Purposeful and Deliberate Homemaking
So, I finally did it, I created my own blog space! For some time now I have wanted to share my journey through motherhood. Being a mom can be so difficult. My life has been a fog of diaper changes, laundry, thrown food, missed showers and toddler talk. I went from living for myself to…
We wrapped May up with The Quiet Way Home by Bonny Becker, illustrations by Benrei Huang. The story follows a little girl and her father as they walk home from school. Not the way of the rumbling trucks or growling dogs, but the way the whirring grasshoppers and humming honeybees go. We experienced the beauty of the softer, quieter things while we explored our environment, rather than the rough and tumble of our ordinarily loud lives.
The world is bursting with art that even Micah and Skye can see and appreciate. All around us, flowers were blooming, trees were filling with flowers that faded into an array of greens, the sky became a bright blue, the sun lit up the world brightening the colors under it… May was the perfect month in Washington to read I Am an Artist together.
We finished April strong with The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Crockett Johnson. Through following the little boy’s carrot gardening journey, we learned the importance of working carefully and never giving up, even when those around you don’t believe in your dream. After all, good things come to those who wait and work with patience and diligence.
For the first two weeks in April leading up to Easter, I decided to read If Jesus Came to My House by Joan G. Thomas. We learned and practiced hospitality, kindness, putting others first, and Jesus as the little boy in the story explains all the things he would do for Jesus and others in His name. Then, for the week leading up to Easter, I mixed in a devotional beginning with Psalm Sunday and ending with Easter Sunday.
We finished March with The Little Rabbit by Judy Dunn, a level one Step into Reading. I loved this book because the words and sentences were so simple, Micah began ‘reading’ along with me. He was really just reciting what he memorized, but he pointed to pictures as he ‘read’ and started making connections. We followed Sarah as she told everyone about her new rabbit, Buttercup. This was also the first photograph book we’ve read so far, so it was fun to compare the illustrations from The Little Rabbit to other rabbit books we’ve read so far, like The Runaway Bunny.
We started March off with The Big Green Pocketbook by Candice Ransom. If I’m being completely honest, I chose this book for March because it’s about green… And, well, you know… St. Patrick’s Day and all. Even so, it ended up being the perfect book for us. It’s all about a girl and her mother just going about their day doing errands. Then, plot twist, the little girl loses her beloved green pocketbook containing her whole morning! What does she do when she realizes its missing? How does she feel? How does she respond when the kindness of a stranger prompts the return of her pocketbook? Well, that’s the best part of the book- exploring the answers with your child!
I love reading books with Micah that describe a mother’s love for her children. So, I was more than happy to end February with Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown. In this story, a mother bunny follows her little bunny everywhere he runs, just to welcome him back home when he discovers that’s where he wants to be after all.
Who isn’t ready for a good nature study?! We started February with the Caldecott Honor book Play with Me by Marrie Hall Ets. This simple, cute story is about a young girl who is curious about nature. Through her experience within nature the girl learns how to appreciate wild things, and that animals in nature are different than things in our everyday world. After struggling to catch all the wonderful creatures she finds, she learns that to appreciate nature she must be quiet and still and observe the animals as they go about their day.
Hands-down, Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? was Micah’s absolute favorite so far. I think it was a combination of him being developmentally ready, and the fact that he could go through his entire day making choices like Jesse Bear. Whatever the reason, it was obvious how proud and excited he was to make ‘big’ decisions about his day.
The Snowy Day was perfect for January! And it helped that it actually snowed for the last week of our study! Snow seems to be rare where we live in Washington, not sure that’s a bad thing, but the timing was just right to squeeze out a few fun snow days for a winter study.