Oh, how this photo makes me want to stop time! It reveals way too many rites of passage for my sweet 6-year-old Kennah:

• Although you can’t see it in her smile, she just lost her first tooth two weeks ago.
• Today she got a haircut — and for the first time requested bangs (even though several older friends cautioned her that the forehead fringe, with its constant need for trimming, is “too stressful”).
• After the haircut, she persuaded me to take her to the shoe store she’d visited the week before with her dad to buy tennis shoes. While there, she’d spotted a pair of “high-heeled boots” that were “just her size,” and she wanted me to see them, too. Lucky for her, they were still there — and on clearance.
• Of course, then she needed an outfit to wear with the boots , so we went next door to Target, where for the first time she spent her Christmas money not on a toy, but on clothes and a headband that she picked out herself. Especially eye-opening for me was the realization that she no longer fits into the “T” (for toddler)-size clothes but has now crossed the aisle into the “Girls” section. (I was so relieved that she didn’t even consider the otherwise adorable floral skirt that, upon closer inspection, also featured pink skulls! Seriously?)

I really can’t take too many more “firsts” right now, so I hope we’re done with them for awhile. I’d like a little more time to enjoy this particular age (and stage) of my all-too-quickly-growing-up girl.

… Homeschooling Life musings to share (answering prompts from The Homeschool Mother’s Journal):

1. In my life this week I was once again reminded that time simply won’t stand still, no matter how much I might like it to. Ever since my oldest son (Kellen, now 11) was of kindergarten age, we’ve participated in C.A.S.A. Vida, a once-a-week enrichment program for homeschoolers offered by local a public-school district. Two years later, he was joined by his younger brother (Kerrick, now 9). And this year, as the traditional school year began, I realized that we had approached some major milestones. Thursday marked not only the first day of Kellen’s last year of the program (which ends after sixth grade), but also the first day of the first year for his younger sister (Kennah, 5), who shares the same beloved kindergarten teacher that her two older brothers had. I managed to keep myself busy while they were gone all day — especially with the help of my littlest Little (Keillor, 3) — but all I could think of was how empty our house (and my life) would be if I they went away to school every day. Author Elizabeth Stone likens motherhood to having “your heart go walking around outside your body,” and that is exactly how I felt as I watched Kennah — dwarfed by her brand-new, sparkly-pink princess backpack and matching lunch box — walk into the classroom with the other kindergartners. Of course, she had a terrific time and can’t wait to go back. And of course, I know I need to let go a little. But that doesn’t make it easy. I don’t even want to envision what it will be like when Keillor heads down the same hallway two years from now — though I’m betting the backpack in that picture will look a bit different.

2. In our homeschool this week I began teaching my third child to read — something that in my pre-parenthood days I never imagined I would do. What’s interesting is that — thanks to my retired-teacher mom, who saved some of her favorite curriculum from her teaching days — I’ve been using the same program that was in vogue at my small-town public school when I was learning to read: Open Court (the 1973 version), which differs from most other reading programs in that it teaches long vowel sounds before short. It’s so fun to see the light come on in their little brains when they start to understand the ways that letters work together to express words, sentences, paragraphs, stories and ideas. Kennah’s first reading words (which form her first oh-so-simple reading sentence) are “See me.” (The accompanying illustration shows a clown looking into a mirror as he gets ready for a circus performance.) Can’t wait to hear her read the rest of the story.

3. Things I’m working on include our homeschool room, which I’ve spent much of the summer purging, cleaning, organizing and streamlining. I’m still not finished — there are a few more big piles to tackle as I decide what works, what doesn’t, what’s worth keeping and what to pass along (there’s that “letting-go” thing again!). But it’s a much neater and more welcoming space for all of us to use as we get back into a regular school routine. I’m also gearing up for another year of tutoring for a tuition-based homeschool program called Classical Conversations. This is my second year tutoring seventh-graders in six different subject areas: math, Latin, writing/literature, geography, science and rhetoric. I’m pretty sure I acquired as much knowledge as much as my students did last year, and I can’t wait to do it all again. This week, I’ve been busy reworking my personal stash of Latin flashcards to make them more user-friendly. Though it’s not a part of the curriculum, I’m throwing in a phrase supposedly uttered by Michelangelo toward the end of his life (and that I’ve adopted for my class motto): “Ancora imparo,” which means “I am still learning.”

4. I’m reading two books: Lumber Camp Library, by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, and The Peacemaker, by Ken Sande. The first one I’m reading alongside my sixth-grade son, with plans to discuss its characters, setting, plot and theme using a simplified version of the Socratic method as outlined in Teaching the Classics, by Adam and Missy Andrews. The second I’m reading as part of my Classical Conversations training, with the idea that I’ll gain some wisdom for handling conflict effectively and from a Biblical viewpoint.

5. I’m grateful for the encouragement of a new friend, Sue (a k a The Homeschool Chick), to get back to blogging. Her prompts — shared every Friday in The Homeschool Mother’s Journal on her site, www.thehomeschoolchick.com — helped me pull this post together. I’m sharing it in today’s link-up, along with some other homeschool moms who’ve written about what’s happening right now in their lives.

6. A video link to share that pretty much sums up my thoughts at the end of this momentous week is Stephen Curtis Chapman singing Cinderella (who, incidentally, is the favorite princess of my own little growing-up-all-too-quickly princess).

Last year, Kennah and I made super fancy matching Easter dresses for her and her baby doll, Mary (click here to take a look back). We wanted to continue the tradition this year, but we didn’t have time to make anything elaborate. So we were amazed and grateful when a neat opportunity came along for us to not only carry on our tradition, but also to participate in an upcoming project at our place of worship, Grace Community Church in Tempe, Arizona. Two weeks from now, Grace will host an event called Dress a Girl Around the World. Kennah and I will gather with a whole bunch of other girls both big and small to sew dresses for an organization called Hope 4 Women International, which delivers handmade dresses to impoverished girls in almost 40 countries worldwide. Our goal is to make 200 “pillowcase dresses” (so called because they can be made with a pillowcase and just a few other supplies) in just two hours! After exploring the organization’s website (click here to view it), Kennah and I were inspired to make some of these simple dresses for her and Mary to wear on Easter (we didn’t use actual pillowcases, but selected our own fabric and sewed it into pillowcase shapes before making the dresses), as well as a matching one for an unknown girl whom we’ve been calling “our friend around the world.” Maybe someday we’ll find out the name of the girl who receives the twin to Kennah’s dress, but even if we don’t, we’ll know that another little girl somewhere, as Kennah puts it, “has at least one dress, and we match.”

… fun facts about Kennah:

1. Her first name is the Irish feminine form of “Kenneth,” which means “handsome.” Her middle name is Maire—a playful spelling variation (also Irish) on the name Mary, which features prominently in her ancestry.

2. She loves Cinderella (the movie—and the many books we’ve found based on the traditional tale).

3. The above image—which I call “Sleeping Beauty” (I know, wrong princess)—is one of my favorite photos I have ever taken of her. Here, she is 3 1/2 years old and totally sacked out (in all of her finery, mind you) just before her cousin’s San Diego wedding.

4. Her personality can best be summed up by the slogan on a Tinkerbell T-shirt given to her by another cousin: “Sassy but Sweet.” (Which, by the way, is essential to her survival in a house full of brothers.)

5. Her favorite color is pink—or, more precisely, Pinkalicious, as in the book by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann. To hear her “read” (a k a “recite from memory”) the book, click the audio button below:

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6. She is 5 years old today! Happy birthday, Pretty Princess!

Ever since her brothers got their summer haircuts in June (see Boys of Summer) and several of her friends began to sport shorter hair, Kennah has been talking about having her own hair cut. At first I resisted; after all, it had taken her tresses quite awhile to get to the middle of her back, and we’d only trimmed it once in her four and a half years (see Girls Just Wanna Have Fun). But after almost a month of daily swimming lessons and other pool fun, her blond locks were showing the effects of the chlorine and turning into a tangled, sticky mess. So this morning we did it! We made sure that we would still be able to pull her hair back into a ponytail or braid it at its shorter length, and then we started cutting. I hadn’t intended to go quite this short. I always forget that wet hair springs up a little as it dries (just ask my sisters, on whose bangs I grew up practicing my hair-cutting skills!). But Kennah is thrilled with it and even let me style it a bit with the blow drier and some hair clips. It’s a good thing I took this photo right away, though, because a few minutes after I did, I noticed that she had taken the hair clips out.

Goodwin children (from left: Brenda, Nora, Sonya and Kenneth); Safford, Arizona; 1974.

Hemmings children (from left: Keillor, Kerrick, Kennah and Kellen); Tempe, Arizona; 2010.

I thought it would be fun to show my sisters and I wearing the coordinating Easter dresses my mom made for us when we were young, and then show Kennah wearing the dress I made for her this year. (My brother and my sons had to settle for store-bought attire in these photos, but I’ve promised my boys that I’ll try to at least give their Easter shirts some mom-made attention next year.) Here are a few more fun shots of Kennah (and her baby doll, Mary) wearing their matching dresses. (I don’t know how my mom made three whole dresses for her daughters several years in a row! It was all I could manage to put together one dress—plus a quarter-size replica—in the weeks leading up to today!)

Kennah in her "sparkly pink butterfly" confection—because it reminds me of cotton candy—of an Easter dress.

Perfect match: Kennah and Mary.

…from Kellen (who created an army of candy-covered robots)…

…from Kerrick (who assembled button-candy cell phones with sweet text messages)…

…and from Kennah (who combined beauty and brains—in the form of fancy folded cardstock rings wrapped around rolls of Smarties) in her creations.

Handmade valentines are a tradition at our house (though I admit that sometimes we all look longingly at the hassle-free boxed cards at the store—complete with elaborate treats or cute tattoos). These are the designs the kids chose this year (from one of the places we usually look for ideas, www.familyfun.com). With a little (OK, a lot of) encouragement from me, they worked really hard for several days to cut out, color, glue or tape and address each one. Kellen, Kerrick and Kennah were so proud of their painstaking efforts and excited to give the end results to their friends. And the projects did kick some character-building qualities—creativity, problem-solving and stick-to-it-iveness—into high gear for each of them. It was enough to warm this crafty mom’s heart—at least until this time next year, when we get set to do it all again. Gotta L-O-V-E it!

All year long, Kellen and Kerrick each worked to fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, a mission project coordinated by the Samaritan’s Purse relief organization. Every December, Samaritan’s Purse delivers the boxes—containing fun things such as toys and candy, as well as essentials like toothpaste and soap—to impoverished children all over the world.

This was our first year to participate, and the boys kicked off their efforts in January by purchasing plastic shoebox-size containers. (We debated at length about whether to use plastic or actual cardboard shoeboxes—favorable because we’d be recycling and the box would be biodegradable. But in the end, plastic won out because we thought the recipients might appreciate a more durable, waterproof container that could later be used for another purpose.)  Kellen and Kerrick each opted to fill a box for a boy in their age group (5 to 8 years old) and—following the guidelines outlined on the organization’s Web site—they made lists of the items they wanted to include. The next order of business was planning their purchases. (I need to explain here that anytime the boys earn or receive money, they are required to divide it into “save,” “share” and “spend” categories. With this year’s project in mind, their “share” money quickly became allocated for shoebox items.)

Our shopping excursions provided plenty of lessons in budgeting (the boys learned to make their money stretch by looking for sales and by buying some items—pencils, toothbrushes—in bulk that could be split between their boxes). And, with a little coaxing, they even turned their joint birthday party into an opportunity to draw their friends into the fun, requesting voluntary donations in lieu of any gifts.

By November, Kellen and Kerrick had filled the shoeboxes to the brim with the following items:
• Clothing (shirts, underwear, socks)
• Candy
• School supplies (pencils and sharpener, erasers, crayons, paper)
• Toiletries (toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap)
• Toys (Hot Wheels, LEGOs, Playmobil figures, tennis ball)
• A letter from—and photo of—each boy

Kellen’s shoebox stuff. . .

. . .and Kerrick’s.

When we discovered that the church we attend would serve as a collection place for shoebox donations this year, we scheduled an afternoon when we could both drop off the boxes and volunteer to help with collection efforts. The day we were there wasn’t a particularly busy one, but Kellen and Kerrick still got to help put rubber bands around all of the boxes that came in and load them into larger cartons that were packed into 40-foot semi-truck trailers to be hauled to regional sorting centers. The highlight for the boys was getting to climb inside one of the trailers and pose for a photo. (Kennah even got in on the action, and has decided that she wants to fill her own shoebox—for a girl her age—next year. Of course, knowing Kennah’s fascination with footwear, chances are pretty good that her shoebox will actually contain at least one pair of shoes.)

Several days before Christmas, we learned that our shoeboxes were both delivered to children in Peru. So the learning experience can continue as we find out more about that country and what life might be like for the boys who received Kellen’s and Kerrick’s gifts. And a slim possibility exists that we might actually hear directly from the children who opened our boxes. But even if we never do, we know we helped make two Christmases a little brighter, and we can’t wait to do it all over again next year!