Walks and Talks

Something that I really love to do with my kids is take walks in our neighborhood. We are blessed to live in a neighborhood that is covered in trees and lots of wild life to observe. A little over a year ago Emily, J.Michael and I began walking for exercise and fun. We got serious about it and Google mapped our whole subdivision printing maps to make 2 mile routes. It was fun...we have a notebook of color coded routes that we rotate so that we cover our entire neighborhood on a two week rotation. I know this sounds so much like a home school Mom project! :)

The best part of these walks have been the great conversations we have been able to have. A time to hear what is on each others hearts and discuss what is going on that day in our studies, an article someone has read or discuss a scripture we have been wrestling with. We have even walked and sang hymns...this will make you out of breath and contrary to Snow White the deer actually run away from you instead of towards you when you do this.

Our walks have had interesting tales of meeting neighbors, finding deals at garage sales or curbside freebies! We have been caught in the rain (or waaaynin as Andrew calls it) We have been on the other end of the subdivision and heard thunder and prayed that we would make it home only to set foot on our driveway as the rain begins...amazing-(not because my feeble prayers bend the will of almighty God, but because He so graciously displays his power for His glory to us.)

I remember days not so long ago when Emily, J.Michael and I would talk about "one day" when their brother and sister are here they will be walking with us. Through God's faithfulness we are now living in those days. It is so exciting to experience our neighborhood through Andrew and Kathlena's eyes too. To see them get excited about seeing a deer or squirrel, to be startled by a passing car or hear a motorcycle to which Andrew shouts with glee "motorcycle!, motorcycle!" -in English. For now Andrew and Kathlena both ride in the stroller as 2 miles is too much for them to walk, but they are getting stronger and learning to love God's creation daily through these walks and talks.

A fun activity we do on our walks to help Andrew and Kathlena learn their numbers and pre-reading left to right skills is to read the numbers on the mailboxes. At first, only Andrew would do this but, now Kathlena is beginning to catch on and repeat what Andrew says. Andrew is most familiar at this point with single digits so I have him call them out this way. It goes something like this:



Mommy: "Andrew look at the green mailbox what number is it?"



Andrew: " one, seven"



Mommy: " good job, one, seven-seventeen"



Andrew: "good job, seventeen"



My favorite of Andrew's numbers is the number 9 which he pronounces "nion" like lion with an "n". Too cute! We also work on knowing our address which has become a game to find our house on the way back from our walks. He now loves to tell you his age and any time he hears the number "5" referenced he exclaims "5 like Andrew".