How CC life has changed: Cycle 3

Cycle 3:

Because our three eldest go to Chinese school at opposite times of the day, I had to completely rearrange our home school day.

Currently we are on break for Chinese New Year and I have LOVED having everyone home at the same time, easing into our home school day, relaxing more, and truly enjoying the non-rushed time. We have check lists, we get things done, we do more projects, and we play, or they go play with friends for hours, or the friends come in and play for hours.

But the normal CC week looked like this: (my goal is about 30 minutes of ‘CC New and Review’ a day, every new piece of memory work I try to let the kids listen to at this time at least 5x)

Monday:

·         Introduce History sentence (with supplemental reading at that time in short form and later during read-aloud time), play song/dance x5,

·          Introduce Latin, listen to song x5 or 6 after saying clearly first and having them repeat.

·         introduce Geography (skittle maps, their fave). This year is the first year I am trying to get them to know where it goes on the map even after that week! (and for the States and capitals I ventured off the CC wheel and went with Larry and Kathy Troxel’sGeography songs: 

On Mondays when these subjects are introduced I also review those same subjects from cycle 3, maybe 3-5 weeks of them or if real short (like Latin) more weeks. This total time is about 30 minutes, including the review of previous weeks.

Tuesday: CC time on Tues is review of the current week (what was just intro’d the day before) and then cycle 1 and 2 review based on my card review system. This is 15-30 minutes, or less depending on how they are feeling/attitudes. I don’t really do review games right now, usually we just sing the songs, etc. every once in a while we keep points and get a reward (nerds, marshmallows). After this cycle I want to do a big game spread over a few days and see what they really know.

Wednesday (usually 30+ minutes because of the timeline):

·         For each subject listed below, review the previous weeks of that subject, plus review all subjects of current week’s stuff (from Monday that was new) (10 minutes or so)

·         Introduce Math: this is just review from previous cycles I spend less than five minutes on this, some weeks I omit all together (like the squares/cubes)

·         Introduce English: explain what may need explaining, then just sing songs many times. I don’t expect them to ‘get’ this but to memorize it. The conjugated verbs I don’t love, we do them weekly but I don’t review them much. Sing song 5x.

·         Introduce Science: This involves usually opening up a science book for explanation and/or later in the week a sci project. First half of this cycle was the body project, which they loved, we did this on Fridays. I also had a mini 3D body that was fun to take apart. Listen to song 5x+ (with made- up actions for some songs, like ‘the excretory system’).

·         Introduce Timeline:  Since this is the same every cycle we, this cycle, worked on the motions (for the 7 yo) and just memorization in general. I don’t spend a lot of time on each individual card unless it has to do with what we are studying in any other part of HS. I introduce each card and the motions that go with it. We practice those a few times then put it in sequence. I spend about 8-10 minutes on this and then at other times in the week we add on to this review.

Thursday is the same as Tuesday

Friday: CC review time is usually short, just reviewing that week's new stuff and a little of the previous week's work for cycle 3. If for some reason I did not get to the Timeline we do it here. Then our afternoon time is Sci project/fine arts/ other supplemental things I may have found on pinterest or somewhere.

I have loved how this has worked for us instead of introducing everything on the same day. I am sure it will change again once we get into essentials, etc.

With the kids at home together I do this first in our HS day around 8:30 every morning. During Chinese school, I do this mid-day at around 1:00 p.m. right after our read aloud time.

How CC life has changed over the years: Cycle 2

Cycle 2:

….we had a baby in the middle of cycle 2, so I stuck to bare minimums on supplementation and really it was all quite a blur.

Tobin, at three-years-old,  was in the room with us, just like Bella had been the year before. I do remember really liking the history sentences, and our kids two favorite songs for science and geography were week 13, ‘states of matter’ (because they were make pooting noises at the end of the song,  and 'Northern European Countries' because the singer then sings songs in a language from one of those countries and it is pretty.

I still introduced everything on one day, but did not do any of the fun ‘erase it off the board’ or ‘draw a popsicle’ stick subject choosing.

I slacked on math a bit because it is the same every cycle and timeline as well.

The last two weeks of cycle 2 I am not sure any of us really know, except the history sentence.

I am sure we did fun stuff too, because I re-looked at my photo book and blog for that time and we did, plus we had started our first year of real history so we added history projects in there as well. Then we added a nursing baby.

For cycle 2 we had a 6 yo, 4 yo, 2 yo toddling around, a newborn, and a sleep-deprived mom.  Cycle 3 was revival for me, and we changed up a lot!

Let's talk CC 2014-15!

I did crazy-long posts two years ago after I got a zillion questions at the Home school conference about Classical Conversations. I re-read those, and over all am not sure they were too helpful.  I am about to go to another Home school conference where so many people overseas now do CC, so I cannot wait to see the way others implement it in their homes.

Because really CC is whatever you want it to be. To a point. You still have to trust the process and implement the process (review), which early on is quite easy. It just sounds hard. Get the needed resources from the website and dive in, tweak your schedule, nuance it a bit, but not too much, and have fun.

It is a little like a new language-learning program. David helped arrange (every lesson needed!) and implement a way to learn a second/third language, it took discipline, time, and following the method (designed by SIL guy, Greg Thompson). Everyone wanted to do it. A few weeks in for some, months in for others people started complaining a bit. ‘It didn’t work for me’. Well, did you do ‘this and this and this’ like it was laid out? Uh, no, we didn’t do that….or that….or that.  Hmmm…..didn’t trust the method, didn’t implement it like it was intended. You actually didn’t do the program at all, you nuanced it too much (like dieting, that ‘doesn’t work’). For those who did, NO complaints, all David got were huge thanks for all the up-front leg-work.

For CC, the leg-work is all done. If you want to follow a classical method of educating your children, and in the early years (grammar stage) need to know what memory work to do, then do this. And it really is more than memory work, especially if you are in a CC community, which we have never been.  Even with being the loners that we are, I trust the method and implement the review and have seen great dividends, but I think the pay-off is still farther out, since my kids are so little.

If you love what you are doing in HS, then don’t quit and start CC just ‘because everyone else is’.  I am learning to stay confident in my HS choices (a mantra David sings to me over and over again when I want to veer).  Three years ago I didn’t know anyone overseas doing CC or Right start math, I loved both. At the conference of over 300 people, I met three people doing it.  It is okay to love what you are doing even if no one else is doing it. 

Some people (myself included perhaps) get overly excited and speak like CC is the end-all. It is not. However, I have never met someone who has done it and not liked it or not gotten great benefits from it. Now, MANY overseas folks, and thousands stateside do ‘CC’.  And unlike my previous language/diet analogy, as someone NOT in a CC community, you can eliminate or focus less on whatever parts you choose.

Ways it has enriched our HS the past 3 years?

·         Real life: I thought the science would be applied in like three years. But at five-years-old on the beach, when looking at a jelly-fish, Sophia sang the ‘major groups of invertebrates’ song, had found one and knew which category it was.

·         All of science: with hands on experiments, a few fun supplements,  the exposure to how life works and how God made things has been incredible. It has been fun and able to be learned in-context most of the time. We are now on the atom, elements and chemistry, something that they will not understand fully right now. But it just added on to cycle 2 ‘states of matter’ song which they know and somewhat understand.

·         Bella, at three could sing the U.S. presidents song, which will come in handy later

·         Vocab: at three and a half singing through the timeline song, we got questions, ‘isolation’ being one of them. What does that mean? I explain, and explain. She asked every time.  Bella now knew what that word meant.  Tobin, almost 4 yo, now does this.

·         History sentence. We do SOTW for our deeper history study, separate from CC. But when we get to someone or something that I know we have a sentence for, we sing it, or they do without my prompting, and now we can put that memory work in context again. (Hanging things on the pegs of memory work over and over again)

·         Math: skip counting, so helpful at ages 3, 4, 5, so when they get to those tables in real Math, like our 7 yo right now, it is quite a bit easier. Some of the math I have not reviewed nearly as much. Honestly, when in the kitchen, I sing the tsp/TBS/oz song to help me convert!

·         Geography, an immense blessing to continue see where things are in our world, and put it on the map! I hope to get into better implementing of actual drawing from memory and placement as they get a little older.

·         Latin, simple pegs, I am trusting the method on this, I know it will be helpful when we study Latin formally.

·         English: my most unexpected pay-off. Memorizing the English grammar has helped so much as we have gotten into more formal grammar study in the Phonics Road (which also has great rule tunes)

·         Timeline, kids love it and learn from it continually.

·         Fine Arts and Science: for things that get thrown out the window so often as the busyness runs amuck, I am thankful for how CC has given me a plan and resources to implement something that really does add richness and enjoyment to our homeschool: I do almost all of these during the 24 weeks and the kids love it and we are the better for it. 

Dear David....ut oh!

I may have had some less than stellar parenting moments in the past 24 hours....

Tues p.m:

10:45: we talk and say good night. LOVED talking, where I told you that Tobin playfully threw his cupcake to Caleb across the table because he didn't want it. I made him call J and apologize.

11:00 maybe I was asleep

12:00 a.m. a noise wakes me up

1:00 Tobin has to pee

1:40 Gabrielle has to cry until she get what she wants, which at this point I give her so I can have quiet.

And then the morning started on Weds., started with more 'contrariness' from T, weariness from me, and a little bickering from the three girls. (four, including me) and I will just include G in that because she can be serious fussy-pants, all cute doll that she is.

Sophia quickly lost the privilege of playing with friends (until you start treating family members better), but to her credit, she accepted the discipline well...and throughout the day there were times when outside she did actually play with friends simply because we were in the same spot, but there were times where she could have and I said "no, sorry", but YY brought her a note at the end of the day and a picture to color. So sweet.

We went outside, all four, to do PE (crazy, I know, I instructed while walking with G). I had soccer balls and real skill practice in mind. But discovered that almost every one of our back yard play tools/bowls/play shower curtains, etc. were on the common steps in the common area. I said:

"Oh my, I am a horrible mom, didn't know our back yard was over here.....everyone let's clean it up before we start" and they did (no complaints, wow).

Except, when pouring out the big bowl of filthy water Bella spilled it all over her. Inside to change. She came back out and they did great dribbling the ball up and back and keeping it close to them. Until it got away from Bella, she slipped and fell in a mudslick on the pavement and the ball went into the big pond. Inside to change clothes again. Sophia gets a huge bamboo stick. I fish out the ball. 

YY, Chen Chen and her dad come out. Sophia stays out for a bit but I make her go in and do work, no complaint (wow, I am pointing out these graces because later we get into it well). 

Bella had come out with Sophia's jeans on, so when we all went inside for lunch I made her change again (are you keeping count?)

(FYI, YY's dad says they are working on, and this year it will happen, flights from MS to Thailand, Myanmar, and one other country)

On our way inside Tobin threw a rock at the girls window. Really? He wasn't angry, it was completely playful. And Bella rose to his defense: "J throws rocks at windows." 

"oh really, he throws rocks at his windows?"

"No, he throws rocks at our windows"

While in the bathroom waiting for discipline, I arrive and Tobin says, 'mama, where is your toothbrush?"

This was his form of confession.

He had shoved it all the way down the drain. I could see the tip of it barely. I had just opened it, it was brand new. I really liked it. I fished it out with scissors and moved on. 

Later in the day, he drew on the walls with a red pencil and was quite rude to Ayi, when she asked him to pick up his toys. After his discipline for that, I dumped his toys back all over the living room floor and made him pick them up.

In all of this it was not Tobin that I lost my temper with. Not once. He is playful, not mean. 

The 7 year-old, on the other hand....over fuzz, started pushing my buttons. Love her though, and she has had an incredible 7 days prior, and actually has shown serious remorse and repentance. Plus, I got in the ring with her. Instead of acting like the mom, I acted like, well, lets face it, a child. 

Mid day, I went on a run (this helps my soul, as you well know), and then I took S and B with me on a bike ride, we stopped at the swings, YY joined us, and it was sunshiny so we stayed there almost 30 minutes. I sat on a big rock in the sun, and rested while they played. 

So, we did indeed regroup after that and made our way into dinner time, baths and a half of a video, we all needed it. 

Two full days until your return, and my Psalm reading for the day was Ps 23. I just read and reread it. I am in no dark valley. I am on the mountaintops of mother hood. all about perspective, where I slip into that valley throughout the day and my shepherd is there. I lack nothing.

Baby G is in her bed now saying: 'woowwww' and many other words. Time to get her up. Though we met together last night at about 4 a.m. 

Dear David...quotes

I was looking through my 'daily blessing' journal and so many of my thank yous to God were for you, David,  and some aspect of who you are. I was sharing this with the girls.
"Marry someone just like your Daddy"
(they think about this for half a second)
Bella: "But I want to stay with you guys forever!"

Sophia:
"I want Daddy to come back."
"I know you do...but why are you saying that now?" (this was kind of out of the blue, so I was trying to get what she was feeling, this was mid morning.
"So he can hug me at night."

At the breakfast table:
Sophia: Laughing, as she wiggles her tooth: "my teeth are awake they are running around."

Yesterday, as we talked in the bathroom (a discipline type talk):
Me: 'your sin hurts people, honey'
Soph: "I know, it does hurt people, and sometimes I want it to" (this is remorseful, honest, and ashamed, and good insight into her own heart) "like Tobin and Bella" (tears start streaming)....I took this opportunity to explain that anything that we do that does not honor God is sin (so we are filled with it), and that HE takes it all away, all shame and guilt, and gives new heart and life when we trust him....I shared a story of how I,  too,  have just wanted to hurt someone because I was angry....and said hurtful things. But forgiveness and grace is real and precious.

Me to Bella: "what is going on in that little head of yours?" This was a sincere question not an angry one, but she didn't understand..
Bella: (points to her head): "My head????" laughs.
I think she thought I literally wanted to know, so I clarified by asking: 'what are you thinking?'

Tobin:
"I have an earache."
Me: "your ear hurts, which one, I will take a look"
Tobin: (crossing his arm up over his head he points to an ear) This one, and...this one....(points to the other one, as if he has a dozen)
Me: "how many ears do you have?"
Tobin: Two, laughing
I took out my otoscope and alcohol swab, and he always asks...
"momma, are you a doctor?"

Lunch discussion was about the pizza knife and its ability to cut off a finger.
Me: "you would have to saw it" (I immediately regretted those words)
Soph: they can sew it back together
Me: sometimes they can..
Soph: how do they get the skin?
Me: I start to explain medically what they could do...then I said "let's wait until Bella goes to Medical School and she can tell us."
Bella: I want to stay with you guys
Me: In Medical School?
Bella: No, when I become a doctor.
Me: You will want to get married and have kids one day. I promise.
Sophia: we have to carry on the Cokers
Me: Carry on the Coker genes but not the name, all three of you girls' names will change,
Bella: (all seriousness) yeah, it will be Mom. (I laugh out loud).
Bella: I want to marry Tobin.
Tobin: No, I don't want to marry Bella...I want to marry.... (and he goes on to laugh and name every object he sees. It got too silly and we moved on)

Playing with Tobin in his room, he found bullets that shoot out of an airplane and said:
"I am going to drop bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki" (I know the content is not funny at all but that he said it so seriously made me laugh, and that he remembered and pronounced them correctly)
Me: "when was that?" (I wanted to see if he remembered the whole sentence)
Tobin: "in 1985"
Me: "'45,  1945." (...and then I sing the whole history sentence from our CC review, Tell me how WWII began: WWII began in 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. Two engagements that helped the U.S. win the Pacific Front were the Battle of Midway and dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945)

Dear David...Monday and More

We had a good weekend!

 T and B play school, it was nap time.

TEA PARTY. As promised on Sunday we had a tea party.
The girls first put on a real ballet recital, Mozart composed.

 It was filled with drama, anticipation, and twirls.

 and 'tea' or juice.

 junk food treats and bracelet decorating and then another craft.

I reminded these souls how precious they are and I love to play with them!

When we set up the computer for G to walk to you I thought how thankful I was that you were coming back soon simply to enjoy these moments. I was reminded that soldiers and others away from their kids for months at a time miss these milestones and have to watch via computer like that, and not enjoy the real embrace at the end of the walk.

And then came Monday. as promised: multiple subjects being addressed here:

 

Today G cruised around the water area walking like she owned the place. This was right before you called. 

Our morning has gone like this:

Alarm at 6:15, snoozed until 6:40.
Coffee and Bible for me until 7:15, Tobin got up in there and came out with me.
G started making noise too, this after inconsolable crying until almost midnight.
I thought she did great considering I let her cry it out, and feared I harmed her for eternity, which is odd. The fears were odd last night. It was the most anxious night I have had. I actually haven't been anxious the whole time you have been gone until then. And I have let each of our kids 'cry it out' numerous times.
I eventually did go to sleep.
Back to breakfast...
girls up by 7:30, breakfast was had (oatmeal). I am starting to let G feed herself and she can somewhat.
We did Bible together and verses. Good job, David, they know them well!
They started gearing up for play and I let them, reminding them of our school day ahead.
at 8:20 I was ready, but they had just put their swords in their belts so I let them play ten more minutes.
8:30 Circle time was CC New and Review! History, Latin, Geography! Latin is now John 1, which is to the 'let it go' of Frozen. Girls did not want to stop.
9:00 Tot school with Tobin, letter P. Girls read. (I gave Sophia a checklist of daily things to do in school) and I started Bella's Spelling/Phonics Road lesson
9:30 Break for all (I bought the girls notebooks and they love writing in them. They are doing their own blessing/gifts/thank you journal.

Caleb came over and brought a nerf gun and pop rocks, what more could Tobin want? This after I had  Ayi do a new add-in "Chinese for Tobin" hopefully 20-30 minutes play time speaking a lot together.


10:00 re-grouped and Sophia finished cursive and Spelling PR. took a short break and came back to math. I also did Math with Bella in there somewhere. We did a Right start lesson and then part of her singapore math workbook. It was a Review 1, she made a 100!
11:15 break until after lunch, during lunch we did catechism, while eating 'convenient noodles' and healthy green smoothies.
12:30: I snuck a work out in while Ayi walked G (the poodle like little girl) and the kids played outside. I let them outside a lot since it has been rainy for days and the sun was out!
1:30-2:20 Read aloud: Merlin and the dragons, plus a snippet of US civil war from our CC, then history portion: crusades.
You called!! Love hearing your voice.
3:00 started new pizza crust recipe that didn't rise, it is too cold.
5:00 pizza in oven, kids playing inside, Sophia promises to do her last thing on the list: Chinese, after dinner.
We may finish the movie 'Enchanted' tonight.
Yang Yang and Zhangming, a new friend, played inside all afternoon. They literally made dresses out of our old curtains and dressed Bella up and then cooked and served her food. This was a riot. I let them put make up on her too.

 Tobin slept long and hard and was still playing with Caleb's gun

In her throne room

with her servants

Come show Aunt K what you have been up to...

They stayed for pizza and the movie, and Sophia even did her 20 minutes of Chinese while the girls played and waited on the movie., though I could not get the Chinese subtitles to play!
Tomorrow it is a Frozen Party for AB! Girls are excited.
Signing off.

Dear David...

I fed G in the night. I know I need not do that, she just cries and I don't want her to wake Tobin, I don't want to move Tobin with me, and I don't want to move her in the office. Overall I am lazy about it I suppose. She has a cold and probably is cold, who knows. Not to mention more teeth I think...

I am doing some 'Chinese School break' work flow ideas and Home School organizing, I chose 2014 pics for the book (first round anyway). We will start working on the homeschool conference project next week...I keep saying to the kids "come Monday" and sound like Jimmy Buffet crooning... but his song is about a girl and mine is about school. They have had a good little break though and are doing such fun creative play.

But the girls still bicker too much. Sophia just tattled that "Bella is killing a fish with scissors", that is something I should know. "It was already dead" was her excuse. We had a little discussion ("Unless you are cleaning and bringing it for dinner, don't do that").

They really have an exciting little fort over there. The swinging has slowed down though. It is just cold. Ayi says there is snow on a mountain real close by, Sophia wanted us to drive up right away. No four wheel drive, honey. But I wouldn't have done it anyway. (update: zhongshan had snow??!!)

After a little tot school with Tobin and Math and spelling/writing with the girls we went outside. The girls danced to Frozen, Poppy and CC called and we had a nice chat.

 Gabrielle is all over the place, has a cough, and is very opinionated these days.

I found her here 

 with crayon in hand ready to start her artistic career on Tobin's walls.

She is all smiles because she is smart enough to know what the machine I hold in my hand is for...but rest assured the tantrum ensued when I took her down, and moved the chairs so she could not climb.

Tobin had an allergic reaction. To Pine, I think. Here is a funny discussion that took about 15 minutes. Meanwhile his right eye is puffy, very red, and has a lot of bumps underneath. He says it tickles (he means itches)
T: "maybe it was the caterpillar"
M: what caterpillar?
T: it crawled up my leg and my face. (they had just played outside thirty minutes prior)
M: hm...that is an option, what about those wooden blocks you were JUST playing with, did you put those near your eyes?
T: yes
M: show me how
T: puts it up near his eye.
M: (I wash his hands and face) Let me call Aunt K, who is used to allergic reactions
T: it could be the cat
M: cat or caterpillar?
T: cat
M: what cat, did you touch a cat?
T: yes, outside
M: (I finally catch on, I had been pretty much believing his tales until then.) Tobin, was there a monkey in the tree outside eating a banana?
T: laughs, no, mamma.
M: I need you to be a truth teller. I may need to take you to the hospital and get you lots of shots based on the truth that you tell me (can you sense the hypocrisy in that statement?). Was there a cat or a caterpillar?
T: no....
(I am pretty sure the blocks he put on his face are pine and irritated his skin greatly, I gave him a small dose of Benadryl and put him to bed, note to self: don't rub pine on your skin)


Sophia did an excellent job with her weekly 'thorough room clean':

K took T and B to MengBaNaXi while I made sweet potato casserole and laminated our kids 'daily duties' among other things. I don't really know what possessed me to use our expensive butter on the casserole but I did and it was good. It was my dessert.

Tobin's eye had cleared by the time I woke him from his nap, but looked a little irritated again by the time he returned at 5:30.

While they were out and I finished the casserole and put chicken in the oven, I took G out for a walk. And....she walked, twenty paces and plopped, then twenty more and turned around. All around the water area she walked, not super steady, a little like a drunk old man staggering, but she did it. It is official, she can walk, she just doesn't prefer it yet. She got tired and was done. Inside she wouldn't try it either. Soph and friends watched Gabrielle take her first real stroll and they were just as excited as we were! I got a bit of it on video too.

Sophia and company also made a little pretend business selling ice cream "mei wei" and marched and chanted a few times just like the advertisers around here. Hilarious. Ayi and I were really laughing, the girls came in for lollipops and got the giggles going too. I LOVE these friends and how they all play!

Tomorrow morning Sophia gets her Chinese test scores. I told her I really did not want her to be disappointed when she said: 'tomorrow I get to go see if I got a hundred!'  I reminded her that she knew all the characters writing and reading that she was supposed to when we reviewed and that was perfect in my book (it would have been perfect if she knew even half in my book!)

Reading Keller's book on prayer at night, it is so good! It is 9:02, I am making my way there now...while the house is quiet.
love and miss you!

Dear David...

It has been a surprisingly quiet afternoon. Probably the last one for a while.
Sophia just brought the crew in (Yang Yang, Yuan Yuan, and her cousin) to play in her room. I made them wait until G was up from her nap.

Tobin and Bella are at school this afternoon, the last day before the break. Gabrielle woke Tobin up in the night and he complained of a stomach ache for a while. Finally at 4 a.m. I put in him on the floor in our room. He slept until after 8, getting up while I was taking Bella and AB to school.

Yep, Bella will have gone to school all day! She loves the food and keeps talking about it.

The night was not bad, I was in bed by 9:15 reading. Then a really loud knock startled me. I couldn't quite see clearly who it was but it was a lady, so I opened the door. It was one of our neighbors and her daughter (college age or older) that I have seen around.
 Here is how the conversation went;
"We are your neighbors, and we want you to teach us English, okay?" (xing bu xing?)
"Not okay, we don't teach English" (bu xing, with a smile)....My four kids are all sleeping right now...."
"Sorry (buhaoyisi)"
"No problem"

I know I could have been a little more hospitable at that point, I should have invited them in for tea and crumpets (what are crumpets, anyway?), But I was exhausted, a little bothered by the loud persistent knocking and the presumption...but I am over it (and myself) and will go out of my way next time I see them. Promise.

The electrician did not have a drill and was not to willing to help me put our cabinet back on the wall. He said when you come back he will help you if you need it.

This morning after Tobin decided to go to task with me over some pants, he was truly sorry and said so. I was not angry. I disciplined him, hugged him, told him I love him, and then we did that over and over again.

We did not do tot school, instead we played together, it was needed.

Then we went to the store and he spent 6 kuai of his work money and bought a little toy.

Gabrielle took some steps on Tobin's carpet. She took five steps on it last night, three this morning. But now refuses.

It is cold. Sophia does some multiplication tables in the window, which is where I sit now, the warmest place in the house.

 Bella made a card for yang yang for her birthday and they went to her party at 1 p.m. before Bella came back and went to school.

It finally fell below sixty degrees in our house. Mid-forties out. In this cement shell of a building, it is C-OLD. I still refuse to put heaters on at night in the kids rooms, they don't ask for them, they just bundle under blankets. I busted out my fuzzy old winter slippers.

We will order JiYouFan for dinner (chicken rice) and press on.
We have done very little school this week but plan to pick it up next week and get to week 12 of CC, the Crusades in History and Finish up some cursive for Sophia!

Arina texted to see how I was doing. They may go play on their trampoline on Saturday.

I love you am thankful for you and need you to rest, relax, have fun, enjoy people, enjoy food, enjoy our God and don't worry about the home front! I hope to 'keep you posted' but we will see how it goes.

Ode to Ben Franklin, or not

Our house's electrical problems have persisted. Meaning, that the complete re-wire, and putting in a ground wire did absolutely nothing to keep our wires from leaking electricity. I was shocked by 220Volts one day, and it HURT. That was a few weeks ago.

Last weekend David was shocked by the same amount. We finally just started unplugging everything and had already consulted many people, our landlord included. Our family's lives are at stake in the solving of this problem, no exaggeration.

Our dryer could have been the problem, it was fixed, we bought a new water machine, it was not the problem...we asked the "Haier" dryer repairman for an electrician he trusted. And in came hire #3 in our electrical woes.

Here is the latest electrician on our counter discussing with electrician #1 various aspects of what he did.

 I thought the first guy just really didn't know what he was doing. But when guy #3 was trouble shooting for most of the day and couldn't understand the problem either, I was comforted that at least it was a genuine difficult problem.

They could not find what was causing the leak.
David was leaving for Thailand on this day. We had no power and just prayed that his partial re-re-wire would solve it.
We also had to decide before David left what I was to do if the solution was not found....would I just have power but unplug most things, everyone wear shoes and proceed with great caution? Yikes.

Finally, when he had done everything he wanted to do in every outlet and was about to test to see if it was still leaking, David called from Bangkok. At first we thought it worked, then we started testing things (screws on water machine: 220 still) and retesting the main wire. Same leak, 55. Ugh.

He showed me that it was leaking but that he was touching the open wire and it was not shocking him at all, this comforted me a little, but he wouldn't take his shoes off and try it. (He knows what electricity can do, which is why we are freaked out by this whole ordeal).

I am still on the phone with David. I hear the electrician in local dialect saying he doesn't know what the problem is (one of the few words I understand in local dialect, it is that different from Mandarin).
And then he looks at the breaker box again and has an epiphany I think. He cuts a new wire connects two wires, and retests everything. No leak at all. Not 55, not even close. Whatever he did, (I made him get on the phone with David and tell him) he fixed it. In thirty seconds. Why did he not do that to begin with? I have no idea, he laughed when I asked. I actually really liked this guy, he took us completely seriously, he really thought long and hard about every aspect and admitted when he didn't know what to do. And mainly, he fixed the problem. I think. For now.

David moved on in his travels while I started putting our house back together (he had taken apart every outlet). Our landlord came over and asked if I wanted to wait until David came back to agree and pay and all that. I said, no, I watched him, I believe him, David was on the phone, David agreed.

I am not sure if the saga is over, but it is for now, and I truly, sincerely prayed over this whole situation and for the men while they worked. I am thankful for electricity, thankful to God for showing me how to trust in chaos (so many chaotic things in the past two weeks), and for forgiving me when I didn't.

'My Body' Project

 We went along with the CC guide for weeks 6-12 of Cycle 3 and did the 'My Body' Project. This has been one of the most exciting things we have done. The girls LOVED it, and week in and week out asked to do this. We changed it up a little from the CC recommendation. We started by actually tracing their own bodies on big paper and then week by week added the innards!

 The book has very simple explanations about the parts and what they do and how it all comes together. We did about two-three a week, colored them in accordingly and pasted them on. For those that overlap we used brads to attach, or glued part way.

 The last day we did the face, and partly glued it so we could still see the brain.

I highly recommend this book and project as a great intro to anatomy/physiology.
Go HERE to see the book I am talking about.

Gabrielle 16 Months

This baby is becoming a toddler and looking more like a little girl right before our eyes.

 She can understand a ton, even if she cannot communicate very well yet.
She pretty much has the same words she has had for awhile: no, nose, wei (Chinese hello, used on the phone only), mama, ut oh, nigh nigh, shenme (chinese what?)
She can get very angry and give a good tantrum, and then gets her feelings hurt when we tell her 'no' and discipline her.

The fact that she still cannot walk does give me pause and every week I say I will write the doctors and I don't. I am not scared, just unsure if I need to be doing something. She can hold her weight she just can't walk with it....though she can climb very well, a dangerous combination.

 The girls (and Tobin too) still love on her even when she gets feisty back...here she wonders where they are taking her.

We put her crib in Tobin's room and they certainly have their shenanigans at night and it is often 9 p.m. or later before all is quiet. She now has a cold which has her waking up a bit...

She is sweet precious fun, we love you Baby Gabrielle, and we will probably always call you that!

Sat Morning 10K

Peace and simplicity are my inklings for 2015, real impressions that God is showing me in His word and in my prayer times.

What this may mean is real war for my soul, like the longer run....my hamstrings are jello at mile four, my hips ache real the last half mile, and still I save enough juice to run fast and hard the last 500 meters and laugh with joy at the end. But the journey, though hard, was enjoyed as well, just in different ways than the finish. And my lungs, they felt they could have run on and on and on....the breath of life for me...Jesus. I know this metaphor fails, but true to me these days is His Life for mine....and enjoyment of how HE shows up, is ever-present, in the mundane and in the hardest parts.

Run long and hard with me this year....fight for simpler living and live peace that transcends all understanding?

up and coming: books, money, and how simplicity and peace could look for me in 2015

Tobin and School

Tobin is in his first year of Chinese Kindergarten. It has been an interesting semester.
He mentions a lot of his friends by name, he tells us what he does and says he has fun and enjoys his day, his teachers seem genuinely kind and concerned about behavior. His behavior has been a consistent topic at pick-up time.

 Now, before we get into a few details, let me just say that Tobin is a charming, and hilarious little boy who is all boy, but plays well with his sisters. At school, around other rambunctious boys all with no siblings, it is a whole different ball game. Not to mention it is 25-1 student-to-teacher ratio, so how they know all that is really going on in the stories we hear I am not so sure about.

 Here are some things his teacher has told us he has done:
1. hit
2. scratched another kid (he left a mark and for that we took the family lots of milk, this is what you do when your kid hurts another kid, seriously, standard practice).
3. pulled chairs our from under kids as they sat down
4. climbed between the bathroom 'stalls' (short walls)
5. tried to take shoes off of kids
6. and many days they have said: 'no problems today' but that is about 2x/week

So far we have stuck with keeping our kids in school and it has gone well . However, we have heard quite a few horror stories when it comes to a foreign kid in school. These stories usually have to do with major bullying and are usually with boys. But so far, at not yet four years old, Tobin is holding his own (and could be the one bullying) and we are keeping a keen eye and ear, and lots of prayer. Always lots of prayer.

Hair Cut Family Outing

Bella wanted her hair cut to her chin and we would not allow it. But I did take her and get about 4-5 inches cut off.

Then on a whim somewhat (because Sophia did NOT want her hair cut, and we tangle through it every.day.) Sophia decided she would get hers cut. We went back to the same place as a family, getting David's and Tobin's cut as well (except Tobin opted out).

The hair wash (which is fabulous in Asia and worth the entire price of 22 yuan for the wash and cut, ($3.50).
Tobin is a bit too cool for school, lounging around in his shades next to Daddy.

 Bella acted like she was on stage while the lady tried unsuccessfully to detangle Soph's hair. I had to help.

I helped here too because they did not want to hurt her. She got about five inches cut off too.

Then we walked down to the big wet market, ate meat on a stick, some meatballs, and grilled vegetables. 

De-lish.

And this time the girls wanted their own dessert bowl of 'paoluda' coconut, sweet condensed milk, sweet bread, etc. that I have posted before.

It was a hectic and not- without-incident evening, but being out at the market made it super fun and reminded us of the special things we get to do with our kids that seem normal to them and actually are 'normal' for where we live.