Life is made up of many pieces, like a puzzle. Here I attempt to put them all together.

Monday, May 31, 2010

How Children Learn

Howard Gardner suggested that there are eight basic intelligences. 

1. Bodily - Kinesthetic: Movement and doing.
2. Interpersonal: Interaction with others.

3. Verbal - Linguistic: Words (spoken and written).
4. Logical - Mathematical: Logic, abstraction, inductive/deductive reasoning and numbers.
5. Naturalistic: Nature, nurture and relating information to one's natural surroundings.

6. Intrapersonal: Introspective and self-reflective capacities.

7. Visual-Spatial: Vision and spatial judgement.

8. Musical: Rhythm, music and hearing.

Some have proposed somewhat different classifications such as simply visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Others have proposed adding "spritiual" and "existential" to the list of intelligences.

However the learning styles are categorized it is clear that each person learns differently with a unique mix of strengths and weaknesses. The job of the caregiver is to provide each child with the learning experiences best suited to him or her. Lesson plans and activities provided for the children need to take into account the individual characteristics of the child/children planned for, with plenty of time allowed for each child to explore on his or her own in the ways most suitable to that individual.

Genesis 8

1. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and He sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
2. Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.
3. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down.
4. and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
5. The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. 
6. After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark
7. and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
8. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.
9. But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.
10. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
11. When the dove returned to him in the evening there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
12. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13. By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
14. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15. Then God said to Noah,
16. "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.
17. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you - the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground - so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it."
18. So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives.
19. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds - everything that moves on the earth - came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
21. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in His heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."

My Thoughts

The first few words of the first verse of this chapter really caught my eye. "But God remembered Noah." I'm sure it would have been easy for Noah to wonder if maybe God forgot him during his time riding out this storm in a big boat full of animals. But God never forgets His people. And God never forgets you. Or me.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Adventures at Rose's House - Wednesday May 26, 2010

Michael had one of those days of tears and tantrums that nearly had me in tears today. I took this picture to show him and make him laugh. It worked - for about two minutes.


Thankfully Doug was off work today so he took him along on some errands. To the landfill, the grocery store, the hardware store. And then to the children's program at church this evening. Michael is always happy to be on the go with Daddy.


It didn't rain today! But the grass was still really really wet so played on the front porch this morning.

Building with blocks was a popular pastime.





I love this series of pictures where Hunter, Lauren and Dynasty are building a tower. The expressions on their faces are priceless, especially when it falls over. 








This toy kept Landon's attention for most of the morning. Some of the buttons he had trouble with so we had a chance to work on some motor skills. And lots and lots of speech work while we talked about the characters and what they were doing - hiding, in, out, where did they go?, etc.


Destiny, Dynasty and Kaleb having a little chat.






Amanda helped the kids with their craft today.





We also played with our number puzzles again.




By this afternoon it had dried off enough that we could play in the backyard.










We bought a baby carrier so that I can work and carry the baby around when he needs to held. It worked well and he liked it. And I liked having my hands free to be able to attend to the other kids.


And those are are adventures for today. More fun on the way tomorrow!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Adventures at Rose's House

Well, I didn't oversleep this morning, but neither did I sleep very well last night. One of our kids who isn't usually here at night had to stay over and had a restless night. She was sleeping on the couch and fell off several times during the night which is very unusual for her. And each time she rolled off I had to go help her back up and make sure she was okay. I don't think we'll try that again. At least not that couch. We have another one that is wider that she has slept on before with no trouble.

Since we have a teeny tiny baby in the house again four to six days a week we've needed another baby swing. Our last two babies, eighteen months ago, wore out our old swing so Doug bought a new one today and had Austin assemble it. He did a great job and now it's ready for Kaleb to try out tomorrow.











Hunter had so much fun catching and watching an ant this morning and I had almost as much fun watching.









Poor Liam came home from school today with piles of homework that has to be finished by the end of the week because he is going with his family to Florida the last week of school. He took it with good humor though and I know when he gets to Florida he'll know it was worth it. Michael thinks it looks like fun.


Austin and Tristan filling plates for dinner. On the menu this evening was BBQ chicken drumsticks (in the slow cooker all day, making the whole house smell wonderful), cheddar bacon potatoes, peaches, butter bread and milk.



I"m not exactly sure why Amanda wanted to do this but she climbed in the high chair and yelled for me to take her picture.


Doug was amusing himself watching Cayson try to ride in the dump truck. It just wasn't working to well.




I guess it's the little things that keep us going.