa, I need a need a new sink because the old sink is broken. And she built a Christmas tree and put candy and toys and stickers and stamps on it!

And then what happened?

And a strange thing happened to the Christmas tree! it broke everything. The Christmas tree broke too!

How did baby bird feel about that?

Sad. her mouth fell open and her eyes stared at the Christmas tree. She said, “The Christmas tree is broken,” and her mama said, “Don’t worry, we can fix it.”

Then a strange thing happened to mama. Baby bird and Baby Bird’s Dadi flew into mama’s glasses, and then another strange thing happened! The strange thing was the mirror broke! And then I kicked and kicked and kicked because there was a bird in our house. I tried to catch that bird, but I didn’t know it was baby bird. And then the Christmas tree got fixed up and everything put back on and it was not broken and then baby bird telled santa that she needed a new sink because it was broken the end.

Did you like that story?

Yes, I did. Did baby bird get a new sink?

Yeah, she has it at her house now. Now can you tell me the story?

Alicia and I were flabbergasted.

Our Early Reader

We were in the bookstore tonight (as we so often are) and we witnessed something truly remarkable. Alicia found a deck of cards with sight words on them—little words like "red", "and", "many", "like"—and showed them to 3-year-old Jacob. To our astonishment, he rattled through all but three of them. We had no idea that he knew so many words by sight.

Not bragging here, just thinking about the implications. Where do we go from here? Is this something we should encourage and work with, or just let it be? I'm inclined to say that we should just keep doing what we've been doing; reading to them, pointing out words as we do so, and let Jacob pick up as much as he wants. I'm afraid that if we push him, he'll get turned off of reading. Better that he should just see us loving books and learn to love books in that way.

The WORLD is my classroom!

How exciting is that? I started thinking tonight about all the CRAZY things I end up doing and then I look at my two adorable children and I realize that they are learning every step of the way. We went to the mall with Mary. While we were there Jacob continually pointed at signs reading off the letters and asking what the words said. Tonight in the car on our way home from visiting grandparents he sings out from his carseat "ONE WAY!" (to the tune of "The Sign Song" from Electric Company) as we passed a sign that said ONE WAY on a aptly signed street. Walking out the church doors a few weeks back he exclaims excitedly "There! There is the word FIRE!" I don't remember ever *teaching* him the word "fire".

I love learning from the kids and realizing that we are learning and teaching every moment of our days, every step along the way. What a blessed way to live.

I've been staying up late the last few nights because after chatting with Mary in the van to Michigan City and back I found a new inspiration to really get our school figured out and up and running. I am busy planning lessons and field trips. We haven't been home a single day this week but the opportunities, interactions, learning experiences, and fun the kids had makes up for the piles of laundry that still sit, needing folded and put away.

I love being busy, I don't mind my messy house. I love that my kids know that Mo Willems is the author/illustrator of some of their favorite books, and today they got to give him a hug and a hello! (and he remembered them from the last time we saw him!)

We are blessed to have such a rich, exciting, hands-on classroom and school is going to be one big experience after another of interacting with our friends, family and environment!

This year is going to be one of our best years ever, because I am embracing our classroom: the world around us. I am creating experiences and days full of excitement, laughter and learning that is camouflaged as just having fun!