Culturally Appropriate

The other day our family went to KFC. This is a bit of a treat, the only real western food available here except what I cook.

As we were leaving, we spotted someone that looked like a foreigner in line. By the time we got outside our kids were talking about it non-stop. A minute later, through the big glass window, I saw Tobin and Bella back in KFC four feet from the woman and pointing at her.
Yes, she noticed.
They were probably saying: 'look at the foreigner'. I contemplated acting like I didn't know them. Instead I gracefully (ahem) ran inside and got them, smiling apologetically at the lady, who smiled back.

On the way out Tobin picked up a french fry off the ground (outside) and in all earnestness was about to eat it. I do not have to worry about him ever going hungry.

I was so entertained by these kids that I forgot they were mine for a moment, don't my kids know better than to do the things just mentioned? David was a few feet away and I belly laughed as I told him everything and how our kids are in much need of some (re)training.

So in the car we started the conversation of 'cultural appropriateness'. Sophia was completely tracking with us, and the others were still amazed that there was a foreigner in town.

We are explaining that some things are not good or bad things, they are not moral issues, simply cultural norms in one culture that may shock someone from another. We gave examples that we have all experienced.

A night later we had a local family over that we have known our entire time living here. The wife asked Tobin if he was full, and he stuck out his belly. She then went on to point out her husband's belly and laugh and say how fat he was and how he didn't like to exercise. He agreed by his smile and we all laughed as she continued. This is such a common conversation here that we are used to it. She was in no way belittling him, he wasn't made to feel small, she loves her husband and was sharing facts in a way that added to our conversation.

After our guests left we light-heartedly brought this up with our kids. They have experienced the whole: 'your fat' 'your skinny', 'your so white', 'your sister is prettier than you', 'your Chinese is better than hers/his', and on and on the honesty goes. I do address some of these things right as we experience them (especially the comparisons), but most of the time I let it go.

 They all understood that the dinner conversation was completely appropriate, just not at a dinner table in America. But here? Enjoy the conversation, agree if you would like, and laugh on.

.... and even though you experience the 'hey look at that foreigner!' daily, let's not stare and point when you see one.

Monday a.m. 7:30

 It was cloudy and thundering. The rain was welcomed to cool things off.
This little girl went to the homeschool room window and got herself comfy to enjoy the little storm.

 She then enjoyed my picture taking...And may be saying: 'how cute am I?'

Then she fell off. Uninjured.
Happy Monday everyone.

Coker Cycle Club Crazy 10k

After our village day we decided to take it easy. 

Yeah Right. After family worship time we decided to take our bikes to the lake to see if we could go all the way around it. As a family. Two adults, one hauling a 2 year-old, an 8 yo, 6 yo, and 4 yo, each on their own bike. We knew it was a bit over 10km, just over six miles.

There is a nice road all the way around, but we had never been on the back side since they paved it and had no idea what kind of hills there were. Cars cannot go back there though David and I tried to scope it out once seeing if this would be a doable route for my half-marathon. We have actually picnicked on the back side of the lake 13 years ago on a short term trip, and as we cycled by the spot this time we reminisced about playing soccer in the mud! 

The kids have been so into biking and ride our neighborhood loop many times (1 km). I thought Bella could possibly struggle because her bike is quite inefficient and she needs a new one. Sophia is now begging for one with gears. Tobin was all in, though he had no idea how long the ride would be. 

We parked half way around and knew that if we had to, one of us could bike it all and drive the car to a shorter meeting spot. We tied the big bikes to the top of our mini-mini van and we were off! 

We kept assuring the kids that it would be 'very fun but quite hard' (and really, we didn't know to what extent of either). 

This was a beautiful ride. Gorgeous lake views, at the top of some hills you could see the stretch of our valley and the green seemed to last forever. The mountains stretched out and distant peaks could be seen.  Yes, there were hills. Some small, gradual ones,  and some steep (we stopped and walked up them). And as we flew down the hills at breakneck speed you could hear the Coker screams, including my own. It was thrilling, and scary and at that point had me questioning my sanity as a parent letting a four year old do this (or any of them)! But we are trying to lessen our overprotective tendencies and let our children live a little. Well, they loved this joy ride.

Until we started coming out from the back side and the sun became a factor. This was when Tobin started complaining. I kept promising shade 'just around the corner'. He got a little mad as Sophia passed him once and tried to pass back, bumped her and crashed. Thankfully she didn't crash too. We regrouped, the girls out front with me, David and Tobin hanging back just a little. This was the part where traffic came into play, we were now on the front side where they allow cars. 

We finally made it back to the dam (amazing view here), crossed the bridge and we knew we would all make it just fine. The last big hill was one that goes into a small tunnel, but on the way down I realized a big bump at the bottom so everyone put the brakes on, not before it bumped everything out of their baskets, just water bottles and my phone (thanks Otter box protective covering, worth every penny). We got off our bikes, walked them up the last steep hill to our car that awaited. 

High fives all around!

This was a momentous day for our clan. We have no pics, just treasured memories. When we drove out I told them to look back at the lake: 'look, you guys just biked all the way around that', they were amazed too. 

Gabrielle loved it too and really didn't say much the whole time. Next time I told her we would switch seats ;).

We spent the day talking about God's beauty in creation and the joy of family. 

I was completely on board with this whole adventure, but a little skeptical of success. David was more confident and afterwards I thanked him for leading our family to do hard things. He does this in many areas of our family life and we are always the better for it.

David says we may need to wait a month so the kids forget how hard it was, and I forget how dangerous the downhills were. True, true.

And no, I will not make this my half-marathon route, no way, no how. I may run it once around, but not twice!

Our Day in a Village, part 2

 Some guys arrived from our neighboring country with this delicacy: bee larvae. They eat this right out of the nest, or fried. They showed us how it was done.

 I was about to triple dog dare David to eat some as our new friend pop some raw ones in his mouth, but then I remembered David's severe allergy to honey and had no idea if there would be any relation, so I changed my tune.

Here they are fried up:

 These are the babies you just pull these out and chomp them down.

 This is what you pull out: the larvae.

Let's move on to more civil things...

David and Tobin were both wowed by the workings of this machine.


Sophia asked me if she could help cook: sure, go ask the cook (our helper). And she watched, learned, and then took over. She literally stayed in the kitchen until the meal was served.

Here she is making suan pao cai, it tastes a bit like collard greens, we love this local dish.


She even stoked the fire and added logs when needed. Sophia completely loved this!


Bella was having fun playing with some toys, eating fruit and sweeping the floor:


The kitchen:



Gabrielle may have eaten her weight in pomegranate, which is in season now and always eaten around mid-autumn festival (Sept 27) and the National Holiday (Oct 1).

We brought them some fruit, pomelo and apples. Gabrielle did great the entire time!


One of the guys had a bigger bike (with no brakes). Sophia enjoyed riding.

Mid and post meal talks: kids and women long gone..

we were out looking at the fish again.

A view of our gorgeous valley. Love this place. Love this life.

 Truly blessed.

Our Day in a Village, part 1

 Our friend (Aunt K, master braider) did an Elsa-like braid on Sophia and she looked beautiful. It was also perfect timing for a hot day in our helper's village.

This village is newer to us, we have been to two weddings here over the past year, but other than that this was our first longer experience here. It was perhaps one of our best village outings. The kids did great, there was plenty to do, lots to see, and both David and I were able to relax and enjoy the people around us. I know this is probably more a function of our kids age/maturity now, but it was a blessing. We planned to stay until 6 p.m. but didn't get home until after 7 p.m. and Sophia ended the day by wanting to move there. "Please mommy, when we have to move out of our apartment, can we move into this village?"

 Their house was a typical minority house except that it had so much space. The courtyard was huge, they had a huge area for their chickens, a huge fish pond. It just seemed so spacious.

This little creek ran right along their house.

These flowers were blooming in the water on their fish pond.

This lady was picking these beautiful flowers

 And gave us a whole bunch!

 They dammed up their little creek for a bit to catch some fish.

 Grandma gave Gabrielle some flowers too.

 Bella received the bulk of them while we fed fish that looked a little eel-like.

Their house is right near their fields, so convenient for them! We got to watch water buffalo playing, chicks chirping, and played with our helper's daughter's toys. Tobin found an old bike and rode it a lot of the day, they also had a wiggle racer car for entertainment.

New things making Homeschool Better this year: Organization

 I have never been a serious 'fly by the seat of my pants' homeschooler before. Certainly as more wee ones entered the fam I did function that way. But I have always had some sense and plan of where things were going.

This year, however, I actually had the time and took the time to plan almost the entire year in a way I had not done before. By doing so I was able to enhance different subjects and highlight areas that we sometimes overlook. Every week I still need to look at what projects are up next and gather supplies, I still need to watch The Phonics Road for Sophia's level each week, and prep math lessons in small ways, but the overall plan is in place with my resources prepped and ready. This has made a huge difference in my stress level and my tendency to feel like I am leaving things out.

I will be honest, when I did all the planning and added in a few new things, I wasn't sure how they would go over or even if there was enough time in the day, but so far it is working well.

In late spring I rearranged our Homeschool room and that gave me more space and better organization. I used the IKEA Expedit shelves to divide the living room from HS room and moved another thin, tall shelf in.

 

I went back to a full CC board that we refer to everyday during review and introducing 'new' stuff.

This is new for Tobin this year, but review for the girls, only I enhance and spend more time on major subjects: history, sci, geography, Latin.

I bought a globe, which has been very helpful during history. David set me up with ALL of our kids music, CC memory work files, catechism, etc. on its very own device and bought a bluetooth speaker, which has proven awesome! It was locally bought and says: 'bluetooth connecting' when it starts, only it has a Chinese accent and the Chinese do not have a 'th' sound so it says 'bluetoos' and we all laugh. Daily.

 Sophia and Bella each have a weekly plan, a checklist of sorts. These are my lesson plans but also gives them a scope for the week. I was putting all my plans in one planner, but this is working better for me. Their core subjects are in blocks, usually done daily, with tally marks for piano, Chinese, and PE (outdoor activity, sometimes incorporated in Chinese school). On the bottom right I write the science project, fine arts/art project, and history project we will do that week. I remind them what English book they should be reading and I need to add Chinese reading to this for Sophia. Her teacher just sent home a booklet to keep track of her daily reading that needs to be signed by me.

 These are posted on a bulletin board.

I have also gone a little 'clipboard crazy'. Each week during my planning time I pull out all papers needed that week per core subject and put them on a clipboard per subject. Sophia has a clipboard for spelling/pre-Latin (Phonics Road does Latin base words/prefix/suffix intro in Level 3), Grammar/Lit (also PR), and math. Bella has a Language Arts clipboard (PR), Literature study (PR), and math one. Tobin has a handwriting clipboard(a really cool Big Here Six one). I actually really like this, I pull out the clipboard from my magazine file, and the paper I need is right there, easily put back in my magazine file/rack when done! As we finish papers we put them in their appropriate notebook or place right away.

Here is the added thin/tall shelf with the magazine file attached to the wall on the right, just picture that top slot filled with clipboards. The slots below house all my printouts for history x2 (LOTS of activity pages, coloring pages, map pages) and new this year are History Notebooking pages I found online and printed for Story of the World Vol 3. The girls are practicing narration, writing important dates and writing important info on these pages. For Sophia she usually narrates and writes her own. For Bella this is dictation or copy work. I thought they would hate this (more writing), but they don't, they like adding to their history notebook every day.  

 Also new this year are these CC place mats with just icons, not answers, to the geography on one side and the other side labels them. This year, as we repeat cycle 1, I am trying to get them to learn where the locations are on the map, so this provides great practice.

We already have a thick plastic covering on our table so these go under that. 

I hope to blog subject by subject how and what we are doing, maybe. And our schedule. Maybe.

Until then, back to Homeschooling!

October Begins!

 We finally held our promised bonfire one night. It was actually supposed to be part of our history lesson/project two weeks prior, but it rained so much we had to postpone.

 The kids helped make the firepit.

 Daddy secured everything.

Sophia's best friend and our neighbor...our friends brought back some stuff to make smores from the U.S. so they came down and we all enjoyed the evening.

And sometimes when I send our helper to the market and G goes with her, they borrow a basket from the grocery store to lug stuff home. The people there know and love our family so it is no big deal.
The bonus was Tobin toting G around in it for the afternoon.

David is currently reading 'How to eat Fried Worms' to the kids, and while I was doing homeschool prep one Saturday morning, they literally put worms over the fire out side.

And so October begins! There are so many tidbits of life I am leaving out these days and hope to show some better glimpses of soon.

The kids are on break from local school until Thursday, which means all home all day. I actually love this, it makes me plan my time a little better but we usually get all homeschool done by 2ish and have more time to play! We are really enjoying this stage with all of our kids and by God's grace we are really experiencing peace, and joy in our daily life here. That doesn't mean absent hardship, it means absent fear that all my mess ups will mess up the kids and that everything is dependent on me: one of the lies (rooted in pride) I believe too easily. Thankful for the freedom in Christ to love and live full and ask forgiveness when I fail.