Last Day of the Rugby Season

Today was the last "official" practice and gaming time for Rugby at HOPAC this year.  I'm sure there will be other pick up games and I hear talk of a Term 2 team in January.  For now, we have enjoyed our time and learned quite a bit. Thanks Coach Graham for all of your time and energies.  The kids had a blast!

Krypto was thrilled today to have a successful try and that he was able to earn a point for his team.

Drinking some water, it was a hot day.

Getting some good rest time between games.

Jacob

My girl!

She had no idea I was taking her picture.

Intently watching the game

Caleb Peterson

Bethany

Ben

He got in there and did some running today.

Krypto completing a pass to a team mate.

Some of the Sala Sala kids watching the game through the gate.

The People and Places in our Lives, Part II

Sometimes we take a walk over to the local coffee shop, Wamama Kahawa.

Here are some pictures to let you know what our "Starbucks" looks like :)!

Sissi showing her stuffed animals that she carried over to her new "friend."

Sarah, she's been at Wamama Kahawa since we got here last year.

I keep meaning to ask her name, she's a newer addition to the coffee shop and she is always so kind to Sissi.

They give you cold wet washcloths as soon as you sit down.  Gwangi always puts his on his head to cool himself down after the walk.  I would do the same but mine is usually wiping off my face and then wrapped around my neck.

While we're waiting for our lunch of french toast for the kids and a tuna melt for myself, the kids are playing their DS.

So serious...playing Sonic.

Some construction right across from the coffee shop.

A view of the inside, it was an unusually quiet day.  In the back they actually do roast their own coffee beans and they sell them in the shop.

My little girl on the walk home.  She's using her kanga (the local fabric) to carry her "babies" in on the walk.

"Walking" Around the Neighborhood

Some of these pictures were taken while driving and I hope you'll enjoy them!

Just another view of some of the things we see around our house everyday.

The outside of our compound gate.  Most houses here have gates and electric fences.  We also have a hired security company that provides fire and emergency assistance should an incident occur, and that is pretty standard as well.

Walking down the road outside of our gate.  There is construction right across the way, an apartment complex is going in.  I don't know when it will be done.  Things here can take quite some time to be completed.

People here just throw their trash out on the road and burn it.  The smell is not the best.

On the drive home, just a view that we see most days.

A "duka" is a small shop.  A "Duka la Dawa" is a pharmacy.

Again, on the way home from HOPAC.

More dukas.

The construction across from our house.

The duka on the corner of our road.

The duka around the corner where you can get sodas.

More dukas.  I'm showing you many pictures of them because they are quite literally everywhere!

South America!

We just finished up a 3 week mini-unit on South America during the first quarter of the 19th Century.  

We were able to learn about Simon Bolivar, the South American countries' push for independence from the European powers (mostly Spain), all kinds of geography of South America, Madison and Monroe as presidents of the United States, all of the States that entered the Union during that time and the Missouri Compromise, Adoniram and Ann Judson as some of the first American foreign missionaries, and we read so many great literature choices.

***Note, the Judson's were not in South America :)...I can see how from the above sentence it might sound that way.  They were in Burma.  We studied them though because we have been studying the first 20+ years of 19th Century history and they were working in Burma during that time period.

Sandwiched in there were some great lessons in Math, Writing, Art, and Science as well. 

All together another enjoyable 3 weeks of school.  Wow!  Nine weeks done this year already!

Working on our South American Gaucho craft from "The Story of the World" Activity Book.  We use "The Story of the World" as a read aloud each week.

Gwangi, while I was reading, not only colored his gaucho...he made a diorama.  It was complete with a wrangling rope (it's taped to the gaucho's hand), a cow (can you see it to the right of the gaucho), and the background is the night sky.

A pretend island with volcanoes that Gwangi made for some of his "character stories." I tell you what, this boy is so creative!

One of the 3 maps we did during our South America unit.  This map was just covering the eastern side of the continent.

Working on our maps.

We used some of Confessions of a Homeschooler's "Expedition Earth" materials for our flag work.  She didn't have all of the flags for all of the countries of South America though, it was just an overview study.  SO, we looked the other ones up on line and drew them on the opposite side of the paper.

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/world-geography

Sissi, coloring in her hand drawn flags. She does such a good job with her artwork.

Krypto and his country flags.

As we were studying Madison and Monroe, we learned about the States that joined the Union during their presidencies.  Again, we used the coloring sheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler's "Roadtrip USA."  Our curriculum, Tapestry of Grace, is a chronological curriculum, so we just reordered the worksheets from geographical regions to chronological by the dates they became states.

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/u-s-geography

Looking for the capitol of Maine in our atlas.  I showed the kids where Ft. Kent was Melanie...I promise :).

Working on our Math U See, Beta, Lesson 13...column addition.

She was patiently waiting for me to finish up something with Gwangi, so she took out a puzzle.

One of our Tapestry literature books was "The Swiss Family Robinson."  It recommended reading a Children's Illustrated Classics version; but, the library didn't have one.  SO, Krypto read the full, unabridged book....all 40+ chapters of it.  What a trooper!

We also enjoy the "Children Just Like Me" book that he is using as a surface to write on his Activity Page.  It has wonderful pictures and stories about real children in about 30+ countries around the world.  We got it to go along with the "Expedition Earth" curriculum.

One of our art projects, a carousel horse.  We are using "Drawing with Children" by Mona Brookes.  This is Krypto's horse, and you can see the top and bottom of the carousel and the things in the background that are "dizzy" he said because you are going around and around.

Gwangi on his carousel horse, with windows behind his carousel.

Sissi's horse, I LOVE the color combo and the polka dots on her horse.  You can see where she got it wet...I don't think she knew there was water on the table.

Just a few of the books we read this week.  The "Donald Duck" trip around South America was an awesome read aloud!!!!  So glad we brought it with us.

Krypto wanted to be the teacher so much, that I finally gave in and let him "have his day."  He did an excellent job, came up with a schedule and got through all the work.  They had a ball.

Krypto made this "dot to dot" for Sissi.  She was able to connect a dot each time she wrote and said the sound of the letter "C" correctly.  Of course, it made a castle.

He wrote some column addition problems for Gwangi to work on for his Math.

They played a review game about Simon Bolivar from "The Story of the World" Activity Book.

This was what the floor looked like after he had played Math War with Gwangi and made 3 letter words with the letter cards for Sissi.

Another art project, this one was done by Gwangi.  He and Krypto love Tintin comics.

Thanks for taking the time to look through all of our school pictures!

I hope you enjoyed them.