Kitchen Rabbits

We have a pet rabbit. It is currently located in the kitchen, due to renovations in the basement. It was supposed to be temporary, but building has taken many months more than expected. He’s just a part of the kitchen decor now.

My fifteen month old daughter started calling him “bunnee” a few months ago. About a month ago it progressed to “rabbee” and then a week ago the “t” was finally added - “rabbeet.”

She understands fully what a rabbit is, identifying wild rabbits on our lawns, Bugs Bunny on someone’s shirt, and bunnies in books. Last Wednesday, we were at a friend’s house, helping with some painting. My youngest toddled around the kitchen saying, “Rabeet. Rabeet.” I didn’t think much of it. My friend’s mom is an artist. I thought maybe one of the many art pieces had a rabbit on it.

Then today, at another friend’s house, my daughter kept looking around the kitchen floor saying “Rabeet. Rabeet.”

It suddenly twigged on me and I realized she was looking for a rabbit. She has decided that all good kitchens should have there very own “rabeets!”

Thank you Little One for your beautiful innocence and simplicity. It blessed my day. Thank you Lord for the “least of these” who are everything to me.

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In J.M. Adler’s How to Read a Book, he discusses the need to answer four main questions:

What is this book about? (What is the leading theme of the book and how does the author develop the theme?)

What of it? (What significance will this book have for me?)

I think these are great questions to ask my children when we read our books, even our picture books. I want for my children to be discerning readers. I want for them to be discerning Christians:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

I’ve been working on our school ‘omnibuses’ (lists of books I want to read-aloud, or I want them to read for themselves) for the upcoming year and I’m excited about the possibility that my oldest might begin putting up her own “book reviews.” Mr Pages and I thought this would be a wonderful way to teach them a myriad of skills - not only discernment but reading, outlining, summarizing, writing, grammar, spelling, etc.

The best part of all: she thinks it will be fun and can’t wait to start!

I love homeschooling!

One of the things that didn’t sit well with me after reading the Well Trained Mind was in the area of faith. Susan Wise Bauer recommends 10-15 minutes a day as art of family time in the grammar and logic stages and with no time suggestion, just as part of family time in the rhetoric stage.

When I first started my classical journey, I followed this recomendation. Everyday we dutifully did our 15 minutes. Slowly I realized what was bothering me. Religion was just another subject that I was doing during the day - like phonics and copywork. It had been relegated to an item on our to-do list.

That realization, among other things, eventually led me to the Bluedorns. Harvey and Laurie recommend two half-hour family worship times. This seemed to allow our family more time to get into the Word, to pray a little, and to sing together.

And yet really, it’s still not enough time. God is so unfathomable, so incredibly good, so ultimately loving, that their are not enough hours in the day to sing His praise, to study His Words, to commune with the Creator of all.

And that’s most what I want my children to see, to learn, to experience. God cannot be relegated to a few simple time slots. He must be woven into the vary fabric of our existence. He needs to be a part of phonics, and spelling, and reading, and learning to tie one’s shoes.

Sometimes I struggle with how exactly to do that - to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus. I have learned that rising early and spending time with Him alone is pretty much the only way I can succeed. I need to pray, and to study and memorize His Word. As I learn to do those things, I can then teach them to my children. As I learn to see God within the fleeting moments on my day, my children will hopefuly see Him too. As I let Him mold and change me into the image of His glorious Son, so hopefully, shall my children let themselves be changed too!

So tell me, how are you working on weaving Him into all the moments of
your day?