Wednesday, October 29, 2014

We're moving!

In a few short weeks, this will be our new front yard!


This seaside rental is just seven plus minutes away from our land. God seemed to set it right in our laps. It will be a challenge - just one big room plus a kitchen and bathroom - but we're excited about it! As soon as we returned home from signing the lease, Joseph went up to the attic and started dragging things down to pack. I'm glad he started; it's always so hard to start. But now we're almost halfway through, thanks to a few friends with trucks and vans.



Yilililiiii!


Monday, October 20, 2014

Teaching Right and Left: a brilliant accident

...because isn't that how many discoveries are made? Through accidents of all kinds? I think this is God's way of reminding us where all knowledge lies. Human effort accounts for very little.

Anyway, a while ago, I think I wrote about Lydia's amazing ability at losing her flip-flops. Well, it happened again. She lost one of her new black flip flops only days after we bought them for her. I'm so glad I didn't throw away the remaining flip flop from her last pair, because it just so happened that she lost the right (both meanings) one, so now she has one black flip, and one pink flop.



Just today, while we were waiting for Joseph and Anna to get out of their once-a-week classes, Lydia and I hopped around on the hopscotch squares at school.

Then all of a sudden, it came to me! I explained to her that anytime she wanted to know which side of her was the left side, she could look down, and find her black flip flop. Same with right and pink. In fact, she can always remember that pink is right because that's right - Lydia loves pink.

After a few practice drills, she got it. Now all I need to do is review a few times a day for a few days, and I bet she'll get it for good.

Accidents are so handy sometimes. :)


Friday, October 10, 2014

How to do fun crafts with your kids...

...you simply hope and pray that they come up with creative stuff on their own, and document like mad when they do. Maybe someday I'll actually write about what I do in contribution to my kids' education. Maybe.  But for now, I just want to boast about the interesting ideas these guys came up with on their own. Again, this is precisely the reason why I added big chunks of "independent play time" in their homeschooling schedule when I was filling out the application. When they don't need my help to create new things, I feel like something is going right.

Lydia asked to keep the colored pencil shavings so she could make something out of them. This is what she came up with:


I also remember being mesmerized by the smooth, dancing coils of colored pencil shavings when I was a little girl.


If we ever do manage to build a house, Anna is determined to have a "pretty party room" all to herself, preferably up in a tree. This room would be used to pretty oneself up in preparation for a party...I think.  In anticipation of that room, Anna decided to make a pretty party station. This piece of cardboard is now completely covered with all kinds of origami gadgets.


That nail polish stand is very sturdy! It is still standing today. Sadly, the polish didn't last as long. I knocked it over a few days ago. I can't believe I let her choose purple nail polish as a replacement.


This is Joseph's rocket. Or maybe it's a satellite that will shed most of its body in space. He started using a rocket app developed by NASA recently; I'm pretty sure that is what inspired him.





Saturday, October 4, 2014

Interview coming up

A few months ago, we got interviewed about our homeschooling/country lifestyle. It was a fun day jam-packed with activity. I was surprised when by 7:00 pm, I was ready to go to bed.  In a few weeks it will air.
 I'm really curious how it will turn out. Throughout the whole day, we showed them different aspects of our life. Sometimes we'd be doing something random, look around, and there would be the huge eye of the camera, staring at us. They really know how to capture all kinds of footage. We even pulled out the out-of-tune guitar, and belted out some praise songs. My thumb had a wound, so I could hardly strum. Our voices seemed to hit all sorts of new notes. I could just feel the youtubeness of it all. "Do you know any other songs; ones you are more familiar with?" came the carefully worded, very polite inquiry. No, that was the best we could do. Maybe they will kindly edit that part out. All in all, it went very well. Under the pressure of that watchful eye, we at least expressed almost everything we wanted to express about family living, working and playing together.

Below is Joseph playing with the eye. He was on cloud nine after being told he could work it a little by himself. To him there is nothing more beautiful than a complicated web of buttons and dials. He actually doesn't like things that are too high tech because they look too plain and simple on the surface. 


The girls were happy too. They made friends with both ladies of the crew.


There was even time for a nail polish party.


 They got footage of everything. Here, Ken is leading Joseph through Proverbs.


Here, the girls and I are making cookies.


Here, we are getting ready for a lunch of roast chicken.



We hope that whoever ends up watching this will feel the urgency to re-arrange priorities for the sake of family, if need be.