Kids are great--Day 165/Day 14/Day 25/Day 3

One of the first things I saw when I got home was Gabrielle sitting on the kitchen floor staring at her Awana book with a exasperated look on her face. I asked her what was wrong. She said she was trying to learn all the books of the new testament, but she can't. First, I asked her not to say that word. The word "can't" is almost never helpful. Secondly, I asked her to not look at the page that had all the books on it. I asked her to look at the pages from the week before. The first week she learned Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, I Corinthians, and II Corinthians were the first seven books. Last week she was able to go through the second list (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I Thessalonians, II Thessalonians, I Timothy, II Timothy and Titus) and the last list (Philemon, Hebrews, James, I Peter, II Peter, I John, II John, III John, Jude, and Revelations). I asked her to take a glance at those pages again. She rattled off the first seven right away. She had a little trouble with the next 9, but not too much. I asked her about the last 10 and she said she hadn't looked at that list yet. I reminded her she did it just last week and started her off with "Philemon...". She thought about it for a second and started going through that list as well. She always gets stuck on Revelations for some reason. She gets to it this time and says "Don't tell me, don't tell me.............Rev...Reva...Rev...REVELATIONS!!" She gave me a pretty solid high-five and I asked her about them again later. She hardly got stuck at all. I asked her during dinner what the first book of the New Testament was and after a little bit of thought she came up with Matthew. I asked her if she knew what the last book was and she said Revelations after thinking about that one as well. I like that she is open to doing this with me because I am learning too. I wouldn't know the verses I know without going over them with her so often and I wouldn't know the books of the New Testament either. She's been a big help to me and I hope I'm helping her as well. Colton doesn't need as much help with his homework, but he occasionally asks for it and I'll help. I try to go over what he has written as well. Last night he was pretty proud he had finished his first book.

Noah didn't want to play blocks on the floor tonight. He wanted to play in my lap. That's one thing I enjoy about having children. Sometimes they like to be very close. They like to be cuddled right up next to you. Colton is still like that in some ways. When I was looking at another A on a paper last night, he comes up behind me, puts his arm around me, and tells me about the test. I put my arm around him as well and he tells me about the other A as well. I show Gabrielle the 100% he had gotten and tell her she is very smart as well, so I expect at least 102% on all her tests. "Daaaaaad...", she says. Colton has to chime in, "Yeah, you should be getting A THOUSAND percent on your papers!" Sincerly though, I hope they both continue to do well in school.

After blocks, Noah noticed the flash cards and said he was "All done" with the blocks. He grabs the flash cards, grabs one out with a three on it and says "Six, seven...". I show him one with 6 on it and count out the 6 fish pointing at each one of them with my finger. He takes it and points all over the card very quickly "six, seven, eight, TENNNN!" I'm surprised how quickly he's learned his numbers. Kim's gone over them with him more than I have which is why I was surprised when he said "seventeen, eighteen" when picking up a couple cards. That's another great thing about having children: being able to watch them learn and grow.

I created a card today with Ephesians 1:3-8 on it today and read it several times. I have not yet read all of Ephesians, but I intend to do so a couple times before the next class. I also read the third chapter of A Purpose Driven Life. It was also very good. He's doing a very good job at laying down the basics and trying to break down personal barriers or walls that people may put up for themselves. This will allow us to better receive the later chapters in the book.

I'm going to try to put up pictures more often on this blog. Here's a couple of them. They all have nice smiles in the first, and Noah unexpectedly looked at the camera in the second. I really like it.


Happy kids before bedtime...



Praying...