Week in Review: 1600-1750 and a few odds and ends

So, we're a bit over half way through our school year...HOPAC runs until the end of the 3rd week in June which is much later than our family usually runs school in the US...by about 6 weeks!  But, since Daddy will still be working, we'll still be doing school.

We are half way through our Tapestry Year, finishing up Week 27 (and Unit 3) of Year 2.

We've covered Elizabeth of England through George II
.... covered Pilgrim's Progress
.... learned about the Mayflower, Jamestown, Indians, and other settlers in North America
.... discovered Louis XIV, Frederick, Maria Theresa, and Catherine the Great
.... listened to Handel's music and learned about his life
.... learned about India and how it became a British "protectorate"
.... read a multitude of good books, both historical and literary
.... played Colonial Kid games and made a few crafts
.... drawn maps of New France, the 13 Colonies, and lots of places in Europe and Asia

It's been quite a semester, and that's just our Tapestry work!

I have an 8 year old that is in the last few lessons of his Math-U-See Delta book (equiv. to 4th grade math)...he is learning and mastering long division.  He is doing very well with his violin.  He loves learning about Chemistry for our Science class this year and can tell you about the different types of bonds that atoms can make.  He is starting to write stories, make up games, and his imagination knows no limits.

I also have a 6 year old that is now reading very well on his own.  He is in Book 3 of Explode the Code and reading the directions on his own now.  He can read his own story problems in his Math-U-See Alpha book...and he's learning subtraction, too.  His piano teacher was blown away today with how much he had practiced over the Christmas Break!

I have a 4 year old that is half way though learning her alphabet/letter sounds and how to write those letters.  She can write most of her numbers too and is quite a little artist and "follower" of all things that her brothers do.

Wonder what we'll be writing about come June?!

The kids' review and coloring pages from "Life in Colonial America"

The kids each have a "history book" that they draw a picture in while I'm reading to them each day.  They call them "history pages" and use Roman Numerals to keep track of them during each week.  Sissi has a picture of her running a "basket making shop", Gwangi drew the "trade triangle" between N.A., Europe, and Africa, and Krypto drew a picture of "the Great American Melting Pot."  You can see that we did a lot of reading that day.  It is so interesting to me how different things stick with different kids too.  I let them draw whatever they want...they each picked something totally unrelated.

Some other work...Gwangi working on his Kumon workbook about telling time and Sissi working on writing and matching her numbers 1-10.

While the younger two do their "workbook" and craft time with me, there is lots of talking and it's just too distracting for Krypto.  SO, he goes into my room and gets his History and Literature reading done. 

Gwangi is doing "Writing with Ease" Level 1, by Susan Wise Bauer.  He's really enjoying the Literature selections, the copywork, and the narrations.

Thanks Rykiels for a great gift.  Sissi loves to work on her 'magnet board' when I'm doing school with Gwangi and Krypto is off doing his reading.

The younger two can go play when they are done and that leaves Krypto and I together for some one-on-one school time.  We get his spelling done (Sequential Spelling), Writing with Ease Level 3, and First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind Level 3.  We also do a bit of narration and Socratic discussion about what he read for History and Literature that morning.  He gets the double load because he's also included in the read-alouds that I do with the younger two in the afternoon for History and Literature.

Krypto's visit to the Dentist

Well, we finally can say that we've had our first visit to the dentist in Tanzania.  

BUT, it was good...really good!

We got a referral from some friends, the Pastor from the International Baptist Church.  They said, go to the "Dental Studio" in the Sea Cliff Village.  

I went on line and he has a website that tells his story.

He is from Zambia, went to London when he was young for his schooling, college, and dental school.  He worked in a practice there; but, now that he has a family, he wanted to return to Africa to help bring updated dental practices to his native land.

He was awesome with the kids, has a wonderful, clean, and completely state of the art office and equipment.  The kids loved his 'light pen' that he swiped through Krypto's mouth and took pictures that then showed up on his laptop and iPad.

Totally, the way to go.  If you need some dental work done, check him out. 

Krypto's baby tooth has been sticking further and further out of his mouth and yet wasn't getting any looser.  The adult tooth was about a 1/4 of the way in, way behind the 'tooth line' and angling back, toward his throat.

In the chair, waiting for the numbing agent to take affect.

He brought along Dolphy for some moral support....still a favorite toy from the Gayer family - Spring Break San Antonio!

The 'after' shot.  Look at the hole.

A Birthday Party for Esther

On Sunday, Sissi and I attended a birthday party for a friend of ours from church and our homeschool co-op group.  There were games (and I do mean LOTS of games, Sid...you were amazing with all the games you came up with!), there was fellowship (it was so great to sit and talk to you Dawn, Charles, Eric and Marla, etc.), and there was food (oh yes, there was food, Becky, you should open a GF restaurant!)

We really enjoyed our time and were so happy that you shared it with us.  May Esther be blessed with many more years of fun, excitement, and love!  Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Sissi's hair for the party.  She wanted it to look like a heart, so we went to the Princess Hairstyles website and this is what we got.

Getting some directions for the first game.

Ummm, you're looking the wrong way girls!

Sissi is running for home!

The bean bag on the head game.  Super fun!

Here she is, we had some "holding"; but, she really tried to balance it with no hands.

Sissi and her friend Esther!!!

Have you made a Family Mission Statement for 2012 yet?

One of the blogs that I follow, Confessions of a Homeschooler, did a post about defining your Family Mission Statement for the year.  I loved the British WWII sign she chose that says "Keep Calm and Carry On."  I also love how she pointed out that the royal crown helps her to focus on the King!

You can see her blog post about it here -

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2012/01/our-family-mission-statement-2012.html

She also picked several Bible verses that her family would memorize and remind each other about this year.  The one that really stuck with me, and that we'll be using also, is James 1:20.  


"For the wrath of man (replace 'man' with your own name) does not produce the righteousness of God."


Whenever we allow ourselves to be angry with each other, we usually say or do something that we have to apologize for later.  It would be better if we could start controlling our anger (remember all those Proverbs we keep reading together ;)), and instead show the righteousness of God through grace and mercy to each other.  I pray we can focus more on that this year and remember that we're all in this together, we're a team, not each other's enemies...  Even on a rough, tiring, hot, frustrating day, let's stick together and not let our wrath take over and ruin the righteousness that God wants us to revel in.

I hope this gets you thinking and working on your own Family Mission Statement and Memory Verses for 2012.  Tell me what you come up with, how you work it into your routine, and how your family responds!

Back to School - Day 4 of 2012

We actually started back to school last week; but, it was an odd week, we just had school on Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday turned into a half day because of frustration and bad attitudes on the part of several members of the family (I'm included in that unfortunately.)  I've learned my lesson in the past, when everyone seems to be at their wit's end, and I'm ready to loose it....STOP!  There will always be another day to do school!

So, after lots of prayer this weekend, and a long prayer over the school table this AM, we started off our morning back in the Proverbs. One verse a day will be how we're going to start each day.  I had gotten away from that, we're going to add it back in after prayer and the pledge.  We talked about what "wisdom" is, what "understanding" is and what "instruction" is...it went well.

Our morning went along smoothly with all subjects completed (yahoo!), we didn't have any errands to run today, so the kids got a bit of play time after their work was done.  They said they wanted to play "church".  Hmmm, we haven't played that before, so I was along for the ride.  Krypto was the Pastor and he said we needed a name for our church...they came up with "The Cross".  Then he started off telling us all about how we're a "Christ Centered, Culture Creating, Community Church", and he sounded just like Charles Porter, our Pastor at the Ocean.  Charles, SOMEONE is listening to you and he got the explanations of each point down pat.  He and Gwangi then had us sing some songs and we split up so that Gwangi could do Children's Church with Sissi.  I went over to the door to listen in, it was the Nativity Story, very cute retelling, wish I had recorded it!  When we got back together, Krypto read Mark Chapter 1 and asked us questions about it and then they took an offering ;)...it was super cute!

We had lunch, quiet time, and then back to school.  This afternoon we did our Bible story, it was about Abraham and Lot dividing up the land.  Gwangi asked me what "pasture" was and I thought he said "pastor", so I go into this whole explanation about what a pastor is and he is looking at me so strangely.  Krypto pipes up and says "No, Mommy, passs-turrre." OH, got it!

We read a book about Handel for History and then were looking up different Youtube videos of his music.  When I typed in Handel's Messiah, we got the Flash Mob at Christmas of 2010 in the mall, the kids loved it...have you seen it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

We moved on to some Science and talking about covalent bonds.  I had them drawing O2 (hmmm, how do you make the 2 go low ;)???) and H2O (same problem here) and here is a picture of Sissi turning her drawings of covalent bonds into people.  Super funny!

Sissi turning her drawings of covalent bonds into people with faces and hair.

Then the boys got their math done while Sissi worked on some painting and we moved onto music practice, the end of our school day.  It is usually anti-climactic, not today.  We were in the middle of Krypto practicing his violin and the bow literally popped, cracked at the tip, and the hair fell out.  We were in shock!  He's played for 2.5 years and I've never seen anything like that.  In December the bridge broke, another first.  It's been glued and seems to be holding while we wait for a new bridge to cross the Atlantic...but we were still able to play; but, with no bow..... I'm thinking we're on a hiatus for a few weeks.  Hoping we can get a new one out here soon.  Violin parts, violins in general, are just not played by many people here, so you just can't get them locally.  One of the more frustrating parts of not being in the "land of plenty and the big Walmarts" ;).

A picture from last week, learning to write and organize our numbers using clothes pins and our Kumon book.

Clipping the number pins in order on our folder, she really enjoyed how hands on it was. Thanks to http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/ for all her great school ideas.

Uncle Jon and Aunt Maria, Gwangi built his own Lego Chess Board from the Lego Idea book you sent him.  Super cool and we can actually play on it.

Our hair style today....taken from http://www.princesshairstyles.com/  

Thanks to Jane for the ribbons!

My little "Dancing Princess"

Getting some handwriting done.

Working on the "Letter of the Week" - J

He's in Explode the Code Book 3 and moving right along!

For his "free time", while he's waiting for me to do reading, grammar, and writing with him, he built his own maze!

Round #2 of Christmas 2011

There are still several more packages from friends and family that are outstanding, in the mail, etc.... so I figured I better give the different posts "round" numbers!

Today we got two packages, yahoo!  We got the package from Uncle Jon and Aunt Maria, and also included in that package were gifts from Grandma Stamp.  We also were thankful to receive a package from one of my homeschool friends back in Colorado, June.

We are so grateful for you all, our friends and family, that take the time and energy and resources to bless us with things that remind us of home.  Things like books and movies that we can't find here, chocolate and scented candles that fill simple cravings that we can get here from time to time, and lots of neat toys and games that I think I'm going to use as "incentives" for school and good behavior (thanks June ;), I loved all the things you sent.)

Here's just a few pictures from opening the package from Uncle Jon and Aunt Maria.  I was able to open June's package by myself and so the chocolate is all MINE (ha, ha, ha)!!!!

We love sticker books, they are great for Sissi to work on when I'm doing things with the boys during school.  June, the coloring posters you sent will be awesome too, can't wait until she sees those, she'll LOVE them!

Oh YES!  My Lego boy was in heaven over this book!

My avid reader, more books to fill his ever searching mind!  For his birthday, we're getting him his own Kindle.  He uses mine everyday for school, now that he's moved to Upper Grammar in Tapestry and many of the books are available that way.  Plus we downloaded many Hentys, Ballantynes, Lamplighters, etc.... before we left the States.  Should make gifts for him easier in the future...Amazon gift cards ;)!

My very own Princess.  She loved the paper dolls, another project we can do during school time, and her 4th Barbie movie.  It's on the screen, being viewed, as we write! She is dancing up a storm too, and just asked if when she's older she can perform in the "stage show" for this and the Nutcracker (she also has Barbie Nutcracker and Swan Lake.)  Can't wait to get this girl some more dance lessons!

It's Tuesday...and still a New Year!

So, with my attempt to try and keep you all better updated as to what we're up to in our lives....here is another blog post, for Tuesday, the 3rd day of the New Year.

-Today we used an idea from our friend Amy, and I've moved our power cords around and have plugged in our fridge and freezer to outlets that are on different "phases" of power, so all of our food won't thaw out and go bad. Of course now we don't have power cords in our rooms for fans...but we'll move them back tonight, or Indy will try to find some others to buy.

-We've been updating our new credit card information with all of our 'auto bill pay' set ups (since it got compromised back in December, and we had to wait a couple of weeks to get the new ones that were mailed to us via FedEx.)

-Indy is out buying wood and nails to put in braces in the kids' closets.  The shelves are sagging quite a bit and I'm not sure they aren't going to come falling down any day now without some kind of support put in.

-We made last minute plans to have another HOPAC family over for dinner.  They are dealing with no water right now, makes our power problems seem less important.

-I printed off some new FREE CurrClick stuff for Sissi to work on, a kit about pronouns...she really has a hard time using he, she, his and her in the proper way.  She's already done several of the pages.  SO glad I have kids that enjoy doing school, even when it's not a school day.

-It's just 11 am here; but, I'm thinking this afternoon, during quiet time, I need to make good on my new commitment to the Journey Girls and get my Bible Reading for the day done (thanks ladies for the accountability), I need to get the bills done for the month, and get all the last minute prep done for school...which starts TOMORROW!

-Praying you all have a great day and that the motivation you need, to get through your 'to do' list, is yours, in abundance!

Sissi working on her 'he' and 'she' handwriting and 'cut and paste puzzle' pages

A cute video of Sissi, Grace, and her sister Lily.  They were playing violins, on sticks, at Muller Lodge.  They didn't always know the words to the songs, and that was what was so funny.  Enjoy!

And some days are just "normal"

After posting all about our wonderful trip to Lushoto...it hit me that we are returning to real life.  So often we tend to blog about the special, the out of the ordinary, and then we're giving the impression that our life isn't like everyone else's.  We still have chores to do, responsibilities to take care, and school will start up again for Indy at HOPAC, and the kids and I here at home, on Wednesday.  We got a jump start today and made the grocery, petrol for the generator, and cash run (it took 4 ATMs before we found one with cash, it's the beginning of the month...)

As we went along, I took some pictures, so you can see how "normal" our life really is usually!

We still deal with bugs and geckos on a daily basis...on our walls, our floors, behind our doors, and on our kitchen counters. This one was by my washing machine, outside the kitchen.

We still do laundry.  This was the 2nd load I did today, trying to catch up from a week long backlog.  Not many people here have dryers.  It is so hot that most things dry quickly.  Of course, the hot sun, and all the sweat, can be tough on your clothing, too.  Things seem to wear out here much more quickly!

Dishes are still there and have to be washed.  This was after breakfast.

The kids still like to watch cartoons.  This is our family room, it's connected to the school room and off of all the bedrooms.

Rooms still need to get picked up.  We do have a house worker that comes in and helps with many chores.  I still require the kids to straighten their beds and clean up their own toys though.  It obviously hasn't been done yet this AM.

Sissi hasn't taken care of her room yet either.

We still have to wash our veggies before we can use them.  Here they are drying after I soaked them in water and vinegar.

After grocery shopping, you have to put away your purchases.  Definitely not one of my favorite parts of getting groceries.

Kids still play, here Sissi is doing her play doh.

They still love to sit and read, here Krypto is reading an old "Peanuts" cartoon book he got for Christmas.  It was a gift to his Daddy back in 1980.

Gwangi still likes to play with his Legos.  Wish I had a Lego room so he could just spread out and not be in the middle of the school room/family room floor.

We're still dealing with power problems.  We have a phase out on our power (notice the one lightbulb that is not lit), so no power to run the washer, stove, fridge, freezer, bigger ACs unless we run the generator.  We've been running it for about 3 hours at a time, in the AM and the PM so we can keep the food chilled.  Tanesco keeps saying they'll get it fixed; but, it's been days!

Our newest purchase, installed on my birthday (December 3rd) is a battery inverter system.  It will run the sockets and lights in the primary area of the house and the electric fence/security lights, for up to 12 hours when Tanesco goes off.  It won't run the ACs, the kitchen at all, the dining room/living room or guest room.  Figured it was worth it though to have fans and power in the bedrooms and school room/family room during power outages.  Makes a big difference for us when we're home and doing school...sometimes, to keep your sanity in the heat, you just need a fan blowing on you!

Hope this gives you a little bit more of a realistic view of our "normal" life...at least on days when we aren't doing school.  I'll try to post a bit more about school, projects and games that we play, books we're reading, etc.  

The rest of our week, in pictures, in Lushoto, 2011!

I can hardly write any more words about our time in Lushoto, needless to say, it was fabulous.  I think the pictures say it all...here are a few from the rest of our week...Wednesday through Saturday.

A horned chameleon at the Muller Lodge.

Sissi and her great friend Grace.

I love hydrangeas (don't we Yvette and Kim? :))  These were different colors, on the same plant, loved it!

Playing violin on sticks at Muller Lodge.  I have video, it is hilarious!

The boys, with their friend Bethany, at the Mkuzi Waterfalls.  We planted a letterbox there ;)...

http://www.atlasquest.com/showinfo.html?gBoxId=187763

Sissi, smile....and this is what I get!

Lisa is reading a book and chill-axin...

What fun they had climbing all over the rocks and getting wet!

Thanks Lisa for taking our picture!

Jim and Lisa, take 2 ;)!

Our chocolate cake at the Swiss Farm Cottage.  We loved the wooden trivets they put dinner on too, notice the cut out of Tanzania.

We had some "rainy" day activities too.  Sissi and I worked on her Magnetic Mosaics.

Breakfast at the Swiss Farm Cottage....Gwangi was "playing with his food" and made Pinocchio!

Some reading on the rocks....somewhere in there is the letterbox we planted, too ;)!

Game day with the guys....playing the "Campaigns of King David" with Tony, Devin, and Jacob.

A view of the board.

Hike up the Magamba Rainforest Viewpoint.

Looking in a hole.  SO curious!

YES, it was VERY windy up there!

Some of the views of the corn fields on the side of the mountains.

Beautiful flowers at the Irente Viewpoint.

On the edge of a cliff (at the Irente Viewpoint) that you could literally go parasailing off of....the view shows you the highway from Mombo going to Arusha!

Two of my boys!

New Years Eve Glow Stick Dance Party!!!!  Thanks Medinas!

I did forget to mention, that before this Dance Party, Indy and a few other friends had spent a couple of hours with a Belgian couple that are touring Kenya and Tanzania.  They were talking about the "darkness" of Europe and how the church is out of touch with the people.  It was so interesting to hear about it from a European and really made us sad...that is where the Reformation took place! There is so much Church History in Europe.  What they were saying is that the churches are fading and disappearing and "religion" (or any kind of relationship with the Lord...though they don't want to think about it being that) is being replaced by intellectualism and an independence/segregation among the masses into classes.  If you think of it, please pray for all people groups; but, I know that I often forget about the need in other "First World" countries!  The people of Europe really do need your prayers.  We exchanged email addresses with this family and Indy hopes to continue the dialogue.  We pray that the seeds will continue to be watered as they travel around Africa the next two weeks!