{Genius Burns}

It's felt good to fall back into a routine again. I spent a lot of time over Christmas break praying, reading and pondering over how to add a bit more zest into the school day for Little Miss as we entered the new year. I want her to love learning, and sometimes that means (A LOT OF) extra work. But it's been so worth it to see her skipping through the house, spontaneously attacking me with hugs and waking up with a smile. (Or at least waking up without glaring at the world.)

Lately she's been interested in veterinarians, saying that she wants to be one when she grows up. As she continued to allude to this desire over break, I began to pull together animal books from around the house. My mind starting bubbling over with ideas, which was truly a blessed answer to prayer. I decided to use James Herriot's delightful stories as a springboard for our lessons over the next few weeks.

This week we're studying cats and making a little lapbook to go along with the poems, stories and facts that we collect along the way. She loves making lapbooks, but she and I have a tendency to . . . butt heads in the process. I frequently find myself telling her how to correctly place things (so the booklets open properly, so that the words fit on the page, so the wrong end doesn't get glued shut, etc.) but she would rather do it all on her own. She became content to do it "my way" when she came up with a plan to make her own book on the side. "I can put things wherever I want!"

Now I just need to encourage her to use paper in a more efficient manner.   

This evening I found the lapbook that's all her own, and was charmed by her work. (Funny how that happens.) She had hastily completed it in one day, but, among other things it included a story and a poem:

The Story of the Girl Who Became a Vet

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Avery who wanted to be a vet. She did mostly animals that she learned about in school, cause she told her mother. She did the James Heriott stories cause the stories are only about animals. today she read Moses the Kitten. it was a black tom kitten. She always wanted a kitten. then she finally got two! she was really happy that she got two whole cats. THE end.

Puppys
by Avery Lawson

Puppys are cute,
but the problem with them
is that you can't make them mute.


Clearly I have a Jo March on my hands. Genius burns.