Family Update

I let another two weeks go by without posting...sorry ;)!

It's been a long week, if I'm honest.  We had a very strange 24 hour bug that went through the house...and it went through 1 by 1, like a game of dominoes.  We had fever, achy bodies, headaches, and with Krypto it included some not so fun trips to the bathroom because of his stomach.  We got "most" of our school done and some outside activities.  You'll have to see my next post about our trip to a local farm this weekend.  That was really the highlight of our week!

Sissi working on a craft for school.  She uses up soooo much paper and crayons; but, she loves it.  I love that she is so content to be creative!

Gwangi working on his logic analogies book.

Taking a break and building some new Lego creations.  Another creative kid in this house!

The boys have joined the Primary Swim Team at HOPAC.  Here they are, getting ready to get on the bus for their first Swim Gala, it was down at IST (International School of Tanganyika) on the peninsula.

We did make it to Sala Sala Kids' Club this week...Sissi was sick on Monday (the day the boys had their swim gala) and Tuesday was clear...but that night was when it hit Indy.  The lesson this week was that Jesus is the "Light of the World."  Love this group!

Our landlord had some carpenters come out and build a pergola for this tree to grow over...we're going to have a tree banda!  Oh, for those of you not local, a banda is usually a thatch covered hut that people can hang out in, gets you out of the sun; but, you still get the breeze.

Some of the books that we're reading this week.  This is about half...we LOVE History and Literature...some of our favorite subjects.

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!