It's Rebekah again!

About two weeks ago, we were able to take our instruments and play at the nursing homes again. It was great and we had a wonderful time. For this trip, I played The Solid Rock with my mom accompanying me on piano. With Isaac on bass, Christina on violin, and me on my harp, we did All Creatures of Our God and King. At the nursing home without a piano, I did Ode to Joy as a solo. I think this trip was better than the last which must show that I am improving. I have started playing more songs with two hands instead of one. In March, I might be performing in the morning service at church with another Rebecca who plays the violin. I'll write again and let you know how it went.

I have also gotten my bottom braces only yesterday so my teeth are sore. This time I got pink elastics partly because I am trying out different colors and also because at my previous appointment I had gotten blue and when Isaiah saw them, he announced that he wanted me to get pink. When I got home yesterday, I showed them to him and guess what he said! "Now I want purple!" Oh well. I probably won't get purple.

For New Years Eve, we went to our friends' house (Isaac and Ella). It was very fun. They had just gotten an air hockey table so we had a tournament! I didn't do that bad, but my dad came in second place after a tense 30 minute battle with Uncle Ben! Some other games we played were Mennonite Manners, Psychiatrist and a game where everyone writes three things about themselves, one of which is a lie. Then you try to guess who wrote what.

In Mennonite Manners, everyone has a piece of paper. There is one pen or pencil and one die. Everyone starts rolling and whoever gets a 6 first, grabs the pen and starts writing 1 to 100 as fast as they can. Everyone else keeps rolling and if you get a 6, you grab the pen and start writing. It is very hectic as everyone is grabbing for the pen, but very fun. In Psychiatrist, there is something wrong with everyone and it is the psychiatrist's job to find out what by asking questions of everyone. We ended up playing games until 2:30 in the morning!

About a week ago, we went to a ladies tea at my friend Rebecca's house. Included was a 5 hour movie called Cranford about a little town named, (you guessed it!) Cranford. There were three courses of food, all of which were delicious. There were scones, fruit, salad, chocolate covered strawberries and three kinds of sandwiches, to name a few ! All the ladies and girls brought knitting or sewing to work on. All together we had a wonderful time.

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Well, Rebekah disappeared, so I (Sandra) will go ahead and post this entry, ready or not! We got snow today, and I am right now watching her and Elijah whizzing down the hill on their sleds. It looks like they are trying to go into the creek, although I am sure that could not be possible:)

Elijah is so light that he only makes contact with his sled about half the time, and so far he has bounced off into the sandbox twice and hit the swingset at least once. My heart always stops when I see that, because after he hits the pole he just lays there, motionless and contorted for a few moments--gathering his wits, I guess, because he always gets up, eats a mouthful of snow, and goes back up for another run.

I love that the children are such good friends with one other. Rebekah is 13 and Elijah is 6, but they don't seem to be aware of the age difference and they truly enjoy each other's company. I think that one of the beautiful side-effects of our decision to homeschool is that the children haven't learned to break people into segregated units by age, gender, and status. They don't function inside of cliques, they don't waste time trying to be cool, nor do they have to change who they are in order to fit in.

I always smile when people bring up their concerns over whether my children will be "socialized" enough to function in the "real world". Do they have a mental picture of Jamey hammering boards over the windows as the children peer through bars on the front door? Really? Homeschooling is not the easiest path for a family to take, and I have not met anyone who made that decision in order to prepare their children to live on their own personal planet someday. We all want our children to grow into competent, caring adults. Those of us who homeschool choose this path because we believe we can best achieve that goal by allowing our children to learn in an environment infused with love and faith, and full of rich learning experiences, diverse opportunities for service and ministry, fellowship, and field trips. (Some weeks, we are out more than we are in!) Add to that, daily encouragement from the people who love you more than anyone else on earth, numerous lessons in patience and forgiveness (often provided by younger siblings:), and opportunities to give and receive grace on a regular basis, and I think you have a very well rounded educational experience.

Although the majority of our day is full of scheduled (and rigorous) schoolwork, when "real world" needs touch our family, we can respond quickly. We want the children to be academically excellent, but more than anything, we want them to grow up with hearts full of love for God and for other people. We hope that when they see that we drop everything on our schedule in order to bring a meal to a sick friend, or deliver cookies to new neighbors, or spend the morning having tea with a great-grandmother, the children will realize that what matters in the "real world" is people.

And amazingly, we've found that socialization just kinda works itself out.